Mark’s Lollapalooza pt.3 {PICS & VIDEO]

I recently spent a week out in Chicago for the 2014 Lollapalooza. Yowza, that was a busy friggin time! My heads still spinnin. Re-live the experience with me won't you!?

Ok, the third and final day of Lolla was a doozy! Busy day! Rain, Cage, access upgrade, mud, Cranberry covers and eventually a hot shower. Let's go!

So, I got into the grounds ab out 11:20 or so. Enough time to grab a hot pretzel and make my way to the BMI stage for the band I kinda wanted to see the most, Plastic Visions. If you remember from my day 2 diary, Plastic Visions is a family band connected to Cage the Elephant. Matt and Brad Shultz (vocals and guitar) of Cage the Elephant are cousins to Kane Stewart who fronts Plastic Visions. Their younger brother Daniel Shultz also plays guitar in PV as well. Brad from Cage played guitar on the band's Ep and he produced it as well. Got it? Cool.

So the Cage guys and family were in the house to watch Plastic Visions' set too. They hit at about noon to a crowd of maybe... 100 or so? I loved what I saw!

You know when you finally get to see a band you really dig. Not like a big band like you've waited 10 years to see the Foo Fighters, but a smaller newer band not too many people know about. You've been all over them though and because they're newer and indie you're not sure you'll get a chance to see them? But then you do and they don't disappoint... that's an awesome thing id'n it? Plastic Visions not only were good for me, but I think they were just what Lollapalooza needed. A band to smack things up a bit and poke some people in the eye. Lolla if anything this year lost a bit of it's wildness. It was very tame in terms of it's invited acts. Everyone kinda by the book, wardrobe conscious, focused... it needed a band to just walk out and knowck over the garabge cans a bit. Then throw some of that garbage around. PV did that and I was relieved to be honest.

They have a Pixie/Fugazi feel, but with a Cali house party punk style to it. Frontman Kane Stewart just looked like he was sizing everything up his first few minutes on stage. Figuring what he could do, where he could go and what he could mess with. He sand part of a tune to the folks behind and side of the stage blocked from the crowd. He scaled over speakers and monitors, dove into the crowd a bit and then went climbing!

It wasn't very high bu Kane climbed up the speakers much to the Lolla crew's distaste. They cut the band's sound until he came down. One of the lamest, ball-less things to do. This festival needed a moments like this. Someone punkin' around. I'm sure he signed a waiver or something right? Let him rock! It just seemed at that moment, this festival lost it's potential for setting it off! Kane came down, cause having your band's sound cut sucks. Once down, full volume resumed and he found other ways to get his rocks off.

You can see Brad from Cage the Elephant came out to play guitar on that tune (and one more as well)

Afterwards, I caught up with the guys to tell them their set was great and a big boost to this festival. The guys told me how much they appreciated the love I was giving them on the air through Spinout. Brad Shultz came over and it was an awesome music love fest. I was stoked for those guys. It was a big show for them. I could see as a family they celebrated this stuff together and that was really cool. I'm all about family myself.

So, Kane says hold up a minute. Brad and I keep chatting and then Kane comes over and hands me an Artist Access Pass/Bracelet. Basically, a Godhead Pass to go anywhere. My Media Pass was now looking as appealing as flat soda. Kane was like dude come watch Cage's set with us on the stage. Man, this day was getting gooder! Above the clouds were looking super pissed off. What a storm of stuff Sunday was becoming! I can now go anywhere....? Huh....

I started to walk back to the main side and the two days of getting by weather wise was about over. We was about to get hit bigtime baby!

About... a block and a half away from the Media Tent, it came down like a son of a bitch. Its not very rock n roll to have an umbrella, but I brought one cause hey, I was gonna be outside for 10 hours a day at least? Who knows what could go down. Still kinda wet, I made it back to charge my phone at the Media Tent before checking out Bleachers.

The rain would go on and off the rest of the day, but most people seemed to truck through it. Especially the EDM zombies. They almost welcomed the rain. It was like a dubstep baptism or something. It made for extremely honest views of concert goers I can say that. This wasn't much of a crowd for rain slickahs I tell ya!

I knew I had to tape a bit of this performance for Rob back at the station. He loves Bleachers and the The Cranberries. Double Whammy. Enjoy Rob!

Time had come for Cage the Elephant's set one the main stage, the Samsung Stage. I hustled over to the backstage area and Kane motioned me along. Next thing I know I'm in a fast moving train with the Schultz family to see Matt and Brad play with Cage in a primtetime Lollapalooza spot. After walking by guards and walking up stairs and over ramps and by trucks of equipment, I walk on to a dry floor and start to hear the roar of the crowd and feel a wave of energy blast over me.... folks... it felt like this....

I was about 15 feet from the band on the side of the stage. Rockin' out side to side, back n forth singing loud with the parents, cousins, brothers, wives, nephews, nieces of Matt and Brad Shultz as they just took over Lollapalooza with Cage and one great song after another. What a thing!

What an opportunity, what an experience. All I could see were people from side to side and from like 35 feet in front of me to a football field away. This was soooo cool. Even Perry Farrell was next to me with his wife LOVING Cage's set. It was good all around!

Little dark, but you can see Perry talking to his wife there behind the covered soundboard. Matt from Cage grabbed this crowd and shook every bit out of it. He was all over that crowd, literally, a few times. Eventually he went surfin' standing upright!

Amazing time. Just very lucky to be there. I had more selfies going on than in Junior High, but for something like this? Had to do it folks. Had. To. Do it!

Had to get a shot with Cousin Kane. I thanked him for giving me the Godpass. He was like dude, we look out for family. You've been great to this band and we appreciate it. You gotta be with the family. You don't get that from many bands folks. Not sure I've even been given love like that from many local bands to be honest. These dudes are ultra class acts for good in my book.

Cage's set finished and they started peeling themselves from the stage. One by one that came over towards us, drenched and spaced out on great vibes. From that point, where they went, I went for the next few hours. Be request and invite of course! "Curdo, follow me," Kane would say. Haa.

Matt Shultz immediately walked right past his managers and hugged his mom. I took pics and video of this, but I'm going to delete it. I don't think people should see that moment. It was so amazing and awesome. Those are things that deserve to be kept where they happened.

This was Matt just before he embraced Mother Shultz.

A couple minutes after they finished the show, we all walked away to a side-side stage so people could hug and mug for the camera.

I did overhear Matt say to his mom, "That was a the greatest show we've ever done". To stand next to a great name in music and hear them say that to their mother... that was pretty intense folks. I stepped to Matt and I said, dude I heard what you said to your mom and I want you to know as a fan of the band and everything about music; it was an honor to watch that set. Thank you. He said "Dude, you're gonna make me bust up and cry. Thank you, thank you". I said no, thank YOU. Then we turned to a friend holding my iPHONE and got this pic right then and there.

So the good times rolled on. And hey! Look who showed up! No surprise he was like the Lollapalooza best friend all week to people! Michael/Fitz, of Fitz and the Tamtrums. He gave Matt huge props for the set.

The brothers and their mom posed for some shots. Pretty cool. Besides Matt and Brad in Cage, theres two other brothers that I saw. One who seemed to be a normal US citizen bystander (who looked just like them btw) and of course Daniel who's in Plastic Visions.

That's me with Daniel Shultz. What a talented family! Damn! Besides Plastic Visions, he's in like 2-3 other bands as well. Super, super cool dude. He'll do his brohters proud that's for sure.

So the troop started to walk away from the stage area and back to the artist area/dressing room compound. I didn't feel like it was my place to tag alone, but they were like dude, come on! Well... isn't that some southern hospitality right there?!

So next thing I know....

..I'm in the belly of the beast. The dressing room/catering/watering hole area for all artists and their entourages. This was some awesome s*@! going on now!

Cage's room was right between Young the Giant and the Avett Brothers rooms. As you can see it goes on one after another. Fitz was walking around, Childish Gambino, Desert Noises, Airbone Toxic Event and many others. Various folk too. It was nutty. Everywhere you turned something was going on. The rain punched at us on and off, but that wasn't stopping this party.

I made my way to the watering hole which was sponsored by Samsung. I felt awkward pulling a selfie in there cause there was too many cool people already ignoring me and it was a Samsung tent. I was rocking the iPHONE. I didn't wanna be a dick about it. Anyways, I rounded up a Red Bull and Vodka, a few Budweisers and made my way back to the fun.

My buddy Rob Wilcox was hanging with me. Rob does radio promotions with a great outfit called, The Syndicate. They're in New Jersey. Great people and Rob is a super ace dude. He's the one I always brag about with the stage dives! Remember?

Anyways, we had a blast.

Eventually, I wanted to get back. I wanted to be with the people. I wanted to be close to the music. The dressing room time was awesome, the open bar was awesome, but I wanted to enjoy being part of the fest before it wrapped up in a few hours. So, with my artist pass swinging from my wrist, I left dreamland and became one of the people again. And it was good!

Til it started raining again!

I left the backstage for this?! Haa. And how. No regrets. My Chucks were getting messed up walking around, but I found Young the Giant playing so I caught their set.

One of the greatest sights at Lolla... a cute girl wearing Doc Martins! I mean THAT says it all right there. Girl in Docs at Lolla. Point and case! I needed to see that badly.

Party on Garth! I actually also saw big head Jack White, big head Michael Jordan and I think big head Ryan Gosselin there too.

Skrillex, Kings of Leon and Chance the Rapper closed it all out. What a crazy thing! As I walked around a bit more taking some final pictures I was psyched to get this last one in with about 2% power left on my iTHING. Steve Jobs watched over me. (now if he could just help his company get their asses back in shape)

Brand new! Brand new those were when i arrived in Chicago. Great stories in that mess though! I haven't shared them all with you here, but I think you've gotten the picture.

Seeing this kick ass shower back at my hotel was like seeing Shakira shaking it with a winning lottery ticket in her hand, Celtics lifetime season tickets in her other hand, winking at me and motioning me towards a record store where I could shop for free next to a Papa Ginos that I have a lifetime account at for free pizza. Yeah, that good!

Next morning I woke up and peeked out the hotel window that normally showed off a kick ass looking Lollapalooza grounds over the past few days. Yet now, it was a used and abused and worn out Lolla. This was the day after. The first section is the EDM Dance stage and the section after it is the Samsung Stage area, but further back. Time for people to grab a broom! I did hear Lolla does put ONE MILLION towrds getting the park back to perfect shape. That's classy. Probably contractually required too! Ha.

I showered up, again, grabbed some apple juice and went for a quick walk outside the hotel before I made it back to O'Hare airport. The streets busy cause it was Monday but a world quieter than the past 3 days. No one jumping around, waving flags, showing off short cut short shorts (unfortunately). Just a chill regular Chicago Monday morning.

I went to talk to the security guards who were still stationed at the entrance/exit. Trucks and vans in motion, workers breaking down everything. Quite a change in action.

Back to the hotel to pack up and make sure there were no adult movies on my account!

As I sat in Terminal 5 waiting for my flight, I thought about all the amazing opportunities I had this week that people don't get. Pretty cool. I def worked hard to get the nod for those opportunities by supporting bands and playing their music over the years but to stand next to a band who just played their first big show.. or another band embracing their family after stealing the show... or even people standing next to 50,000 others seeing their favorite artist... for a music fan like myself, I don't take this things lightly. These are the things that fuel you and give your music heart and soul some extra life!

Ahhhh, Portland! I can smell the parking tickets already! I love to take trips and have an experience or two... but it;s ALWAYS good to come home. Home is so good.

As I taxi'd home I see all kinds of FB action from people I met, other DJ's who hung out with me for the festival and Plastic Visions giving me some love. That's how this is supposed to work. You make great stuff, I play it and tell people to pay attention to it. That's why I'm on the radio. That simple plan gets lost a lot with many. Never with me.

Thanks Chicago, thanks Lollapalooza, thanks to all the bands who gave me time to chat with them and take pics and promote Maine to them. Thanks to the great DJ's I met, thanks to the people who gave me a free train pass and thanks to that girl who wore Doc Martins and made Lollapalooza official in my book.

Thanks to you for giving a care to read these diaries. I hope you had a good time too!