Re: Lollapalooza - What do you all think of outdoor rock shows?
I'll give Cee Lo some credit, he knew how to dress for Chicago. I like the spiked shoulder pads like The Road Warriors Hawk and Animal (both originally from Chicago) had back in the better days of pro wrestling. Otherwise, eh. I can't stand Eminem and I don't know who any of the rest of the line-up was, but Lollapalooza just isn't really my style. It just seems to me like they just try to get whoever is popular and mix everything together and charge an arm and a leg for tickets and of course everything in the venue is ridiculously expensive.
I use to like going to Warped Tour since it's almost completely rock and punk oriented with metal mixed in and there's usually only a handful of really well known bands. I went to the 2nd Mayhem Fest in Dallas and had an awesome time, but the fact that Manson and Slayer headlined. My only complaint on that show was Bullet For My Valentine was the opening act on the main stage but much better bands like Mastadon and Trivium were mid-card on the other stages. I made it to (to the best of my knowledge) the last Family Values that had Evenescense and Korn headlining, plus Joey Jorgenson was filling in the drums for Korn which made it seem a little cooler to me. Austin City Limits is almost always a great show and it's a lot more eclectic than Lollapalooza with a lot of local bands playing too. Plus, it's 3 days long. Never managed to make it to an Ozzfest.
So really, it just depends on the location and time the show starts and the line-ups. Overall though, I still prefer to go to small shows at bars. I don't usually have much of a desire to see anyone in concert at a large venue anymore much less going and standing around outside in 90 degree or higher weather waiting for one of the bands I actually went to see.
Re: Lollapalooza - What do you all think of outdoor rock shows?
I am not a big fan of outdoor to begin with, and any festival where two bands play at the same time seems scientifically designed to make me miss as many of my favorites as math can allow.
Although I have been to outdoor, big, festival type venues, and had fun at them, in general if I go to one these days it is because some band I have to see is there. The appeal of Lolapalooza was never, "hey its outside with thousands of other fans and i will be so far away that I am actually watching the show on the jumbotron", it was the bands they picked. Honestly, some big venues it seems like I would have been better of watching the show on pay per view and invite about 50 guys who just finished playing soccer to cram into my living room and watch it with me.
But I am getting old and ornery, so my views may reflect the old and ornery crowd.
Re: Lollapalooza - What do you all think of outdoor rock shows?
I prefer my live music surrounded by walls and not the greatest ventilation either
Re: Lollapalooza - What do you all think of outdoor rock shows?
I prefer 'em to ordinary concerts, generally. Seeing bands live is rarely the big attraction of an event to me, and I despise the crowding masses and security getting in your face you get in concert halls for anything but the most obscure, small-time bands. Bands playing on outdoor stages as part of a larger festival ground allows me to catch some of their performances casually, which with the hit-or-miss nature of live music beats devoting two-plushours of my time purely to getting a bit closer up and hoping it'll be worth it.
In fact, I much prefer the general structure of, say, outdoor psytrance festivals to that of most goth/altrock fests. Having everything on one big, well decorated festival ground with around-the-clock DJing on multiple kickass open air dancefloors allows so much more freedom to just wander around and enjoy the festival atmosphere than all that crap with separate venues with their own capacities and security and traveling issues with a band schedule that's bound to leave huge gaps with nothing going on inbetween short periods with multiple things you want to do happening simultaneously. I would love a european goth/industrial festival organized by these sensibitilies, and have some sweet ideas for designing an outdoor post-apocalyptic themed industrial dance floor for one.
'Course, part of that is vanity, too. I'm not much into lace and pvc anymore; I still dress up on level with the most decadent of hotel-dwelling festival goths, but I like the torn, tough and survival-y stuff that just goes better outdoors. Camping for me is a fashion statement, off-and-by-itself
Re: Lollapalooza - What do you all think of outdoor rock shows?
I don't like crowds or people.
Cee-Lo is one of the most creative people out there right now, and supremely talented at what he does.
