Day two has arrived ..

So, we missed our train yesterday and took a later one. We missed Panic at the Disco (no biggie) and the eels (Dang) but ran into our friends Chad and Tammy and made plans to meet again today. I'll do a full review soon.
Today, we'll catch the train - hopefully the right one today - and catch:

2:30 - Built to Spill:
Loud. Loud. Loud and very power driven. We'll get there in the middle of their set, but that's OK, I'll catch them at the Metro in October.

3:30 - Wolfmother:
A few guys from Austrailia have been getting buzz for about a year now and I finally get to hear what its all about. Their album is a fuze of BlackSabbath and early Led Zeppelin but modernized a little with updated lyrics.

4:30 - Sonic Youth:
One of the great D.I.Y. bands of all time. Fuzzy noise and feedback induced jams. I don't think this band has ever tuned their guitars in their 20-plus years of touring. I'm excited to see them for the first time. I've always thought of them as Velvet Undergroundy, but before they play everyone drops their guitars four or five times to get them out of tune.

5:30 - Smoking Popes:
One of Chicagos favorite locals that got kinda big, then broke up because the lead singer found Jesus. They got bac together in November for a club show/benefit at the Metro. APril and I were there and we'll be there for this one for sure. Power pop at its finest with warm harmonies and fun lyrics. This is one I'm looking forward too .. but we'll leave this stage a few minutes early to make it in time for ..

6:30 - The Flaming Lips:
If I could properly explain how excited I am to finally see this Okalhoma band I would have to jump out of the screen and force you to listen to 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,' 'Soft Bulletin.' Lead singer Wayne Coyne throws pounds of confetti while his two band members play in full fuzzy animal costumes. They are surrounded by dancing bears, suns, moons, dancers and all of them are shining colored lights while Coyne uses a hand puppet to sing along with. Fake blood, and chaos on stage along with some seriously catchy tunes ... It's hard to explain. But in anticipation, this is up there with the first time I saw the Grateful Dead, my first Phish show, waiting for Paul McCartney to walk out on stage and seeing Ray Charles.

Nothing big at 7:30, we'll probably just walk around and pick up free stuff and maybe some ice cream ... mmmm ice cream.

8:30 - Kanye West:
OK, so most people wouldn't know that I like rap. Not much of what is out there today does it for me, but on occasion there's an album that pops. Kanye's 'Late Registration' and 'College Dropout' albums are pretty danged solid. April has been talking about this for weeks. We've never been to see a rap show live. Granted one of the biggest rap stars today .. in his hometown .. with the skyline behind him. Vibe should be high as West will parade around spitting out lyrics about growing up on the south side. I'm excited to see this too.
So, that's our Lollapalooza attempt for day two. We'll jump the train at 11 and head back to Indiana to get up at five pack and drive to Indy for the Brickyard 400. Hopefully Newman represents and Tony Stewart crashes right in front of us.

-DJr.-