Today, was hard. I dragged myself out of bed to find that my forehead was starting to scab up from a very bad accident with a very absent minded hairdresser. I went to the Vidal Sassoon in Chicago and got a very bad chemical burn on my forehead. The burns took about two days to heal and when they did they started to crack and bleed. I am afraid that the scabs will scar. There was nothing I could do about it now. I put my hair in a headband and went my day. The most important thing I needed to do today was report and photograph Day 2. Even though, I don't have a publication to pitch my stuff too, I've decided to persevere for a imaginary source.
I ended up getting to the venue rather late. I was pretty sad today and this causes me to move more slowly. I got to the venue at 3pm just in time to check out Broken Social Scene, who played a very good set. BSS consists of 19 players on stage including their only female vocalist (at least right now) Amy Miller. She was uplifting and sang with a beautiful voice that complimented the soft voice of their lead singer. He sang lyrics which I was surprised to hear including, "Why do you always fuck doves." I was intrigued by the lyrics and wanted to understand what he meant by this. But having a limited time to see the band I didn't have time to grasp what the lyrics meant. I appreciated his candidness. After seeing the BSS, I went across the park to see Rage Against The Machine. I saw some other acts in between, but I feel they are not worth mentioning at least in this blog post.
Last night at Radiohead there was 75,000 people. I wanted to see if my cousin Joey who was in the Lolla (fancy important people area) could get me in. It was off to the side of the stage and the view was not as good as being front and center, but it would have been impossible to get that close. Joey got a man named Bill who is in charge of the Park department in the Illinois government to help get me in. I got a couple free drinks of vitamin water and vodka. The best part was being able to see the stage and hear Rage Against the Machine.
The band played a solid set. I thought it was rather funny because they played all their most popular songs first. Then in the middle of one of their most famous songs they stopped. They said they wouldn't start up again until the crowd moved back 10-15 feet from the stage. Lead singer, Zach de la Rocha TK said he saw some people in the crowd getting hurt and he didn't want his music to contribute to the senseless violence of the people getting crushed from their enthusiasm of his music.
Rage Against the Machine made the audience jump. It seemed to me that everyone who was listening to the band perform were under some sort of spell to dance and scream the lyrics. It was mayhem, but in the best way. Zach de la Rocha said that if Obama gets elected and doesn't pull the troops out that he knew young people in every city that would burn down all the metropolitan government buildings. I was shocked to hear this, but this is what happens when disillusioned political rock stars don't see change.
After the show, no one seemed concerned about the political agenda and angst that the band showed. I think that most didn't get his message, which left me feeling that maybe our young generation isn't ready to really understand all the problems going on around us. I feel I understand the surface of what the band was trying to say. I will do my research on the message that the band tried to share.
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