Riot Fest part 2

Hey guys thanks for coming back to see part two of my Riot Fest posts. Lets get right to it. The day started off a whole lot better than Friday. The sun was shining and gates opened early. Once we were in it was time to head straight to see Anti- Flag. They had a real early set which was surprising but it didn't seem to hurt the size of their crowd. Although it was pretty warm out today the mud from yesterday was still all around. When the crowd started circle pits everyone seemed to be moving at half speed because they were getting stuck in the mud. It was actually pretty funny to see and be a part of.

The rest of the day went pretty much the same, no rain still muddy and great music. Some highlights from the second day would be seeing Die Antwoord the South African Rave/Rap group, TheUsed, The Flaming Lips, and Taking Back Sunday.

^Die Antwoord

^The Used

^The Flaming Lips

After the festival came to an end this day it was time for another after show. This night it was Primus at The Concord Music Hall. Now Primus has been a huge influence on me since i was very little. Les Claypool is one of the reasons i began playing bass and music in general so i get real excited whenever they are playing in town. This was an extra special show because not only was it one of the smaller places they have played in quite some time they also had Danny Carey the drummer from TOOL playing with them. Danny is a legend in the drum world and to see him and the Legendary bassist Les Claypool play together was amazing. They even played a TOOL cover. Unfortunately my camera died by this time and i wasn't able to take any pictures.

Now it is Sunday and the last day of Riot Fest. Again gates are open early and the music starts right away. Today some of the highlights are The Front Bottoms, Silverstein, Andrew WK, Motion City Soundtrack Modern Baseball, Primus and Weezer. When it comes to weather today beats the rest of the weekend. the mud was finally starting to dry up and the sun was shining. 

^ The Front Bottoms

^Silverstein

^Andrew WK

Now all the bands this weekend were great and i had alot of fun but one of the best parts of my weekend was something else. Riot fest was filled with things to do other than watch bands such as a haunted house, freak show, mini golf, and wrestling matches. Me and a friend i was with went and talked to the guys at the wrestling ring and they ended up letting us have our own match not once but twice throughout the day.

The weekend is now over and my body is pretty sore. Im finally caught up on my sleep and am ready for next year. Thanks for reading.

Riot Fest Part 1

Hey guys this is going to be the first of a two part blog about my time at Riot Fest the last weekend. Wow what a weekend it was. It all started on Thursday night when i went to The Aragon to see Rise Against play the pre Riot Fest show. Now Rise Against has been one of my favorite bands for the last 10 or so years and i have seen them close to 20 times. But this show was up there in one of my favorite Rise Against Shows. They just released their 7th album but still dident fill up their set with new songs. They managed to give the audience a little of everything. There wasn't a cd that they didn't play a song from.

The next day started the actual festival in Humboldt Park. The day was filled with rain and mud. The rain soaked everyone and then being in the wind just made every one freeze. The weather was horrible and the entire place was a giant mud pit. This was a bummer but all the bands still put on awesome shows. My biggest highlights from the first day would be Senses Fail playing their entire first album front to back, The Offspring playing Smash in its entirety for its 20th anniversary, and then once again Rise Against. Something a little different the first day was a panel held during the day featuring members of Pussy Riot, Rise Against, Bad Religion, and moderated by Henry Rollins. This was an hour and 15 minute discussion about politics, punk rock and anything else they felt like talking about.  All in all the day was good the bands put on great shows the weather kind of put a damper on everything but the music over powered it.

^GWAR

At the end of the first day i headed to The Double door to the sold out Bad Religion/ Anti-Flag show. I was hopeing to find someone there selling an extra ticket but there were none to be found. I ended up hanging out outside for a bit and talked to the security guard at the stage door. I gave him some cash and he let me slip right in just in time to catch the end of Anti- Flag and all of Bad Religions set. Now this was an amazing show. I have seen Bad Religion a few times but it has always been in a large venue where there are tons of people and you are far away from the stage. Getting to see them play this rare club show was something ill talk about for the rest of my life. I also got a drum stick.

Hey everyone sorry i left you all hanging on my North Coast stories. Its been a crazy busy week. Ill start off will talking a little about last Sat at the festival. I got there a bit late and headed straight to STS9. They were pretty good but the stage was so crowded it was hard to see without watching the screen so we decided to head over to the stage Kid Cudi was going to playing on after. They were right next to each other so we still got to watch STS9 from far back and get a good spot for Cudi. Kid Cudi from start to finish brought so much energy to the crowd. He was running around stage (and off) getting the crowd really going. Most of his set consisted of songs from Man On The Moon  1 and 2 with a few singles placed in there. The only disappointment was he ended 10 minutes early for what seemed like no reason. The next day everyone found out why though. During his last song he was down in the photo pit running around and singing things for the fans up front. Since he was down on the ground everyone who was back a few people couldn't see what happened but he ended up passing out and having to be carried away from security. This is crazy to think that it happened so fast most people in the crown didn't even see it. Here is a video of that happening. The video is not mine.

So that was the end of Saturday and now on to Sunday. Again i got there pretty late on Sunday and headed straight to see Zeds Dead. We ran into the same problem of the stage being so crowded and decided once again to head to the other stage to get a good spot for the headline, who tonight was Snoop Dogg. This was my first time seeing Snoop and he did not disappoint. He played all of his hits, sang all of his big features, and even played some covers. I got some good videos of his set that i'm going to try and upload a little later.

All in all the festival was great. I wish i would have had a little more time to check out all the booths and see some more performances but hey how was i going to pay for it without working.

Until next time thanks for reading

Well since i once again took a week off of shows i will talk about some of the ones that i missed and what is in store for next weekend. On thursday night Klingande a french house DJ made his first appearance in Chicago at Sub T. I have been listening to his music for a few months now and am really enjoying what is getting put out. If you are looking for someone new to check out thats definitely a recommendation. Next we will move on to Friday for the show i am really bummed out about missing. Maxim from The Prodigy played a DJ set at The Mid. If you don't know The Prodigy then you need to go check them out right now. They are dance music legends. They haven't done much lately especially in the US so seeing Maxim do a DJ set may have been the closest thing to a Prodigy show we get for a while. Saturday night is where the music gets changes up at bit. There is a band called Emily's Army from California who were playing at Township. The band plays popish punk music and the drummer is Billie Joe Armstrong's, the singer of Greenday"son. I got there at 930 thinking i would be just in time to see them play then head home. Well i was wrong, it turns out Township had the show early so they could make it all ages and it had ended already. I wasn't to bummed i'm not a huge fan of Emily's Army but still would have liked to check them out. So i got to see no music this weekend but ended up getting a lot of needed homework done.

Now next weekend is going to get crazy. Starting Thursday night we have the Riot Fest pre party with Rise Against at The Aragon. I am super excited about this, Rise against is one of my two favorite bands and seeing them live never gets old. Not only do i get to see them on Thursday but then again on Friday when they headline Riot Fest. Along with them i get to see My other favorite band The Offspring play right before them. The whole weekend is packed with tons of great names. I know i have talked about the festival a bit in other post so i won't go on to much about it. 
Until next time Thanks for reading

Hey every one how it going. As i write this i am sitting in my car about to head into northcoast. Im pretty excited to see how everything is set up an layed out this year. But now lets talk about last night. If you dident see my last post last night was linkin park, 30 seconds to mats, and afi. We'll start from the beginning with afi. First off wow! Afi never disapoints. This was the second time i saw them this month and if i could i would see them a few more. They have so mich energy they play all their great songs and keep you entertained the whole time. They did have a but of a short set this time since they were the first band but they still managed to squeeze all the hits in and then some. Next is 30 seconds to mars. Now they were a little dissapointing besides the hit songs they have it seemed like everything else they played was real slow and boring. They even played The Kill, their heaviest and in my opinion best, song acoustic. It wasent terrible but iv seen better. But then to save the night was linkin park. Wow if you want to see a close to two hour show filled with nonstop energy then you need to see them. They played a little of everything old and new. By the end they played around 30 songs. The while show was a great time and well worth the drive to tinley park. Well anyways im heading into northcoast so talk to you all later thanks for reading

This weekend

Hey everyone hope you had a good week and hope your about to have an even better weekend. I know last week i posted about having my portfolio review coming up so just a quick little something on that. I was able to have the projects i needed finished finished and got some good feedback on them all. Its going to take a lot of hard work to get all the revisions finished but I'm lucky that everyone was  mostly on board with my projects.

Now to get back to what this blog is really about concerts. This weekend is North Coast Music Festival. This is North Coasts 5th year and has probably their best lineup to date. The festival kicks off tomorrow with performances from Bassnectar, Alesso, W&W, Showtek and more and goes until Sunday with artists such as Zeds Dead, Snoop Dog, STS9, DADA Life, Kid Cudi, and Adventure Club performing over the weekend. Not only is this great festival happening all weekend but they also have tons of after parties around town, and when I say tons I mean 22 official after parties. So there is plenty to do this weekend with that alone. I will be at the festival Sunday night for the headliners STS9 and Kid Cudi, then most of the day Sunday. Tomorrow though I will be making a trip to Tinley Park for The Carnivores Tour featuring Linkin Park, 30 Seconds To Mars, and AFI. Linkin Park always puts on a great show and i have had the honor of meeting them along with watching sound check and touring the stage at a past show and have to say how great of people they are.

Well I will make another post sometime this weekend to let you all know how everything is going. Its going to be a fun one for sure. Thanks for reading

Portfolio

Hey everyone I know the blog has been kind of boring the past few weeks I just have been so busy that shows have been pushed aside. But since most of my readers are audio students at The Illinois Institute of Art i figured i would talk about what is talking up so much of my time and keeping me from all the shows. Portfolio review is this Wednesday the 27th and I am racing trying to get everything in order to present. My projects themselves are finished it is just the amount of paper work that is is required with everything that is the most time consuming. For those who don't know you need a total of ten projects for your portfolio at graduation time. Live to 2, MIDI, Radio Commercial, Synth, 8-16 track, 16-24 track, Live Sound, Sound Design, Business Plan, and a Senior Project. All these projects along with their proper paperwork need to be approved by your instructor before you are able to present at portfolio review. For those of you who are getting close to graduation do not slack on getting these projects finished. I like to think that i used my time well over the last two quarters and still I am here racing to get it all finished. So this all is just something for you to all keep in mind and hopefully no one has any problems getting their stuff done when its their turn to attend review. I will talk to you all next week and will be back talking about my experiences at shows again. Thanks for reading.