Lollapalooza Artist Interviews

Cara Carriveau, NBC Chicago Street Team

Three long days of great music and fun at Lollapalooza along with 2 nights of latenight Lollapalooza parties absolutely wore me out.  It literally took me three days to recover.

WTMX's Cara Carriveau & The Local Tourist's Theresa Carter

The latenight parties were insane.  And I do mean that in a good way.  My party buddy all day and night all weekend was Theresa Carter from The Local Tourist.  On Friday night we hit the exclusive Rock the Vote Late Night after-party in the Music Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago.  In fact, Lindsay Lohan was spotted there with her sister Ali so you know it was a major blow-out.  The Virgins among other artists performed and I don’t think we ever stopped dancing until at least 3am.

We went back to the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago the next night for an even more exclusive party and an even crazier, later nite.  Thank goodness for the unlimited supply of redbull.

Oh yeah, we also caught some great acts at Lollapalooza last weekend.  Even chatted with some artists.  Here’s a few conversations you can check out…I’ll have more soon:

The Airborne Toxic Event: 

Brandon Flowers of The Killers:

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Le $38/$148 Dress

Tom Kolovos, NBC Chicago Street Team

OK ladies, if you normally have the requisite fashionista aversion to a dress which retails for $38, you may want to reconsider said aversion. Perhaps the economy has transformed you into a recessionista, or you needed something to wear in the 98 degree heat to Lollapalooza.

But the best reason to justify a $38 dress is because it’s actually a great summer buy and transforms into several dresses in one.

The dress is called Le Sac, and you’ll find this versatile piece at American Apparel. It comes in solid colors and a black strap that runs through essentially a halter top shape, but with enough imagination (and the pictured instruction postcard that comes with it), you can create at least five different dresses you would not be embarrassed to wear — the Braided halter, the Architectural mini, the Grecian, the Gathered mini or any of several variations that might look completely at home on a Narciso Rodriguez runway. Really.

Click here to read the rest of this post on NBCChicago.com.

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Get Ready to be Rocked!

Anthony Morre, NBC Chicago Street Team

Just when you think your Lollapalooza night might end, Another Level (one of Chicago’s top nightclub promotion companies) is bringing in Rob Patterson to rock the house with an amazing dj/guitar performance.  If you don’t know who Rob Patterson is, he was the lead guitarist for KORN from 2005-2008 and is now the lead guitarist for OTEP.  More recently in the news, he is engaged to the ever-beautiful Carmen Electra.  Rob has dazzled crowds with his unique dj/guitar sets at such places as Privé in Las Vegas as well as at some of the VMA afterparties.

This is an event you don’t want to miss!  Also, if you are a Lolla ticket holder, you can show your ticket or wristband at the venue for VIP entry.

The event is taking place at Griffin Lounge located on 326 W. Chicago in Chicago on Friday August 7th, 2009 from 9pm-2am.  This is a 21+ event so sorry to any fans that are not old enough.  For more information, visit www.anotherlevel.com; www.robpatterson.net; www.griffinlounge.com

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Countdown To GALApalooza

Rebecca Taras, NBC Chicago Street Team

Whether or not you’re a music junkie, the opportunity to see Grant Park transformed into a playground for party-goers is entertainment in itself. The third annual GALApalooza event is only one week away, giving guests an exclusive sneak preview of the Lollapalooza event grounds in a VIP fashion.

Outdoor lounge seating, cocktails and creative nibbles – you just might forget there’s actually a concert to watch. Lollapalooza artist Vampire Weekend and Chicago sensation Hey Champ will take the stage, in addition to performances by Park District Kids and DJ White Shadow.

Friends coming in to town for the music filled extravaganza? The James Hotel is offering a special overnight package on August 6 which includes two general admission tickets to GALApalooza, overnight accommodations in a king guestroom, and valet parking at The James. Rates start at $579. For more info or to book a room, visit www.jameshotels.com.

GALApalooza takes place on Thursday August 6th at 6 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park. Lounge experiences are available at the $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000 level and single tickets are available for $150. For more information or to make reservations, call Alison Krzys, Director of Communications for Parkways Foundation at 312.742.4807 or visit www.parkways.org.

Since 2005, Lollapalooza and GALApalooza have raised over $4 million dollars for Parkways, which directly impacted Chicago’s neighborhood parks.

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Time To Face The Music

Rebecca Taras, NBC Chicago Street Team

 

Happy Memorial Day Chicago! It’s time to mark your calendars with street festivals, rooftop cocktail hours and of course, the sounds of summer. So grab a group (and in some cases, a bottle and a blanket) and experience a concert in the city before the curtain closes on summer.

Still Going Strong

Chicago’s acclaimed Grant Park Music Festival, led by Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar and Chorus Director Christopher Bell, opens its historic Gala 75^th season on Wednesday, June 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the state-of-the-art Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. The opening night concert features Maestro Kalmar leading the GRAMMY®-nominated Grant Park Orchestra and internationally-renowned pianist Stephen Hough through Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Key’s patriotic Star Spangled Banner, as well as one of classical music’s greatest hits, Pictures at an Exhibition composed by Modest Mussorgsky. 

All Grant Park Music Festival performances are free to the public. Open lawn and pavilion seating are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Season memberships to the Festival are available, starting at $80 for a specific night of the week (all Wednesdays, Fridays, or Saturdays) or $135 for a season-long membership for all 31 concerts.  Reserved group seating is also available for most concerts. Membership and group sales information is available by calling 312-742-7638 or by visiting the Festival’s website at http://www.grantparkmusicfestival.com The summer series is short, so catch one before the season ends on August15th.

Northshore Classic

Ravinia’s 2009 season presents a diverse lineup of more than 120 events from June 5 through Sept. 19, with 38 debuts, more than 25 free or specially priced events and over 135 guest artists and ensembles including the summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra featuring Ravinia Festival Music Director James Conlon. Guest artists include Lang Lang, Pink Martini, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Ramsey Lewis, George Hearn, Jackson Browne, Thomas Hampson, Patti LuPone, Christoph Eschenbach, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Diana Krall, Juilliard String Quartet, Joe Cocker, Susan Graham, John Legend, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bonnie Raitt, David Hyde Pierce, Carrie Underwood, Matthias Goerne, Elvis Costello and many others.

Tickets to Ravinia events are now available online at http://www.ravinia.org/. Orders are also being accepted now by fax at (847) 266-0641 or through mail by sending a printable online order form and payment to Ravinia Festival, P.O. Box 896, Highland Park, IL 60035. Phone orders at (847) 266-5100 and walk-up sales are accepted throughout the season Monday-Saturday10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays and holidays (closed July 4) 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Ravinia Festival is located at Lake Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park .

New Kid on The Block

It may not have the history of the Grant Park Music Fest or Ravinia, but Lollapalooza quickly became a legendary festival with a huge following. The third annual GALApalooza, benefiting Parkways Foundation and produced by C3 Presents, will be held Thursday, August 6^that 6 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park. The concert space is transformed into a lounge-like atmosphere prior to the Lollapalooza festivities. While crews are making final preparations for the legendary festival, GALA-goers will enjoy a chic, open air cocktail party with outdoor lounge seating, an intimate and creative dining experience, and a concert featuring Lollapalooza artist Vampire Weekend, whose self-titled album was dubbed the 10^th best album of 2008 by Rolling Stone Magazine. GALApalooza and Lollapalooza will be their only U.S. shows this year. Chicago sensation Hey Champ, who is opening for Depeche Mode on the Lollapalooza main stage, will take the stage to treat guests to a l set. In addition, GALApalooza features sounds from DJ White Shadow, performances by Park District Kids, and a silent auction and raffle featuring priceless VIP experiences.  

The James hotel is offering a special overnight package on August 6 which includes two general admission tickets to GALApalooza, overnight accommodations in a king guestroom, and valet parking at The James Hotel. Rates start at $579. For more information or to book this package visit http://www.jameshotels.com/. 

Lounge experiences are available at the $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000 level and single tickets are available for $150. For more information on sponsorship opportunities or to make reservations, please call Alison Krzys , Director of Communications for Parkways Foundation at 312-742-4807 or visit http://www.parkways.org/.

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Lollapalooza After-party with Moby!

Fayth aka Relaxocat, NBC5 Street Team

It’s been great to read the Lollapalooza posts.  But what about the after-parties?  We hit Vision’s after-party where Moby spun a 2 hour set.  Vision is attached to Excalibur, which made it less appealing of a venue to me.  The other side of that is that Vision brings some of the best DJ’s from around the globe to Chicago, including Moby.  I had to put my bias aside since he rarely spins in Chicago.  Heather (thank you!) helped my group out by providing tickets and VIP access.

With DJ’s there are 2 components:  Skill & talent.  Moby posses both, but his set was a bit disappointing in the area of talent.  He spun an amazingly skilled set of primarily straight-up house music, but he did not utilize much music from his new album, “Last Night” on the international label, Mute Records.  It’s with his own music that the very talented Moby shines as a writer of music.  The DJ’s that spun earlier that night used a Basement Jaxx loop twice and later Moby spun the same track, so we all heard it three times that night.  The song came out in 2000; 8 years have passed since the song’s release.  Given that Moby is one of the key forces bringing DJ’s into the mainstream, it would seem he’d bring more diversity to his playlist.  His new album stands well above his set that night.

Vision is huge and really well run.  Many clubs that hold Lolla parties are chaos in terms of orgainization, which was not the case at Vision.  The crowd was going to love Moby no matter what he spun, and it was good that despite how crowded it was, people had room to move.  If you decide to go to Vision, be prepared for relatively high prices on covers and drinks, but also be prepared to see some of the best DJ’s spin.  Hopefully not the same old song a few times throughut the night.

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Dancing Lollapalooza Boy

Cara Carriveau, NBC5 Street Team

I have many memories of Lollapalooza. Great music. Fun people-watching. Interviewing artists like Duffy and Tally Hall. Surprisingly delicious and affordable food at the concert. Running into friends I hadn’t seen in years. Hearing “Come Sail Away” by Styx sampled by one of the artists on stage (loved that!). The sea of urine on the sidewalks surrounding Grant Park (didn’t love that, especially the smell).

Without a doubt, though, my fondest memory is that of bringing my 3 year old son Sam. We tried our best but couldn’t secure a sitter on Saturday. Since kids under 10 get in free at Lollapalooza we took him with us as soon as he woke up from his afternoon nap. I am pretty certain that he was youngest mosher for Rage Against The Machine. Luckily, we were able to keep him far from the rowdy crowd in the press area. Earlier we took him to see The Toadies play. To say he loved them is putting it mildly.

Check out this video (try to watch until the very end – it’s got a cute finale):

Did your parents take you to Woodstock???

Click HERE to see a ton of Lollapalooza photos.

Type my name in the search bar to see/hear more of my posts including interviews with Alanis Morissette, The Bravery, Lovehammers, O.A.R’s Marc Roberge, Triumph’s Rik Emmett, Matthew Santos, Shooting Star, Mike Tafoya, Absentstar, comedian Lee Camp & more.

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Lollapalooza

Cara Carriveau, NBC5 Street Team

So here I am at 3:30am wide awake. Been up for hours. I had a blast at my first

Lollapalooza Main Entrance

Lollapalooza earlier tonight and was even invited to an after-party being thrown by Spin Magazine. I wish that after-party was the reason I’m still up. But, being a responsible person, I declined the party invitation knowing I had to work at 6am Saturday (and pretty much work straight through the rest of the day between WTMX stuff and Lollapalooza coverage) so I figured I needed a good nights’ rest. Ironically, I’ve been up since 1am with insomnia. Not good. I’m going to be toast later today. I suppose if anybody can keep me awake, though, it’ll be Rage Against The Machine.

I had a great time at Lolla Friday and to be honest I never actually ventured out of the press area. Too many interesting conversations and excellent people-watching. Plus, I had an interview scheduled with Duffy that kept getting pushed back and I didn’t want to lose my prime couch position so I never got up. Not that it was such a sacrifice – I was in the Spin tent where they were serving free whiskey-margarita’s. Who in the world thought to put whiskey in a margarita? Come to think of it, that’s probably why I’ve got insomnia!

The Duffy interview was fun, but I was taken by surprise when the publisher of Spin Magazine jumped into the conversation. He came over to offer Duffy a drink (and me since I was with her) and just sat down and started asking questions and commenting as I interviewed Duffy. She seemed to enjoy it and frankly so did I. When I listened back to the interview I laughed out loud. Then, I realized the interview was for WTMX and no one listening will even know who in the world that guy is so I’ll probably have to edit him out. I’ll post a link to the audio when it’s online (I hope soon).

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The Cool Kids: Cookin’ up somethin’ fresh…

Liz Holland, NBC5 Street Team

A couple weeks ago I went to see one of Chicago’s up and coming rap duos, The Cool Kids at Underground. Today they release their debut EP, The Bake Sale (C.A.K.E./Chocolate Industries) featuring their hit song “Black Mags”, a tribute to BMX-biking. If you like hip hop, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy.

Mickey Rocks (aka Antoine Reed), 20, and Chuck Inglish (aka Evan Ingersoll), 23, rocked the crowd at Underground with their signature sound, a contemporary version of throwback 80′s with prominent beats and catchy commentary similar to the likes of the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC with a touch of Pharrell. Their sound has been praised by the Chicago Reader for “a Chicago specific hip-hop sound rivaling that of the Dirty South, or Bay Area”.

The duo met in 2005 through Myspace after Mickey came across Chuck’s beats online. Thanks to the internet, their music has quickly spread from the underground scene to landing major creds booking notable music festivals including the upcoming Lollapalooza and Rock the Bells, touring with rap star M.I.A, and callabos with A-trac (Kanye West’s DJ), Flosstradamus, and Lil’ Wayne on “Gettin’ It”. Not to mention, they were featured in Rolling Stone as one of the “Top 10 Artists to Watch in 2008”.

In my opinion, part of what makes them “the whole package” is their down to earth swagger and “tell it like it is” attitude. Most impressively, they have their style down to a T with a fresh take on vintage street wear.

Mark my words — this duo is soon to be added to the Chicago hip-hop hotlist of Kanye, Common, Lupe — just you wait.

Besides checking out The Bake Sale, you can catch them for a performance at the Abbey Pub, this Wednesday, May 21^st at 9 p.m. for a Darfur Now Benefit (suggested donation at the door).

The Abbey Pub

3420 W. Grace

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2008 Lollapalooza Lineup Released

Marcus Riley, NBC5 Street Team (video)

The rumors have been flying around for days, but finally, the lineup for Lollapalooza 2008 has been released.

Radiohead, Kanye West and Wilco are among the 90 bands and artists who will perform at the Grant Park festival, Aug. 1 – 3.

Festival founder Perry Farrell calls this year’s lineup “a gorgeous array of talent.”

Other acts scheduled to perform include Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Gnarls Barkley, Bloc Party, Lupe Fiasco, The Raconteurs, The Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power and Mark Ronson. (See Full Lineup)

I went to my first Lollapalooza in 1992 (I’m showing my age), as well as the last two Chicago events, and the one thing I’ve learned is to avoid the huge crowds cramming together to see the name acts, and focus on the talent on the smaller stages. I saw Kanye in 2006 which was — OK.

But the craziest scene I experienced last year was the high-energy dance party when Flosstradamus took the stage. (View Slideshow)

This year’s bands you may never have heard of but might be worth checking out include Kid Sister, The Cool Kids and Girl Talk. At least that’s who I’m familiar with. Hit me on the comments below to hip me to something new.

More Media:

Lollapalooza 2007 – Friday
Lollapalooza 2007 – Saturday
Lollapalooza 2007 – Sunday
Lollapalooza 2006
Lollapalooza 2005

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