so we went on our second Chicago Critical Mass. here is the map of not only the mass (to the best of my knowledge) but also our trip down to daley plaza and then after “ending” the mass (we didn’t finish with the rest of the riders but left at 25th and 50th in cicero) and going back to schubas. overall 30miles of biking in four hours. it was amazing and eye opening. i look forward to august
Avant/Chicago: talks about how the Printers Ball was shut down early by the cops. Not a good week for local print publications.
Chicago Reader Blogs: News Bitesblog has a bit of info and links about the sale of the Chicago Reader. I can’t help but be pessimistic about this as I fear this will have an affect on what the Reader covers and will look/reads like. I hope my fears are ungrounded and that Creative Loafing doesn’t meddle much or at all.
I will start this off by saying that for $50 for 2.5days of music is really a steal. Water was still a buck (even though guys outside the gates were trying to tell newbies that it would be $3 inside), there was still 3 stages, and still more music then you could shake a stick at. New for this year was more people, it seemed like they upped the limit so I was consistently farther away from stages this year then last.
These extra tickets seemed to go to pot smoking gabby meatheads. I will go on record and say that I don’t like causal drug use, espically at an outdoor festival. It gives me a migraine, which make me grumpy and then even more mad. It was worst for Sonic Youth set, possibly due to GZA sharing the same stage. Coupled with the crazy moshing and pushing going on I was not as into the set as I was hoping I would be. I can understand getting into a set but crushing people and beating them up is not acceptable. There seemed to be a lot of that pent-up 90’s macho aggression all weekend, with Dan Decon’s set getting cut short due to crowd issues and multiple bouts of crowd surfing at all stages. I mean really, who the fuck crowd surfs anymore. The last thing I want to do in the sweaty heat is hold your ass above my head. The last straw for me was the booing and throwing of stuff at Yoko Ono. I am not the hugest fan of hers and I agree that she may be a bit much to take at times but no one is forcing you to stay. It was the end of the day, go head over to an after party early. I will say that she actually delievered one of the most impressive and memorable sets I will ever see. The free noise advant duet with Thurston Moore was breathe taking. It almost made me cry it was so moving and powerful.
That brings me to other things I liked. Deerhunter was a surprise hit for me. I have been listening to the record a bit but their set Sunday was amazing. Reverb heavy and super fuzzy I was surprised the PA system was able to hold up. It was one of the few mouth agape sets of the weekend. Jamie Lidell was also quite impressive, with his beatbox looping and soulful voice. I was interested in catching Mastodon until they finally appeared, then I was scared shitless. I would have liked Vandermark’s Powerhouse Sound but I could barely hear it, a constant theme at the balance stage. Battles were impressive and much tighter then the record would indicate.
Overall, I am getting old and bit worn out. I like things the way there were. I am happy more people could get in this year, but if it was only so that they could pay for the video projection of the stages I think other choices could be made. Every year the sound has been stellar, I could easily hear one stage from the other in year past. This year I couldn’t hear Slint from the the other stage as I was camping out for Sonic Youth. We’ve already heard the problems with the third or “balance” stage. I will echo the opinions and say bring back the DJ’s and make it a place to chill and catch some shade and maybe eat a bit.
Oh and Chicagoist I was that kid with the “I listen to bands that don’t exist yet” shirt. I don’t think it was ironic but I do think it funny that you’re legs were tired after seeing 2 bands, try biking 18 miles each day with 30lbs of crap on your back and catching all 24hrs of music. You should say Hi next time, I promise I don’t bite.