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Post by melikecheese on Jul 4, 2006 10:48:04 GMT -5
i need a place to stay for 5 peeps, can anyone help me out, maybe point me to an area outside the direct downtown that is nice and safe. I need to get a hotel. I dont wanna get some scary place in some scary part of town.
Post by DJ DonkeyPunch on Jul 5, 2006 10:40:59 GMT -5
melikecheese said:
i need a place to stay for 5 peeps, can anyone help me out, maybe point me to an area outside the direct downtown that is nice and safe. I need to get a hotel. I dont wanna get some scary place in some scary part of town.
Find a hotel room near one of the airports and just take the train each day.
There is some info on hostels and the cheapest downtown hotels they could find.
For whatever reason, there are virtually no reputable-seeming hotels outside of the downtown area. The only hotels you see in more outlying areas of the city are pretty sketchy.
If the hostel doesn't work out, and you can't swing the downtown rates, I guess somewhere by the airports might work.
The site is right next to a green line stop on the CTA. It's the Ashland stop on the Greenline. On this map:
...it's not too clearly labeled, but it's the stop East of the California stop and West of the downtown loop on the Green Line (it's marked with a "T" for transfer).
That means that from either airport, you'd have to go all the way downtown and transfer to get back out to the site. From O'Hare, you could get off at the Division stop (this is about where I live) and walk about a mile south to the park. This walk is fine and this is how I get there.
There really isn't anyplace along the green line that you would want to stay unless maybe you stayed all the way out in suburban Oak Park. If you are looking for hotels in the city that aren't downtown (again I know of nothing I could recommend), a general rule of thumb is that the North Side neighborhoods (anything with a "North" in the address; anything north of Madison) are probably relatively safe (obviously there are some exceptions), but the South Side and (farther) West Side are going to be poorer neighborhoods. The immediate area around the park (especially to the west) is not neccesarily the greatest neighborhood. Obviously there are some exceptions (Hyde Park on the south side would be a great place to stay; University of Chicago area, right on the Green Line that goes to the park).
If you have any questions about the neighborhoods specific hotels you find are in and how transportation would be I can probably give you some answers.
Post by melikecheese on Jul 5, 2006 14:36:04 GMT -5
Hey thanks for the train info. Didnt know anything about that. That helps, plus we don't have to worry about driving in some strange city after we have been drinking / have someone stay sober. Hostel has been booked for a few months, couldnt find an open hotel room that wasnt a TON of money, seems like the rooms fill up fast.
Since we are a few hours away, the lady and I just plan on sleeping in the car saturday night, that might be a possibility, it's free, and if you know someone with a decent sized car can be surprisingly comfortable.
Hey thanks for the train info. Didnt know anything about that. That helps, plus we don't have to worry about driving in some strange city after we have been drinking / have someone stay sober. Hostel has been booked for a few months, couldnt find an open hotel room that wasnt a TON of money, seems like the rooms fill up fast.
There are cheap places (motels, hotels) near Midway that aren't entirely sketchy and there's a stop on the orange line (?) right there that can be taken with only a transfer or two right to the festival I believe.
Only two more weeks! I've been trying to cram on spanish so that i'll know what Os Mutantes is singing. Is anyone pulling a pitchfork/ lollapalooza combo?
1:00 Hot Machines 1:30 Chin Up Chin Up 2:00 Man Man 2:35 Band of Horses 3:30 Mountain Goats 4:20 Destroyer 5:10 Art Brut 6:10 Ted Leo 7:10 The Futureheads 8:10 The Walkmen 9:10 Silver Jews
Biz3 Stage:
1:00 8 Bold Souls 1:50 Flosstradamus 2:50 Chicago Underground Duo 3:45 Tyondai Braxton 4:30 Ghislain Poirier 5:25 Spank Rock 6:45 Matmos 7:40 Matthew Dear 8:40 A-Trak
July 30
1:00 Tapes ‘n Tapes 1:30 Danielson 2:00 Jens Lekman 2:35 The National 3:30 Liars 4:20 Aesop Rock & Mr. Lif 5:10 Mission of Burma 6:10 Devendra Banhart 7:10 Yo La Tengo 8:10 Spoon 9:10 Os Mutantes
Biz3 Stage:
1:00 Jeff Parker / Nels Cline Quartet 1:55 Bonde Do Role 2:50 CSS 3:40 Cage 4:30 Tarantula A.D. 5:20 Ada 6:10 Glenn Kotche 7:10 Dominik Eulberg 8:10 Diplo
Post by melikecheese on Jul 25, 2006 7:12:14 GMT -5
Woot Woot - Got a nice hotel, the Crown Plaza or something right down east of the park.
Sunday is SOLD OUT now. Only a few more days left till some great shows. I saw a small post on jambase and I laughed cause all the hippies were like, "uuuggghhhh you get what you pay for with this one. What a crap lineup" If they only knew.
Man Man is my most anticipated act. I'll be parked in front of that stage before Hot Machines.
I'm a bit disappointed I'll be missing Chin Up Chin Up, but they play Chicago all the time.
Assuming the setup is like last year, this won't really be a problem. Even if you are camped out on the rail of one stage, you can still see/hear the other stage, although you are a bit far from the action. You could easily get a nice spot that is a good view of both stages, or elect to be closer to one than the other (not talking about the Biz3 stage here). It certainly seems like this will be considerably more crowded than last year, but I would still guess that at these (cheap) prices plenty of people will only show up in the evening, so I'm guessing the earlier slots will be pretty easy to get up front for.
At Intonation this year, there was practically noone there for the first couple sets and you could easily walk right to the stage for most of the day. I was easily able to get right up front for the first 8 or so acts each day. By the last few acts, you would need to "camp out" a set early to get right on the rail. Pitchfork will certainly be at least twice as crowded, but I still think it will be pretty easy to get around for the first half of the day.
Extreme heat and considerable drunkeness conspired to limit the amount of music I was able to enjoy, but I had a great time at Day One of Pitchfork. The highlights for me were Man Man and The Silver Jews. Crowds were considerably larger than last year but reasonable. The sound seemed to be less than ideal, and not quite loud enough on a lot of occasions (definitely worse than Intonation). It was ridiculously hot.
Some thoughts and pictures:
-I arrived during Chin Up Chin Up, and from a distance didn't hear anything too inspiring.
-Camped out in the outrageous heat for Man Man and was not dissappointed.
These guys are pretty high up there on my "favorite band du jour" list right now. All five of them are just huddled around the center of the stage (reminded me of the Boredoms; I love the feel of that setup) like they are just jamming in a basement for their own entertainment. They all "sing". They all bang drums. Guitars, bells, organs, horns and accordians come in to play. Once you've read it in a write-up, it's difficult to describe them without using the word hirstute. I'm really starting to understand that there is a lot going on in their music beneath the bizarre surface. I love Man Man.
Band of Horses
Following Man Man and falling into the category of "sounds like MMJ" sets the expectation bar pretty high. I tried to just enjoy them on their on merits, though. I really dig the album (especially Funeral), and the set delivered solid renditions of those tunes. The MMJ comparisons pretty much end in the studio setting, but you can't hold that against these guys. The lead singer is a bit goofy and says "dude" a lot. Probably enjoyed this set the third most of the day.
For the next couple hours, I wandered around, got quite drunk, and tried to avoid the sun. Mountain Goats seemed good. I officially just don't like Destroyer. His set was way shorter than his slot, which was really frustrating when Man Man got 30 minutes. At this point I noticed that things weren't nearly as loud as I remember Intonation being. I meant to get up close for Art Brut, and they seemed to be putting on a good show, but like I said, drunk. And hot. Here's them and the Sears Tower:
I checked out some Spank Rock too.
Then I completely passed out for most of Ted Leo and The Walkmen. The end of the Walkmen set sounded really good from a distance, but I was pretty dazed at this point. My wife had had enough and in my drunken, just-woke-up stupor I almost bailed, but I decided to rally and stick around. I really shouldn't drink so much today.
The Futureheads did their thing, which I'm relatively indifferent too. I checked out some A-Trak, which was a good time, and got a good spot for The Silver Jews. They really delivered. Great setlist, with all of the highlights from Tanglewood Numbers and plenty of good stuff I wasn't familiar with. They opened with Punks in the Beerlight and that really set the tone. Both David and Cassie Berman were really open, fun and friendly with the crowd between songs. I particularly enjoyed Cassie pointing out the view of the moon and a church steeple from the stage. This is the first time in my four days at Union Park festivals that I've actually stuck around for the headliner, and it was really a great way to end the day. The atmosphere was generally chilled out by this point (exhausted), although there were some really annoying talking over the music people around me ("come on indie kids, show some respect for the music" and/or "please turn up the sound"). My pictures became more....um...abstract the more I drank, but post nap I took a few decent ones of the Jews:
Today I'll have my Def Jux alphabet shirt on and will be waiting on the rail for Aesop Rock (in the 105 degree heat index) in my full on "30 year old music festival veteran" dork outfit (fans, floppy hat, frozen waters in pockets, offering sun block and squirt bottle squirts to melting underprepared hipsters, etc.). People actually wore jeans yesterday. The mind boggles.
Post by famousblueraincoat on Jul 31, 2006 10:32:49 GMT -5
I only made it Saturday, couldn't cut it after all the heat and had work to finish but I saw so much good stuff.
The silver jews were worth the ticket price by themselves, and unlike ka mai, I thought the Destroyer set was pretty tremendous. With that said, I love Destroyer and I know all of his stuff pretty well. "It's Gonna take an Airplane" and "Follies" were highlights of the day for me.
Band of Horses were also good, performing a pretty straight forward version of the album. There was a lot of talk about the Art Brut set; everyone seemed pretty involved. I actually thought it was a bit sloppy. Not bad, just not tight.
The Walkmen were better than expected. I caught a song of Chicago Underground Duo and a few from Matmos. I can do without the Futureheads and usually Ted Leo (although he surpassed expectations).
I was hot as all hell and attempting to get drunk somewhat unsuccessfully all day. I hope it cools down for Lolla this weekend.
The bottom line is I'm so glad I got to see the Jews, and that show will resonate for a long time. As I was walking toward the el, they were playing "There is a Place Past The Blues" and the moment just stuck. Great set, great day. Just a little hot. I'll go again next year.
Edited to add that Man Man were 'interesting.' Pretty fun to watch.
The heat was mercifully a bit more tolerable than advertised on Day 2, but I still managed to expend the lion's share of my energy (and get excessively drunk) at Aesop Rock, which limited my enjoyment of the rest of the day. It was a pretty amazing day of music (overall superior to day one for my tastes), but I would have to concede that the cumulative effect of the weather made the weekend a little harder to enjoy than Intonation was (weather was impossibly perfect for Intonation a month ago). Highlights for me were Aesop Rock (this was pretty much a given) and stumbling upon my most memorable scene of the weekend at Bonde do Role. I was a bit dissappointed with Yo La Tango and at myself for throwing in the towel before Os Mutantes.
I didn't get there as early as I wanted, but I did manage to catch the last Tapes n Tapes song (Insistor). They seemed kind of young and green, like it was pretty novel for them to be playing in this setting. They pretty much nailed the song, though, and looked like they were having a good time.
I love Danielson's outfits. When they first came out, my first thought was that they sounded a lot smaller live (Man Man sounds like a 30 person band on record and when they are five guys on stage, Danielson sounds like 30 people on record and like five people when they are on stage). I want a shirt with a heart on the sleeve. When I wandered back at the end of the set, they really impressed me with some intersting, tight changes.
Managed to catch a little Nils Cline/Jeff Parker during the Danielson set as well. I guess they were playing an entire album and ran out of time. They ended up just playing the head of the last tune.
Jens Lenkman sounded nothing like I was expecting based on the "You're so silent, Jens" EP I have. Hot Swedish chicks as your backing band? I've seen worse gimmicks. They were actually quite good. A much bigger, danceable sound than what I was expecting, and he was really a lot of fun. I would have liked to have seen his whole set, but I was in wandering mode.
Thankfully, I wandered by the Biz3 tent during Bonde do Role. They had a DJ/dance thing going but with two MCs (a guy and a girl), and the energy was extremely high. Crowd surfing:
...unfortunately led to injury! Apparantly the lead singer was injured in this leap into the crowd (I think someone mentioned a broken arm?). The other two MC's genuinely seemed like they didn't know what to do at this point. Fellow Brazilians CSS all came on to the stage (I think they knew the words to some Bonde do Role songs?) and filled in for her. I hope she's OK! The energy at this set (both pre and post injury) was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. I probably should have spent more time in this tent, but the setup was pretty crappy (sticky, stuffy, confined). Joined by CSS:
I really got into The National album Alligator a few months ago and really enjoyed what I caught of their show. There had been so much "rough around the edges" DIY type of music all weekend, it was kind of nice to see a tight, professional band with an impressive vocalist do their thing. From afar, The Liars actually sounded really cool. My main focus at this point was getting drunk for Aesop Rock, which I succeeded at.
Aesop Rock looked like he rolled out of bed and on to the stage (maybe with a j...or something...in between), but he, Lif and DJ Big Whiz brought like I knew they would. I kind of wish Lif would have had a seperate set just to get more of both, but overall it was everything I had been getting hyped for all day. Ace wore shorts on stage for the third time ever. The other two were in tropical climes (don't remember what he said). His conclusion: "Your city is f*cking hot." Highlights included Fast Cars, Lucy, Aesop's new cut that will be coming out accompanied by a children's book (!), and of course Daylight.
Ace & Lif:
Then I was way too drunk for any kind of coherence. At some point I took a nap. I think I missed Mission of Burma. I really don't remember a whole lot for a while there. I wasn't exactly the most cogent appreciater of music at this point. I found Devandra Banhart a bit uninspired. Combined with his Bonnaroo set I'm thinking I just like him better on record.
Yo La Tango was a bit dissappointing. Their Bonnaroo '04 set was one of my all time favorites, and this was just nowhere in that ballpark. Not too bad, but certainly not great.
I was pretty beat at this point, and I've enjoyed getting to know some of their music recently, but Spoon just struck me as incredibly boring and vanilla and lame. It just seemed like following all of the other bands I saw over the weekend, there was absolutely nothing distinctive or interesting about them. In another state I very well may have loved it though, who knows. I was pretty excited for Os Mutantes, but I was going to sleep in that park all night if I didn't get my ass home.
Today will involve lots of air conditioning and no beer. I spent all of my money in Italy and therefore won't be going to Lollapalooza (not even for Wilco and Andrew Bird on Sunday ), but a great (if exhausting and brain melting) weekend at Pitchfork has left me feeling pretty satisfied.
^^My co-worker saw him come through Austin right before he hit up pitchfork and said the same thing. The guy sounds like he's on top of his game at the moment.
Spank Rock was absolutely awesome. Favorite show of the weekend.
Man Man were also really, really good, as were Aesop/Lif. I wish I could have been up front for Liars, but I was camped out in a decent spot for Aesop and watched Liars set from a distance. It looked really good.
Tapes 'n Tapes were also good as well. Super solid set with good stage presence and energy.
), but a great (if exhausting and brain melting) weekend at Pitchfork has left me feeling pretty satisfied.