Lollapalooza Weekend Pt 3.1 - Saturday night

After already surviving 10 hours of blistering sun, Rage fans, potheads and Obama rumors (he was widely believed to be introducing Wilco, but that never happened), I hopped on a Blue Line train as quickly as humanly possible, and headed to the Double Door for an official aftershow featuring 2 bands I had to miss at Lolla due to scheduling conflicts, Foals (played during the Gutter Twins set) and Battles (during Broken Social Scene's set).

I managed to get to the Double Door right around 10:30, and there was a line of about 100 people still out there, which wasn't surprising since at least 3/4 of the 500 capacity venue would be filled by people from Lolla. I was still stuck waiting outside for another 15 minutes or so, but finally got in before 11. I was expecting the opening band, the Magic Wands, to be done and cleared off the stage by that point, but they were just about halfway through with their set. I wasn't impressed by them, since they seemed to me like a watered down Raveonettes, without the songwriting talent of Sune Rose Wagner and the, umm, charm of Sharin Foo.

They finished around 11:15, and thankfully cleared out their gear quickly, while the Foals set up very quickly as well. I was hoping that Foals would be finished by 11:45 or so, meaning Battles would finish by the usual 1 am finish time for Double Door shows, which I could handle. It wasn't looking like that was going to happen, since Foals had just started their set at roughly 11:45 or so.

I was definitely really impressed by Foals though, they shared some of the same sonic aspects of Bloc Party (quick jerky guitar rhythms, hyper dance beats, etc.). I don't know how they did it, but they still managed to play with fierce energy after playing a midday set on a sun baked stage. By the time their sweat soaked set was complete, I was easily won over and know they'll be around for a while.

Foals finished up around 12:30, which was getting pretty brutal for me, but I was willing to tough it out a little longer, since I loved Battles' 2007 Pitchfork performance and was anxious to see them in a place as tiny as the DD. Unfortunately the bar was getting packed by that point, plus it felt like it was roughly 90 degrees where I was standing, and more people decided to pile in despite all that.

There were no waitresses walking around, and I was going to lose my spot if I left it, so I still tried sticking it out for a little longer. They had the drums for their incredible drummer John Stanier nearly set up by 1, but the rest of the band were still plugging in gear and not even tuning by that point. I toughed it out a little longer, but by 1:15 AM, the band had still not even soundchecked or fully tuned their guitars. Since I was nearly passing out and completely exhausted by the entire day, I moved to the back of the venue to cool off for a bit. I waited for at least another 5 minutes, and there was still no hope whatsoever that the show would be starting any time soon, so I left and headed back on the train for the ride home, without even getting to see Battles perform.

I was up on the train platform above the DD for at least another 15 minutes, and I swear the band still had not started before my train arrived at 1:30. I was pretty pissed off about that fact, but considering how great of a day it was to that point, I was able to live with that. Off to home for a few hours of sleep, before heading back downtown for one more day of musical madness.