Dirty Dirty Dub

Skrillex with 12th Planet - Congress Theater 11-11-11

via Twitter: "@12thplanet: @BohoChicago SOO CRUNCHY" - enough said

Although I'm still salty about his early exit, 11-11-11 was spent with a great crew (aka #NeonRageCrew) and full of dirty dirty beats. Rage on.

MiM0SA with The M Machine & Sleepyhead at The House of Blues 11-18

  For my sixth weekend concert bender, a few friends and I decided last minute to head to the famous HOB for some late night dubby.

The show didn't begin till 11:59pm and MiM0SA had our faces melting until 4am. Unfortunately blogger won't upload videos, but take my advice if Tigran Mkhitaryan is in your neck of the woods stop by for some grimy sounds.

side note: extremely annoyed with blogger and it's inability to upload videos correctly

Concert Calendar

So I thought I'd be depressed until festie season began again, but silly me Chicago brings in sick talent from all over the world allowing me to experience unbelievable shows in historic Chi venues just about every freaking weekend. So here's where I've been the past few:

South Bend, IN for some Pretty Lights - 10/6

 Not my typical Wednesday work night but roadtrip to IN to see Pretty Lights was a much better decision than my couch. In a tiny theater (chairs included) I witnessed my third PL experience. Since I missed his set at Lolla, I couldn't say no and was glad I didn't. His towers continue to grow and his lights just get prettier.

Amon Tobin's ISAM Tour - Congress Theater 10/21

HANDS DOWN the best visual show I have ever seen and I think the world can agree about Amon's jaw-dropping ISAM tour. At points it looks as if the stage is truly moving, yet it's simply one projector casting on the block structure with him inside. His sounds were trancy and trippy until he began a disgusting two-encore performance. I advise anyone who missed the show to watch this video, the sound's not amazing but the images will take your breath away. 

Deadmau5's Meowington Hax Tour - Aragon Ballroom 10/22 (mini-fest weekend)

ft. Feed Me, Tommy Lee & DJ Aero, and Excision

Three openers warmed us up before the swiss cheese head appeared in front of his giant cube set. A closer view without the rain from my first experience with Joel at Lolla. Though it was a very similar show with Sofi joining the stage for two songs, I don't think I ever stopped dancing and had a great crew from STL to enjoy it with. Amon and deadmau5, mind-blowing weekend.

Freaky Deaky 3 ft. Wolfgang Gartner, MSTRKRFT, & Laidback Luke - Congress 10/29

Happy Halloween

Decided to switch up the usual Halloween party and headed to the Congress to dance the night away. I showed up as Penny Lane and had my heart racing outside my chest as each of the shows got more intense and more insane. The night started early and ended around 7am after the show we were off to the Mid for the afterparty with Laidback Luke. When they kicked us out we had our own end of the night rage at my place. Let's just say my roommates didn't enjoy dubby blasting at 6am.

SBTRKT - 11/4 Bottom Lounge

Aaron took a completely different approach than his set at NCMF and surprised the audience by playing his beats live on his drums and bringing Sampha on stage for vocals and keyboard. Thanks @SBTRKT and @Sampha for a unexpected show and thanks React Presents for the signed postie!

And tonight I'm off to 12th Planet and Skrillex to melt my face with some dirty dirty dub.
11-11-11

my warm-ups for the evening:
DJ Vic, Yasmin, and True Tiger on BBC1Extra
Knife Party

photos/video via my iPhone

My Summer of Music Part II

Festie #3: Lollapalooza (Grant Park, Chicago)
2010 was my first Lolla experience and I immediately pledged to myself that I would never skip out on this fest. I stupidly put off buying my tickets and started freaking out when 3day passes sold out, but my good friend @TurquoiseTaurus saved the day with an extra discounted ticket.

Friday consisted of 8 shows in 8 hours. Trick to see as many shows as possible: travel in small numbers and stick to a schedule. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Foster the People, Kids These Days (5), The Bloody Beatroots Death Crew 77, a little Skrill, Bright Eyes, Afrojack, got bored at Muse, and made the right decision by ending the night with Ratatat (3).

Saturday began at Perry's for Super Mash Brothers, ventured around, and found a spot up close for Local Natives (4). I can't wait to see these guys live again. Watching them trade instruments, all taking turns singing was more than impressive. Then back to the tent for Chuckie and Glitch Mob. And finally got to see Eminem (2), which was probably one of my only chances I'll ever get to see that white rapper we all fell in love with in high school. The whole crowd remembered every line from the Slim Shady era to his recent Recovery album with Bad Meets Evil and included visits by Bruno Mars and Skylar Grey.

Muddy muddy Sunday equals few pictures and videos due to all the rain. The day once again started in Perry's for some VH love, but didn't care for The Cool Kids so we headed over to Google + for some Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Stopped by Switch before heading to Portugal the Man. Great show to see while the storms slowly rolled in. The downpour hit as they finished their set and everyone took off running for shelter. In an attempt to warm up we crossed the street to find cover and the sun returned with a beautiful rainbow. Muddy mess at Arctic Monkeys, listened to Explosions in the Sky for a bit and headed to our finale to get a decent spot. Words can't describe what we experienced at Deadmau5. Joel made an early entrance to perfectly synchronize the music, lights, and rain all hitting the tens of thousands of fans standing before him. Thanks Lolla 2011 for an unforgettable weekend.

15 again at Taylor Swift

Yes I found out T-Swift was in town and ended up with tickets to her sold-out show. My bff Kelli and I sang every lyric at the top of our lungs with 13,000 screaming girls. Taylor loves her fans and truly loves owning that stage. It was a fairytale performance complete with glitter, spinning trees, acrobatics, and Swift flying over the crowd.

Insert random trip to LA

So long story short, an ex of mine got on a reality tv show that included an ex episode. Got a call Tuesday morning and was flown out Thursday for the weekend. The entire situation was laughable, but in all I met some wonderful people, got a free trip to LA, and caught a glimpse of how reality tv is made.

Fourth & Final Festie: North Coast Music Fest (Union Park)

Friday: From the office straight to Hood Internet with my Missouri lovers. Off to the of SBTRKT (or Subtract which took me a sec to figure out) and Wolfgang Gartner where we danced all night and ended day one with David Guetta.

Saturday: The early storm stalled our start when we finally got to the Park, we rushed to see Big Gigantic jam on his sax at the Red Bull Stage. Headed to the local stage to catch BBU (Bin Laden Blowin Up or Black, Brown, and Ugly). This trio hails from Chi city and if you haven't heard of them I recommend checking out "Chi Don't Dance"  From there we had our faces melted by the dirty dirty dubby sounds of Rusko. After that early intense rage, we hung out listening to Common from a far waiting for STS9 to close out Saturday. Sound Tribe Sector 9 was hands down my favorite show of the weekend. These five guys combine electronic with instruments and display a GORGEOUS light show. But the night wasn't over yet, we headed to Congress to continue the dance party. Sebastian, (crazy Frenchman who reminds me of a dictator of electro) Diplo, and Zed's Dead had us dancing till 3 in the morning.

Sunday: Day 3 began with Paper Diamond who had us dancing in seconds and who I can't wait to see again. Gave our feet a rest while listening to Van Ghost then back to Redbull for two back to back sick shows, ATB and Benny Benassi. Then to close out the best weekend of the summer probably my life, I got to melt my face for the first time to Bassnectar. Lorin's disgusting beats couldn't be more perfect to conclude "Summer's Last Stand."

I don't know if it's possible to have a better summer ever again, but stay tuned because although festival season is over the shows don't stop.

Concerts on deck: Pretty Lights, Deadmau5, ATB, 12th Planet, and Skrillex
Festies I need to attend in 2012: Pitchfork, Electric Forest, Coachella, and Austin City Limits

"Music is the only remedy I need."