Summer music

I think I wanna go to Lollapoolooza this August.

I have never been in the past, and while the thought of forking over the cash required for a three-day pass makes me shudder, the impulse to do so is stronger than it's ever been.

In the past, I've always had reasons to justify skipping it. The first year it came to Chicago, I was out of town. And in subsequent years I've always had some sort of scheduling conflict related to travel or the Wizard World Comicon or some other such prior committment.

Doesn't seem to be the case this year. At least, not as of this writing. WizardWorld 2010 is being held two weeks after Lolla weekend. And wouldn't necessarily pose a conflict anyway, since I'm not entirely sure I wanna go to that this year. And though I normally allocate my summer concert fundage for a rental car to get up to Summerfest in Milwaukee, I'm realizing that I can find cheaper ways to get there, either recruiting a friend who drives and splitting gas, splitting rental car fees with other non-driving friends, or hopping an Amtrak if I'm really desperate. For a second I even contemplated skipping Summerfest altogether, because this year's line-up isn't anything new or impressive (though I'm kind of itching to see Joan Jett again), but it's become such a tradition for me, and admission is so cheap that aside from the transportation and food costs it's not like it really eats into my summer fun budget that much.

So that leaves me to discuss all the reasons I SHOULD go. Shall we count them?

Soundgarden
Green Day
Social Distortion
AFI
The Strokes (they're not a major draw for me, but I still enjoy the album Is This It)
The New Pornographers (again, not a huge draw, but I saw them at a Hideout Block party once, and they were lively)

Sensible me keeps whispering in my ear, telling me that I should just buy a single-day pass for the day that Soundgarden is playing and get my grunge on, considering I've already seen Green Day twice. If finances seem really tight I may follow that advice, but I'd much rather have the option of unrestricted access to all three days of music, because there's no telling if Social D is booked for the same day as Soundgarden, and they're the other band I'm really anxious to catch.

Also, I added up the cost of what I expect I'd pay if I were to catch my top four choices at individual shows, and the total came out to just a little bit less than what they're asking for a three-day pass. With that in mind, and knowing I'll probably check out at least a few of the other acts (I'm curious about Arcade Fire and MGMT, for two) it starts to seem like a pretty decent value.

I'm not going to make any firm decisions about this just yet, but it's helped to talk my way through it. First I need to check with a few friends who I suspect might be going or thinking about going. Then I have to decide whether I'm willing to endure ridiculous crowds, possible extreme heat or rain, and over-priced concessions (though to their credit, I did read on their website that you're allowed to bring in up to two 1-liter water bottles, so long as they're "factory-sealed,").

Might be worth it, even if only so I can swoon over Mike Ness....