Attack of the music festivals

Wow. I took a breath to recover from my whirlwind June and all of the sudden I've realized July is booked solid as well. Holy crap. But first, the old news...

First of all, I should mention that my wonderful girlfriend got tickets for us to go see Modest Mouse at the new Northerly Island Pavilion (formerly Meigs Field). It was such a great show, the band was on, it was a beautiful night and the venue is really quite amazing. Look to the right of the Isaac's face on the Jumbotron, there's the Sears Tower.

It was really quite similar to seeing a show at Summerfest in Milwaukee. There's seating around the edges bleacher style, and the center is left open for the general admission folk to mill around. Really, there wasn't a bad view in the house from what I could tell, and the sound was great too. I might have to go hit the beach outside and drink a 40 when Kelly Clarkson comes to town.

So I got my rock on with Modest Mouse, I went to Summerfest this past weekend and got some rock action from The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Pat McCurdy, not to mention stunts (!) performed at different times during the day by BMXers, and strange men on watercraft. Good times. And looking ahead on my calendar the hits just keep coming!

This weekend is The Old Town School's Folk & Roots Fest in Welles Park. This one's always a good time. Lots of great music from around the world, dance lessons, and all the assorted food on a stick found at such festivals. Every year I've seen fantastic music and this year they have a lineup that got me pretty excited.

On Saturday, there's a ton of good music including Otis Clay and Alejandro Escovedo but it's Sunday's lineup that has me breaking out the sunscreen. First of all you got your Tinariwen, for your African desert blues rock from the real desert, Sahara style. I saw these guys play at the Cultural Center this winter and they were great. They also screened Festival in the Desert which was a fantastic look at the music festival they have in the middle of the desert every year. Everyone shows up with their camels and their generators and sets up in the desert for a weekend to rock out. That's the real Desert Sessions.

After Tinariwen plays, Ozomatli step up and throw down. They're such a good live band. They just plain rock. Picture Los Lobos, with a horn section, tabla player, DJ and MC. They're better than that makes them sound for sure.. They played Chicago about a month back for some Columbia festival and I had to miss them, so I'm glad they're rolling through again.

The following weekend is Intonation, and on Monday we decided that Trent's gonna have a party the last weekend in July. You hear that Trent!?! We're coming for your cattle!