Concert Review: Lollapalooza 2013

Day 1:

The Killers

New Order

Imagine Dragons

Atlas Genius

Twenty One Pilots

Grant Park

2 August 2013

Today was the first day of Lolla!! Holla it's freaking Lolla weekend!! I am super excited to write this post, after my first day at Lolla. I am now no longer a Lolla- virgin, and I can say that I am a true Chicagoan now. And my friend from Wisco came down to visit mee, so we could attend together.

The one thing that's hard about going to concerts with people you haven't before is that you don't know how to gauge their reactions. I had a great time seeing a true festival, and I got to experience all the different people and reactions and things and everything! But my friend was extremely judgey and got kinda annoying.

The train ride starting the day was quite insane! The train was beyond packed, the car had every eat filled and there were people standing the aisle. I think there was also a few baseball games going on at the same time as Lolla.

Either or, we made it in time to see Twenty One Pilots from the back. Which was amazing ! They put on a an amazing show, just like they always do. Afterwards, we got to wait and see Atlas Genius about 8 lines from the stage. It was amazing, since they also had blow up balls thrown into the audience. I got one too! Except it was covered a bit in mud, so I had a fun day of being slightly muddy. Afterwards, we headed to Imagine Dragons. Which was fun ... except that their stage had a 10ish minute blackout. AKA no music, no screen, no anything. We debated leaving, since we did pay to see music, but thankfully they pulled it together and everything was simply amazing! The music on the radio for Imagine Dragons does not do them justice. I went out and bought their album afterwards -- the energy and emotion that  came through their music was wonderful.

New Order was after Imagine Dragons, but we didn't really know them. We just sat and listened because they were before The Killers. Which speaking of which, oh my goodness. The Killers was worth the whole price of Lolla!! They were amazing and my hope in music was simply renewed! The playlist was everything from Somebody Told Me to Humans. Words can't even describe how amazing the music was, the set was amazing and the music was beyond perfect. I sound like a stupid fan girl ( I Know) but nothing compares to how amazing it was. We were only about 10 or so rows from the front, but when we fought our way out of the crowd, it kept going and going. The crowd spanned 2 stags! Which was beyond amazing. There were also lights and glow sticks that were being tossed around too!

Twenty One Pilots

Atlas Genius

Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons

The Killers

The Killers

We Love The Killers <3

Day 2:

Mumford and Sons

The Lumineers

Eric Church

Ellie Goulding

The second day of Lolla was amazing. The weather was just simply perfect, and we managed to smuggle in some popcorn! We started the day listening to Ellie Goulding in the lawn. Ellie Goulding is an amazing performer, she looked amazing and she sounded amazing. The crowd was so excited to see her, and everybody was singing along and dancing.

However, we only got to stay for a few songs, since Eric Church was playing right afterwards. So we headed towards the other stage to go listen to Eric Church. I personally am not a country fan, but he put on a good show. The most interesting part was that we could still hear Ellie Goulding playing, so I got the privilege of hearing a country version of Lights. Country music still isn't my thing though, considering a lot of the music had to do with beer or other things. He even opened two cans of beer onstage and poured them on himself.

After the Lumineers played, and I was surprised by how many of their songs I actually knew. Their music was really good, and they had a fun energetic vibe to them. The crowd seemed pretty into it- and we had the perfect lawn seats. So we were able to sit and eat some good food, while enjoying the show. But we were mainly interested in seeing The Lumineers since they were opening for Mumford and Sons. Now I wasn't a huge Mumford and Sons fan, but I have to say after their set I respect them so much. Their music was so lively, and we were able to tell that they were so grateful to be standing on that stage. They went through and played all their hit singles and almost every song off of their albums. My friend and I had fun singing along and even dancing with some random strangers. The most amusing part was between songs, we could hear the EDM music coming from the Perry stage. And I have to say that Indie Folk and EDM does not mix well. But it was fun because at one point, there were even fireworks to the sound.

Ellie Goulding (on Screen)

Eric Church

Mumford and Sons

Day 3:

Vampire Weekend

Two Door Cinema Club

Tegan and Sara

The Mowgli's

Alex Clare

Makeshift Prodigy

Last day of Lolla was super busy! We squeezed in so many different bands. Our day started of with finding Makeshift Prodigy, a band thats actually from Chicago land. They put on a good show, but the crowd was pretty small for them. Which is understandable, since I had seen them as an opening act for a $15 show before.

Afterwards, we headed towards Alex Clare. As much as I love his single Feel So Close, the rest of his music was not the same type of dance pop. But his music was still good and everybody seemed excited to hear his set. As soon as Alex Clare was over, we rushed to hear a few songs of The Mowgli's. I didn't expect them to be so popular, but their stage was overfilled and we ended up listening to them on the sidewalk. I was super happy to hear their music, and I love the new alternative indie sounds.

Tegan and Sara were after. Their music was so fun and pop filled. I enjoyed how much everybody sang and danced to their music. It was also fun how much they interacted with the crowd. Instead of just singing, or doing call outs, they would read the posters fans brought and comment on them. Or they would point out certain people in the crowd. It was very closely emotional. It was also funny how they referenced when Sara fainted at Lolla a few years before, as someone brought a poster that said Sara will survive Lolla! Poor girl, but she did make it this year.

I didn't really know Two Door Cinema Club, but I know their name as a band. However, their music was really good. But it was a little difficult to hear since we were sitting in the lawn at the stage next to it. The reason why we chilled a stage away was because we were waiting for Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend was an amazing show! We were fairly far from the stage, but we managed to find a spot along the fence, so we got to sit on uncomfortable poles. However, the pain was worth it. I never really listened to Vampire Weekend, but I was amazed at how many songs I knew. Everybody sang and danced, and Vampire Weekend seemed really grateful to be at Lolla. They kept thanking everybody for listening to them. I also forgot how cute the band is...

Tegan- Tegan and Sara

Sara- Tegan and Sara

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

{Movie}: The Last Exorcism Part II

The Last Exorcism Part II

Directed by: Ed Gass- Donnelly

Starring: Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Spencer Treat Clark

Genre: Horror

Rated: PG- 13

Year: 2013

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

This movie is a continuation from its previous film, The Last Exorcism. While the last film was pretty interesting, in that it followed a priest and contained home made filming and third person filming, this film was done completely in third person filming. Which is not as exciting, since the horror of the unknown in personal filming was really terrifying in the original film.

However, this film does a good job of attempting to carry on the idea of Nell being possessed. However, if you didn't see the first film, it would be really difficult to understand what was going on in the film. The idea was completely the same as the last film though, with the ideas being pretty similar. Nell didn't know she was possessed and then she thinks something is slightly wrong a bit by bit. Until at the end, an exorcism is performed and everybody suffers, except for her.

This movie was very similar to other exorcism movies, except that it was really predictable, and the acting wasn't that good. The jump scares weren't too predictable also, considering that they were all used in the trailers. The effects on the house after the exorcism was also really bad too, since everything started bleeding. Then later when things began to catch on fire, they are really uniform and don't appear to be burning at all. The movie wasn't too terrifying, although I give the film credit for the creepy and sudden death of Chris. Otherwise, there was nothing good, just that the director wanted a sequel for the first film.

Rating: 3/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!

A Look Inside: Chicago Goodbyes

 

So this week was the last week of summer with the girlies. Everyone starts heading off to college today and tomorrow, while I still have a week left.

But for a fun last hoorah, we headed down to the city. After a confusing round up of everybody, we headed to Ed Debevics for lunch. If you've never eaten there, or heard of it, Ed Debevics is a fun mock 50's style diner. The only twist is, each waiter and waitress has a distincnt personality, most of them being rude. We had the pleasure of having a grown up girl scout as our waitress, and she did not spare us haha. We were made fun of for only drinking water, for sharing fries, and for other random things. She tried to set us up with some of the waiters as dates too. Another fun thing from Ed Debevics is that at the top of every hour, all the workers sing and dance.

 

Afterwards, we said bye to one friend, as she headed to work. (Yes, she's so lucky... she works in the city at a Francesca's!) Being part of the Asian Trio, we headed off to do our own thing. AKA we headed off to Insight Studios, a piercing and tattoo parlor. I love this place, getting four piercings from Bob Jones, the in- house piercer. However, it was not my turn to get pierced, my best friend wanted and then backed out of getting her cartilage pierced. I on the other hand, lost a piercing, since I needed to take out my industrial piercing.

With 2 hours still left on our meter, we decided to walk around the area. & we found our cute new hipster area of Chicago. There was a lomography store, different thrift stores, and cool nooks of artwork.

Once the meter ran out, we headed towards the center of Chicago, Millennium Park. A new thing that just started popping up all over Chicago is Divvy. A new bike company where you can ride and drop off bikes for a small fee throughout the city. It was a fun time! We rode throughout Millennium and Grant Park, then headed through Museum Campus. What made it fun was it was something completely new that we've done in the city, and we got to see the sunset behind our wonderful skyline.

All in all it was a super fun day and I'm going to miss my best friends so much during the school year. That's the hard thing about college, leaving one group of friends for another.

{Movie}: The Big Wedding

The Big Wedding

Directed by: Justin Zackham

Starring: Rober DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Ben Barnes !!

Genre: Comedy

Rated: R

Year: 2013

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

YAY ANOTHER BEN BARNES MOVIE CAME OUT!! and if you couldn't tell already, Ben Barnes is one of my favorite people in the world. Anyways besides Ben Barnes (who didn't get much credit for this movie), this movie has a really star filled cast; Robert DeNiro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried,  Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon.

The plot for this movie has a good idea, a divorced couple must pretend to be married in order to please the Groom's biological mother. However, while the idea is a good one and set up for a very humorous situations, the film did not do a good job of exploiting everything it could off of this idea. There were really funny moments, like the squabbles between characters and the really stereotypical moments. But at the same time, some of the humor came from racist things- which may or may not be funny for some people. I found some funny, but I found some pretty offensive.

The acting on behalf of all the actors was really good though. Amanda Seyfried and Ben Barnes did seem to have a genuine love, joking and fighting like married (or almost) couples. It was also really interesting to watch Ben Barnes speak in an American accent. He also spoke Spanish, since he was adopted from Colombia, and he spoke in Chinese, since his character learned a few languages from Harvard.

The movie wasn't bad or anything, it just seemed that not that much happened within the 90 minutes. I have to say, without Ben Barnes being in the film, I probably would not have watched it. But in all honesty, since he is in the cast, I'll still probably watch it one more time. 

Rating: 6/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!

{Movie}: Red Lights

Red Lights

Directed by: Rodrigo Cortés

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Robert DeNiro, Cillian Murphy

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Rated: R

Year: 2012

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

Recently after watching In Time and Batman Begins, I was kinda in a Cillian Murphy mood. I love his acting and let's face it, I don't think he's that bad looking either. But, I found his new movie Red Lights and thought I'd try it. The movie was pretty good, despite never hearing about it before in theaters or commercials. The cast was pretty star studded, with the main four main characters being Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Cillian Murpy, and Elizabeth Olsen.

The movie starts with a rather mild thriller scene, a seance. In this scene we see how the Dr. Matheson and Tom work together. The two characters work together to display frauds, in an attempt to find real supernatural powers, like telekinesis, a sixth sense, or psychics. The most interesting part is realizing all the tricks that the frauds use in order to act like they have these powers. The big challenge though is exposing Silver's fraudulence. Tom becomes obsessed with his work, and while he is a good partner to the Doctor, he disobeys and goes after Silver.

The movie uses cool techniques like floating and spoon bending. The most interesting thing is that because they are trying to investigate Silver, we as an audience are also attempting to figure out the Red Lights (what makes the people frauds). The back story of the characters are also kind of interesting, slowly revealing itself little by little. And at the end, the backstories of the characters all make sense and create a complete plot line of why certain things happen.
The one thing that kind of threw me of is that Tom is actually a psychic telekinetic, which is revealed at the very end. After watching the movie again, I could see how this is possible, but I didn't guess that at all during the movie.

The only part I thought was unnecessary was the fight scene in the bathroom. The whole film could have been fine without it, but I think the director thought it necessary to include some violence in the movie, since it was such a fierce competition between the two men. Honestly, the scene was pretty useless and kind of long for its minor role in the plot.

Rating: 8/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!