I think I'm actually a little burned out on live music right now. I've seen a lot of bands this summer, and while many of them were in the middle of big multi-group bills, I still feel a little bit stuffed as far as music consumption goes. I'm actually happy that the summer release season on the recorded side was actually a little slower than usual this year, otherwise I might have actually started choking on all the tunes.
Last weekend everything came to the fore, and while I am an incredibly lucky person to be granted access to big festivals for free --- and then allowed to stand right in front of the bands for a few songs in order to photograph them -- there is a huge amount of work involved in that privilege. While everyone else is standing in the sun or strolling from stage to stage while sipping beers all day long, my time is spent literally sprinting between stages so I can catch as much of each band's set without missing an opportunity to see another. I had actually promised myself I'd try and cover this year's fests from the vantage of the average festival-goer, but old habits die hard, and I ended up recruiting other writers to tackle that vantage point.This summer was also my chance to re-develop my editing style when it came to wrangling a large group of writers. From that angle, I'm more the kind of guy who likes to let people discover their own angles organically, and then I gently prod folks into fine-tuning those angles, and try to figure out a way to make the whole thing work. To that end I was incredibly blessed to have a team of really good talent, whom in the end provided Chicagoist with the best, and widest, coverage yet. If we're going to top it next year it's going to have to involve video, robots, jet-packs, and computers strapped to our collective thigh.
Huh, that's funny, I must still not have completely processed the weekend since it seems the subject of Lollapalooza has hijacked yet another post!
Goldangit.
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