Ebjournal Revisited.

The View From Saturday (No, not the Konigsberg Version)

Doesn’t school start soon? Yes, yes it does. So, what better way to finish off a pretty terrrific summer than by going to two concerts in one week? If you’ve been reading this (Hello, Arl Heights, whoever you are) you know that I recently attended the Ben Lee/Rufus Wainwright/Ben Folds Songwriterfest at Ravinia. Well, on Saturday, the Lovely and Engaging Mrs. K. and I went to see Coldplay at Alpine Vally Music Theatre, located in the heart of nowhere, Wisconsin. Instead of our usually tailgating before the concert, TLEMK and I decided that we would head to the Olson’s for a LOTR (Lord of the Rings, for those of you unfamiliar) Marathon. We made it through the first movie and a half before we left at 4:00.
Mapquest ™ said that it only should have taken us 90 minutes to get to Alpine from Chez Olson.

Mapquest Lies.

I knew that it was going to take longer than 90 minutes, but I figured two hours. We left at 4:00, and parked at 7:30.

Yes, three and a half (insert adjective here) hours to go 65 miles. Two main factors contributed to this length.
1) Rand Road (US RT 12) is torn up in the fancy-pants region of Deer Park/Lake Zurich. It took us about 30 minutes to get less than two miles.

2) Because of the snafu in Shopping Land, we ran into the dreaded parking traffic about a mile from our exit to the theatre. But oh no, it wasn’t just regular parking traffic; someone managed to get their car to break down, in the lane everyone needed to be in. (OF COURSE THAT JUST HAPPENED!). So, we waited for over an hour to get a mile down the road. Once the car was towed away, traffic started moving at it’s normal course. We parked very far away (bonus for later!) and headed to the lawn.

I had never been on the lawn at Alpine Valley. It was a fun experience. Thanks to insider information from Kenny, I knew where all the least-used bathrooms and concessions were, but alack! the spots where he said to sit were taken. So we sat the very top of the west hill, where we could gaze upon the masses, and still breathe easy.

Once we got settled in, the concert was great. Coldplay started at about 9. They sounded terrific, and played a good mix of their music. I’ve never been to an intimate band’s outdoor ampitheatre concert, so it was a little weird to try to feel groovy alt rock with 35,000 of my closest friends. The band did a nice job with their lights and themes, but I definitely felt a disconnect from what I was looking for. The night was beautiful, and beyond the too-earnest college kids trying to have deep meaningful conversations on the environement behind us, or the stumbling inebriated 19 year-olds, the crowd was great. However, covering Johnnie Cash’s Ring of Fire was a very nice touch.

Now, faithful readers, I’m about to tell you something. I really hope you don’t think any less of me, but since I like to be honest, I’m telling you this. And if you’re a good friend, you probably will chastise me thoroughly.

Because of the less-than-wonderful experience we decided to leave early. Yes, as the last song finished blaring, we left. No, not when the encore was done, when the last song of the set was done. We bolted for the parking lot, and along with other like-minded people, cruised out of Alpine without any sort of traffic worth mentioning. We made all the way back to Casa Del K in less than two hours, which is good time.

So, Saturday was a good day. Today is Laundry Day, and tomorrow officially starts full back-to-school mode, replete with organinzing books, and Tech Academies. Let the madness begin.

RSS Trackback URL 14. August 2005 (11:38)
Filed under: General, Music and Movies, Entertainment Tonight