When Lollapalooza was announced my first comment was "As long as The Frames and Nada Surf aren't scheduled against one another it will be the greatest festival ever." So you can imagine my excitement when I found out the bands would be playing together at The Metro on Saturday night. They even had a beautiful poster made by the talented Steve Sleeve for the event. It doesn't get much more exciting then that.

Or does it?

The highlight of the event was that my Frames friends flew/drove in from all over to see the shows. You know if Shannon and Courtney and Lizzie are their with their entire entourage it is going to blow your mind. And it did. Add in friends Steven, Joe (and his woman) and my dad, and you have a historic event. And it was.

The evening started off with Josh Caterer from the Smoking Popes... I had not been able to see them at Lollapalooza and I was very impressed with his solo performance here. It seemed like maybe the crowd wasn't totally in to him, but I loved it.

The next act was Elvis Perkins. Between sets the crazies had started filing in and the confronted us for sitting down while Elvis Perkins was sound checking. They yelled at us to get up and respect the band. Ummm... they haven't started playing yet. Elvis Perkins and his band were really really wonderful. I wish I had been able to see them at Lolla too. I think my dad may have fallen asleep standing up at some part during this set. Either that or he just had his eyes closed for a long period of time listening. During the set the crazy girls were yelling for the Frames and Nada Surf and all kinds of nonsense. It was pissing a Frames fan in the front row off something fierce who eventually just left his front row spot during the Frames set. I felt bad.

Then... the Frames. Oh the Frames. The first time I saw the Frames (my group of Frames girls were there too) they were opening for Damien. And to be honest, it wasn't love. I enjoyed it alright...I liked it more than the CD I had from them (Setlist). I loved Star Star. And I loved getting to chat with Glen after the show. But I wasn't in love with them. The next show was at the Metro awhile later. I had guest list (and opera box) tickets to see Marc Broussard that night at House of Blues and left after a few of his songs, literally RAN to the train, and then RAN from that to the Metro and got there just before the Frames gig (and there was an empty spot at the front left that I managed to snag... amazing.) And the show blew me away. It was definitely one of my top live shows ever. The mood was great, the songs were all expertly performed. It was revolutionary. I loved the Frames. The next show of theirs I saw was at the Park West and once again, I loved their songs a little bit more than the last time.

This show was no exception... I really feel like the band gets better every time I see them. The had more energy then a whole day's worth of Lolla bands combined and even the annoyances in the audience couldn't stiffle their genius. At one point a photographer squeezed in front of me to snap pictures, and then he decided to stay in front of me... the whole time. And he brought his girlfriend. And they were Frames fans. So, that was a bit rude I would say. But at least they were fans, and it didn't bother me too much really. What did bother me were the snatchy girls who had yelled at us. They sang LOUDLY and yelled stuff at the band through the set. Apparently they were Irish. Eventually they were so annoying that Glen started bantering with them... saying maybe they shouldn't have gotten so drunk before following the band and telling the crowd that they do not represent Ireland. It was almost worth them being annoying just to see Glen's reaction. Regardless, the set was great, if not too short (do they not play Sideways Down anymore?!?) and they played some great older stuff (The Stars Are Underground, Dance the Devil Back Into His Hole). I can't wait for their new CD. And for the Swell Season show at Schubas coming up. After the show I saw a stage hand crumpling up a Frames set list and yelled out "noooo... what are you doing? You're crushing my soul." He came over and gave me the setlist.

Nada Surf was fantastic as well. Their set was in mostly chronological order, and as I'm not extremely familiar with their older stuff, it was a bit of a slow start (but obviously a huge event for the harder core Nada Surf fans). Once they got into the stuff that I knew things picked up, and I was elated that they played Do It Again and Imaginary Friends, two songs shockingly missing from their Lolla set. During the show some guy came up and said "you don't look shy, can you get my demo CD to Matt?" So I was basically nervous about trying to get him the demo for Nada's whole set. Once the band did their last song before encore Matt was walking off stage and was in earshot so I yelled out his name and he looked at me. I held the CD toward him and yelled "happy birthday" since it was his birthday and he came over and took the CD and thanked me (at which time I pointed to the guy behind me). Side note - I asked him to email me a copy of the demos too, and he never did, or he would be getting a super awesome mention in my blog. That's gratitude for you huh?

So, in conclusion, what an amazing night. Following up two days of Lolla I was exhausted...but I was also kind of wired (Shark Attack 3 fans in the house?) Thank you to the Metro and bands and friends and everyone for making the night so memorable.