A Different Tale Of Two Lollapaloozas

Now I've read through his entire Lollapalooza "diary," and I get the distinct impression that Jim wasn't fond of the VIP tickets. As someone who won said VIP tickets in a raffle (sort of -- long story), I still feel impugned by his seething vitriol at this notion of well-heeled socialites who don't care at all about the music, only about being seen.

As a journalist, wouldn't the responsible thing to do be to try actually talking to people who shelled out the dough for those passes, instead of ascribing your worst assumptions about their motives? I think that would have made for much more interesting reading than his incessant whining about it. We had a friend who had gotten his VIP tickets through a silent auction. For charity. So DeRogatis is anti-charity, as long was we're making sweeping generalizations based on flimsy data.

I feel like I can be somewhat impartial about the "Lolla Lounge" since I didn't have a financial stake in it. First, it's not like the existence of these lounges detracted from anyone else's concert experience. Except Jim's, apparently. They were far enough off to the side of either stage that they didn't take up much valuable real estate for actually watching the shows.

Which was a bit of an issue if you were led to believe that you'd have an advantaged view of the proceedings. The north end actually wasn't bad, and the throw of the speakers such that you could hear both stages really well. The south end was a different story, as you could only almost maybe see the front lip of the "AT&T" stage from the northernmost point. You could watch the big screen, though. The "MySpace" stage was pretty much a lost cause.

The amenities were nice enough. Being able to sit for an hour in an actual chair in the shade if you didn't have anyone you were dying to see was huge for some of us aging music fans, especially given the acoustics of the north end of the festival. The spa stuff was overhyped and really not that big a deal. I was kind of hoping to use that to my advantage given the three hour Diver set after Friday's proceedings, but the opportunity never materialized.

At the end of the day -- three days, to be precise -- I sure as hell don't think they were worth the $1700 the festival was charging, by a long shot. You'd have to indulge in an awful lot of food and drink to make it worth it. Unless, of course, you derive some kind of inherent value from being able to go somewhere that other people can't, and then isn't it incumbent upon festival organizers to fleece those sorts of people for as much as they can? I would go so far as to say that would be a very punk rock thing to do.