DMB Caravan Rolls Into Town

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 11, 2011 6:00PM

We hadn't planned on attending the inaugural Chicago edition of the DMB Caravan but a last minute chance to see The Flaming Lips perform Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon set us on our way to the fest's south side location yesterday. The new Lakeside venue grounds intrigued us with the chance to set up a viable new concert location in a promising new spot. We admit, though, we are not exactly fans of the fest's curator and headliner (and, prior to yesterday, even less a fan of their fans) so we set out on our journey with a mixture of trepidation and honestly excited curiosity.

Luckily for us we did a bit of advance research and learned from the unfortunate transportation issues suffered by some of our fellow music writers. While the CTA Red Line was providing service between it's 83rd St. stop and the venue via shuttle buses, it sounds like that whole affair was mired in problems. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Metra's service between Millennium Station and a stop four blocks from the festival grounds was quick and easy, with additional trains added to the schedule to handle the concert crowds.

The grounds themselves were unusual. Attempts at creating walkable grounds were made with large amounts of mulch and wood chips but that couldn't hide the incredibly rocky terrain. And the festival layout was a bit weird, with large amounts of fencing in seemingly random places. What amazed us the most, though, was the crowd. Even though we got there relatively late on Sunday festival-goers were a pretty mellow and friendly lot. We admit we expected to wander into a drunken bro-fest but the fan base of the Dave Matthews Band (and make no mistake, most of the crowd viewed the weekend as three Dave Matthews show with a couple different openers) is far older and diverse than we expected. And friendly. At times the mixture of good vibes and the otherworldly feel of the location had us feeling like we were attending a concert, erm, on the moon.

Speaking of the moon, The Flaming Lips set surprised us by only being their rendition of The Dark Side of the Moon. We were expecting a couple of their "hits" but the band stretched the Dark Side album to fit their entire time slot by adding in additional music and thematic tie-ins with, what else, The Wizard Of Oz. The band was flanked by legions of girls dressed as Wizard's Dorothy, and during "Money" singer Wayne Coyne brought out balloons he claimed were filled with $10,000 in cash provided by Dave Matthews himself and popped them over the crowd. And, after brief burst of a rain shower under a shining sun a rainbow appeared behind the band. Of course. Only The Flaming Lips.

After The Lips' set we made our way to the festival's largest stage and did something we never in a million years thought we would find ourselves doing: we watched a show by The Dave Matthews Band. Usually this is the point in a review where the writer would admit that upon seeing a band live they finally "got it." Well, we still don't "get" Dave Matthews. We're not converts. But we at least now understand why folks pay to see him. And while the crowd at Lollapalooza might be a lot hipper, Matthews fans are some of the nicest folks we've come across in huge numbers. And while we just couldn't get down the music from the band onstage we did find ourselves doing something we rarely do at festivals; we made new friends and just had a really good time. And once we grew bored we were able to just walk a couple blocks back to the Metra and we were home in under an hour.

So we have hope for the new Lakeside location and are interested to see what else JAM or Livenation book there separately or together. The grounds need some work but we're willing to view that as a work in progress since this was the very first event held there. Lakeside has potential so let's see where it goes from here.