Lollapalooza is in the books and Brad from The What Podcast, a show dedicated to live music festivals, was there...sort of. Brad, Barry and Lord Taco go over how the huge festival in Chicago might foreshadow things to come for other events--including Bonnaroo.
Topic: Lollapalooza
Just ripped the band-aid off already. The first festival of festival season coming and going, Lollapalooza 2021. By all accounts, a massive success. But what will happen in the next two weeks? What will happen in the next two months? As cases begin to rise again across the country, the future of festivals is as shaky as ever. Dissecting what went right, what went wrong at Lollapalooza 2021 on the What Podcast, which bans this year that Matterberry quarter, Lord Taco, Brad Steiner. It starts right now. You're always trying to do your best. Don't worry about what happens next. Cause the never-ending show has begun. We crashed into the set and it's on. So gather round and tell everyone. The What Podcast, which bans this year that Matter on a big, big day where we say it's going to be a short show, but it's probably going to be an hour and a half. It's Lord Taco, Barry Courter, Brad Steiner. So much to get to today. I don't even want to say Barry that it's going to be a short show because every time I say that I feel like it's some sort of jinx. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of like, how long do you think this project will last? That's going to be a quick one. So much to get to. Let's go around the room first off and just say hello to the stranger, this new member of the podcast, a man in his bus. Hi, how are you? Where you been? I've been all over, man. It's been a week at the lake in the bus. Came back, got a little sore throat, laid out for a week. It's not what you think it was. Oh, I bet it wasn't. I bet it wasn't. I know how you got that sore throat. Barry, how you feeling? COVID free? Feeling okay? COVID free. All good. Yeah. I'm not going to lie to you. After five days in Chicago, going to get that test tomorrow. I am going to get that test. Now I feel great, but you just can't go and do what I did and not get tested afterwards. And it will be my first ever COVID test. I had my first ever a couple of weeks ago. Did you really? Yeah. And why it's so weird that after post vaccination is when I get my first COVID test. Yeah. Barry? I've never had a test. You haven't had the swab yet? No, but my question would be, I get it because you want to know, but what's it going to change? I know. What's it going to do? I mean, I was an idiot today. I already went to work. I mean, by the time I got in the building, I was like, you know what? I really probably shouldn't be here until I find something out. You know what I mean? Okay. There is that angle. There is that angle. There is that legit angle. Let me ask you this. Did you go to the cautious clay after party? So that's where I think things got a little nutty. So I'll go through my entire week here at Lollapalooza and some of the things that I learned and, and things that I've brought back. But you know, I just, I, the one thing I want to get out of the way real fast is those guys and those people that were worried that Lizza would be washed up by the time Bonnaroo came around and that she wouldn't have any hits or her time would have been expired. Oh my God. Is she about to drop a banger? She has got a song that is going to come out August 13th. That is just full of one-liners. It is as good as a Lizzo song could be. She's got it. And I don't think you need to worry about anything when it comes to that Lizzo show. All right. So I gotta rethink my schedule. Okay. I don't have a release date on the album, but the stuff that I've heard is going to be just fine. Excellent. They're going to do just fine. Good. So now that that's out of the way, Lollapalooza was fascinating. I think if you followed along at all on Twitter, you know, you, you sort of probably know a lot that I'm going to say, but I get there Wednesday night and this is where it's like I've never listened to myself. What is my number one rule guys about Thursday night of Bonnaroo? It's your favorite. Don't go too hard. Don't go too hard. Don't go hard. Why? Because it screws up the rest of the week. That's right. I violated that rule before too. Oh my God guys. Oh God. Really? Really? You are a total rookie. Total rookie move. I, on Wednesday night, I had an industry dinner. Just to start this, like the reason I go to Lollapalooza every week, every year is mainly because, and I know this sounds weird, but I don't really go for the festival. I go because it is the biggest industry event of my year. Everybody that is in my industry essentially is at Lollapalooza. And it's sort of like if you sold bathtubs and you didn't go to the convention where all the new Chrome pieces were being sold. If I didn't go, I would be derelict of duty. So every hour of my day is packed with something. I've got somebody that I've got to meet for some drink or some coffee or some food constantly. Early Wednesday, when I get there, I immediately got ushered into a lunch meeting full of drinking. And then as soon as I get out of that, I go to meet my boss, previous What Podcast guest, Troy Hanson. It was the first time I have ever met him. And we actually spent hours together hanging out at KQX in Chicago. And I got to see the facilities and talk to him about life and work and stuff like that. Then it was time for dinner. And by then, dinner is full of sake. And then another bottle of sake and another bottle of sake and another bottle of sake. And then of course, you can't just leave dinner and go to the hotel like a responsible person. You got to go to that after drink, right? You got to get that after beer. Well, we get that after beer. And then, of course, the second that I hadn't decided to go home and rest for the weekend, industry person starts ringing me up. And I've got another person that's out and about in the same part of the neighborhood that I am in. I'll just pop in. I'll pop in and say hi and just, you know, schmooze for a little bit. And then I'll leave them right next to the hotel. Well, what happens as soon as I get there? Bottle of bottle of wine. Oh, and now we're all going to go across the city to the nightclub that I own and where everybody's drinks are going to be paid for. So let's go to the nightclub. Well, all of a sudden, it's 2 30 in the morning and I'm finally getting home and I'm finally sleeping ready for my big Thursday. I wake up and Barry for the first time in, I don't know, a decade. What do you think happened? I'm guessing you didn't feel well. Did you feel well and a few days out of the gates? Did you call Ralph? Did you call Ralph on the big white telephone? It was. You ever drink battery acid? Because I think that I did at some point. That's what came out. I'm kind of embarrassed for you. I mean, this is like your first convention. First time you ever been in the big city. First week. I don't know what what was I thinking first time in the big city? I came up all the way up there from Louisiana. I'm ready to seize in cities. It was a disaster, guys, an absolute shit show. So Thursday was rough, really, really rough. But it really the best thing that ever happened to me was was getting rid of that battery acid in my body. So then Thursday happens and it's time to get into the festival. Well, I did the very, very smart thing. I was staying in River North, which is just north of the city. And I walked all the way there, which is a good mile, mile and a half to the big. Great decision. I got to burn off some of this stuff. I got to sweat a little bit. And that's when I started to see sort of the giant tent that you had to walk in to present your cards and your negative tests. Now along the way, it was a lighter day. I'm not going to lie. It's the first day of all blues. I don't see anybody trying to sell fake vaccine cards. The line was sort of long to get in, but nothing, nothing was like the line across the street, directly across the street, the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which is a very large hotel. But the line to get into this place was massive. I mean, there must have been 500 people standing in line down the street around the block. And I never saw the end of the line and it was kids with luggage just waiting to check into the hotel. Why were they waiting outside? Because when you walked in, they checked your bag for guns, explosives, et cetera. Every single person got their luggage checked for guns and explosives. And why is that? This is the end of the hotel. Just to check into the hotel. You could not bring a bag that was not checked previously. And why is that? Because that was the same hotel that the Las Vegas shooter booked. And he would plan to do that four years ago before he did Las Vegas. So although I don't remember ever seeing them do that, and I've made that walk every year on the first day, I just have never seen it like that before. So with all that being said, we get into the venue. Did they check you when you checked into your hotel? No, no. I like that. I was across the river. And even if you got to... I even asked Blackstone, which is a really prominent hotel, a lot of artists stay in down the road. I asked if they were doing the same thing and they said, no, we just have really, really tight security. You couldn't get into the hotel without a band that said Blackstone. In fact, if you go back and watch some of the coverage, you'll see some of the artists wearing the Blackstone band. I know Young the Giant had one on. I noticed it because I was walking by. I was like, oh yeah, he's got that Blackstone wristband on. So it's good marketing. Yeah. With all that being said, the Thursday was pretty light. I was asked on Twitter if the number that they had put out that we calculated to be about 30K was right for the rest of the night. And the guy told me, yeah, that was about right. So 30K was the number on Thursday. And we get to that number because they came up with this percentage that 90% of the attendees were vaccinated. 8% had shown a negative test within 72 hours. So that left 2% that had to be turned away at the door. That equals 600 people by their calculations, by their math. So you just do basic math here. And when I say basic, far more advanced than what I can do, which is why I called Barry. And Barry told me that that equates to about 30,000 people. After much discussion. Yeah, it was tough. And then, you know, by the way, the reason why I know your number is right is because we drove in on Friday with two 15 year olds in the back seat. These 15 year olds are a friend of mine's daughter and her new boyfriend. And within, I said this whole thing to them. And within two seconds, he's like, oh yeah, you do the X and the Y and the blah, blah, blah. It's 30 times. Yeah. Yeah, well, every kid is smarter than me. Oh, they got new math. Yeah. Jerks. So the so that that ends up being a very light day for them. Friday, very heavy, got much bigger. Saturday was the biggest day. I learned that that Saturday ticket sales were the biggest one day ticket sale that Lollapalooza has had because and they give all the credit to Limp Bizkit. Stunning, but Journey's there. Megan Thee Stallion is there, but they think it's because of Limp Bizkit and give them all the shit that you want to. Everybody's talking about them. They got a new song that came out today. At least they're in the conversation. They've got people talking. And for the first time in 20 years, they're on the edge of somebody's lips, which is turns out it's all because of Fred Durst. He's his own manager. He's his own booking agent. I heard the story. I don't know if I should. I don't know if I could tell this, but when you when you cut the check, you cut the check to Fred Durst. Wow. Oh, that's funny. I never thought about that. Yeah. Not some like LLC or anything like that. Nope. You're right. Yeah. Personal. He figured it out from the rest. That's hilarious. So I think James Brown used to do that, actually. Or George Clinton. I know George Clinton did. Really? Interesting. I I then get this question on Twitter that they're hearing a lot of fake vaccine cards that people are selling fake vaccine cards. I didn't know. So I went on a mission to ask some kids and they had heard the same thing. I don't know how rampant it was, but all I know you're a piece of shit if that's what you do. Whether you sell one or buy one, you're probably a piece of shit. You know, it's just how hard is it for you to go get a test? You know, how hard is that? Is that going to break your second ruin your day? I mean, there are five Walgreens within walking distance of Lollapaloo. You can't go get a test. So I just I just picture you going up. How do you do, fellow kids? Hello. Hello, people. Anyone know where to get a fake vaccine card? I like Megan the stallion. Let me assist you young people with some knowledge that I'd like to share. You kids look like two hip young kids. I will tell you, I wanted to see how long the line on Saturday was just nuts to get in. So I walked up to a kid. Oh, is it Friday? I can't remember. I walked up to a group of kids and I said, hey, youngins. I didn't say that. But I said, hey, guys, how long did it take you to get in? And the kids stopped in their tracks and they gave me one of these. It's looking me up and down like I was wearing a wire. Welcome to my world. And his answer was a couple of minutes. That's like not very long in your lifetime. Pops. Yeah, Pops. Grandpa, go fix the VCR. Why don't you give them the guns? Guys, hey, radical bros, come here for a second. Oh, man. You want to go down Nickelodeon and catch a flick? Which one of these hip rap stars are you here to see? So according to them, again, time in kid language, it's a lot different than us. So I never really got a solid answer about that. Actually, this is a really important call. I do need to answer this here. One second. Hang on. Hey, how are you? It's one of those kids. Yeah. Hello, kids. Hello, sir. I had your answer. Are you available here in like 15, 20 minutes and I can call you back? 15, 20 minutes. We got a show. That's Bradworth. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So that was a that I'm not going to tell you that. It doesn't matter. Brittany Hay in 15 minutes. Thursday was was light. Then I had this this incredible, incredible dinner on Thursday. Yes, I left the festival at six o'clock. I don't think I made it past seven at any point in the week. Beat me up all you want to. I don't care. I just I'm sorry. I it is it is a convention for me. It is it is a work event. I just can't spend every night at Lollapalooza. I know. Now there's somebody the new chrome faucets are in. You got to go check them out. I've got to check these bath fittings. All right. These are big deals. I could get a discount on them. So on Friday is Friday is a good by the way, Thursday, Black Pumas are incredible, incredible. I just can't say enough about this live show for a band that has I mean, they've done plenty of shows, but I just have never seen a band get into this rhythm and this in the pocket like they are as quick as they have. This show is incredible. And Eric is a complete sweetheart. This guy I love that. I love Eric. He's the lead singer of Black Pumas. He's one of these guys that no matter who you are, where you are, how you are, he is going to talk to you for damn near an hour. No matter who you are, he will stop you. They have to put I was felt so bad. I ran into Eric after the show and we just we were talking and I had to be the one that said Eric, man, I've got to go. I got to get out of here. I love you. But I there's I got you're talking my head off, man. He's a sweetheart, though. I really, really do love him. So their show was great. Friday comes Friday was a you know how I said Wednesday was some bad life decisions. Well let me tell you about the day I was pimping out some teenagers. So you two first Barry. Now you wait, wait, wait back on this horse. All right. So cautious clay. If you have not listened to cautious clay episode of this show that we did a couple weeks ago, I implore you to go back and listen to this. I really feel as though if I have any credibility whatsoever, I'm putting it on the line for cautious clay. I think this guy's got Frank Ocean written all over him. His show at that bottom lounge, you know, it felt to me like early and I said this is manager it felt to me like early Lizzo really, really early Lizzo where you see she's got something and she's figuring it out on the stage. And the next time you see Lizzo, it gets a little bit bigger. And the next time you see her gets bigger than all of a sudden. It's this massive operation. I think that's where cautious is going. Deadpan Love is such a good, good album. And you know, the way that he was explaining to us the way that he's writing and how prolific he is just not going to stop. He'll have another EP out the next couple of months. It feels like the way that he's writing. So it was a great show. I've had lots of positive comments on that show. So I agree with you. Please go listen to it. Please do. Because like the club show was incredible, was incredible. The audience knew every word and the best part is there at the bottom lounge in Chicago, Illinois, hams on draft. Nice. I had a hams on draft. Good for you. No PBR. You know, they didn't have PBR. Oddly enough, they had hams on draft. It was nuts. Did you finish it? I yes. Yes, I did. In a way, I finished it. Good, it should be jumping now and I said those Parker and they're kind of in mourning right now because apparently some some beers have been taken off the. That's right. The you see that Ross? Yeah, the hams. Yeah, hams, special light or something. It's like the light version of special light and Mickey's. Yeah, they're getting the X. They're kind of in mourning right now. The ham guys. But I didn't know there were like sub ham beers. You know, I didn't know there were multiple versions of the hams. They're scrambling. They're sending out everybody to go check all the liquor stores in the area and figure out can we get some, you know, like last, you know, whatever's left on the shelves, they just want to grab it up. You've got to be kidding. These are the beers that I drank when I was 20 years old and couldn't scrape together a buck eighty nine. They're not good beers. There are multiple different versions of hams. You're telling me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm stunned. There's multiple different versions of PBR. Well, I knew that because, I mean, look at you. I mean, I know every piece of PBR. Renaissance man. I'm I'm all of them rolled into one. Man, if you could be the next PBR product, then we've got something. I've always seen. I've seen the hams can, but I've never seen a hams on draft. I've never seen that in my life. No. Yeah. And was what Mickey's I told you there are several. There's like several that they're they're suspending production of. And they posted that they're sort of in mourning. So it's kind of funny. It's not. Trust me. Well, this well, I know. But, you know, we're getting eerily close to treading on a show that's about Bonnaroo and about hams. And I think that's taken. It's taken. We'll leave it that that niche is filled. I like it. But good for you for having one. I mean, yeah. I mean, it was I thought I took a picture of it. But, you know, things got blurry. So you had Saki battery acid wine and then hams on draft. You know, the you had quite the weekend Thursday, though. Thursday felt manageable. Thursday felt really good. I'm trying to remember what I did Thursday. I feel like I kept it. No, no, that was Thursday morning. I did Thursday night. I was back on the horse. I was ready to go. There's a rally. You can rally. You're right. Friday woke up great and went to the to the cautious clay show. It's terrific about lunch, had the hams and then decided to go out to a nightclub that was packed. I snuck in teenagers. So I snuck in teenagers to this this nightclub. Why? Because a influential person in the industry gave me forty dollars to give to the door guys so that I could get these teenagers in, apparently because these teenagers are in a band. So it just got weirder from there, dude. It got so strange. I mean, I was at this nightclub and I've got like seven stories to it every time I walked in like I go up a stairwell. I'm in this brand. I mean, it's a bubble room. I go up another room. It's like a clown room. I go up another stair. It's like everything was. It was a fern room. Nothing made any sense. I thought I was in some sort of like bad trip that night. I rolled in about four thirty four thirty. Let's go back because you and I spoke Thursday. Was it Thursday or Friday? I think it was Thursday and you were having this great big moral, ethical, internal debate as to whether you were going to go to the cautious clay because of covid. And it was a theater that had 800 people. Yeah. So you were thinking you weren't going to do it because, you know, you're concerned, smart thinking citizen. I was apparently that all got got blowed up. Well, what happened was I said to myself, all right. And I said to the guy I went with, I said, all right, we're going to we'll go until we don't feel comfortable anymore. All right. So we'll go. We'll show up. We've got to say hi to the manager. We'll we'll do our due diligence. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. And then we'll stand in the back until we don't feel comfortable anymore. And you get a couple of hands in you. You start making some bad decisions and they turn on the bubble machine. Yeah. So so I but the show and all honestly, the show was so good that I didn't want to stop. I just kept I was engulfed with with what he was Josh was doing on stage. I thought it was so much better than I anticipated it. And I just stayed. And then it just got out of hand from there. And I woke up right Saturday. I wasn't hung over anything, but I had a people hangover. I had a hangover of just being around too many people, and I made a decision that is going to stun you. I'm going to absolutely stun and shock you with what I'm about to say. I'm waiting. I passed on Brittany Howard. That's where I thought you were going to go. Oh, no. That's who called in at 10 minutes ago. She's mad. She wants to know where the heck you were on Saturday. Where were you? I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. Yeah, I was around too many people. Brittany Howard, because because you what? Icky. I just I felt creeped out. I felt really, really weird about being that packed and making a terrible decision to go out afterwards to multiple places. Mind you, not just a dumb nightclub, but multiple places. I just felt way. It was way too much. So on Saturday, man, I mean, I probably stepped into the festival for all of 90 seconds because at that point I just had really started to feel strange. I didn't feel bad, but I had had my fill of like being packed in with people. Right. I had an incredible dinner on Saturday and, you know, for every to every person I asked that was involved in any of it, they felt really comfortable with the process and how everybody got in. They felt really comfortable with with the organization of it. I will say there is there was a different set of rules for the people that were engaged, like walking into media and the backstage area and the regular GA passes. Regular GA had to go through a couple of different entrances. Media could not go in those entrances, but artists could not go in those entrances. They're artists, media, backstage, all had to go through the same entrance, which was way down the other end of the festival. And when you got there, you had to have a wristband that said vaccinated on it. And that wristband was the same wristband that all the staff had on. But no festival goer needed to have that that that wristband, which I sort of misread when I first got there. I thought that everybody was going to be wearing this wristband, but I was told on later that day. No, it's Friday. It's hold on Friday. The reason why they don't give the concert goers a wristband is because they think they'll take it off and give it to somebody. So all of this to be said, the long of this is. Lollapalooza showed great caution. They showed a really responsible atmosphere. They did all the right things and can fall back on feeling comfortable that they did it the right way. And I don't know if you notice, but you know, right around the Lollapalooza time, what happened? Bottle Rock Bottle Rock instituted the exact same policies that Lollapalooza put in 72 hour negative covid test vaccine proof. Wear a mask if you're not, you know, that is pretty I think that's going to be the standard operating procedure going forward. Now the overarching question to all of this is, well, do you think the Bonnaroo is going to have a proof of vaccination or a negative covid test within 72 hours? I just don't see how Bonnaroo can institute the same things that Lollapalooza put in. There's just no way this makes sense in my mind. Lollapalooza asked for a negative covid test within 72 hours, which means if you got your covid test on Wednesday and it showed to be negative, you would have to have another one by Sunday to get in for the Foo Fighters. How exactly is that going to work if somebody is driving from Iowa on a Tuesday? Where are they going to get tested when they're in the middle of a field when that 72 hour becomes expired? Now are you just assume that because you are in a space where everybody has tested negative, you're safe? Maybe that works, but I don't know. What I gained from all of this was Lollapalooza at least has the ability of saying that they did everything they could to make it a safe space. I just don't know if that's going to bear out to be true. We have 10 days here, two weeks here to see the ramifications of it. Now again, I don't know how you trace back to whoever went to Lollapalooza. You're not going to see a state go wild with covid because they got people coming from 50 states and 25 countries. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what the next step is. I don't know if it made it better or worse. I think that you're going to see cases in the next two weeks. I think that Bottle Rock instituted those rules because they saw that working and they at least felt as though the organization of it was sound. That's what we talked about last week, Perry. Is that going to make anybody feel better at Bonnaroo? Yeah. No, it's a weird thing. I don't want to get too deep into it because the more I know, the more I know, I don't know. I mean that. Hopefully we're going to have Jeff Guayar on here with us in a week. I'm hoping he will share with us what they're going to do, what their plan is. So we'll hear from the actual people putting on the festival and not just you and me speculating. But the timing is so weird. I mean, I'm glad to hear you say what you just said. From all the reports that I got, kind of sounded the same thing. That's what I heard. They did everything they could do. We're seeing numbers in some states that was it Florida that just topped their number from a year ago. Now, Florida is its own little animal. And everything you can do is one thing, doing it in an uptick with the Delta variant makes it a whole other thing. So I don't know. I'm not going to speculate. We're a month away. I'm planning on going. I am interested in your comment about your Saturday. I mean, you know, we joke about you and Brittany Howard, but that's kind of- You know how hard that was for me to do? I know. How hard to not go to that? That's the big deal. Kind of why you were there or one of the reasons. Half the reason, yeah, sure. Sure. And so I get it, you know, to be worried about it. I'm in a weird, different situation than you are even. I'm, Taco and I are 55 minutes away. You know, I literally can make a decision day of that person traveling. It's a whole different- We don't have plane tickets to book. We don't have hotels. We don't have long trips. Yeah. I could go that day or not go that day. I could be home that day, you know, back and forth. So it's a completely different animal. I mean, has anyone, I'm sure they have Live Nation, but has anyone asked what happens if somebody gets sick and ill at Bonnaroo? I don't know. Yeah, we've not asked. What if something happens? Yeah, they got a quarantine area on the- They have a ventilator on site? I don't know. I don't know. I hate to use Barry as a proxy here because God, please don't let this happen. But what if something happens and Barry all of a sudden becomes sick with COVID on site and he didn't know about it and you know, he's had the vaccine, but he's one of the few breakouts and all of a sudden he needs to be on a ventilator. Why has it got to be me? Why couldn't it be you? Well, because you're the oldest one on the call. Why couldn't it have been you? You could have been Brad gets sick. This young spry man who had never puked battery acid, I dare say no. He's hip with the kids, man. This guy is hip with the- This young fertile man. Sorry about your luck, Barry. Yeah, you're RIP, Barry Cordell. Yeah. Dang. No, I don't know. It's a good question. And what would you do if you, you know, say you got in on Wednesday or Thursday and then I don't know how they would test you, but maybe Friday you are sick. What would they do with you? And then look, I know that, I know the argument is, well, if you've tested negative within 72 hours and then you get there on Wednesday, then you're automatically negative for the rest of the weekend. Yeah, that's not the way ever. I don't know. I'm trying not to, again, trying not to be the negative. I understand, but I just want to make the, okay. So if you think that there aren't people coming in and out, in and out, in and out constantly, just go backstage one day. There are new people just whizzing in and out constantly. There's new volunteers coming in and out constantly. Day campers, the day ticket holders. Every day, those kids had to show that test or that card. Just because I think that I'm trying to say, just because you show up negative does not inherently mean you have created a bubble. Just because everybody that has just shown up, there are going to be new people. And by the way, you still can carry it. Again, I guess at the end of the day, I still go back to what I said before I went to Lollapalooza and it's the reason why I'm going to go to Bonnaroo. This stuff is available to you. And if you've chosen not to get it, you're putting everybody else's life at risk. You're putting yourself's life at risk, but life's got to go on and we've got to figure out how to deal with this, even if it's going to take a group of us who are just completely uninformed and bat shit crazy about these things. You're just going to have to do it and live amongst the crazies. Look, a year and a half ago, I was one of those, there's no way I'm taking that vaccine. I don't trust the government. I don't want to put that in my body, but I want to go to Bonnaroo and other things. And so I got the vaccine, pure and simple. That's why I don't know. I still think it's for me, it's going to be something to watch for the next 30 days. So the other thing too, that I cannot wrap my head around back to these numbers that they gave, 90% were vaccinated on Thursday. I'm going to have to get the rest of the vaccine numbers. I'm sure they might even be out by now of all the people that showed up, what the overall number of vaccinations were. That crowd, and I've said it in years past, that is the youngest crowd of any festival I've ever been to in my life. Maybe Governor's ball is younger, maybe Hangout feels younger because everybody's just good looking and naked. But that is the youngest crowd I have ever seen in my life. And if you look at the percentage of vaccinations for 12 to 25 year olds, it's like at the very bottom of any demographic in the country. So you're telling me that 90% of the smallest vaccinated group of the public, come on. I think they wanted to go. That is a stretch. I guess, but man, it feels like such a stretch that you're telling me this, the smallest group of vaccinated in the general public and 90% of the, you might, might've had every vaccinated 12 to 24 year old at Lollapalooza if that's the case. It could be. That's why they, and again, that was the incentive. They wanted to go see whoever their band, their favorite act was. And that was the way to get in. That's an interesting question. I wonder if they did any kind of those sort of surveys other than you out there at the front gate, you know, Well, that's what they're basing. That's what they're basing the number on is that, you know, when you hand them a Vax card vaccinated, you hand them a negative, negative test. I mean, they're tracking this in some form or way. The other thing I haven't gotten clear clarity on is when you walked in, did you sign something? Did you write your name down and your phone number for contact tracing as if you could contact trace with a hundred thousand people? I don't know. And were they even comparing vaccination card with IDs? And I mean, that, well, no, they weren't. I had, I did literally watch somebody just hand a vaccine card and they looked at us at bookie dokie. Yeah. So, and then the other thing too, that really was a, was a head scratcher, you know, a CLS like this. So I'm sure they'll take the same stance, but you know, Lollapalooza is, is for me driven by so many of the after shows, right? Right. I have to jump through hoops to get into Lollapalooza with a negative COVID test, a vaccine card to get into Lollapalooza. But the Lollapalooza sanctioned after shows, come on in everybody. Come on in. No worry about a thing. Because Brittany, I know the Metro, I know Metro has been proof of vaccine for the last two months. So that's one out of the 12. I know Brittany's show was mask only, but other than that, nobody cared. No venue asked for anything. So how can a festival that's sanctioning, you know, Lollapalooza, how can they say, have a set of rules for Lollapalooza, but a completely set of different rules for a sanctioned after show? What about the people with you? The other industry people, were they at all concerned mask wise? Did it come up? Did y'all talk about it? I feel like the industry people are much more concerned about this than the kids. Most of the industry people that I'm around are older. They have been around for a very long time. Look, they were much more worried about that. But yet you still went out and did everything, right? You still met with them at dinners. You went clubbing with them. Yeah. You talked about it. I didn't interact. You have to be vaccinated to be backstage. You have to be. There was no way around it either, unless you're an artist. And I will say this about a artist. There is one artist in particular, a member of the band is not vaccinated because that person grew up in a very, let's just say odd childhood. And they just don't believe in city life and non prairie life, I guess. And so they were just not going to be vaccinated. I'm trying to think, is there an Amish band out there? Yeah. They lived in an igloo. But yeah, so I know there were artists that were not vaccinated, but you could not be a media member or part of without showing a card. Yeah. They were pretty adamant about it in the backstage area. With all that being said, it felt like just a regular year. It felt like every other Lollapaloo's a year I've ever been at. Okay. There it is. That's interesting. Now talk to me in 10 days. I don't know. Glad you went to work though to take that back to everybody back on the ranch. Yeah. I didn't really think that through, did I? But it did occur to me. So I think that every industry is struggling and ours isn't very much so, but I think every industry is struggling with getting their people back to work because they've become so accustomed to working at home. So my company in particular has said, okay, whether or not you're vaccinated or not, you're coming back to work September 3rd. And if you're not vaccinated, you're wearing a mask every day and you're going to be in a different part of the building than everybody else. For those who have been back to work because they either got the vaccine to go back to work or they did it begrudgingly, I got to imagine these... I've come into contact with someone with COVID stories have escalated for the people who want another couple of days of free vacation. Because how could you say no to... Oh, your sister that stayed with you had COVID. You know what? Come on in anyway. You should just come on in. Imagine the amount of people that are totally lying about coming into contact with COVID just so they can get a couple more free days at work. This is... again, we live in a society that's completely uncheckable with all of this. We're working on an honor system with half of the public that are completely unhonorable. Is that an honorable word or dishonorable? I'm not comfortable coming back yet. Yeah. There's a lot of that. There's got to be a lot of that. Yeah. That's a great point. I mean, our people were supposed to come back July 4th, 5th, something like that. Half of some staffs are like, can I come back July 15th? No. No. Well, then I guess I'll just stay here till September. Interesting. Come on. I hadn't thought about that. Come on. Yeah. We opened our building back up and one person that I know of is back. One. That's a big shocker. How many people are on the staff? In the newsroom, not a whole lot. Probably 30 or 40. And there are four that have been going in this entire time. And all of them have family at home and they don't want to be at home with their family. Either because they can't work. I'll never take another job if there's no option to work from home. There's a lot of that. I've heard from a lot of restaurant people who say that, that the restaurant people are getting pounded because everyone is thinking they're not working because the government's giving them a free check. But there are a lot of restaurant people who decided to change careers. Sure. In particular, find a job where they can work from home. And they realize... Only fans you can make a lot of money. Well, restaurants, I mean, I don't know if you ever did it. Restaurant works. It'll suck you in because you can make a lot of money in a... Really quickly. And it's cash. And it's hard to give that up if you're really good at it. So you kind of get... I don't want to say stuck, but that's why you find people who end up doing it because they make a lot of money in three days instead of five. And so with this, they figured out I can work from home and I like this. And so they've changed careers. So there's a little bit of that... I think hybrid workspaces, they're going to be here to stay. And some people will be getting a different mode of operation going forward than the other. And it's going to cause a lot of friction. Why does that guy get to work from home? And I don't. But again, I don't know, man. I think that every one of us, no matter where we work, know the lazy shits. We know them. We know exactly who they are and we know exactly what game they're playing. You don't have a doctor's appointment. You don't have a migraine. Every Monday. Every Monday, coincidentally. I have told this story so many times and it always comes back. So I have this running joke. If somebody doesn't show up to work in their habitual lazy, lazy bone, I always say, I wonder if the doors of the car fell off. And I say that because my mom one time worked with this woman. So my mom worked in this office and she was the secretary to the president of this company. And she had to be the person that sort of organized the staff and who's here, who's not every day. And there was this one lady that just was perpetually late every so every few days. Always late, always calling in. We all know this person, right? But one day she had just ran out of excuses. She had nothing left to say. She had no more doctor's appointments. She didn't lose an eyeball. She just had nothing left to say. So she calls in and I swear to God, my mother, she doesn't have it in her to lie. You've met my mother. Yeah. Everything that just comes out of her mouth is just the first thought that has come out and it's pure as moonshine. So she just says to my mom, oh, I can't believe it. I can't make it today. I'm at the I'm at the car auto shop. The doors of my car fell off. And my mom said, what? Yeah, I was driving down the road. My corp, my doors just fell off. And she said, OK, a couple hours later, who shows up? But she's back. And guess what? Looks perfect. The doors to her car. You got the window and check out the doors on her car. I just go. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. How did that happen? There were four college kids went out of town for a party and thought they could make it back on Monday morning for an exam. Missed it. And all four of them told the professor they had a flat tire. And the professor said, OK, sure, no problem. Got them all in four different rooms and gave them a question, a test with one question. Had he changed the tire? No, which tire was it? Yeah, which tire? Yeah, I mean, I've got pretty successful at changing a tire, by the way. I think I can do it in about 15, 20 minutes. What about you? Yeah, well, I think so. Yeah. I mean, how tacos changing axles in that bus? Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, you don't want to challenge me to a tire changing contest. So what does it mean at the end of the day? What does it mean for the rest of the vessels in the country? Look, I think vessels are going to happen no matter what. I think Bonnaroo is happening no matter what. The only thing that can change any of this is that you've got a Delta variant that goes absolutely back shit crazy and it starts taking down breakthrough cases unlike anything that we have already seen. If this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated, then I just I don't know how much is the world is going to stop for that. Yeah, I think we're past that. I don't think we're stopping for anything anymore. People are too angry. They've done it. They've learned. Like you said, they've learned like you said, people were out there with fake vaccine cards. I mean, that's how we do. What if there's a mask mandate at Bonnaroo? What would you say? I'm bringing a mask anyways, so if there's a mask mandate, yeah, I'll just roll with it. Yeah, but it's going to that's going to it's going to bother a lot of people. I mean, I mean, yeah, it's going to bother me, but it's not going to make me stay home. There's the other issue and we could do a whole another show on it. How much of what other people do or don't do gets into your good life anymore. I could I could get very angry over people not getting vaccinated or not wearing masks or whatever, but it doesn't fix anything. So I mean, I'm just sort of. You know, take care of me, I guess. Yeah, I guess I hear you. But you know, this this mask thing is becoming real and you've got state legislatures, you know, passing anti mask laws, you know, I think our guy is. Yeah, I think our guy is that you can't pass them, but private entities can. So that actually came up in a social discussion, social media discussion today is Governor Lee has said you can't you can't mandate it, but private businesses can. Bonnaroo is a private business, but would they go against I don't know what Manchester would the city of Manchester or Coffey County. So there's that dynamic. You know, here's here's the thing, too, that that I think sometimes gets forgotten. You know, there's a completely different culture around Lollapalooza than there is Bonnaroo. The people that go to Bonnaroo, I don't necessarily are going to me feel like the people that are going to be fighting the man who so badly is infiltrating their life by wearing a face diaper. I don't think that guy is necessarily the traditional Bonnaroo goer. Look, I think that Lollapalooza is a really, really well done festival. It has its quirks. It has its things that bother people. And I get that. I understand the commercialization of it. I understand the lineups are always iffy for your kind of music versus what, you know, somebody else's. I know the clientele are usually young. I get the pitfalls of but it is a major rite of passage for a lot of people. It is an incredible piece for the Chicago economy. But there are problems. I mean, the amount of pickpockets that were reported this year, you can't stand at a stage sometimes without being very diligent about your phone and wallet in your pocket. You know, I know there are thefts of Bonnaroo, but that's just not necessarily the culture that has been right. You're crafted by the Bonnaroo, the traditional Bonnaroovian. So radiate positivity. If some of that changes this year, I think that we probably know what to point it to. But I just I just don't know if the Bonnaroo people will be as punchy about whether or not you're wearing a mask or whether you need to be vaccinated or whether or not you need to have a negative COVID test. I do know that they do need to probably get their shit together and say something about this sooner rather than later. I agree. I agree. I agree. Because by the way, the time to get vaccinated, that time's over. I mean, that unless you want to get that one shot Johnson Johnson, that right, you know, efficacy, efficacy is somewhere in the 70 percentile. But you're about out of time if you're if you haven't been vaccinated. Yeah, I agree. It's a totally different audience. I could see them, you know, if masks were required, I could see that being OK. The other the other element is it literally pulls people from all 50 states. So you've got different attitudes coming in. Maybe. I mean, I think the kids, like you said, the people that come seem to be of one mind, which is, you know, radiate positivity and take care of each other. I want to tell you a story about what happened as I was walking down the street to get into L'Aufluse. I think it was on Saturday or something. So I'm walking down Michigan Avenue and I've got to go all the way down Michigan Avenue to the end of the festival to get into my get into my entrance. There was a kid holding a box of Bud Light, box of Bud Light cans. He was just holding this box of Bud Light as he was walking, I guess. Something must have been going on. He must have done drugs or something, but he's holding this box of Bud Light, just standing there. One guy walks up just screwing with him like, hey, tries to grab one of the Bud Lights. This kid loses his ever love in mind. Right. And instead of just standing there like he was standing there now, he follows this kid blocks and blocks down the street just screaming, you know, the you know, not the F word, but the other F word. And he's making fun of his shorts and his haircut. And he takes one of the beers and throws it at him. You know, it was just like this bizarre explosion of anger out of nowhere. Now I'm not saying that that is a traditional person at L'Aufluse, but something tells me that this whole world has made people just a tad more on edge than usual. Little touch. Little bit. I'd like to think at Bonnaroo, he'd have been handed those beers out to whoever wanted one. That's exact. That is a great point. That is a complete difference. That guy was fighting you. He was holding basically just free, you know, like come take some money. But no, the second that's if you did that at Bonnaroo, everybody would look at what happened at Lord Taco out in the parking lot, just handing out PBRs to people. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah, I got a little out of hand, but that was the same idea. Like, you know, in the spirit of Bonnaroo, I was like, yeah, I'll give you one. I'll give you one. Yeah. You know, one people. Some people cross the line. Yeah. One. Well, I mean, one. Yeah. If you if you take that one, shotgun it, throw it on the ground and then say, can I get another? Yeah, we've crossed the line. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There's there's my there's my Lollapalooza story. Now, I wonder if I missed anything. I'm sure I did. I'm sure the brain cells are dead. I don't know. I don't know. We're 30 days. We're literally 30 days away. Yeah. Um, Taco's already packing up. I'm starting to think about it. I'm already packed. I'm already getting packed. Yeah. Wow. I have no plan whatsoever. I just I'm really I'm really lost. I don't know. This is the first time I'm having to do this from far away. So arranging this, I'm now finally starting to to feel the stress that all the other, you know, people who have done this for a long time, who have come from state to state to state are feeling. I know that now you've got the multi hour car trip. I know. I know where to start. I think I can speak for Taco when I say we're not driving down there to pick up your extra stuff. I was wondering if I could get some stuff in your car. No, just don't. There's no room for me. Yeah, I'm already going to get the couch, the sign, the carpet, probably the generator. I've got an extra couch to add. Oh, there's no room for an extra couch. You get one couch. I can bring one couch. We got to talk. We got to talk about all this. The carpet. Who has to know? We got to get logistics down. You know, who's got the mailbox? I got the mailbox. I mean, we probably need to buy more tents. We always need more tents. We always need more carpet. You know, is everybody's heads in? Is everybody's giant heads on a stick? Is everybody's in? Is it put together? Do they need to be rehabbed? I've got the marquee. I'm bringing the camp nut butter. Okay. Then we're going to need new lights this year. Do we need to like rehab? Yeah, we probably do. We really need to talk about all this. Yeah. Oh, God. I have a feeling. And all this talking we've been doing about it, I think people are going to be coming pretty strong. So we got to we got to bring our gang up. The game feels this feels like fantasy football all of a sudden that I've got to have some sort of draft for Bonnaroo set up. Yeah, well, now about the time when we well, it's when schedule comes out that we usually meet our meeting is always around schedule time and we don't have a looks like our meeting this year is going to be at Bonnaroo considering schedules never coming. Could be. Yeah. Is there anything else that I missed? Lola, please. No question. Glad you made it back. Can't wait to see if you get sick. That'd be a great story if you do. Man, Dad, you really do know how to share the love. You really don't have to just pour love on to me. I am going to laugh about you and talking to the kids. That's going to be that's my name looking at you. What are you asking? I've told you about going to see the EDM tent with the Denson and Dewar and the kids will turn around looking at us and I'm thinking they think we're cool. No, they think we're dogs. Yeah, that kid was not not the friendliest. I mean, I don't look that old, do I? I don't look like his dad. To them, probably. Yeah, to them. I guarantee it. Yeah, but I'm the guy that could buy them booze. They need to be nicer to me. I mean, you have your Beavis and Butt-Head T-shirt. I mean, that's always a winger. Hey, Journey was there. It makes sense. It would make a lot of sense. Yeah. By the way, the Journey show there. I I was supposed to go to Journey to that that Wednesday night. It was a Thursday night to bail on that, too. Yeah, I made some weird choices this weekend, guys. So it's weird choices. Like I've said, as you know, as long as you got the new chrome. That new setting, there's a new hot, cold setting on there that you really got the latest and greatest European models. Is this a successful weekend? There you go. That's very course for a talk from a center talk to you next week. Right.
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