By day three I had seen a lot of official campaign t-shirts but luckily for the sake of my originality I had brought along my iconic Obama face shirt that I didn't see anyone else wearing.
It looks suspiciously like a take on the famous Che shirt but I don't think we're supposed to talk about that. It was strange walking around in an Obama shirt. From the moment I walked in the gate to the walk home from the El people were shouting "Obama!" "Great shirt!" giving high fives and terrorist fist bumps. Of course, it happened more often later in the evening when people had been drinking for a while, but plenty of sober people were excited too.
I heard a few bands mention Obama. Broken Social Scene reminded the crowd that Americans are voting for the entire world and to make the right decision. DJ Girl Talk sampled the Ludacris lyric "the world is ready for change 'cause Obama is here."
If I'm not mistaken I think I even heard Zach De La Rocha say Rage Against the Machine was planning to vote for Obama before he gave a short speech about how this generation wasn't going to be satisfied with conventional politics, that young people are going to force change one way or another etc.
Some of the reviews I've seen of the Rage Against the Machine set were pretty good and some got sensational about how rowdy the crowd was. I was near the stage to one side and things did get a little crazy before the band stopped halfway through their third song. Rage broke up seven years ago and there were lot of people very worked up to finally see them, including many fans who were too young to see a concert without their parents in 2001.
When they started people were jumping, dancing, pushing and bumping around. Most of it was pretty typical for a show like that but some people got too violent and things got out of hand a little closer to the stage from where I was. After stopping several times to ask people to take 10 steps back and take care of each other people finally calmed down a little. People who were worried about getting hurt were able to get away from the front of the stage where things were rough.
Throughout the show there were people who pushed their way to the front, got pulled over the front barrier by security, then went back into the crowd to push their way to the front and do it again. I saw a few people shove by me three or four times like pushing through a crowd was their version of a roller coaster ride.
After the show the raucous crowd poured down the streets of downtown Chicago. At some point it wasn't clear if the police had intended to close off so many blocks or if it was just easier to let the crowd take its own course. The crowd had a very different mood than the post-Radiohead exodus, to say the least.
So despite the chaos, or partly because of it, this was one of the most fun, exciting and energetic shows I've ever seen. They didn't play any new songs but their old ones still sound good. Its on my list of top three concert experiences along with U2 and the Rolling Stones.
Ok, just a few more observations about the festival. Bands that are new to me that I enjoyed most include Broken Social Scene, Louis XIV, Okkervil River, Iron & Wine, and Foals. MGMT drew a big crowd and didn't disappoint. Its a little odd that most of the big acts have been around for at least 10 years and many of the newer bands have a retro sounde of one kind or another. Where are the new sounds?