By Jodi Root

It was a gray and dismal day on Friday, and I was super hoping a downpour would not soon hit the opening night of Union Park’s 3 day music a thon. Turns out it will take more than some gray clouds to intrude upon a night of stellar rockin tunes.

5:25 PM – I, along with an army of determined hipsters, march off a crowded green line car, into Union Park. Lines for will call look pretty intense, but hard ticket holders don’t seem to have too long of a line. First mission is to find a food vendor.

5:48 PM – Well, I guess there’s only one food stand open today, so the line was nasty. Only took 20 minutes, however, to successfully attain a decent sized serving of BBQ pub chips for a mere $2, not bad. I went for the classic hot dog combo while my veggie friend scored some $6 falafel. Not awful, I suppose, but here’s to hoping tomorrow has more food vendors to choose from since tonight is the smallest draw of the 3 days. I find a grassy corner to chill in, and luckily it’s not raining. Tortoise is playing in the background and the easy xylophone chimes combined with some chillax guitar instrumentation is setting up for an overall chill and perfect soundtrack. Screw you, Mother Nature, this is rad.

6:15 PM – Tip to the wise (and thirsty), buy your beer/water tickets EARLY in the day, enough for the entire night. Again, hoping lines were just more brutal since it’s the first night and all vendors aren’t open, but the lines were BRUTAL. Standing in a windy, dusty baseball diamond, with sand blowing in my mouth, while trying to chill out to some Yo La Tengo—a gentle bed or organ keys backs up some calm, pretty vocal work. This is summer, ya’ll. There are plenty of frolicking freaks about, and this is one of my favorite people watching events of the year. A man with pink hair (and eyebrows) is a walking marijuana advertisement in his homemade purple pot mumu. Nice.

7:23 PM – Crowd cheers for Jesus Lizard. Dude from Jesus Lizard, “Jesus Christ, Shut up!!!” And then he rocks. These dudes may be silver haired, balding and pretty rough looking, but one thing’s for sure, they didn’t forget how to fucking rock. Shit is pretty righteous, and their fans are LOVING this. I heard this was their final final show . . . not a big enough follower to know for sure, but I consider myself glad to be a part of it regardless. Jesus Lizard are also quite the jokesters. “What’s brown and rhymes with Snoop?” . . . “Dr. Dre.” Oohhhh.

9:16 PM – Built to Spill are headlining. They’ve been on stage for about a half hour so far. First time catching these dudes. They like beards. Awesome job with the stage lighting, a cascade of violet and then blue and green shadows illuminate the top of the stage. Gorgeous skyline in the evening background. It starts to lightly rain. Dudes in crowd beside me are singing, drunkenly along, with loyalty to every word they can muster out of their mouths. I myself am slowly starting to feel the effects of some smuggled Maker’s Mark. The rain does not seem to bother anyone. The music is pretty rad, pleasantly reminding me of several older albums and tracks, casually classic and overall remarkable. Sound is crisp and clear, delivery to receptive crowd is perfect. An awesome July evening in Chicago.

9:30 PM – Time to sneak out early to beat the masses. Heading to Dark Room to catch DJ Bald Eagle and my boys in The Hood Internet for Dickfork for massive dance party action. Gotta make a stop at McDonald’s first for some happy meal action. Got a ladybug beanie baby for my toy. I HATE LADY BUGS.

11:00 PM – Bald Eagle is pumping up some massive beats. Crowd is picking up. Line outside to get into the Dark Room. Sweatiness.

12:00 AM – The Hood brought an insane post dance party soundtrack, tonight. All the girlies (and boys) are loving this and they even busted out Cyndi Lauper vs. Dizzee Rascal, “Girls Just Wanna Fix Up.” Can’t. Stop. Dancing. BO reeking up the joint. Noone cares. This is Chicago summer, folks.

It’s 10:36 AM, the next day and I am still covered in filth with a slight reminder of my beverage consumption in the upper right side of my face. Since I managed to recollect Day one thanks to my Lisa Frank notebook and some good effing times, I’m about to get up to head back down to Union Park for a full 9 hours of day number two. For more inconsistent rambles of frequent Pitchfork updates, feel free to follow me on my twitter.