Dillo Day 2008

It's that time of year again, when Northwestern students throw down the books and go crazy for one day. And by go crazy I mean party in ways similar to most regular college students on any given weekend. And by Northwestern students, I mean the Northwestern 500 plus a few others; everyone else will still harbor away in libraries somewhere.

Though I'm no longer really connected to Northwestern in any way, I'm making a pilgrimage back for the weekend festivities, as is Kyle. This year's line up looks to be pretty strong again, and overall I think there's been an increasing trend in the quality of groups they've been bringing in each year. Last year's line up was really strong as well, but unfortunately the day was somewhat marred with crappy weather that pushed the concerts indoors and meant only students with Wildcards could attend. I had been planning on catching some of my favorite acts such as Cake, Lupe Fiasco, and the Roots, but when my non-NU buddy got rejected trying to use someone else's Wildcard we returned home and instead I just drank my face off (and all subsequent scenes are missing).

However this is a new year. Headlining this year's Dillo Day is none other that one of Chicago's best rappers in Common. This is without question my favorite headliner they've had since I started going to Dillo Day. Common is one of my favorite hip hop artists and I can't wait to see him live. I still rank his album Be as one of my favorite, if not the favorite, hip hop albums.

The other acts for the day include Third Eye Blind, Broken Social Scene, and The Cool Kids. I think they've done a good job of getting a diverse group of performers to appeal to different people. Third Eye Blind is a great act for drunk kids who want to belt out their favorite songs from middle school (as long as they don't play any new crap) and Broken Social Scene are well established in the artsy indie genre that college kids seem to enjoy these days. The Cool Kids are the one group I question how well they will be received mostly cause I don't think people know much about them (myself included).

There are also a couple DJ groups to fill in the gaps as well. One is Chicago duo Flosstradamus, who will be spinning their up tempo beats with lots of catchy samples and hooks. Another is Northwestern's battle of the DJs winner Clash Gordon, who gets the opportunity to open for Common. As I was perusing the music acts for this year I gotta say that Clash Gordon proved to be a pleasant surprise. Clash Gordon is a Northwestern student majoring in music technology or something like that and has modeled himself in the mold of Track Nine favorite Girl Talk. Despite being a young DJ, I was impressed with his abilities and most importantly his ear for hearing how songs should come together.

Just like Girl Talk, his hook is putting together clips from songs in completely different genres and turning them into something new. Now this is nothing unique, and there are thousands of DJs all over the internet doing the same thing. But most of the stuff released is just not good, and it really takes an ear to be able to put the clips together into something unique and interesting. When I originally heard they had a battle of the DJs, my first reaction was that the winner would be terrible, but now I am actually excited to go hear Clash Gordon and see how he does live.

If I actually manage to stumble out there in time...

If you're still in Evanston I hope you are planning on partying and enjoying music all day this Saturday, and hopefully I will be joining you. If not at least check out the groups here, its pretty good quality all around.


- Alec