Gossip Wolf went to Lollapalooza, and even though it was too crowded to move we still made some “celebrity” sightings. During Friday’s Black Sabbath set, Kelly Osbourne hung out backstage watching her dad’s oh-so-sweaty performance. On Saturday, a shirtless Har Mar Superstar roamed around near the Red Bull Soundstage as fellow Minnesotans Doomtree played; Kyle Woods (aka Kid Color) chilled behind the scenes with George Lewis Jr. (aka Twin Shadow); and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah took in the Weeknd‘s set. On Sunday afternoon Zach Gilford—who played Matt Saracen on NBC’s Friday Night Lights—was spotted near the VIP porta-potties, and in Wicker Park the reliably eccentric Jack White played an unannounced in-store at Reckless Records.
Death-metal crew Broken Hope formed in Chicago in 1988, and this Wolf thinks their mucked-out 1991 masterpiece, Swamped in Gore, is bowel-obliterating blastitude on par with any filth by Cannibal Corpse or Carcass! The band went on hiatus in the early aughts, and when lead singer Joe Ptacek committed suicide in 2010, it looked like the hiatus would be permanent. But now guitarist Jeremy Wagner and bassist Shaun Glass have recruited Gorgasm growler Tom Leski, and in September they hit the road with headliners Obituary! Broken Hope play Reggie’s on Mon 9/17 and were recently booked for 2013’s Maryland Deathfest.
Speaking of broken hiatuses, local technotronic punk oddballs Mahjongg, who most recently played out at 2011’s Bitchpork, are back. Kind of. They’ve changed their name to the two Chinese characters that refer to the game of mah-jongg, and only two people are still in the band: Hunter Husar and Josh Johannpeter. Husar tells Gossip Wolf they’re playing a show Sat 8/18 with DJ Tra La La and seapunk dude Ultrademon in “the reconstructed bar from the movie Terminator,” which they’ve built in the basement of Bridgeport’s Co-Prosperity Sphere. Mahjongg are also about to record an EP at Minbal, which they plan to release as a USB drive/thong underwear combo pack. Wow!
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