Dave Matthew Band will bring its Caravan to the South Side

Photos by Erica Gannett

Dave Matthews is following in the footsteps of Perry Farrell.

No, he will continue to wear shirts. And his pants remain without sequins. But "Dave," as his fans simply call him, is starting his own Lollapaloozaesque festival. And its scheduled to hit Chicago a month before the real Lolla. Yep, the two fests look set to duke it out for suburbanites with $200 burning a hole in their pockets.

As I suspected a couple weeks ago, the Dave Matthews Band Caravan will raise its tent at the mouth of Lake Calumet, on the former grounds of U.S. Steel's South Works mill. It's where 87th hits lakefront. The concert, which runs July 8–10, is the second stop of four for the traveling show, the first going down at an airport in Atlantic City.

It initially seemed as if Matthews would pick nontraditional venues to avoid the Ticketmaster/LiveNation machine. However, at a press conference this morning on the South Side site of the festival, representative of LiveNation were on hand to announce the big gig, alongside strange bedfellows Jam Productions and others (Chicago Lakeside Development, Starr Hill Presents and Chicago Aldermen Sandi Jackson, 7th Ward, and John Pope, 10th Ward).

The event site is being dubbed Lakeside. And it could change the face of Chicago's growing summer festival season.

DMB will headline all three nights of the fest. The rest of the bill is impressive: David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, Kid Cudi, O.A.R., The Flaming Lips, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Amos Lee, Emmylou Harris, Ben Folds, G. Love & Special Sauce, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Gomez, Drive-By Truckers, Michael Franti & Spearhead, the Jayhawks, Soja, Soulive, the Wailers, Blind Pilot, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, TR3, Vieux Farka Toure, Alberta Cross, Mariachi El Bronx, Bobby Long, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Jeff Coffin's Mu'tet and Gary Clark Jr.

That looks like stiff competition for Lollapalooza, which has yet to announce any acts. Pitchfork Music Fest will not lose any sleep.

Three-day passes go on sale for $195 at 10am on April 15. They can be purchased at www.dmbcaravan.com.