Here’s a recap and thoughts of the sights, sounds, and smells of the weekend.
Friday
First off, I had the day scheduled to be off from work, but due to a mix up with my boss’ vacation schedule and mine, I had to be in. This caused me to miss both Son Volt AND Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Even though they were playing at opposite ends of the park at the same time, I would have tried to split the difference. I got out of work at around 2:30, and bought a pint of JD in the White Hen in my building, poured it into my big gulp, and drank it in its entirety on the way to the park from Wacker & Wabash.Once in the park, I bought two beers (the $5 small ones), and camped out close to the stage where Against Me! would be performing at 3:30. With both beers and about 3 cigarettes ingested before the set, I was adequately primed to shout myself hoarse (as Doug and Fonzy can attest to me doing 3 months ago at the Riv). The smallish but enthusiastic crowd did much of the same, and I was completely drenched in sweat by the end of the hour performance. My only qualm with the set was after a raucous 55 minutes, they closed with the acoustic number, “Sink, Florida, Sink”. It appeared that there was enough time for one more song, as the crowd chanted for (I would have preferred “We Laugh At Danger And Break All The Rules”), but it was not to be. For a band that notoriously peels the paint of the walls at dive bars, the sound translated surprisingly well to an outdoor stage.
Against Me!
Colleen arrived toward the tail end of Against Me!’s performance, and found me quickly after the crowd dissipated. We then high-tailed it back over to the north side of the park for The Rapture, and thus began the endless (and hopeless) parade of white people dancing for the remainder of Friday night. The Rapture’s disco-punk sound has more cowbell than a over-quoted SNL sketch, and it took them a couple songs to find their groove, but “House of Jealous Lovers”, “First Gear”, and set closer “Olio” were excellent.
The Rapture
Once The Rapture wrapped things up, we moved a short distance to the main stage at the north end of the park, where The Black Keys performed. Being only moderately familiar with the band, I probably didn’t appreciate the show as much as I may have, but they were decent.
After the brief blues-rock interlude, it was off to take what was the best (and most natural)1-2 punch of the evening on the south fields, LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk. LCD used entirely live instrumentation, which definitely dehydrated their drummer; he didn’t stop on the hi-hat for what seemed like the whole set. While the song was incredibly fun, “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” seemed almost obligatory given the circumstances, and was knocked out early in the performance. However, that allowed the band to play without an anxious crowd awaiting the song, and they gave memorable renditions of “Us V Them” and “Tribulations”. The highlight of the set, and one of the highlights of the weekend was a goose-bumps inducing performance of “All My Friends”. Frontman James Murphy also won the crowd banter award of the evening, thanking the crowd in front of the stage for dancing politely and not beating each other mercilessly, and quipped “Dudes, if you’re dancing and there are no girls around you, then you’re dancing wrong”.
LCD Soundsystem
Colleen left about 3/4ths of the way through LCD’s set to meet Julie at the north main stage for Ben Harper, but I had other plans, namely Daft Punk. I was able to get reasonably close, and had a clear view of the jumbotron during the opening chords of the Close Encounters of The Third Kind alien music. The set then kicked off with “Robot Rock” using a prolonged introduction of the vocoder chorus. The stage was lit with a giant light show anchored by a pyramid in the middle where the robot helmet-wearing Frenchmen pulled the knobs and turned the dials, though it was nearly an identical set and performance to last year’s Coachella show, which I had seen all over YouTube months ago. The light show and sounds were definitely impressive, but considering I was a) by myself, and b) not high as fuck (or even drunk by that point), by about 2/3rds of the way through the set the novelty wore off. All in all though, they lived up to every bit of hype surrounding the performance, specifically a mix of “Technologic”, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” and “Around The World”.
Daft Punk
Saturday
Due to a lack of beds at the my place, as well as my undying chivalry, I had to sleep on the floor under the dining room table in my own apartment Friday night. When my own bed finally became available again, I took full advantage, and slept in a little too late, causing me to miss Tokyo Police Club on Saturday afternoon. We arrived in time to catch the majority of Stephen Marley, which was not my choice, as I find the majority of reggae music boring despite being amiable. The Marley spawn did nothing to disprove my theory of the last original reggae song being written before the elder Marley’s demise. Nothing quite like seeing a bunch of high, white, teenage wannabe-hippies groove out to reggae royalty.
It was a quick jaunt to one of the side stages for Chicago MC Rhymefest’s performance as the overcast skies began to darken slightly. While I thought last year’s Blue Collar LP was good but wasn’t as good as some of the other hip hop records that came out, ‘Fest proved himself to be an engaging showman, accompanied by break dancers and a 9 piece band. It was a fun if disjointed set as the it began to lightly rain, with Rhymefest bouncing from a DJ-led song, to a full R&B jam with the band, to an a capella free style.
Rhymefest
Following Rhymefest was more live hip hop with The Roots on the north stage. They kicked off the set with a blistering rendition of “Thought At Work”, and as was the case the only other time I saw The Roots, did not pause between songs. Most interesting was a short speech from Black Thought stating that hip hop is not dead (to a 99% white crowd), and then the band launching into some of the genre’s hits, such as Kweli’s “Get By”, Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend”, and my personal favorite, ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”.
The Roots
Another cross-park trek led us to The Hold Steady, one performance that I had been eagerly anticipating. Most people either love or hate the band, based solely on Craig Finn’s odd Kermit The Frog, stream of consciousness short story lyrics. I fall into the former of the two categories, after having been turned on to Lifter Puller a while back. Finn, wearing an authentic Ron Gardenhire jersey, was energetic, and looked genuinely happy to be performing. While his dance moves left a lot to be desired, it was very difficult not to feel the happiness associated with the performance. Highlights included “Chips Ahoy”, “Killer Parties”, and “You Can Make Him Like You”.
The Hold Steady
None of the acts after The Hold Steady were must-sees for me, but Julie had expressed an interest in seeing Snow Patrol. So we walked back toward their stage and got a bite to eat as they played, and it made sense to have them as background music, because Snow Patrol is a homeless person’s Coldplay, and my favorite description of Coldplay is “the favorite band of people who don’t like music”. It was mildly amusing to see drunken shirtless Chads with their eyes closed singing along wistfully to these throw-away, M.O.R. ballads, though.
In the “death is not an option” category of things, a choice needed to be made as to which closer that no one was thrilled about to see. On one hand, there was Interpol, which sounds like Joy Division underwater and on quaaludes, and on the other was Muse, which is more garish and flamboyant than a fabergé egg stuffed up Freddy Mercury’s ass. We opted for Muse just for the sheer spectacle. In their attempt to outdo Daft Punk’s stage show, they just ended up making themselves look even sillier than their lyrics already do for them. We left after about 35 minutes of the set, and after the train ride home, got some deliciously inexpensive Mexican food at one of my favorite places, Garcia’s (try the enchiladas verdes), and then enjoyed a combination after-party/roommate birthday party at our place, complete with delicious Leinenkugels in a can and post-midnight games of bags.
Sunday
I’ll get this out of the way and won’t say it again after: it was hot. It shouldn’t have really surprised anyone, seeing is it IS August in Chicago, but I was still sweating like Freddy Garcia the entire day.
I had to come into work in the morning to do some stupid crap that I’ve now learned that I will have to undo, and then re-do the exact same way I did it in the first place in the next the next two business days, so we sauntered into the park at around 1:45 for the tail-end of the Heartless Bastards’ set. It was an OK set, but it was notable in that it contained the first and only full-fledged biff-and-restart of a song that I witnessed all weekend.
Lupe Fiasco (sans robot) was up next on the main stage, and in a stark contrast to Rhymefest and The Roots, only had a DJ on stage backing him. Repeating the same call and response (”Can you dig it?” - “Yes we can”) with the crowd the whole show, he jumped and danced around the stage and the front of the crowd, drenching his shirt and kicking out favorites from Food & Liquor, as well as a few new tracks. He also brought labelmate and fellow Chicagoan Gemini on stage for a couple of songs, one of which he assumed a Nate Dogg esque soul singer type role, another of which he unleashed Twista-esque high-speed rhymes. Singer Matthew Santos also joined for some backing vocals in an enjoyable set, probably the best of the three hip-hop acts I saw.
We listened to a nondescript set by The Annuals in the background as we grabbed some lunch, and then went over to the north main stage for Iggy & The Stooges. Iggy naturally came out shirtless, leathery and in some painted-on Jordaches, and provided the first real vitriol of the weekend, screaming at roadies and barking at the crowd. The band powered through “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, “1969″, and “Dirt” before Iggy invited concert goers up on stage with him for “No Fun”. There had to be at least 100 people on stage, and the security people, true to the title of the song, were NOT having fun. It took a while for the crowd to get off the stage and as they were lingering Iggy remarked “Alright, we’ve had our fun, now you guys have to go back down, or else it’s going to get weird”, as if it wasn’t weird enough already. With still about 15 minutes in the set after that, rather than stop right then at what was seemingly a natural conclusion for the performance, the band had a couple more songs in them, including a great rendition of “Fun House”. Despite all of Iggy’s histrionics, the real stars of the show were Mike Watt and and Ron Asheton, who shredded the entire hour. This also marked the first time during the weekend I remembered any of the stages having mix issues, but it didn’t really matter for this one. I can only imagine what it would have been like to see Iggy truly lose his shit during a show in his heyday.
Iggy and The Stooges with the “Lollapalooza Dancers”
It would have been tough for anyone to follow that act on the stage right behind Iggy, and Yo La Tengo probably faced a little bit more of an uphill climb than others would have given the nature of their music. They did an admirable job, though, closing with about a 10-12 minute guitar fuzz filled rock out.
Decision time once again approached, as Modest Mouse and My Morning Jacket were playing at the same time at opposing main stages. Because MMJ was closer to TV On The Radio who followed them, I opted to start at Modest Mouse on the north stage, then hustle my non-existent ass to the other stage for the second half of My Morning Jacket. A bearded, bespectacled, and hatted Isaac Brock thanked the crowd quietly before breaking into the raucous opener of “Bury Me With It”. They cranked out a couple of the singles (”Float On” and “Dashboard”) before I had to take off, as well as one of my personal favorites, “Paper Thin Walls”. I’m not terribly familiar with The Smiths, or Johnny Marr’s alleged prowess, but if the rumors are true, it seems like he’s underutilized in Modest Mouse. I would have liked to have gotten to hear “Ocean Breathes Salty” or “Dark Center of the Universe” before I had to bounce, but alas, it was not to be. Apparently there was an extended version of “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” that I missed, though.
Modest Mouse
On the south fields, My Morning Jacket’s already massive sound was accompanied by the Chicago Children’s Symphony Orchestra. MMJ’s sound has enough room in it for the symphony not to be obtrusive, and it was an excellent show. Apparently I missed “Gideon”, but their rendition of “Run Thru” definitely made up for it.
My Morning Jacket
The penultimate peformance, TV On The Radio, was curiously shorter at 45 minutes than everyone else’s usual hour allotment, but they made the most of it. While their live show is vastly different than how they sound on their albums, it’s no less excellent. While there were a substantial number of people moving in for Pearl Jam’s upcoming set, TVOTR’s crowd was bigger than I expected, and certainly active, never more than during “Wolf Like Me”, which damn near pulled the rug out from under Pearl Jam and stole the show, and it took Eddie and Company two encores to do so.
TV On The Radio
I had $10 on “Courduroy” being the opener, and I was one off. Pearl Jam opened with “Why Go”, and followed with “Courduroy”. As expected, they powered through all the staples, which delighted the endless sea of shirtless Chads in full bro-down mode (with more than a few obligatory “GO CUBBIES!!!!!” shouts). Highlights included Mike McCready’s behind-the-head solo during “Evenflow”, and first encore closer “Rearviewmirror” (probably PJ’s best song in my opinion). Eddie was, as expected, drunk and preachy, rambling against GW, BP Amoco, and the war. During the second encore, he brought a wheelchair-bound Iraqi veteran and Ben Harper on stage for an anti-war ballad, unfortunately in the process making that brave man look like Eddie’s prop. The festival concluded with the band covering Neil Young’s “Keep On Rockin In The Free World”, with Eddie admittedly stealing this bit from Iggy Pop and inviting about 50 people on stage, one of whom was Dennis Rodman, who put Vedder on his shoulders as he wished the crowd good night.
Pearl Jam + fireworks
Random Thoughts
-Based on the number of tshirts worn, the popularity of bands NOT performing at Lollapalooza goes in order: Rage Against The Machine, Social Distortion, Flaming Lips, Naked Raygun, Local H
-Speaking of clothing, for some magical reason, my Nordiques hat is like Spainish fly for bros. No fewer than a dozen people gave me some variation of “Aww, sweet Nordiques hat, bro” during the three-day extravaganza.
-The food was fairly reasonably priced, most items maxing out at $5, and you got a substantial amount when you paid that much.
-Security was beyond lax. No pat downs on entry, and half-assed bag searches. There was all sorts of chiefin’ going on in the lawns out in the open, and no one gave a damn.
-Everyone was for the most part peaceable. I didn’t witness a single alteracation.
Overall, I’d probably go back if the lineup were excellent, but I wouldn’t go just to go. It’s just a lot to go through. Expensive for a full price ticket, physically draining, and a three day commitment. Overall, I still prefer hole-in-the-wall venues, but I’m glad I went, and a lot of the bands were amazing.
