So Lollapalooza started this year on Friday, August 7th. On Wednesday, August 5th, my girlfriend and I had no thoughts of going but found ourselves having a drink at the venerable St. James (what else is new?) and discussing how awesome it would be to go, seeing as how the line-up rocked and we love Chicago to the core. Next thing you know, we had booked some flights ($200 a piece), a hotel room out near O'Hare (not ideal, but again only $200 a piece) and Lolla tix (for the sake of symmetry, $200 a piece again). And we were off ...Day One - Friday
We get in, check in to our hotel Friday morning, and make our way for round 2 of Hot Doug's. (We're becoming a bit obsessed.) This time, it was again a mega-long wait with mega-good food, but we both felt a bit queasy after gorging our faces on fries cooked in rendered duck fat.
We were nervous about getting to the stadium in time for our first cannot miss set (Bon Iver at 3:00 PM), but we made it. Some light rain was falling, thinning out the crowds a good deal. We got a great spot and settled in for a fantastic start the weekend, including another chilling version of "Re: Stacks". The full set:1. Lump Sum
2. Blood Bank
3. Skinny Love
4. Brackett, WI
5. Flume
6. Wolves (pts 1 and 2)
7. Re: Stacks
8. For Emma
9. Creature Fear -> Team
We basically held a spot between the north side main stage and north side side stage for the next few acts. Ben Folds play a nice, goofy set at 4:00 PM, but he doesn't do a whole helluva lot for me. He did do "Bitches Ain't Shit," which is always fun, as well as "Rockin' the Suburbs," which is also fun.
Next up were Fleet Foxes who, as usual, were just jaw-dropping. One of the finest, most skilled bands playing today. Just awesome. Rain had let up some at this point, too ... nice ... and "Blue Ridge Mountains" is always just the bomb ...
1. Sun Giant
2. Sun It Rises
3. Drops In the River
4. English House
5. White Winter Hymnal
6. Ragged Wood
7. Your Protector
8. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
9. He Doesn't Know Why
10. Mykonos
11. Blue Ridge Mountains
Next were the Decemberists on the big stage, and anyone who knows me knows that I am just not a fan of their over-the-top-ness, from Colin Meloy's vocals to the whole shebang in general. I was not impressed. Plus the annoying chick from My Brightest Diamond sang with them. Ugh. They played "The Hazards of Love" in its entirety. I just don't get it. It's like my parents with rap music.
Andrew Bird then brought a nice but kind of unaffecting set. I've seen him play on a big stage with much aplomb in the past (ACL 2007 comes to mind), and while he was fine, it was just a bit weak all things considered, even with the very strong last 4 songs ...
1. Fiery Crash
2. Masterswarm
3. Opposite Day
4. Fitz and the Dizzyspells
5. Oh No
6. Effigy
7. Not a Robot, But a Ghost
8. Anonanimal
9. Imitosis
10. Scythian Empires
11. Tables and Chairs
12. Fake Palindromes
Kings of Leon were one of the closing bands. I saw them way back when at the Exit/In in Nashville when they were still a ragged, Southern boogie band. And they were good. Now, they are a stadium-ready band with every life of blood and spit drained out of classics like "Molly's Chamber," which was their fourth song and the last one we could tolerate. We walked over and caught a few songs of Depeche Mode's set instead, and they killed. But we had a long (45 minute) ride on the blue line back out close to O'Hare, so we didn't make it to "Personal Jesus," sadly.
Day Two - Saturday
We started Saturday with another "tradition" for us in Chicago, brunch at the Southport Grocery. Their grilled coffeecake haunts my dreams, I tell you.
We started a much hotter and sunnier Saturday with the Constantines (so overlooked and maligned) on a small side stage. Their release Shine a Light got killer coverage on its release and is a standout from this decade. They brought their postpunk-meets-Springsteen growl fiercely including the classics "Nightime Anytime It's Alright" and "Young Lions."We stayed at the same stage for a fun if slightly ragged/uneven set from Ida Maria. The end of the set was the highlight and had the "hits" ... "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" and "Oh My God." Plus she ended with a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog," which can hardly go wrong ...
We migrated to the big stages on the north side again (our usual hangout for the festival, really) to catch the end of Los Campesinos! doing a Pavement cover ("Box Elder") and then for a really strong set from Robert Earl Keen. I've always liked him fine, but he just sounded perfect under the sun and with a beer in my hand. Great set including "Gringo Honeymoon," "Feelin' Good Again," "Amarillo Highway" and "The Road Goes on Forever."
Next was a usually dependable, fun festival band, Arctic Monkeys. And they were awful - no energy, terrible song selection, etc. No "When the Sun Goes Down" or "Fake Tales of San Francisco" ... not even "A Certain Romance." They did cover Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand," but it was just odd rather than good.
On the other hand, Santigold was terrific on the sidestage, playing all the hits, of course, but working in a lot of odd tunes, as well, including a great cover of the Cure's "Killing an Arab." Her good songs ("Lights Out" especially) are just fantastic.
We were pumped for TV on the Radio on the main stage, and they were also terrible. Just shambles. We left after 20 minutes or so and made it over to see some of Animal Collective's set on the south side. It was also shambles, just a big mess out of which "Fireworks" finally emerged at some point (by which I didn't care anyway). I don't think that they are a great live experience, personally, but I think that's just my own proclivities toward real instruments, etc.
Tool was about to get started on the big stage on the south, so we scurries away out of fear and saw a few tunes from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. Again, it just wasn't completely clicking. They sounded fine but a bit small for such a big stage at night like that. It was our bedtime, so we again beat the crowd out ...
Day Three - Sunday
Another nice day and not as brutally hot as Saturday, as I recall. We started with a nice shaded bluegrass treat from the Greencards, whom I had seen at Douglas Corner Cafe in Nashville many moons ago. They've gone much more newgrass as opposed to bluegrass, but it was nice and a relaxing start to the end of this fest. We kind of didn't want to leave the shade at this point, but the music called ...We hung south side this time, first seeing the Airborne Toxic Event on the big stage (meh) and then kind of catching Dan Deacon on the side stage (too much ... definitely not my speed). Then we settled in for a very nice, fun set from Vampire Weekend. I saw them in February 2008 in Columbus, and they have gotten sooooo much better live since then. Again, a very fun set with a very large crowd ...
1. White Sky
2. Mansard Roof
3. Stand Corrected
4. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
5. Campus
6. Bryn
7. Boston
8. Run
9. A-Punk
10. M79
11. One (Blake's Got a New Face)
12. Cousins
13. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance
14. Oxford Comma
15. Walcott
We then made the very long trek to the north stages (literally almost a mile, I'd bet ... Grant Park is not small) to catch the last half of Dan Auerbach's set. It was way more straight blues rock a la Black Crowes than I expected. I think the drummer from My Morning Jacket is rocking it with him, too. Fine ... not great.
Then came Lou Reed, a personal hero. And he was beyond awful. Just a joke. Started 15 petulant minutes late, seemed totally unconnected to what was going on around him, had what seemed like 17 dudes playing bad bar band style music behind him. And he ran 20 minutes over, forcing Band of Horses on the side stage to possibly cut their set short.
1. Sweet Jane
2. Senselessly Cruel
3. Dirty Blvd
4. Waves of Fear
5. Mad
6. Paranoia Key of E
7. Waiting for the Man
8. Walk on the Wild Side
So Band of Horses are forced to come out 20 minutes late, and I'm not happy. They were a big reason for me coming, and they come out opening with "The First Song" (appropriately enough) and sounding huge and great. But by the time 8:30 (the supposed end of their set) came, they just pushed through until almost 9:00, despite the fact that Jane's Addiction started on the big stage. Ben Bridwell commented that they'd probably never play Lolla again, but he seemed rapturous, coming out in the crowd and just basking in the whole experience. It was the set of the weekend for me and quite magical ... just watching this clip of "The First Song" below (which is of great quality) gives me the chills now ...
1. The First Song
2. The Great Salt Lake
3. Is There a Ghost
4. Weed Party
5. Islands on the Coast
6. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
7. Untitled
8. Marry Song
9. Window Blues (Western version)
10. No Ones Gonna Love You
11. The Funeral
12. Wicked Gil
13. Ode to LRC
14. The General Specific
We stuck around at the end for some of Jane's Addiction's set ... it was also a bit of a joke. All glam and over the top, no substance or whatever made them great back in the 90's. Stephen Perkins is a jaw-dropping drummer, though. But we were quickly bored and made out way out ...
The shows were hit or miss, but what a great excuse to hang in Chicago and drink some beers in the sun ...
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