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Concert Review: Lollapalooza Day 1

Sarah — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:39:08 +0000

For being a person who hates a) large crowds, b) large drunk crowds, c) heat, d) the outdoors, and e) being outdoors in the oppressive summer heat with large crowds of drunk people, a big festival like Lollapalooza has all of the makings of a nightmare. Which is why, for the first three summers I lived here (2006-2008), I resolutely ignored the festival despite some killer lineups. I changed my tune after going on one day last year and actually enjoying myself. So, despite my better judgment, I went in for a three day pass this year. And, while I admit that I had my moments of being a diva, I’m pretty sure that I’ll do it all over again next year.

After some waiting-in-line induced grumpiness (FYI, having your wristband scanners go down at precisely the time doors open is not a good way to start off a festival), we headed over to the Adidas MEGA stage to what was left of B.o.B‘s set. It was clear from the second you could get a glimpse of the field that no one had anticipated “Airplanes” becoming one of the summer’s biggest hits. The crowd was massive, and this was practically at the crack of dawn in Lollapalooza time. While B.o.B is definitely a rap/r&b artist, based on this performance, he’s could easily be placed in the category of rock star, based on the time he spent behind a guitar, singing. The crowd went wild for “Airplanes”, and then, just to throw a surprise in there, he closed his set with what he called one of his favorite songs: MGMT’s “Kids”. (And I’ll say now that I enjoyed his performance loads more than MGMT’s on Sunday.)

The next act we caught was across the park at the Playstation stage: Los Amigos Invisibles, a Venezuelan band whose style has been called “space-funk acid-jazz”. I don’t know what that means, exactly, but coming into the set with no expectations, I was surprised at how entertained I was. The music is simple and the beats often stay the same, but they kept the attention of a noontime crowd who appeared to be largely unfamiliar with their music. (Except for the people up front waving a Venezuelan flag. I see what you did there.) When their set was nearly finished, we ambled northwards to the Budweiser stage for Chicago native Mavis Staples’ set.

The 71-year old gospel legend seems a strange choice for a rock festival, particularly sandwiched between the funk of Los Amigos Invisibles and the southern rock of Drive-By Truckers. But Staples delivered an hour of powerful music in one of my favorite sets of of the festival. Her music is passionate and soulful, something readily apparent even if you aren’t into the religious message of the lyrics. Staples’ very presence is powerful, one that speaks of decades of fighting for equality and sharing her message and faith. Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) produced Staples’ upcoming album (You Are Not Alone) and came out to join her on guitar for a few songs. Despite fans going crazy for Tweedy, the show wasn’t about him in the least, and he was perfectly content to stand in the background and play for her.

Next, it was back across the field for Drive-By Truckers’ set. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy their set as much as I’d anticipated. The performance was great, technically speaking. No botched notes or other cock-ups which take me out of the performance. I just found it to be a little dull. Maybe it was the oppressive heat or my impending sunburn or the fact that I was starting to get hungry again, but I just wasn’t sold.

I left near the end of their set to go snag a spot in the grass at the Budweiser stage for The New Pornographers, instead. I saw them last time they were in Chicago, but sans Neko Case (broken foot) and Dan Bejar (being Dan Bejar, I guess), and while the performance was good, it was a little dull without the oddball humor of Case (or the oddball antics of Bejar). (Although, that show did make me into an Okkervil River fan; go search on Youtube to see Will Sheff step in for the absent Bejar on “Myriad Harbour”, it’s a real winner.) With the full crew at Lollapalooza, however, the band ran through a whole list of favorites, both old and new, starting out with “Sing Me Spanish Techno” and including some of the more memorable tracks off of their latest album, Together. Their set wasn’t about being flashy or pulling out surprises; it was about great music from a tight band, and they absolutely delivered in their own humble way.

The rest of the afternoon was a time for rest and food and more rest. We wandered off to eat and wound up watching Matt & Kim’s performance on one of the jumbo screens set up in the food area. While I’m not very familiar with their music (lo-fi dance punk is not really on my musical radar), their performance absolutely won me over. The music is simple, but Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino have an infectious energy and playful chemistry which makes them a joy to watch. Kim looks like she’s having the time of her life up on stage, while simultaneously looking like she could definitely kick your ass if she had to.

Eventually, the time came to work our way into the crowd over at the Parkways stage. There wasn’t much else I was interested in seeing before Lady Gaga’s show, anyway. We caught the end of Hot Chip‘s set, which was actually really good live, although I’ve been pretty indifferent to their music in the past.

And then, of course, Lady Gaga. Love her or hate her, you have to admit that she makes people talk. In a time where so much mainstream pop music is forgettable (and when even Gaga’s music isn’t terribly innovative), she knows how to draw attention to herself and keep herself in the spotlight. Whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing is your call. The woman is definitely talented, in my opinion; it’s just that a lot of that gets lost in the spectacle that is Gaga.

I wasn’t as in love with her show as I’d hoped to be, however. It was a 60- or 90-minute set drawn out to fill two hours (the running time of her two albums combined is 90 minutes). I don’t know if there have been other Lollapalooza headliners in the past who have so slim a body of work. Everything was over the top, from the costumes to the theatrics to the scripted interludes, sometimes distractingly so. There was plenty of filler, whether due to costume changes, set changes, or long pauses by Gaga to remind everyone watching that they should be free to be themselves, and that three years ago, she was playing to a disinterested crowd on the BMI stage, and now, she had 80,000 people watching her headline Lollapalooza. (Side note: to the young man behind me who yelled out “Over 9,000!”, I salute you.) Her talent shone through during piano-driven ballads “Speechless” and new song “You and I”, and for just a few minutes when she brought Lady Starlight out on stage, friend and onetime collaborator, you caught a glimpse of something human underneath the carefully constructed persona the New York twentysomething has adopted.

Check out my photos from Friday on Flickr, and stay tuned for reviews of Saturday and Sunday.

Scheduling for Lollapalooza is so hard.

Sarah — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:50:48 +0000

I am having a love/hate relationship with this year’s Lollapalooza schedule. It’s not like last year, where I was able to fill every inch of my day with bands. But maybe that’s a good thing — more time for aimlessly wandering from stage to stage, more opportunities to discover something new.

Here’s where you’re most likely to find me this year:

Friday
B.o.B, 11:30-12:15, adidas MEGA stage. Not gonna lie, I really like that song “Airplanes”.
Los Amigos Invisibles, Playstation stage, or The Walkmen, adidas MEGA stage, 1:00-2:00. I’m torn on this one. I’m dragging my husband with me to Lolla this year, and he, like Los Amigos Invisibles, is Venezuelan, so we kind of want to see them. But boy, would I like to see the Walkmen.
Mavis Staples, 2:00-3:00, Budweiser stage. She’s a legend, and her new album is full of fellow Chicagoans like Jeff Tweedy, Kelly Hogan, and Nora O’Connor.
Drive-By Truckers, 3:00-4:00, Playstation stage. I missed them earlier this year because of my dislike of the Vic. Not going to miss out on them this time.
The New Pornographers, 4:00-5:00, Budweiser stage. Last time I saw them, Neko Case had just dropped out of the tour because she broke her foot. TNP with Neko >>>> TNP without Neko.
Lady Gaga, 8:00-10:00, Parkways stage. Shut up, I am totally excited to see Gaga. Don’t you judge me.

Saturday
Who’s got two thumbs and might be sleeping in on Saturday? This girl. I’m going to spend some time over the next couple of days getting to know the morning acts to see if there’s anything that really interests me. Otherwise, I may just be wandering aimlessly until the afternoon. And then, of course, from the afternoon on, my day turns into a mess of needing to clone myself to see everything I want to see.
Blues Traveler, 1:45-2:45, Parkways stage. I love me some harmonica.
Stars, 2:15-3:15, Budweiser stage.
Dan Black, 3:00-3;45, BMI stage.
Gogol Bordello, 3:45-4:45, Parkways stage. I didn’t make it to their show at the Congress earlier this year. I will not be thwarted this time.
Deer Tick, 5:00-6:00, Sony bloggie stage.
Metric, 5:15-6:15, Playstation stage.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, 6:30-7:30, Sony bloggie stage.
Green Day, 7:45-10:00, Parkways stage.
Phoenix, 8:30-10:00, Budweiser stage. The good thing about the headliners not starting at the same time is that I’ll be able to see a little bit of Green Day’s set before wandering back to Phoenix.

Sunday
The Antlers, 12:15-1:00, Budweiser stage, or Nneka, Parkways stage. I’m so torn! I love both of them, I’ve seen them both live before, so I’ve got no idea where to go.
Blitzen Trapper, 2:00-3:00, Budweiser stage.
Mumford & Sons, 3:00-4:00, Playstation stage. After Lady Gaga, they may just be the band I’m most excited to see, even though I just saw them a few months ago. I love these guys. I’m just sad they’re not going to hang out at the autograph tent, although this may be for the best, because I may have a hard time containing my excitement otherwise. (I did manage to have the self control to not pounce Andrew Bird last year, but my restraint is not infinite.)
Erykah Badu, 5:00-6:00, adidas MEGA stage. Let’s see what kind of crazy shit she comes up with.
The National, 7:15-8:30, Playstation stage. To be honest, I’ve never really loved their live music, from the bootlegs I’ve heard. Maybe this will change my mind.
Arcade Fire, 8:30-10:00, Budweiser stage. I’m also not a huge Arcade Fire fan, but I’m really not interested in seeing Soundgarden, so indie-hipster-whatever central it is.

Lollapalooza 2010 Lineup

Sarah — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:14:40 +0000

In case you took an internet hiatus overnight, here’s some “news” for you: Lollapalooza’s lineup for the 2010 festival has been released in full, including all the letters and &s and *’s, because god forbid they write out Fuck Buttons on their website. The lineup had, of course, already been guessed to about 90% completion by the internet, thanks to leaks about the headliners and all those handy letters that Lolla put out for their Wheel of Fortune-esque teasers.

Aside from the fact that I’m always conflicted about Lollapalooza (I’ve lived here since 2006 and finally got around to dragging myself to the festival last year for the first time), the lineup seems a bit “…meh” to me. The headliners overall aren’t as huge as I’d come to expect from the festival, and the supporting tiers seem a bit thin. There aren’t a whole lot of acts who I’m dying to see, and a lot of the acts I’m excited about are actually ones who I’ve already seen (or will have seen by the time Lolla arrives). And I’m sure someone else can analyze this more in-depth, but there’s a huge lack of local music on the line-up. Lolla’s never made any pretense about being a local music festival — it’s a huge (inter)national festival which just happened to find its home in Chicago — but it would be nice to see some more nods towards its host city in its programming.

But, I’ll admit it, even though half of the internet is all OMG LOLLA SOLD OUT, I’m pretty excited that Lady Gaga is one of the headliners. Go ahead, take away any music street cred I had left, but I am absolutely going to be at her set. There, yeah, I said it. (Also, it will be interesting to see how she adapts her notoriously over-the-top stage show to fit the throw-and-go nature of Lollapalooza.)

So now, of course, we just have to wait (and wait, and wait) for the set schedules to come out. (Consequence of Sound has an unconfirmed day-by-day break-down.) Because, knowing my luck, all of the bands I want to see will be playing at the same time.

The lineup is under the jump for your perusal, in case you still haven’t seen it.

Soundgarden, Green Day, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, the Strokes, Phoenix, Social Distortion, MGMT, Jimmy Cliff, Hot Chip, the Black Keys, the National, Spoon, Devo, Cypress Hill, Cut Copy, the New Pornographers, Erykah Badu, Slightly Stoopid, Grizzly Bear, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, Wolfmother, Yeasayer, X Japan, MUTEMATH, Metric, Dirty Projectors, AFI, Mavis Staples, Matt & Kim, the xx, Drive-By Truckers, Blues Traveler.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, the Temper Trap, Jamie Lidell, Frightened Rabbit, F Buttons, Deer Tick, Blitzen Trapper, Stars, Raphael Saadiq, the Cribs, Minus the Bear, Switchfoot, the Walkmen, Mumford & Sons, Wild Beasts, Rogue Wave, Los Amigos Invisibles, the Big Pink, the Dodos, Hockey, Cymbals Eat Guitars, B.o.B, Dawes, Warpaint, the Antlers, the Soft Pack, Rebelution, Balkan Beat Box.

Wavves, American Bang, the Ike Reilly Assassination, Company of Thieves, Nneka, Harlem, the Constellations, Miniature Tigers, Mimicking Birds, the Kissaway Trail, HEALTH, Javelin, the Morning Benders, Foxy Shazam, Violent Soho, Royal Bangs, NEON TREES, Freelance Whales, Semi Precious Weapons, Dan Black, The Band of Heathens, Dragonette, My Dear Disco, Shawn Fisher, Neon Hitch, Skybox, The Ettes, Jukebox the Ghost, These United States, MyNameIsJohnMichael.