Lollapalooza 2008

19Aug08

Had I not won tickets to the lollapalooza festival in Chicago, I would not have been in attendance, but as it stands I not only got tickets, but I got free entry to the highly exclusive Lolla Lounge. Free beer (bud/budlight, though who am i to complain about free beer, let alone free anything), free wine, free vodka/Southern Comfort, and air conditioned bathrooms to boot. It should be gathered I will report as much as I can in this synopsis. However, I was obviously shithoused for the better part of the weekend.

I exited the plane and entered the gates honestly not really knowing what to expect. I had been to Lollapalooza years ago, with Incubus and Queens of the Stone Age were there, and when it was a traveling series and when it was driven by straight rock. Since then, it has transformed into what seems an indierock stationary circus. A whole bunch of bands I had heard of and if I were more diligent would have listened to before the festival in preperation, but there’s more excitement in hearing the first thing about a band when you’re hearing them live. So when I saw Bang Camaro, I didn’t have to worry about Pitchfork or anyone’s predisposed influence on my ears, I just heard noise. Nothing to call home about in either extreme. Really, enough for me to remember that I didn’t enjoy them at all without any long lasting recollection of how they sounded specifically (count like 30 beers into the festival already, and it was 2 hours after gates).

The festival guide and scheduler was great, and laid out in such an obvious manner such that everyone could easily plan their day, with the show matrix shown in absolute geographical order, from north to south. And the idea that the larger bands, or larger stages let’s say, did not have overlapping sets, such that the Bud Light stage facing the larger Playstation 3 stage alternated who was playing so as not to compete with each other. The same thing on the South side, and the considerably larger portion of the grounds; the Myspace stage facing the behomoth AT&T stage alternated so you could listen to the Toadies while you were trying to maneuver close the stage for Rage Against the Machine. Perry’s stage was kind of a wash. I didn’t particularly see anyone in there for the greater part of the weekend, except for the “Special Guest” with Perry Farrell, who turned out to be Slash! Truth be told, I saw him later on the Kidz stage, the stage and area specifically for kids…duh, and his performance from a distance was lackluster…but it’s Slash. I remain, probably the coolest Jew ever, except for Moses or the RamBam. It was and is a great idea to have a kids area, and by and large it worked out very well keeping families apart from the hooligans and the opposite. But putting Slash on the kids stage…well, the no smoking rules of the Kidz area were pretty much dropped. Oh well, they gotta learn to start smoking sometime.

The Enemy UK made me sad. They looked like they were 12, had a little bit more musical talent than I do (keep in mind you’re reading my writing, not listening to my music) and just…blah. I didn’t respect them, I feel like they were just put on the bill at the last minute, which is probably incorrect, but I hope that’s true. They didn’t offer anything in my opinion. Sorry guys. As for Butch Walker, what the man does well, he does really well. And I respect him for that. He’s produced some really successful bands and artists, in fact, looking at his track record, it’s pretty amazing that he’s not a more famous name. The set wasn’t for me, but neither are many of the bands he’s worked with. I’ll respect the hell out of him all day, but respect don’t buy no concert t’s.

A VERY IMPORTANT SIDENOTE: I have never been anywhere with more hot girls. Both quantifiably and quantitatively. In sheer number and per gross population. Holy shit. I don’t know if it was the festival itself or Chicago. This fact alone made it one of the best weekends known to man. It stopped seeming possible after a while, but my jaw was dragging. Un. Be. Lievable.

The first day was spent meandering around the festival grounds getting acquainted with the place and consuming mass amounts of free beer at the lollalounge, (though they didn’t know our names, they knew our faces after hour one). After that, we stood to watch the Black Keys and the Raconteurs. Both put on great performances as always. This being my first time watching Raconteurs, I was doubtful. For whatever reason, I was always skeptical of them. It felt like just another meaningless progression of radio rock, the same way Velvet Revolver sucks. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. They put on such an amazing show. that. It sucks we had to leave early to go see Radiohead at the other side of Grant Park.

My high school years were spent defending myself against everyone saying that Radiohead was the best band in the world, so it’s always been hard for me to hear them objectively, especially since for most of the set, I was passed out in the finally dying sun. Fireworks behind me and over the lake woke me up, and it was a pretty amazing feeling. I finally got up and went out of the LollaLounge to watch the show with the rest of the commoners for the encore, and though the song selection was awesome (even for not a fan), I felt like the last song, Idioteque, was a sore note to end on, and would have been much better finishing without it. Their use of the television screens on both sides were truly incidiary and though the sound quality was good, audio levels were awful, the worst of the entire weekend. It clearly had nothing to do with the stage as earlier in the day Holy Fuck put on a loud ass shaking performance for a band I had only heard of (but damn if it didn’t make me want to say “I’m excited for Holy Fuck” for the preceding weeks. Sometimes all you need is a silly name.)

Day 2 to come.

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