Lollapalooza reviews & comments

double post - deleted

Originally posted by xneverwherex:

Originally posted by eros:
Chicagoist has a pretty good wrapup of the whole thing.

thanks for the link. loved their write up of it. my only complaint - their photos dont list who any of the artists are. the only thing i do know - they are bands i didnt see, so was curious :) ah well.

if you put your mouse over the image and wait for the imbedded ALT tag to appear, it'll tell you who is who in the pic.

Friday:
Polyphonic Spree, SSPU, Black Keys (at least in the background whilst eating), LCD, Daft Punk

Saturday:
Tokyo Police Club, Tapes n Tapes, (lunch), Cold War Kids, Roots, Snow Patrol, Muse

Sunday:
Amy Winehouse, (lunch), Kings of Leon, !!!, My Morning Jacket, PJ

Highlights for me - Polyphonic Spree, Daft Punk, Tokyo Police Club, Cold War Kids, MUSE, Kings of Leon, !!!, PJ

I was also struck by the really great "vibe" that seemed to permeate the whole weekend. Everyone - from the beer vendors, to the randoms we met in the crowd, to the waitress at the pizza place - was as nice as can be. I also didn't see as much of the drunken meathead contingent as I was expecting. Quite a refreshing change from the east coast attitude we often get around here.

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by xneverwherex:

Originally posted by eros:
Chicagoist has a pretty good wrapup of the whole thing.

thanks for the link. loved their write up of it. my only complaint - their photos dont list who any of the artists are. the only thing i do know - they are bands i didnt see, so was curious :) ah well.

if you put your mouse over the image and wait for the imbedded ALT tag to appear, it'll tell you who is who in the pic.

even doing that on the first ones it still says img_6006. perhaps some pics do have it labeled. and yes, the spree on page 3 of photos are labeled accordingly. but thanks for the heads up, although i did know that :) i use flickr for all my photos as well, just need to do a massive update, since ive not added concert photos since march. huge huge backlog.

thoughts and comments on lolla day 3:

due to various family snafus and the need to get the girlfriend to the airport, i didn't make it to grant park until iggy came on. pissed me off, i was looking forward to catching rodrigo y gabriela and wouldn't have minded a lil'dose of blue october's brand of pop songs. grr.

iggy was a ton of fun, not quite as much as at the club earlier this year (obviously) but he and the crowd were feeding off each other. the stooges were a huge draw, having got there just after they started it was near impossible to fight my way to the front as i would have liked to do. mike watt still makes the most ridiculous faces when he plays bass.

"best performance of the day" might have to go to my mom. yup, mommy saw that the GF left her bracelet behind and decided she wanted to check out the show. i was afraid that iggy might be a bit much for her, but other than his dropping a few F-bomb she was really impressed at his energy. next up was peter bjorn and john who were quite good, better than at coachella. something went wrong with the PA during their third or fourth song and it went silent. disappointed, we moved on to !!! and proceeded to dance like sillies. at some point PBJ's audio probs were worked out and they started up again. i trekked back to catch the rest of their set (including a rendition of "young folks" that appeared to include live whistling) while mom decided that !!! was more her groove - made me feel old. after nic & co finished up, mom had had her dose and headed home.

my plan was to check out some modest mouse but i was intercepted by flosstradamus' DJ set - which utterly ruled. their basslines were very reminiscent of daft punk at times, remix/mashup highlights included "baby got back", "don't stop believing", "jump around" and some jay-z tunes that made half the crowd go ape-shit. powerful stuff, punters danced up a storm. i tore my self away long enough to confirm that they were putting on a better show than MM, then returned. if MMJ was closer i would have ran over to check out some of that, but they were at the opposite end of the festival.

i caught a few songs by cafe tacuba - latino punk rawk! crowd was probably the craziest i saw at lolla. while fun, i left after 3 songs in order to grab a last drink and get myself in position for pearl jam. the sight of ~50k (?) people gathered in the main field in preparation for PJ was a very impressive sight. i managed to grab a spot close to the soundboard.

PJ started off strong but floundered by the end. it was a good enough show but not great, not how i would have chosen to end the festival. the fireworks going off behind the stage were fun. they finished off with ben harper joining them for a disjointed version of neil young's "rocking in the free world"… meh.

festival high point: daft punk. simply amazing. i'm now seriously considering vegoose if only to see them again. other highlights were muse, flosstradamus, regina spector and the rapture.

main complaint was bleed between stages, which could be easily solved by having fewer filler acts and thus needing fewer stages. also, the corporate vibe of lolla kinda bugged. seems as if everything was "brought to you by" some company. somehow other big festivals manage to keep sponsorship tasteful and subtle.

overall i think i liked coachella a tad better but it's a tough call - i had a great time at lolla too. the chicago skyline makes for an amazing backdrop.

one thing that made my lolla experience unforgettable: coming home every night to home cooking :) home-made carrot cake, home-made keylime pie, mom's cookies… *siiigh*

oh sweet! i found my friends (including kurosawa) in the !!! photos. man we were close to the front. sadly, i cant make out myself as i am way too short! :) <img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1240/1040535495_e9bee0fd0d.jpg?v=0" alt=" - " />

and sweetcell - those filler acts you spoke of - were some of the best acts out there. the bmi stage hardly bled into the other ones, but regardless that was where some of the best (and smallest) bands could be heard. id hardly consider getting rid of them, but maybe the scheduling is what needs to be worked on. some of the best bands out there could be heard on the really tiny stages. the biggest snafu was putting cold war kids on the adidas stage (or whichever small stage it was). that was awful!

Uh huh…that's why you had to cancel dinner with me at Miller's Pub…I won't forget that!
j/k

Originally posted by sweetcell:

one thing that made my lolla experience unforgettable: coming home every night to home cooking :) home-made carrot cake, home-made keylime pie, mom's cookies… *siiigh*

new: lolla 2007 "a day in the life" website with links to setlists (way cool), pix and blogs.

eventually some footage should be available in the att blueroom archive. don't expect daft punk, PJ or muse though :(

Originally posted by wanderlust featuring j. marshmallow:
Uh huh…that's why you had to cancel dinner with me at Miller's Pub…I won't forget that!
j/k

heh, sorry about that dude - but one bite of mom's garlic pasta thingy that she made, and i knew i made the right decision. besides, despite the 15-minute walk home i was served faster than i would have been at miller's :p

They has Pearl Jam in the Blue Room ,in their entirety.

Originally posted by sweetcell:
new: lolla 2007 "a day in the life" website with links to setlists (way cool), pix and blogs.

eventually some footage should be available in the att blueroom archive. don't expect daft punk, PJ or muse though :(

Originally posted by wanderlust featuring j. marshmallow:
Uh huh…that's why you had to cancel dinner with me at Miller's Pub…I won't forget that!
j/k

heh, sorry about that dude - but one bite of mom's garlic pasta thingy that she made, and i knew i made the right decision. besides, despite the 15-minute walk home i was served faster than i would have been at miller's :p

Loved the whole weekend. Already looking forward to next year. You just can't beat that location.

Friday - The Fratellis, Ghostland Observatory, Colour Revolt, The Polyphonic Spree, Sparklehorse, Inward Eye, Wax on Radio, The Black Keys, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk

Saturday - Dear and the Headlights, Matt & Kim, I'm From Barcelona, Tapes N Tapes, Kevin Michael, Aqueduct, Cage the Elephant, The Roots, Back Door Slam, Snow Patrol, Interpol

Sunday - The Graduate, White Rabbits, The Cribs, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Lupe Fiasco, Los Campesinos, Apostle of Hustle, !!!, TV on the Radio, Pearl Jam

The secret of the fest was definitely the BMI stage. Terrific sets by bands that were thrilled to be there.

Highlights: Interpol (new songs sound great live), Dear and the Headlights (was bummed I didn't see more), Inward Eye (great energy), Lupe Fiasco (finally got to see him!), Polyphonic Spree, I'm From Barcelona, Rodrigo y Gabriela

Disappointments: Colour Revolt, Aqueduct

Originally posted by xneverwherex:
even doing that on the first ones it still says img_6006. perhaps some pics do have it labeled. and yes, the spree on page 3 of photos are labeled accordingly. but thanks for the heads up, although i did know that :)

sorry, my bad - i didn't realize that you were talking about the flickr links, i thought you were asking about the 5 pix embedded in the actual write-up. silly me :p feel free to ask here, i'm sure someone will know who is who.

Originally posted by xneverwherex:
and sweetcell - those filler acts you spoke of - were some of the best acts out there. the bmi stage hardly bled into the other ones, but regardless that was where some of the best (and smallest) bands could be heard. id hardly consider getting rid of them, but maybe the scheduling is what needs to be worked on. some of the best bands out there could be heard on the really tiny stages. the biggest snafu was putting cold war kids on the adidas stage (or whichever small stage it was). that was awful!

yeah, CWK on the Citi stage was a mistake, crazy crowded for their set. the BMI and moto mindfielf stages was well-placed with trees to block some sounds, but the other small ones (citi and playstation) were at times useless unless you were close up and right in front of the PA. i have no doubt that some of the "smaller"/earlier in the day bands kicked it, but a lot of them blew or were uninteresting. IMHO, and feel free to disaggree, they need to cut back - get rid of citi and playstation. implied is having less bands play. and again, personally, if i had to chose which bands to cut to make a more compact schedule i'd trim away at the top of the schedule, not the bottom.

bleeding was a generalized problem - i remember clearly hearing interpol's kick drum during muse's set, and they were at opposite sides of the venue! a solution there, potentially, would be to angle at&t the budlight stages to they're in the opposite corners of the adidas and myspace stages, which would eliminate the straight-shot sound corridor that the two main stages had between each other.

typing all those corporate names to describe the stages bugs me.

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
They has Pearl Jam in the Blue Room ,in their entirety.

they has? oh, cool, i was mistaken then about PJ based on an earlier post with a blueroom schedule that didn't include PJ. is the PJ set available right now? i can't seem to find it - maybe i need to be logged in.

i thought they usually only have 3 or 4 songs per artist in the archive and not full sets.

The worst act of Lolla 2007 was I'M FROM BARCELONA.

http://centralvillage.blogs.com/

Originally posted by wanderlust featuring j. marshmallow:
Friday:

Daft Punk: I know those two robots aren't doing anything but scratching their balls behing that huge ass triangle. Still, it was an amazing visual show. I can't imagine seeing them more than once, though. B+

Actually Daft Punk is probably one of the only techno/house groups that recreates the music instead of just spinning records, so it makes it that much more amazing. Behind that pyramid it looks like a cockpit of an airplane.

They had. But you're right. They only archive a few songs, and then not from all the artists. At least that's the way it was with Bonaroo.

Originally posted by sweetcell:

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
They has Pearl Jam in the Blue Room ,in their entirety.

they has? oh, cool, i was mistaken then about PJ based on an earlier post with a blueroom schedule that didn't include PJ. is the PJ set available right now? i can't seem to find it - maybe i need to be logged in.

i thought they usually only have 3 or 4 songs per artist in the archive and not full sets.

I like the sound of "They has" better.

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
They had. But you're right. They only archive a few songs, and then not from all the artists. At least that's the way it was with Bonaroo.

Originally posted by wanderlust featuring j. marshmallow:
The worst act of Lolla 2007 was I'M FROM BARCELONA.

http://centralvillage.blogs.com/

I agree. Made me throwup in my mouth

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
They had. But you're right. They only archive a few songs,

with PJ, that's no great less… fun show to be at, but not much to listen to after the fact. "rearview mirror" and "why go home" were really good, a few decent songs, and a lot of filler.

Originally posted by wanderlust featuring j. marshmallow:
I like the sound of "They has" better.

<img src="http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/1174328173-notcookie.jpg" alt=" - " />

I loved the festival. Having been to Coachella & SXSW often - I think this one is better. Better logistically in all ways.

Only bad thing - 90+ degrees in Chicago is worse than 105 in Indio.

I'm probably also as tired as I've ever been from music.

Here's my quick recap:

THURSDAY
Pearl Jam @ Vic Theatre - solid B.
My spot was crowded - couldn't see well. And my show partner didn't know half the songs. Alone & upfront - it would have been an A.

FRIDAY
Ghostland Observatory - B
One of my favorite discoveries of the festival.

Ted Leo - C-

Son Volt - C+

Viva Voce - B

Against Me! - B

Silversun Pickups - B+

Black Keys - B

LCD Soundsystem - B

DAFT PUNK - A+ transcendental at times.

SATURDAY

I'm From Barcelona - D

Tape 'n Tapes - B+

(bits of Silverchair & Cold War Kids)

Lady GaGa - Music C- but really can't beat disco strippers in Iron Maiden vests

The Roots - C+

Regina Spektor - B+

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - A

3 songs of Spoon. How can I LOVE this band on record & always be so bored when I see them live?!

Interpol - B
(Put the White Stripes in this slot & you've got a near perfect festival for me.)

SUNDAY

Juliette & the Licks - B
Better than you'd ever believe. Check out the song Hot Kiss with D Grohl on drums.

Dax Riggs - B- (ex-Deadboy Elephantmen)

Small bits of each of the next 2:
Heartless Bastards - B
David Vandervelde - B+

Rodrigo y Gabriela - B+

Amy Winehouse - C- BORING
Left to go check out Black Angels which was what I really wanted anyway

Black Angels - B+

Here is where things got very tricky for me. It was obvious that a BIG crowd was already assembling for PJ. I was getting anxious and wanted to get there early. I really wanted to see IGGY & Modest Mouse. But instead trekked back to the other end to get a good spot:

Kings of Leon - B

!!! - A (another unexpected highlight.)

My Morning Jacket - B

(very unhappy to miss TVOTR)

Pearl Jam - A

A great, great time. Now it's into exile for me…

- grotty

just curious - but what made everyone (that saw the show obviously) hate im from barcelona, and i guess polyphonic spree too? as i think some of you said you hated both the shows.

and if you didnt see them, and are basing it on a blog reviewer, dont bother wasting your time to tell me what said blogger wrote.