Lollapalooza Roll Call

Stuff I liked:
Booka Shade
Sharon Jones (ixkpd-bk RULED!)
Radiohead
Mark Ronson
Ting Tings
Enemy UK
Okkervil River
Bloc Party (at the HOB)
NIN
$5 beers
The very nice people of Chicago

So-so:
Black Keys (I can see why people like them, just not my cup of tea)
Flogging Molly (lots of fun, but they have 2 songs - the fast one and the slow one)
Rage (the routine is a little tired)

Ugh:
Black Kids
Office (expected Weakerthans)
Perry & Slash with no sound
Getting through the gates on Friday (took nearly an hour)
The HOB itself


All in all a great time as usual. Way more crowded than last year. I read it was sold out all three days (75K)? Chicago is a GREAT city. One of my buddies who had never been there before said "it's like New York without all the assholes". Bring on 2009!

BEST:

Gogol Bordello
Radiohead
NIN (Trent = beefcake…)
Amadou & Mariam
Explosions in the Sky
Sharon Jones
Broken Social Scene (at the Metro - the best I've seen them play)
Wilco (just the last few songs with the horns, the first half is pretty standard)
The Ting Tings
The Gutter Twins
The Kills
Margot & the Nuclear…
TORTOISE (they killed it at Millenium Park-post show)

GOOD:
The National
The Whigs
Love & Rockets
Brazilian Girls
Grizzly Bear
Broken Social Scene
Jamie Lidell
Yeasayer

THE BATHROOM BREAK BANDS:
The Go Team (she babbled)
Bloc Party (even more babble)
Cat Power
Saul Williams
Iron & Wine
Chromeo

+people of Chicago
+The METRO (what a great sounding venue!) and surrounding areas…
+getting out of Oâ??Hare airport (got there early, got an alternate flight and got bumped to Business Class!). I found out that my original flight was canceled due to weather related issues!

The lead singer of CSS made mention of a sign perhaps or something from DC. Was that you? CSS put on an awesome set. And I was prob very close to you during Radiohead, I was sitting on those stairs and had an awesome view. Went towards the food area towards the end of the set and the sound was phenomenal as well as the view.

Originally posted by ixkpd-bk:
Radiohead was an experience!

Fake Plastic Trees, No Surprises, and the fireworks and helicopter floodlights during Everything In It's Right Place really made the whole thing an EVENT. I was standing to the left of the stage, near the stairs by the restrooms and had a perfect view. Don't know why, but I was super emotional. Probably because of the back to back, "Everything In It's Right Place", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Bodysnatchers", "Videotape" combo. Thom knows how to put it on, and he laid it on thick.

Other highlights for the day were CSS, Bloc Party for the first 20 minutes I caught them, and The Greenskeepers DJ set. Missed The Kills, The Go! Team, and some other stragglers due to my late flight, but whatever.

Cat Power was HORRIBLE. God, so fucking boring. She did a million covers and ONE original (Metal Heart) before I left. I wasn't expecting her to revive the whole "Jukebox" thing for this show, but bam, that's what I got. Big whoop.

Radiohead's set
sounds good!

Originally posted by ixkpd-bk:
Soooo, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings invited me on stage. I did my thing, no doubt. Highlight of Day 2 if you ask me!

Where you the guy dancing with her?!?! That was a hoot. At first folks with me were wondering if that was part of the show, but the casual wear (while the rest of the band was dressed up) and the, ah, so-so dance moves convinced us it was someone from the audience. FANTASTIC, that must have been a blast.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
Iron & Wine is putting me to sleep as we speak.

Oh my god, I&W put me into such a deep sleep that I thought I may need to leave and go to my hotel room for an official nap. Thank god Flogging Molly was next to kick the sleep out of my eyes….

<img src="http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd120/hipsterrunoff/2733689746_0434e31f68.jpg" alt=" - " />
'so there I was…dancing at a Girl Talk concert in my favourite AA v-neck and consistently being in the top 10% of 'recognizing samples before any one else could.' I felt something come over me–like I was a part of something authentic and unique for the first time. I looked up, and I saw Girl Talk's beautiful blue eyes. I couldn't believe the genius behind 'Night Ripper' was reaching out his hand to me. He invited me on his boat. I asked him where we were going. He looked at me straight in the eye and said, "We are going on a journey to find out what it means to be alt. We also might stop by Chili's. I love SXSWstrn Eggrolls." '

Highlights for me:

White Lies @ Empty Bottle - great club, great sound and cheap beer - and my new favorite band! Awesome set. Meeting White Lies was just awesome. Talked to the guys for a bit and they were the nicest of people.

Radiohead - fake plastic trees/everything in its right place with fireworks (near having an emotional breakdown)

Electric Touch
CSS
Booka Shade
K'naan
Innerparty System
Mark Ronson & Phantom Planet played "California"
Chromeo
Nine Inch Nails
Explosions in the Sky
Foals
Holy Fuck
Perry Farrell (on kidzapalooza stage)
The National (only caught 3 songs - was amazing!)
Office (mostly heard them from the signing tent, but really liked what I heard)

On-The-Fence
Broken Social Scene (nice to see Amy Millan)
Love & Rockets (started out great, but I left a bit disappointed)
The Kills (such a short set! - turns out the heat ended their set early)
Kanye
The Enemy UK (theyll be awesome in a club)
Your Vegas
Okkervil River
Does It Offend You, Yeah? (were awesome by the middle/end of it)
Rogue Wave
Brazilian Girls

Who I will never see again:
Iron & Wine (i slept through most of that set - it was god-awful, boring, sleep inducing)
Black Kids
Louis XIV
Manchester Orchestra

Other things I liked:
food/drink prices
mango/strawberry banana smoothie
polite/friendly airport security
Zipcar
driving around Chicago
Wicker Park/Ukranian Village
Silversmith Hotel
The nice people I met at the festival

Things I detested:
Newark Airport/UAL - I will NEVER fly them again and I hate Newark Airport.

Weather delays going in and out of Chicago

the mean people who felt the need to shove me so hard that i now have bruises all over me (and no this wasnt for Rage Against The Machine - it was at Broken Social Scene and Your Vegas)

Not enough bathrooms/insanely long lines for them

The _long_ wait to get into the festival causing me to miss some of K'naan's set

Originally posted by xneverwherex:
The lead singer of CSS made mention of a sign perhaps or something from DC. Was that you? CSS put on an awesome set. And I was prob very close to you during Radiohead, I was sitting on those stairs and had an awesome view. Went towards the food area towards the end of the set and the sound was phenomenal as well as the view.

Originally posted by ixkpd-bk:
Radiohead was an experience!

Fake Plastic Trees, No Surprises, and the fireworks and helicopter floodlights during Everything In It's Right Place really made the whole thing an EVENT. I was standing to the left of the stage, near the stairs by the restrooms and had a perfect view. Don't know why, but I was super emotional. Probably because of the back to back, "Everything In It's Right Place", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Bodysnatchers", "Videotape" combo. Thom knows how to put it on, and he laid it on thick.

Other highlights for the day were CSS, Bloc Party for the first 20 minutes I caught them, and The Greenskeepers DJ set. Missed The Kills, The Go! Team, and some other stragglers due to my late flight, but whatever.

Cat Power was HORRIBLE. God, so fucking boring. She did a million covers and ONE original (Metal Heart) before I left. I wasn't expecting her to revive the whole "Jukebox" thing for this show, but bam, that's what I got. Big whoop.

Yep, twas me! She saw me up front, and recognized me from the DC shows. Good times!

Also worth mentioning: Leaving Midway was the 5th circle of hell. First heavy rain, then thunderstorms, then tornado warnings, then lightning storms. My flight was SUPPOSED to leave at 6:55pm, didn't leave 'til 12:45am. Fun!

awesome! i said to my friend - hey i think the guy on the 9:30 board got a shout out from CSS. It had to be him (was thinking of you) LOL. Thats quite cool.

Originally posted by ixkpd-bk:
Yep, twas me! She saw me up front, and recognized me from the DC shows. Good times!

Also worth mentioning: Leaving Midway was the 5th circle of hell. First heavy rain, then thunderstorms, then tornado warnings, then lightning storms. My flight was SUPPOSED to leave at 6:55pm, didn't leave 'til 12:45am. Fun! [/QB]

A really nice festival. I had not been to the Chicago-version Lollapalooza festival before.

Had no problems getting in. Saw a long line coming from one end of the entrance street but don't think most people saw much smaller line coming from other direction.

Great prices. Don't remember seeing 5.00 beers (if you were willing to drink the crap) at Virgin Fest, or 2.00 fries.

Not too hard getting from point A to point B, due to the many stages. If you lucked out, you could spend half the day not moving around too much.

Most of the sets I settled in for were great shows: Battles, Saul Williams, the National, Radiohead, Gogol Bordello to name a few. Boring: Cat Power and Bloc Party.

Thought NIN was OK but a bit too much with the instrumentals. Feared Radiohead would play too much new stuff (as I heard they have been doing on the new tour) but played tons that I wasn't expecting. Great performance.

Only big downer…this kind of fest is going to bring in drunk, shirtless fratboys. They were present in big numbers and really annoying. Listening to them chant "rage" for three days and watching their own brand of "moshing" - which is the most homoerotic thing I've ever seen in public, can really grind you down.

Great time though.

Originally posted by PigIron:
this kind of fest is going to bring in drunk, shirtless fratboys.

i think Rage did that, not the festival. ;)

Originally posted by very sonick:

Originally posted by PigIron:
this kind of fest is going to bring in drunk, shirtless fratboys.

i think Rage did that, not the festival. ;)

Yeah. The brah content seemed way higher thanks to RATM and to a lesser extent Radiohead. I was surprised how many I saw at Nissan in May.

The Kills AMAZING set is up at the AT&T Blue Room online. At least three songs are up now, but yesterday there were only two songs up. Maybe they're slowly and surely adding to it.