white noise

Finally, that brings me back to the last day of Lolla 09. Sunday was even hotter than the day before, with a heat index pushing close to 110, but there was also a full plate of excellent acts lined up. It would be a long, but amazing day.

Like before we got into the park about 1:00 and claimed an excellent stage side spot for Bat For Lashes. I’ve been listening to this band for a couple month and really digging her Kate Bush-esque combination of intimate, almost spooky vocals against driving rhythm and lush arrangements. Just as the set was getting underway, I noticed that our prime spot right on the rail was directly across from a massive stack of bass amps. Thankfully we had ear plugs, because the bass was so strong, I felt my insides liquefying. I guess everything worked together just right – the crushing bass, her ethereal voice, the blazing sun, and our unobstructed view – because it was awesome.

After Bat for Lashes, we walked to the next stage over to catch the second half of the Cage the Elephant show. This was a case where my expectations weren’t high at all, but I wanted to swing by and see their single “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked”. Turns out, these boys from Kentucky put on quite a show. I think I saw about four songs and the band was completely in the moment. Their lead singer went completely berserk by the end, and not only jumped the rail to crowd surf, and continue singing, with his corded mic – no, he went so far to stand up on the crowd and deliver a few lines. Epic performance, sir!

Next up was an act I had a curious interest to see, Dan Deacon. I’ve listened to some of his tracks and he does cool experimental stuff, but as a recording it’s a bit challenging. Many of his pieces percolate into huge walls of sounds and it can be fatiguing on the ears. But live, he was AWESOME. He started the set with about a dozen people on stage – primarily drummers, synths, and mallet percussion. Something about his wall of sound worked perfectly with Lolla. All those sonic textures blowing around in the big, open park. His audience grew larger and larger. And so did his band as he brought out a group of marching brass and more drummers.

Dan’s also a master of audience participation. He turned thousands of watchers into performers. At one point he orchestrated a human tunnel which grew and twisted through the throngs in the field. When the tunnel came close, I jumped in as well, first as part of an enormous conga line running through the tunnel of arms, then hands raised forming more tunnel when we reaching the end. And then back though. In the pure chaos and congestion of bodies that is Lolla, this random, but cooperative feat was just really unexpected. I started his set with with curiosity, and by the end I was blown away.

I had every intention of catching Passion Pit next, but the heat was intense and D and I were ready for a break before the evenings big shows. We spent about 45 minutes lying in the grass listening to Vampire Weekend on the next stage over. Later, as the Vampire fans cleared out from the big stage, I grabbed a sweet spot just behind a person on the rail for the next act. There are acts you never expect to see, and this was certainly one of them, Snoop Dogg.

From the moment Mr. Dogg hit the stage with “Next Episode” the party was on. The crowd that amassed was huge, absolutely going crazy, and by the low lying clouds, I’d say they made Snoop feel right at home. Classic hit after hit brought us back to the hip-hop of the 90’s. There was a full live band and DPG was on stage, backing him up like they did on The Chronic in `92. Snoop did a tribute to Tupac (actually one of my favorite rap songs), led a east side / west side (of the crowd) battle, and he even broke out a cover of House of Pain’s “Jump Around”.

And finally, the last headliner, The Killers, closed out the festival. Jane Addiction was playing at the other end of the park, but we had just seen them on the NIN|JA tour, plus we regrettably missed The Killers at Lolla 05. Their show was as grand and fun as their home city, Las Vegas. Frontman Brandon Flowers had great energy and they sounded great. D and I had a blast singing along.

Every Lollapalooza we’ve been to (4 of em now) has been a great time, but this was right up with the first one back in 1991. I think Sunday alone was worth the ticket price, not to mention we saw Depeche just 2 nights earlier. Festivals like this are truly exhausting – long days in the sun, on your feet, fighting for good vantage points, and paying too much for food. Can’t wait to do it again 😉

By Friday evening the rain had passed paving the way for hot, muggy weather on Saturday. We made our way into the park a little after 1:00, just missing the Living Things set, and took our time exploring. We checked out Green Street – Lolla’s eco-conscience vendor fair – and the Honda tent with their prize wheel and an Insight cut down the middle. Then we checked out the action at Kidzapalooza including a couple songs by the impressive 10 year-old blues guitarist, Quinn Sullivan.

A little later Atmosphere took to the big stage that DM was on the previous night. Slug and his backup, Ant, drew a big crowd and had heads noddin’ from the start in the early heat. Their set really hit a high point with shout-along “GoldLovesUgly” and the thundering bassline in “Shoulda Known”.

Keeping with hip-hop we headed over to Perry’s to catch Prophit‘s short set. Perry’s was the dance zone in the park with a cool, round stage and suspended sun screens extending in all directions. We didn’t hang out there too much through the weekend, but they did host some great DJ sets (MSTRKRFT, Diplo, Bassnectar, KiD CuDi, and so on). Prophit and his crew were pretty disjointed and sloppy, but they did please the crowd by spinning some Beastie’s “Intergalactic Planetary” and Rage Against the Machine.

After Prophit, Perry Farrel came out with his wife and a small band for a dance set. That went about as well as it sounds. It was weird, not terribly danceable, but like everything Perry does, it was a spectacle.

From Perry’s, we moved on to the other end of Grant Park (the side we’ve barely spent any time at thus far) and found it to be even more packed than the South end. We were trying to find a decent spot for Santigold, but so were about 40,000 other people. She was positioned on a side stage and with the giant crowd, should easily have been on one of the main stages. We finally caught a spot to stand with a decent line of sight, but it was probably 400 feet from the stage. Santi’s set was solid and watching people continually try to sneak in VIP and a fence jumper get chased down and cuffed wasn’t a bad side show.

From there, it was a long trek across the park to catch Lykke Li. By now the sun was really beating down (well, actually it had been for hours!). We found a nice spot of lawn to take a seat under the shade of a few trees, and even hints of a cool breeze off the lake. Paired with the Lykke’s soft rhythms, it was a great break.

With a break before the night’s headliner we grabbed a bite to eat, braved the restrooms, and headed back down to the other end to snag a good spot for the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. This was the replacement for the Beastie Boys, who tragically had to cancel less than a couple weeks before. At the other end of the park, Tool was headlining, but I’m not that into them, and D really isn’t, so we stuck with YYYs to see if they could remotely fill the huge shoes left for them.

For the most part I like YYYs. Karen O can be a little grating at times, but usually the synths and beats make up for it. We actually had a nice spot for the show, right on rail though pretty far to the side. We learned during the Atmosphere set that although the crowd is insanely packed at center stage, thirty feet to the side it isn’t to hard to get up front and the view is still pretty awesome.

YYYs started out strong. Karen was in a ridiculous costume, complete with neon headdress, but hey, at least they were trying to make a memorable scene. Their second song was “Phenomena” and ended with their guitarist doing the Beastie Boys riff from “So Watchu Want”. Then they launched into “Heads Will Roll”, which got everyone dancing. A couple songs later came “Gold Lion”, another highlight. There were some down moments, but deeper into the set they played “Honeybear” and then a real frenzy started with “Zero” complete with two giant(!), inflated eyeballs, for the crowd to toss around.

Earlier YYYs had to flat out restart one song, because something was amiss. Then, in the tail end of their set, with probably their most famous song, “Maps”, Karen O completely forgets the second verse, and instead of letting the fans carry her through, she stops, collects herself, and they restart. Somehow a lot of people found this endearing, but I just found it amateurish. They played a couple songs after that, finishing ten minutes early, and didn’t come back for an encore. Tens of thousands stood staring at the stage expecting more. So, day two ended on a rather down note, but it was still a great day in the park with a lot of music.

D and I haven’t been to a Lolla since ’05. That was the year Perry Farrell first brought his music festival back from the ashes and made it a single city, multiple day, multiple stage, show. When Depeche Mode showed up on this year’s lineup (and not making a single other stop anywhere in the Midwest) I thought it was time to make a return trip to Chicago. Tickets weren’t cheap, and three days (plus parking) in a downtown hotel were expensive, but it was an amazing end of Summer blast! And a big weekend deserves a big blog post (or two or three).

Day 1

Friday started out gray and very rainy. The weather was actually fine until right before Lolla’s start; that was about the time we were just rolling into town. Due to weather (and some traffic delays) we cut the first couple bands from our agenda and got situated in the hotel instead. So, we missed watching The Knux and White Lies, a couple bands I’m recently impressed with, but with so many acts to follow, I was only looking forward.

We got into the park a little after 4:00 and after a quick look around while STS9 played in the distance. We then sloshed into the already muddy fields for the start of Crystal Castles. The duo was joined by a live drummer and immediately whipped the crowd into a rainy dance party. The lo-fi, hyperactive synths really meshed with singer Alice Glass’ vocal and physical contortions. They certainly set the tone for a frenetic three days to follow.

We extracted ourselves from the mud near the end of the Crystal Castle set, to catch the end of the Asher Roth show. Roth, wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts, looks every bit the frat rapper douche jour he is, but damn if he doesn’t have a catchy college anthem.

From there we had a little time to catch a bite, and not just of any lame festival food. One of the premiere chefs in Chicago, Graham Elliot Bowles, had a booth serving awesome lobster corn dogs with lemon aioli. It was fried just crisp enough, with no sogginess, and was loaded with lobster chunks. Yes, it was an oral-palooza. And for nine bucks, it should be.

While enjoying the snack we listed to Thievery Corporation. I was really just waiting for their set to end, and their fans to thin, so we could make our way into a good spot for Depeche, but I was happily surprised by their performance. The pair of DJ’s had lots of musicians with them (horns, latin percussion, etc.) and several singers who switched off song to song. Even in the rain (which was thinning) there was a strong Carnivale vibe. After their set we made a break for stage center. We got as far as about 10 deep from the front before reaching a concentration of fans who were already established. We killed an hour standing there, watching the rain finally cease, and doing our best to keep the growing horde behind us.

Depeche took the stage at 8, while the other night’s headliner, Kings of Leon, did the same, way at the north end of the park. DM eased into the set with newer songs, and by the forth song the energy was full on as they played “Walking in My Shoes”. The first half of the show also included “Question of Time” and “Fly on the Windscreen”, songs which probably predated the birth of some of the attendees, but the older fans sang away.

One of the real highlights came at the halfway point when Martin sang “Home” against only a piano backing. While Dave’s voice has been slowly trading range for power, he’s kept fairly youthful looking. Martin on the other hand, is quickly looking too old for his eyeliner and flamboyant outfits, but his voice is as spot on as ever. The second half of the set included huge Violater hits “Policy of Truth” and “Enjoy the Silence”.

Then they finished with perhaps their best arena song “Never Let Me Down Again”. We’ve seen this song a few times live, and each time, singing and standing in sea of swinging arms, is truly awesome. Finally they came back out and capped off the night with a encore of “Stripped” and “Personal Jesus”. And the damp, exhausted masses made our way out of the park.

It was a strong first day. And we were only getting started.