Lollapalooza 2008 in Words, Pictures, Smells and Bruises (now with added Radiohead and NIN goodness)

For the fourth year in a row, I hauled my weary bones back to Chicago for Lollapalooza 2008 and balanced the usual annoyances - overpriced festival food, obnoxious crowd cutters, skin-sizzling summer sun and all the rest - with the pleasure of seeing some of my favorite bands with a group of some of my favorite people in the world. I might have depleted my bank account at the merch stand and the back of my neck might look like a plate of bacon, and I might have even hauled off and punched someone during the last show we attended (oopsies), but these foibles are minor compared to being in the middle of a field rocking out to Radiohead while fireworks are blasting off in the background. Moments like that are worth all the fuckery.

Sooo, keeping in line with my previous years' recapping of All Things Lolla, let's move on to Anxy's presh moments and memories of Lolla 08:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1

THE GO! TEAM



These crazy kids were the first band we checked out at Lolla this year. I saw them at Lollapalooza a couple of years ago, and I absolutely adored them. I don't think thunder struck twice, because other than remembering how hopelessly smitten I am with the lead rapper chick, I was a little underwhelmed with their performance this time around. It wasn't them, I think it was me. It was the first show, I was getting my bearings, and their show was pretty much the same vibe as last time (only this time without Beatle Bob bum rushing the stage every five minutes in his icky attempts to do the Bodie Green and the Frug with the nubile young rapper chick).

Anyway, the Go! Team are still cute. Look:










THE KILLS



Not a whole lot to say here - I'm less of a fan of this band than my bf and some other folks in our crew, but I liked their performance just fine. We'd seen them just a few months before in Minneapolis, and I think a festival setting is more to their advantage than a club date...though they need to work out their stage presence. After a while, I was having as much fun watching the totally tubular-looking '80s throwback ASL interpreter as I was watching the band. Still and all, they sounded just fine. Here's more pics of them doing their thing:


(you can see a bit of the totally rad ASL chick here, right below Kills dude's crotch)






After The Kills, we took a much needed break and made our first long, arduous trek back to the Congress Hotel, located all the way across the street from Grant Park. We needed all our energy, good vibes and fortitude to work through our next show. We were committed to a good view or at least a decent spot in the crowd among similarly enthusiastic music geeks, cuz it's not every day we get to enjoy a band like Radiohead...



...and the next thing we knew, we were in the middle of an enormous throng of sweaty Lollapaloozers, hacking up clouds of second hand pot smoke and watching as the roadies prepared what would be one of the most amazing stage sets of the weekend.


To Be Continued...

Friday, August 1 (continued)

RADIOHEAD













What can I tell you, their jumboscreen presentation was almost as amazing as the stage set itself and I got a little carried away with the camera...

more to come...

Very Cool

I have rainbow socks just like those I wear camping with shorts

While I'm collecting my thoughts (and a coupla more pics) around all things Radiopaloozahead, here are a couple of highlights from the show courtesy of YouTube:


The fireworks during "Everything in its Right Place" were absolutely perfect.


"Paranoid Android". Sigh. This clip also give a good idea of what was going on with the jumbo screens.


A quick clip from their encore of "2+2=5", which involved an eerie cameo appearance by Mother Nature (which I will explain shortly)...

I don't know how you can do Music fests...but more power to ya!

Now that I've seen Radiohead perform "Paranoid Android", I have one less item on my bucket list. Oh god, did I just reference a feel-good Jack Nicholson film vehicle on this thread? I need to take a break.

Seriously though, it was worth wading through the drunken douchery of the maddening throngs of festivalgoers to secure a somewhat-close-to-decent spot for this show. Reports of Thom Yorke's reported illness did not keep the band from giving an excellent performance, and the stage show was nothing short of breathtaking.

Considering how rowdy and cantankerous these crowds were all weekend (which doesn't even begin to describe the RATM and NIN audiences), it speaks volumes to Radiohead's credit that they were able to shut the entire audience up and hold our rapt attention during the quieter and more stark moments of their set. I still get chills thinking about the hush that fell over the audience in the middle of "Paranoid Android", and how that hush turned into one big reverent hum from the audience during the choral section of the song.

Unfortunately, our position in the crowd pitted us behind what must have been the four tallest dudes attending Lollapalooza this year, so watching the show was like going to a drive-in and parking behind Mount Rushmore. Still, we managed, and fortunately the jumbo screen presentation was a brilliant light show in and of itself. And of course, the fireworks during "Everything in its Right Place" didn't hurt, either.

The show ended with a nice set of encores, including "2+2=5" from "Hail to the Thief". During this song, an ominous, low-hanging cloud slowly blew in over the crowd, bringing with it a much-welcomed but eerily-timed cold wind that coincided perfectly with the music and the lyrics. They couldn't have planned the moment any better, which I suppose is part of the magic of outdoor festivals (other than the pleasure of smelling other people's armpit stank, of course).



Then the show was over, and we had the annoying task of navigating through kajillions of people to get to our hotel room, where we ordered a whole bunch of bad take-out and watched a whole bunch of bad television in an attempt to recharge our batteries for the next day of Lolla insanity...

more...more...more...

Slave2daGroove said:

*Looking forward to The Ting Tings re-cap!*

Mara said:

Um... You punched someone?

Are you saving that story for last?

SATURDAY AUGUST 2

We had no right waking up feeling as human as we did. No, we didn't spend the previous night drinking until dawn, but we ordered such cracktacular menu items from a late night pizza joint that the person on the other end of the line taking our order must have thought we were high as a bunch of fruitbats and suffering from chronic munchies ("chronic", lol). Of course, given the fact that during the previous night's Radiohead set we were surrounded by more potheads than a bag of Cheetos at a High Times convention, we probably DID have a case of the second hand munchies. It may have also explained why I considered the perfect dinner to be macaroni & cheese, steamed vegetables, coleslaw and banana cake. Hey, my bf ordered Vesuvio potatoes and I *still* don't know what that shit was supposed to be.

What ARE "Vesuvio" potatoes? I'm scared to Google it.

Anywhee:

Somehow, we survived our gastrointestinal trip down the rabbit hole. We woke up, had scrumptious bowls of cold Swiss oatmeal at Corner Bakery, then met up with Stymie and jumped into Lolla Day Two...

THE TING TINGS



If you watch any TV at all, you know this band. That's what everyone was saying over the weekend, anyway. Apparently, they have a big iTunes commercial that plays all the time. I dunno - everything I see on the boob tube is either a DVD or a DVR with the commercials fast-forwarded. I just know about them because my sweetie listens to them all the time when he gets ready for work in the morning. When I hear Ting Tings I always expect to hear gargling and a shower in the background. I mean that in a good way. Being the first band of our day, they certainly woke us all up and put us in happy moods. The lead singer has great energy, and she's a cutie pie. She reminded me of a little punk rock Christmas elf.



After Ting Tings were finished, the plan was to grab a quick bite of lunch, then catch MGMT, after which we would split up so half the group could enjoy Jamie Lidell and the other half of us could go get skanky with Spank Rock.

Welp, this plan was half successful. We had a glorious lunch via the trusty Lollapalooza food vendors. They even had one of my favorite hillbilly recipes: FRITO PIE!



Our plan was less than successful when we returned to the field to attempt a glimpse of MGMT...the crowd was a total clusterfuck. It was as if MGMT had suddenly become one of the headliners, the crowd was so dense! We were all a bit dumbstruck. I mean, I love me some MGMT, but are they really THAT big of a deal? Apparently so. I guess it's what the kids are listening to at their hootenannies these days. Here's what MGMT apparently looked like that day, courtesy of YouTube:



So our group parted ways earlier than expected, and my little subgroup made its way over to the Spank Rock stage, where Booka Shade was still playing. They were fun - fairly typical trancey techno club music, but very intense, ridiculously danceable stuff. I dunno if I'd buy their CD, but it sure made waiting for the next band a lot less painful.

Speaking of pain, the section I'm about to post on Spank Rock may singe a few retinas, so I'm gonna take a break and let everyone's eyes breathe for a minute...

Anxiety said:

SATURDAY AUGUST 2

We had no right waking up feeling as human as we did. No, we didn't spend the previous night drinking until dawn, but we ordered such cracktacular menu items from a late night pizza joint that the person on the other end of the line taking our order must have thought we were high as a bunch of fruitbats and suffering from chronic munchies ("chronic", lol). Of course, given the fact that during the previous night's Radiohead set we were surrounded by more potheads than a bag of Cheetos at a High Times convention, we probably DID have a case of the second hand munchies. It may have also explained why I considered the perfect dinner to be macaroni & cheese, steamed vegetables, coleslaw and banana cake. Hey, my bf ordered Vesuvio potatoes and I *still* don't know what that shit was supposed to be.

What ARE "Vesuvio" potatoes? I'm scared to Google it.

Anywhee:

August 2, 2008 (continued)

SPANK ROCK



I had no idea what to expect from this group. Is Spank Rock a group? Is Spank Rock a rapper? The answer to both questions, it turns out, is WHO GIVES A RAT'S ASS, SHUT UP AND DANCE.

The set-up was one very dapper looking rapper (the eponymous Mr. Rock) and two DJs. Spanky did his thing for a while and I was very impressed - great rapping skills, really confident and great stage presence. My inner Idol judge was giving him high marks.

Then he brought out the girls.











HOLY COLUMBUS DAY!

The girls were HOT HOT HOT. They had a total Vanity 6 (minus 2) thing going on, and the white chick in the mask, a/k/a Amanda Blank (relative of Jerri?), was also a fantastically potty-mouthed party rapper who won my heart as soon as she started talking filth into the mic (watch your back, Peaches).

She's also got great taste in t-shirts, as you can see in this clip:



Even though Spank Rock's set succumbed to the ubiquitous hip-hop concert disease of "inviting the posse onstage", which inevitably makes the show completely unfocused and dreary, the guests invited on stage did a pretty decent job of letting the music upstage the comradery, so the onstage chummery was at least tolerable. It was the only low point (and it wasn't THAT low) in an hour crammed with trashy spectacle and really fun performance. If this wasn't one of my favorite shows at Lolla, it was certainly the most fun from the get-go.

Now that I've shared a daily allowance of boobage, I'm gonna get some sleep before I go into the magic that was Sharon Jones...

Anxiety said:

I'm loving this Anx!! Keep the reviews coming
This sounds like it was a really good time

Going to Lollapalooza has always been something I've dreamed of doing

more, More, MORE!!!

Lolla Day 2 (continued)

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS



If I've taken one thing away from my weekend at Lollapalooza, it is that Sharon Jones is the latest entry on my list of superhuman fierce ass-whoopin' mega-divas. I went into the weekend excited to finally see her live, and when I finally got the chance to enjoy her and the Dap-Kings live, disappointment was the last thing on my mind.

You've probably heard the Dap-Kings before - they were the backing band for some British bitch with problems who's been in the news every now and then. The Dap-Kings might have helped put Amy Winehouse on the map, but performing with Sharon Jones is where they belong. No matter how great "Back to Black" may have been, Sharon has about 1,000,000 times more fire, presence, grit and intensity than Amy even at her most sober (whatever that looks like).

Sharon screamed and hollered and crooned and shook and shimmied and did a James Brown dance medley tribute and seduced strange men in the audience and almost beat the crap out of one of them when he had the nerve to return to the stage uninvited. All of this, and she wasn't too proud to take off her shoes and earrings in the middle of the show so she could properly get down with her bad self. The woman was all over the place - Sharon Jones is a one woman army.

And get this: the lady is 52 years old.

If that's what getting older looks like, sign me up.

I cannot fam out over this woman enough, though I need to shut up and get some pictures posted. I'll get to that.

First, I gotta say that Sharon's audience was one of the few experiences of the weekend where I felt like I was in the middle of a really friendly, positive crowd. Nobody was there to weasel their way up to the front, and nobody was there to get stoned out of their mind or to fuck shit up in a mosh pit. It was probably the most relaxed show we went to the entire weekend. Honeypot and I made our way up to the front with total ease (oh yeah, I forgot to mention - we were fortunate enough to meet up with HoneySugaTiffPot during the whole MGMT melee earlier in the day! ) , while the remainder of our crew chilled out on the sidelines and popped a squat for a while before joining us later in the show. It was like that. No jockeying for position or pushing or shoving. Everyone was cool.

Okay, NOW the pictures. The Dap-Kings were pretty easy to shoot, but Sharon Jones would not hold still long enough for anything more than a blur to register on my brand-spankin-new camera (which, admittedly, may not be top of the line, but still...sheesh!). Here's what I was able to manage:











After we were all buttered up by the savory goodness of Ms. J and the boys, we returned back to our rooms in a mad dash to make ourselves as P-R-E-T-T-Y as humanly possible so we could make the door at a dance club downtown for Moby's Lolla afterparty DJ set before the early bird special expired. Hey, we're cheep like that! I wear hats with the price tags still on 'em - if it was good enough for Minnie Pearl, it's good enough for me! Get over it!

While we were primping and applying aloe to various crispy body parts, Grant Park was getting mangled by Rage Against the Machine's notorious ultraviolence-bespeckled stage orgy. We steered clear of all that mess - we were saving all our stupid for the following night's NIN show (and we'd find that we would be needing all the stupid we could muster).

For those of you who aren't hip to the RATM madness, here's a good article:

http://www.windycitizen.c...nzied-gran

While Rage fans were nursing their broken bones and depleted testosterone levels, we were all in our fancy pants getting drunk while everyone's favorite midget vegan (no, I'm talking about the one who REALLY doesn't eat meat!) spun his lil' green heart out. We danced and laughed a lot, then we downed a few drinks and we danced and laughed a LOT more, hangovers be damned.

Which, wow, brings me almost to the end of my weekend round-up! More in a bit...

So glad YOU finally got to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Such soul reviews should be witnessed by people who really love music like you obviously do.

Sharon is an inspiration and the Dap Kings are a tight knit group who know the 2 and 4 like it's nobody's business.

Enough of from me...MORE ON LOLLA!!!!!

Slave2daGroove said:

Anxiety said:

Slave2daGroove said:

So glad YOU finally got to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Such soul reviews should be witnessed by people who really love music like you obviously do.

Sharon is an inspiration and the Dap Kings are a tight knit group who know the 2 and 4 like it's nobody's business.

Enough of from me...MORE ON LOLLA!!!!!

they're going to be playing at the MPLS state fair on my birthday, and you better believe i'll be there.

oh, you reminded me: i wanted to post this extremely cool interview with sharon jones that she gave during lolla weekend:





and NO, i'm not just posting this cuz the interviewer guy is kinda dorky cute.

Anxiety said:

THE TING TINGS

Anxiety said:

Lolla Day 2 (continued)

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS



If I've taken one thing away from my weekend at Lollapalooza, it is that Sharon Jones is the latest entry on my list of superhuman fierce ass-whoopin' mega-divas. I went into the weekend excited to finally see her live, and when I finally got the chance to enjoy her and the Dap-Kings live, disappointment was the last thing on my mind.

You've probably heard the Dap-Kings before - they were the backing band for some British bitch with problems who's been in the news every now and then. The Dap-Kings might have helped put Amy Winehouse on the map, but performing with Sharon Jones is where they belong. No matter how great "Back to Black" may have been, Sharon has about 1,000,000 times more fire, presence, grit and intensity than Amy even at her most sober (whatever that looks like).

Sharon screamed and hollered and crooned and shook and shimmied and did a James Brown dance medley tribute and seduced strange men in the audience and almost beat the crap out of one of them when he had the nerve to return to the stage uninvited. All of this, and she wasn't too proud to take off her shoes and earrings in the middle of the show so she could properly get down with her bad self. The woman was all over the place - Sharon Jones is a one woman army.

And get this: the lady is 52 years old.

If that's what getting older looks like, sign me up.

I cannot fam out over this woman enough, though I need to shut up and get some pictures posted. I'll get to that.

First, I gotta say that Sharon's audience was one of the few experiences of the weekend where I felt like I was in the middle of a really friendly, positive crowd. Nobody was there to weasel their way up to the front, and nobody was there to get stoned out of their mind or to fuck shit up in a mosh pit. It was probably the most relaxed show we went to the entire weekend. Honeypot and I made our way up to the front with total ease (oh yeah, I forgot to mention - we were fortunate enough to meet up with HoneySugaTiffPot during the whole MGMT melee earlier in the day! ) , while the remainder of our crew chilled out on the sidelines and popped a squat for a while before joining us later in the show. It was like that. No jockeying for position or pushing or shoving. Everyone was cool.

Okay, NOW the pictures. The Dap-Kings were pretty easy to shoot, but Sharon Jones would not hold still long enough for anything more than a blur to register on my brand-spankin-new camera (which, admittedly, may not be top of the line, but still...sheesh!). Here's what I was able to manage:











After we were all buttered up by the savory goodness of Ms. J and the boys, we returned back to our rooms in a mad dash to make ourselves as P-R-E-T-T-Y as humanly possible so we could make the door at a dance club downtown for Moby's Lolla afterparty DJ set before the early bird special expired. Hey, we're cheep like that! I wear hats with the price tags still on 'em - if it was good enough for Minnie Pearl, it's good enough for me! Get over it!

While we were primping and applying aloe to various crispy body parts, Grant Park was getting mangled by Rage Against the Machine's notorious ultraviolence-bespeckled stage orgy. We steered clear of all that mess - we were saving all our stupid for the following night's NIN show (and we'd find that we would be needing all the stupid we could muster).

For those of you who aren't hip to the RATM madness, here's a good article:

http://www.windycitizen.c...nzied-gran

While Rage fans were nursing their broken bones and depleted testosterone levels, we were all in our fancy pants getting drunk while everyone's favorite midget vegan (no, I'm talking about the one who REALLY doesn't eat meat!) spun his lil' green heart out. We danced and laughed a lot, then we downed a few drinks and we danced and laughed a LOT more, hangovers be damned.

Which, wow, brings me almost to the end of my weekend round-up! More in a bit...

where's the rest????

CarrieMpls said:

still waiting.

[Edited 8/8/08 8:35am]

contrapposto said:

[Edited 8/8/08 8:35am]

okay, okay! gimme a minute! i just finished mowing the back yard and i'm pooped. i'll do more today, i promise!

i actually DID write a big chunk last night and the org timed out on me and i lost it all.

LOLLA DAY 3

CHROMEO


Where was I? Oh yeah. Saturday night. Moby DJ set. Visions nightclub. Long Island iced teas. Novelty shots. Drunkenness. Ouch.

Sunday morning was not kind to us, but being the survivors we are, we shaved the mold off our brains, slipped on our dust-caked shoes, and trudged our sorry asses back to Grant Park for the third day in a row.



Good thing Chromeo was our first act of the day. They were good hangover fare. Nice and funky, but kinda low-key and nothing too spectacular. I love their keyboards with the lady legs, and I think the skinny guy in the suit did a good job of staying charismatic throughout their set - he had a really infectuous geeky charm - but Chromeo's sharp, 80s electro-funk sound (think early Time or "Controversy"-era Prince) was done a disservice by the relatively minimal, stark stage set-up. I don't know what they need, but they need SOMEthing. Dancing girls? Spandex costumes and bandannas tied to their mic stands? Dancing BOYS? I don't know. My takeaway was that they're more fun on album than on stage, but I was battling a hangover so what do I know.

After Chromeo was done, we checked out a few minutes of Black Kids' set. They were fine. They sounded like Robert Smith and the B-52s girls set to cheery dancey indie rock music. La la la.

Eventually we all converged for lunch and discussed our plans for the evening - as in, who was going to be stupid and try to get up close for Nine Inch Nails, and who was going to be intelligent and enjoy Trent & the boys at a safe distance. I declared my solidarity with the stupid team (why stop now?), partnering myself with one member of our subgroup (whose name might rhyme with Brymie) who wanted to be within licking distance, and another member of our group who wanted to feel Trent's ball sweat. My motivation was, I'm just stupid. Okay, and I wanted to see those sexy muscle arms up close and personal.

I think we were all quietly dreading the NIN plan, because whatever happened, we knew it wouldn't end up pretty. I guess given our silent deductions, we weren't TOTALLY stupid...

But, on to happier pastures. We had one coup for our stage positioning plans that evening, since we would be watching our next scheduled act perform on the same stage NIN would be playing on later that night, so we could just edge on up after the opening band was done.

And it didn't hurt that the opening band was...


LOVE & ROCKETS!!!



And ya know it's gonna be a special show when the band is introduced by Mr. Perry Farrell himself! He even kissed David J. and Daniel Ash as they ran onstage. Look:



I was completely blissed out during L&R's set, famming out on my own gothed-out Cloud 9. I've been a fan of this band since waaaay back in the day, and they didn't disappoint me at all during their Lolla gig. Their entire set list was comprised of classic Love & Rockets tunes. I kid you not when I say that every song they played was my favorite one - fortunately, Carrie shared my fam vibe and we spent the whole time dancing and singing along on our own little wave of gloomy glee.


Daniel Ash


See the old lady in pink behind David J.? That funky meemaw was shaking her butt like it was a bag of Jiffy Pop! Seriously, she was working it through their whole concert! We dubbed her "Granny Ash".



The one song that most of you will probably recognize by them, "So Alive", they didn't do. Very rockstar of them, I suppose. But the fan faves were all there: Ball of Confusion, No New Tale To Tell, Mirror People, No Big Deal, Haunted When the Minutes Drag, Holiday on the Moon, Kundalini Express, Yin & Yang & the Teapot Man...as if this recap isn't evidence enough, I was famming out hard.

But wait. As if all THAT weren't enough to make me completely levitate with ecstatic reverence....then THIS happened:



THE BUBBLEMEN!!!

It's difficult to explain The Bubblemen to people who aren't familiar with Love & Rockets, but I'll try: in the '80s, L&R created a cartoon band of happy little alien-bug thingies and made an e.p. of very silly music under the name of "The Bubblemen". Then the band had Bubblemen costumes made up and they'd be their own opening act at Love & Rocket concerts. I had thought it was all just a passing obsession and that The Bubblemen had been long since forgotten, but here they were!!!











After Love & Rockets, we were very, very, very happy. Great show, and the crowd sticking around for Nine Inch Nails seemed very manageable and non-creepily-territorial. Wow, what could possibly go wrong???



To Be Confreakincluded...