Lollapalooza Day 1 (finished) - Black Keys through Daft Punk

The Lollapalooza Eyeball light.

Hipsters, Hippies, Fratboys, those somewhere in the middle, a sad sprinkling of Dave Matthews fans continued to fill the expanse of Grant Park for this Three day musical experience continued. It wasn't the greatest collection of musical artists ever assembled but a quality roster in a beautiful spot that exemplified some of the Chicago cityscape had to offer. A spot that seems to perfectly merge the best aspects of Chicago that I took away from the trip, the Loop city view, and the expansive and beautiful parks. Whoever set up this area should really be commended for mapping everything in its right place. Walking throughout he park musicians bled together like a surrounding music nirvana even if you weren't into what you were hearing. The tones and beats and riffs and raps attack you at all angles and as one beings to fade away, tow more come at you on each side.

The food and drinks were decently priced for this kind of thing. A bit above the norm with two dollar bottles of water, $7 for a vegetarian plate of noodles and over sized but under flavored egg roll. The place was packed but there was room for everyone to enjoy everything the festival had to offer. There was plenty of stage space but also a spot underneath a tree for one to hide from the 90 plus degree temperatures and killer humidity. People who attended Lollapalooza seemed for the most part amenable, active, and excited to be enjoying themselves for the day or the weekend. There are certain festival pet peeves that can't be avoided but they were minimized. The main stages were expectedly overcrowded but you can hear and see any show from the distance either way.


Black Keys' Frontman shot off the screen.

Continuing on Day One, I saw part of the two man Akron band Black Keys with their seventies garage riffs and hometown crowd-ish appeal. Even though they were only two men they delighted the crowd with their set. I had saw them a bit closer up and with more anticipation about a year ago when they opened up for Radiohead at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden but their thumping sound, that some would compare to another power duo (The White Stripes) was entertaining and reverberating.

After a lemonade and some fires, I watched a few songs by Satellite Party, festival organizer and Jane's Addiction Frontman Perry Farrel's new band, from a distance. Much of the crowd was not much interested in the set but enjoyed sing-a-long along to "Jane Says" as Perry pranced around on stage with his strippers and the rest of his shtick. But the reason to head over early was to get a decent spot for LCD Soundsystem. But that was not even really possible. People seemed to have beaten me to this idea and the Myspace Stage was pretty packed form side to side a good 20 minutes before the Satellite Party was scheduled to end.

LCD was another band I had seen up close before as openers for the Pixes a few years back but this was quite a step up and this seemed to be the highlight for many people till this point. The band was off for the first few songs sadly which included their most well known song "Daft Punk is Playing at My House." Daft Punk also happened to be the band they were currently playing soem shows with and who would follow them on the main stage after they were done.


LCD Sounsystem's James Murphy doing his thing.

By the fourth song, LCD got going and people who don't normally seem to be the tail shaking type and dancing up a storm. The crowd was at their height when Mr. Murphy and his cohorts whipped out "North American Scum," "All My Friends" and "Us vs Them." Even Andy Candy, who attended the fest with me, was impressed after a few smuggled swigs of disgustingly warm SoCo. Andy Candy Report: " I danced my butt off at LCD." And there he is...



And then I turned to my side and saw it. The first true vision of the headliner crowd wall, The wall of people coming through the steps toward the AT&T stage. It was thousands of people just pouring in to join the tens of thousands anxiously awaiting the spaceship landing. At the end of their set, James pointed across the way and said, "Go over there," shooing us away for our own good


Herb focused on Life Savers.

As the night crept in, the highly touted stage show of Daft Punk began. Two people in space suits, elevated in the upper third of black pyramid shape moving around, apparently pressing some buttons or some laptops or something. The secrets of the Daft Punk kitchen seemed to be kept under lock and key. It doesn't really matter if they were doing anything. The light show was instantly one of the five best I've ever seen and the set was filled with mashed up.


Another crowd member capturing Daft Punk's opening

Daft Punk is more of experience than a concert. It is a throwback to the raving turn of the century where people just wanted to dance to songs they knew. And that they did. "Around the World", "One More Time," "Robot Rock" "Aerodynamic."



The best Daft Punk photo I got. Not too good.

It is awe inspiring that an artist set up something so well that they wouldn't even have to attend their own shows. The spacemen did a little grooving and shook their heads. It kind of looked like those little Indy Car Drivers that they show on Sportscenter. Andy Candy left Daft Punk mid show to get a half Ben Harper experience, which he secretly would include a glimpse of one Pearl Jam lead singer. That explained the Dave Matthews shirts I guess.


My video of part of Daft Punk's "Technologic."

Andy Candy's Ben Harper Report: "Eddie came on stage and they sang 'Mothers of War' " Then he cried and couldn't hush his Pearl Jam excitement.

Then we took our 30 minute bus ride to the South side took a little nap and turned right back around to star again on Saturday.

Lollapalooza Day 1 - Daytime Sets

Lollapalooza Day 1 Part 1 (This is starting to get really drawn out)

Walking into a festival is like a boy going into an arcade with money for the first time. Lights are flashing, sounds are blaring, and he is so excited he doesn’t know what to do first. Then he plays some race car games, some fighting games, some crazy sports games, and a few hours later you’re out of change, it’s time to either a) beg for more money from your mom or b) go home and recover from the exhaustion. Yet, if you keep playing, you might be worn out from too much video gaming. That’s a long way of saying that day one of three day music festival is when you decide to pace yourself smartly or blow your wad early and try to see every band, disregarding your health or your earlobes.

The Main Centralpoint of Lollapalooza - The Fountain with a Skyline View in Grant Park, Chicago

So after going through the front gate search teams, which were pretty laid back, the first land mark in Grant Park is a fountain. Take another look at it if you’re a real early 90’s TV fan. Don’t worry if you don’t see it. It took my girlfriend’s post trip immediate reaction to the picture to receive the “a-hah” moment. It’s the fountain form the opening credits of “Married with Children. “ It must have been a subconscious thing that made me take at least twenty pictures of it. The surprising thing is that one of two young men that attended Lollapalooza with me claims to be “a huge ‘Married with Children’ fan”.

The second thing you get is the full schedule. You look at the schedule and is seems like a mall filled with bands. Stages are sponsored and named after recognizable things which you constantly heard around the grounds. I’m heading over the Myspace stage to see band x. Stages like Adidas, Bud Light, Playstation and the main stage AT&T.

So after that long introduction that you didn’t need, here’s some short thoughts on the bands that I actually did see.

On the Citi Stage, Chicago’s own Chin Up Chin Up put on quite a show. Usually the early bands of the day are the bands that no one has really heard and people that go are mostly dedicated music fans or ones who feel the need to get the most for the money. I guess I fall into the first category and highly enjoy Chin Up’s latest album This Harness Can't Ride Anything. Lead Singer Jeremy Bolen looks kind of like Beck with a fro. Here’s some pics along with a video I shot.

While walking to the adjacent stage AT&T to see first main stage type crowd for Ted Leo as I tried familiarize with the grounds somewhat. I listened to a few songs of Ted Leo, then I checked out the big A/C and Internet tent to experience the comfort that would by the end of the day be impossible to get into if the awful humidity kept up. Ted Leo was good but I’ve seen him before and this specific performance wasn’t too impressive. It was more enjoyable to watch him in HD in the air conditioning tent. 2 hours into Lollapalooza and I already took my first break.

I passed by the Playstation stage and saw a few minutes of Bang Bang Bang who were decent. But it was time for me to arrive a few minutes early in eager anticipation for one of the performances I was coming to Chicago for, Polyphonic Spree.

For those unfamiliar, Polyphonic Spree is a 20 plus member rock orchestra known for their enthusiastic, all out performances as well as leading the world in singing songs directed at the Sun in one album. Led by ex-Tripping Daisy frontman Tim Delaughter, this band of merry men in women dance, sing and play instruments ranging from the guitar and drums to a harp. The Spree came out in their newish Black Military outfits and made the sun shine all over the crowd even more than it already was. The crowd was excited and ready to start enjoying the benefits of a festival where artists pull out all the stops to impress in front of megacrowds in a shortened set.



40 minutes of pure enjoyment later, the Spree walked off stage but Tim let the crowd know that the show wasn't over they just needed to change costumes. Soon enough the band was running through the crowd in their trademark colorful robes lead by the sight of one the band's brass holding up a trombone player. Their encore upped the enrgy to another level as Tim really incited the crowd for the first time by imploring them to sing along to a cover of Nirvana's "Lithium." (Sidenote: Patti Smith also covered Nirvana later on at the fest, playing her version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit.")

I just so happen to have a video of the Spree featuring 98% video of the band and 2 percent of one of the guys who took the trip with me, Andy Candy. He gave the Polyphonic Spree set a big thumbs up.

Polyphonic Spree covers "Lithium"

After Polyphonic Spree, almost anything would be a letdown but we went over to see Sparklehorse (led by a former Flaming Lip Mark Linkus) for a few songs and they were average. Sparklehorse has some excellent songs but I didn't seem to catch many of them in half the set and if a band doesn't grab your attention quick enough, their are seven other stages that you can try out. I flowed from Electric Six to a quick bite to eat as MIA blared from an adjacent stage. Then I saw THe Rapture play 3-4 songs, primarily off Pieces of the People We Love which had a decent crowd for a side street stage. I'd seen MIA about two weeks before and was not really thirsting for more. The Rapture are a fun band but being from NYC-area, I can see them like 4 times a year.

So I ran off mid-set to catch one of the most intriguing bands at Lollapalooza, Blonde Redhead. I'd been meaning to cross them off my list of concerts to go to but it never quite happened until this point. Musically, they have a very Air-like sound with dueling vocals of a more high pitched male/ lead guitarist Amedeo Pace with the primary vocalist, the enchanting Asian woman Kazu Makino. Amedeo's twin brother Simone excels in atmospheric drumming of an excellence.



Blonde Redhead’s set was heavy on their latest, as with most artists on the festival circuit, but unlike most artists that didn’t bother me a bit. 23 is an early contender for album of the year and even more majestic in live performance. They also threw in my favorite song in their catalog "In Particular" off another great album of theirs named Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons Every piece of the show mesmerized me and for the hour long set I was squarely focused on the essence of this show that pervaded. It was one of the most awe inspiring and consistent one hour sets I'd seen in a long time. The shy band didn't take time to make jokes are played around, they just conquered the crowd with music. When Kazu is not dancing or playing guitar, she sits on her black do/horseseat and plays a lovely melodic piano.




Here's a video of "In Particular."


Hope you enjoyed my overly verbose rundown. Let me know what you think in the comments.