Lol*la*pa*loo*za

Friday, 6:00 pm. I’ve only been at Lollapalooza for thirty minutes, and I’ve already had my first Beatle Bob sighting. Is it good or bad that we have the same taste in music? I don’t really care, because The Secret Machines rock. Who knew that three guys could make so much noise? (Other than Jack White…he can do it with two.)

Or, in the case of The Raconteurs, four. I try to run over to the food court between The Secret Machines and Raconteurs set to grab a slice of pizza. Of course, this being Chicago, the line at the pizza booth is twice as long as at any other booth. On being told that the pizza has run out and new slices won’t be ready for another 15 minutes, I say, “Screw that,” and run back to catch The Raconteurs. Good thing, or I might have missed their cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” Genius.

At 7:30, I have the choice of either the Violent Femmes or Sleater-Kinney. I decide to check out the Violent Femmes in honor of their appearance at the first Lollapalooza that I attended way back in 1991… which was 15 years ago. Christ, I’m old. This feeling is not helped by the fact that the Violent Femmes look like suburban dads who’ve stepped away from the grill for a few minutes to sing about drugs and sex. However, when they launch into “Blister in the Sun,” the entire crowd, young and not-so-young, sing along with the band. I feel better

At 8:30, I make my way over to the other side of the park to see Death Cab for Cutie…along with every other person at Lollapalooza. I still can’t decide if I like Death Cab. They seem like sensitive ponytail guys without the ponytails. I watch for about 30 minutes – just long enough to hear the singles I like from Plans – and then I decide to call it a night.

Saturday, 1:50. I get to the park in time to catch most of Feist’s set. I’ve been wondering how she’s going to adapt her quiet music to the outdoor festival stage. She amps it up with some well placed electric guitar. From 2:30-3:30, I wander, catching a little bit of Built to Spill, Coheed and Cambria, and the beginning of Lyrics Born. Then it’s back to the first stage to watch Calexico.

Calexico opens their set with my favorite song off the new album (Roka), and it gets better from there. I start cursing myself for not going to their full show when they came through town a few weeks back. On the other hand, this is the fifth (or sixth?) time I’ve seen them, so it’s not like I haven’t shown my support.

After the Calexico set, I trek to the other side of the park to check out Gnarls Barkley. I get the same feeling from their set as I do from sampling the album – “Crazy” is the song of the summer but the rest of their stuff doesn’t do it for me. Still, I stick around for the whole set. I had planned to head back across to check out Sonic Youth, but I’m too lazy to get up off the blanket and walk back across the park. I know I’m going to regret that later.

5:30. After watching the Smoking Popes for 5 minutes, I decide that now is time to brave the food line, so that I’m done before the Flaming Lips start at 6:30. 45 minutes later, I have my gyro platter, which unfortunately does not taste as good as it looks. I head over to the Flaming Lips show, which is easy to spot due to the multiple large blow-up dolls decorating the back of the stage. I can’t decide if the Santa Claus doll or the alien doll is my favorite. Wayne Coone starts talking about being at Lollapalooza back in 1994. Wait, I went to that one too! This is turning out to be quite the reunion. I also saw the 1992 show headlined by the Chili Peppers who are doing a repeat gig this year. However, they were so awful in 1992 that I’m not sticking around to see them again.

At 7:15, I head over to the Thievery Corporation stage so I can get a good spot. Fifteen minutes later, Perry Farrell comes out to introduce the band! I look around and realize that no one else knows that the guy in the large fedora hat is the founder of this festival and former frontman of Jane’s Addiction. Of course, that was back in 1991 when half the ticketholders were in Kindergarten. I start to feel depressed again until I realize that Farrell will return to the stage to sing his track off the latest Thievery Corporation album. Cool.

Thievery is great as usual, even though this set can’t compare to my front-row spot at last year’s Stubb’s show. I finish up the night by trekking across the part to watch five minutes of Kanye West. Since he’s not singing “Golddigger”, I decide to call it a night. Us old folks have to get to bed early.

Posted by bethdeth at August 7, 2006 07:37 PM