Duly noted, then. I should check them out. Dude calls himself "E" though, right? That's kind of a red flag.

if the cta is going to be as ragged this weekend as it was during my lunch hour while getting these people down to grant park, i may just have to avoid all public transportation even close to the site for the next couple days.

Looking at the park from the 44th floor:

Looks good with the extra space this year.

Does not look too crowded, but that is to be expected right at the beginning of the festival on a workday.

i have a 19th floor lookout point. i can hear the bass of whoever's on butler field now. it looks like a decent set-up.

I can't agree more with this statement. This summer has been great. Got a chance to check out rocky erickson, os mutantes, a bunch of other great bands and live acts and for me this is the climax of the summer: Manu Chao in chicago for the first and probably the last time. I have been anticipating this for about a good ten years so hopefully he will deliver. He radio bemba is an all star cast of musicians so i hope that fermin muguruza is among them. All i need is a daft punk, and basement jaxx show and my list will be pretty much completed.

Ryan Adams webcast should be on soon

http://blueroom.att.com/inc_event_mediapla...er.php?id=#vtop

Only SOMB I saw all day was Sausage, who almost ran me over on his way to the front of the stage for the M's.

Stuff I saw:

M's = horns sound good
Stars = big disappointment. Sounded totally twee, like B&S before they figured out how to play live
Lady Soverign = went on at least 15 mins late, which meant I didn't see her at all, because I went to see
Secret Machines = awesome beginning and end, dragged a little in the middle. Would've been more awesomer at night
Raconteurs = surprisingly effective, even if their songs are pretty lame. I guess I missed the big cover because I left early to see
S-K = easily best show of the day. Those bitches rock, crowd loved them.

All in all it was as well-run as last year, few lines for bathroom and beer, plenty of space. I love how huge it is, but it's a real bitch to get from one end to the other. They should've built in some passing periods.

Stars did blow, so I left and got to be up front for the secret machines which were the show of the day for me. I got some video on the camera, so it's not great but it's there. Got my stuff autographed so I missed the Raconteurs, but I was pretty spent. I didn't see ween and the crowd was way too large for a bad sounding death cab, Ben seemed like a rock star... even more bland than last time-so I left. As for Sleater kinney... they were ok-good for the 3 songs I caught, but the crowd thinned out considerably from beginning to end of the set. Big surprise was Sound Team, which blew my mind, but maybe it was because they had an unbelievably loud mix and I was by the PA system... Thing is, the album I bought right after failed to satisfy my need for aural bliss. Again, I'll state that I really didnt sleep last night and 10-10 was not gonna happen, so i left at 9:30.

Oh, I also saw Panic! at the Disco and I liked 3 songs, 2 of them weren't theirs, "Karma Police" and "Tonight, Tonight" I won't investigate any further to see what their actual song is.

The ween show tonight was better than the Madison one. Best concert set of my entire life, I think.


Yeah, sorry, I was in a hurry to rock some ass!

My day 1:

Aqualung: I got there and saw the last half of the set while basically waiting for Eels. I have a copy of their album and I've listened to it a time or two and it's decent but I wasn't expecting much. They put on a pretty solid show, especially for an audience that probably only wanted to hear "Brighter Than Sunshine." I especially enjoyed their closing cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love."

Eels: I'm not familiar with a ton of Eels music (I just listened to Blinking Lights and Other Relevations for the first time on Tuesday or Wednesday) I still thought they put on a great show. I'm definitly going to try and check out the rest of their discography. I think they did a great job playing for an audience that probably had not heard much of them.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: I skipped Stars, which from what you guys have said I didn't miss much, to get a good spot for this. I ended up in the 2nd row and I have some pretty good pictures from that spot that I'll probably upload after Lollapalooza is done. I couldn't tell how many people were there or if people were leaving during the set when they didn't hear "New York New York" or "that one that Tim McGraw sings," but for my first time seeing him, it was definatly worth it. The set was a little heavy in covers, especially for someone that has as many great songs as Adams does, but I still thought it was great. He explained it on the ryanadams.org board saying that they wanted to play songs that would work well out in the sun. I probably almost went deaf from how loud is was up in front thought. As I said in the Ryan Adams thread, the Sonic Youth cover followed by the Grateful Dead coverHere's the setlist:
What Sin Replaces Love
Please Do Not Let Me Go -->
Dear Chicago
Peaceful Valley -->
Expressway To Your Skull (Sonic Youth cover)
He's Gone (Grateful Dead cover)
Hickory Wind (Graham Parsons/Byrds cover)
Cold Roses -->
Wharf Rat (Grateful Dead cover) -->
Shakedown on 9th Street -->
Franklin's Tower (Grateful Dead cover) -->
I See Monsters

I was going to see Iron & Wine but I was about to pass out from hunger and thirst so I went and got Chicken on a Stick. It was good, but maybe not $9 good, so tomorrow will probably be an Italian beef sandwhich or something. I did hear a few songs at the end of the set and they were ok, but it would have worked a lot better in a smaller (indoor) setting.

My Morning Jacket: Oh my god, was this great. Here was another band that I had never seen and wanted to for a long time. Their hour flew by so quickly and you could tell that Jim James was excited to be there from the story he told about going to Lollapalooza 1994 and deciding that he wanted to play at Lollapalooza sometime in his life. They played all of the songs that you would expect from them. I was hoping they would bust out the covers of "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" or "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man" that they were doing a few years ago, but I was more than satisfied with what they played. One thing that I heard someone else say after the set is that he didn't see anyone leaving during MMJ's set at all which I think is a testimate to how great they are. Next time they come through Chicago or anywhere close by, I'm there.

Death Cab For Cutie: At this point I had to go find my brother who was just getting there. He had something else going on today and the only real reason he came was to see Death Cab For Cutie. I was fine with that as I had made it a point not to listen to Ween since the lineup was annouced because from what everyone says, I would probably rather be other there. I caught the last few songs of Sleater-Kinney from where we were standing and they sounded pretty good. I think I've only heard two of their albums a single time each, so I'm not that familiar with them, but it sounded like a good set from them. Ok, on to Death Cab. They put on a fine show. I saw them last October in Champaign in a 1000 person lecture hall and had a good time, so I knew what to expect. The reason they didn't thrill me tonight (not just because they're kind of boring to begin with) is that the show really wasn't that much different than the one I saw in October other than the fact that it was outside, had probably 400 times as many people there, and that the band seemed to be more comfortable with big crowds due to the year or so of international touring. The setlist was pretty close to what I heard in a relativly intimate setting before and after coming off of MMJ and Ryan Adams, it was a letdown. It was a decent way to end the evening though as it was relaxing, and my younger brother enjoyed it so that's what matters most I guess.

I did see the fireworks going off at what looking like the other end of the park. Was that part of Ween's set?

Tomorrow should be good as I'm really looking forward to seeing Feist, Built To Spill, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, and Kanye West.

I caught the last couple songs they did, and I thought it was pretty good, but I had never heard anything by them before.

I was more intrigued by the bassist's mustache cos from where I was standing he looked an awful lot like Hitler.

Just got back, lots to report, but I'll abbreviate immensely for now:


- Tim Kasher smiled, for once...and played a pretty nice set

- watched Iron and Wine from the back stage...GREAT GREAT set, loved all of the electric arrangements "On Your Wings Smoked"

- My Morning Jacket blew me away, Jim James definitely working his way up the stage-presence ranking

- The Ms...got very fashionable and have really changed their sound since when I last saw them like 3-4 years ago...and I don't think for the better...

- Hearing Panic at the Disco cover "Paranoid Android" made me want to give up on life...

- Ween seemed pretty cool, but I don't really know them well, so yeah


Lot's of pictures coming after the weekend's over, but here are a few from my assignments for the day. yeah, yeah, I know this makes me look like I'm hyping myself and am the world's greatest jack-ass, but I got a little lucky and landed a free-lancer gig (I hadn't even read a single issue of SPIN until last week) +it got me free tickets+ its up on the web already:SPIN

move cursive reviews plz
how is happy hollow live?

Hey, at least you're not making new threads for each stream of a new single that is coming straight from the record company's site. (Hi Hickman!)

Very loud and ragged...I'm a bit worried that it might repetitive though, because the songs I heard today kind of avoided the weird dynamics on Ugly Organ...Dorothy at Forty does sound cool though.

I forgot to add that I have a quicktime rip of the Ryan Adams set from the webcast which I can upload probably sometime after Sunday.

Also, while I was waiting for by the fountain for my brother to show up, some kinda-drunk girls may or may not have been flirting with me. My brother showed up just as they asked if I wanted to go watch Death Cab with them. They smoked and were kind of goofy looking so I'm actually ok with the fact that my brother wanted to go buy a shirt before we went over to the stage.

My faves: Editors & Secret Machines...especially the latter.

Fun pick of the day: The Blisters. Little Spencer Tweedy can really bang the skins.

Just got back from the Secret Machines show at Darkroom which was equally awesome as their Lolla set. New respect for these guys. Saw Squirt Boy there too.

i agree with you on all of the above... i was at Darkroom as well. wish i'd seen you.

my dogs are barking...

only went for a few hours, but lady sov fucking killed. wow.
i had no idea.
sk were good, but it was def.ly a ''festival'' set. short, little chatter, but a great set list. shit...we got sympathy and light rail coyote (or as kot refers to 'light raid coyote')....only 2 of the best songs ever written by the band....the only thing missing from recent sk sets is EVERYTHING...wtf wtf, huh?

i missed raconteurs playing "crazy" because i left their set to see sleater kinney.

fuck.

Raconteurs were the best set of the day for me. All their songs were tight, and Jack White, as usual, just tore it up.

I, too, was at Darkroom, and was right in front of the drummer, Josh Garza, who remains my current favorite stick handler(ew).

Day 1!

might've considered seeing a s-k song or msomething had they not been playing on the exact opposite end of the park as ween were.

i thought it was cute that i wore a ween shirt today and efrim wore a s-k shirt. battle of our respective obsessions

couldn't agree more, and while i thought they'd be good, i wasn't expecting a ton. loved the way jack and brendan played off each other both with the vocals and guitars. they were the only band that seemed transcendant to me today.

m's were solid - great to see them with the horns. editors were good, but i left early to catch ryan adams. a bit jammy, but i really liked his set. a couple pretty funny lines by him, including a dissertation about eggs and a mention to his band that half the crowd was only there to "see the meltdown".

secret machines big sound was just awesome. i agree they'd have been better at night but still great.

i missed the first 15min of s-k's set on the hike from raconteurs. loved what i heard, but everything peaked with the raconteurs for me.

Fun pick of the day: The Blisters. Little Spencer Tweedy can really bang the skins.


Yeah, I was also impressed by his drumming. Glenn Kotche should be proud.


1st Day Round-up

Bon Mots
Sound Team
Ghostland Observatoty
Blue October
Anathallo
Aqualung
Eels
The Blisters
Editors
Mute Math
Umphrey's McGee
Mates of State
Secret Machines
My Morning Jacket
Sleater-Kinney
Ween

My legs are tired. I'm trading my sandals in for my running shoes today.

Day 1 was pretty god damn fun. got to meet a few more sombies. DAn, yanc and andy...nice meetin yall. Dan you are even weirder than i thought you would be....and that ain't a bad thang.

my highlights...The M's were fuckin great. Too bad they played so early and not everyone could enjoy. their loss though.

Racontours tore it up as well....i wasn't sure how they would go down live but i was surpised though. What was that Bowie cover they did? nice work.

Sleater Kinney were good as well..although they started off kinda blah as the sun set they showed their chops. wish i hadn't missed them all those years. Not a bad send off.

Lady sov....filthy mouthed little british chick. damn was she fun...she really can rap. How many of you mutha fuckas are drunk!!!!! she rules.

bands that pissed me off.....Ryan adams: Why i don't know. Fuckers got 8 or 9 albums and plays an hour set that consisted of 60% covers. WTF....get over this kick of yours already with the dead. i like the dead but i already paid for those tix.

STars really dissapointed me as well. the song selection was cool but they just didn't have any volume or presence up there. the stage was a bit too big for those kids. oh well!

ready for day two...

got their during Subways set, was able to sneak in some goodies, the gate was pretty lax, you could bring anything in. Subways were okay, the lead singer was trying too hard, saying things like "we need mother-fucking Wolfmother on the radio" and doing all kinds of rock cliches.

the eels were great. one of my favorite bands that I haven't seen before. they came out rocking. they really put on a great stage show, the security act was hilarious, no beautiful blues though, wtf. if there's one song that has sun-shiny festival written all over it it's mr. e's beautiful blues oh well, that's life.

chicken on a stick. it was okay, the rice wasn't that great, and like mentioned above, it wasn't $9 good.

ryan adams. i couldn't stick through that set. i found it to be kind of boring. i love cold roses but it was too bright out for me to sit through that tempo of music.

secret machines - only heard "alone, jealous, and stoned," and went to get a spot up front for

the racantours because jack white is my brothers favorite. i'll need to see the machines some other time. jack white pretty much claimed the racantours as his band when he did the band introductions. it was a pretty high-energized set. i can't remember the last time i saw crowd surfing. i got kicked in the head twice. that wasn't fun. the crowd went crazy when they covered gnarls barkley. fun set. even if i had to miss my morning jacket for it.

violent femmes. it was the violent femmes, sounded just like the violent femmes, but the lead singer was wearing shorts and was fifty. i never got into s-k so it's probably better that i don't know what i was missing.

ween. i enjoyed them, my brother didn't. it's pretty obvious to say that ween is a jam band now, at least that's what all the hippies were there for.

day two is going to be great.

Jesus. What an asshole.

My Lolla day 1 report:

Anathello: Fun band camp geek rock. Fun set. Kinda annoying bleed over from blue october though.

Panic at the disco: Did a drive by here for the wife, heard them play Karma Police, wanted to puke.

Lunchtime!

Editors: Was the best set of the day, until the Darkroom Secret Machines set, which was better. The set just kept building,and I was fortunate to be about 2 people back from the stage.

Break for shaved ice

Secret Machines: Big fun, as always. Wierd cover. Loved Lighting Blue Eyes under the big blue sky. First Wave Intact is a monster. 5th time I've seen em, and not their absolute best show, but good anyway.

The Racounteurs: Boring middle of the road classic rock. If Jack White was not in this band, they'd be on the playstation stage with about 200 people watching. Bleh.

The Violent Femmes: You wont believe this, but I'd never gotten around to seeing them before. 2nd best set of the day. Had a blast, and so did they.

took off.. wanted to see ween, but needed a shower and had a couple things to do before heading to the Darkroom.

Darkroom Secret Machines show: I must have been right behind Spaceman, becauseI was one person from the stage right by Josh Garza as well. This place was way to small to hold them. Much better set than earlier in the day. What can I say.. they were amazing. They came out after the show to chat as well, and I got a one sheet from the show signed by all!


Getting ready for today.... theoretical itin:

Rainer Maria
drive by of Nada Surf
The Go! Team
Coheed and Cambria (pissed about missing BTS, but I've seen them multiple times, but never CaC)
Wolfmother
Sonic Youth
The Smoking Popes
Drive by of the Lips
The New Pornos
Maybe Kanye or Manu, but probably bailing for some rest.

Just curious...did anyone see Ghostland Observatory yesterday? I want to know how it went. I know it was at noon so a lot of people probably weren't there yet.

Why is he an asshole for covering songs? I guess I sort of understand a mild frustration if you're new to the guy, but these covers are nothing new at all. He has been playing "Wharf Rat" for years now and the other two have been heavily circulated in his sets over the last month or two. If he put on a lackluster performance (which it sounds like he did), I can understand calling him on that, but his choice of covers that he has been playing for quite some time now doesn't seem like a valid reason to complain. Somewhere along the way, Phil Lesh and him formed a weird pact* to play each others music, every single night.

Sounds like everybody had a good day though! I wish I could have made it back for this. My buddy called me up absolutely thrilled with his "special" tickets that he got through his gf's uncle. They're supposedly valued at $2500 for the pair! Apparently it allows them to drink for free, eat for free, and receive free massages throughout the weekend over at the Lava Lounge or somewhere similar. I guess Jack White was standing about ten feet away, doing an interview with Matt Pinfield when he was in there earlier in the day. Crazy shit.






*Ok, there's probably no pact, but they do have a circle of reciprocation with RA/GD covers at every show.

S-K converted me. I now understand the "best rock band on the planet" accolades they've been getting for years

MMJ and Secret Machines were great too. Eels were alright. I prefer the quieter stuff, but understand they had to go for the rockers.

First half of the day was pretty miserable with the heat and the absolutely NASTY wet shit-grass on Butler field. Ugh

Looking forward to Go Team and Gnarls today. Not looking forward to the 15-minute dash between FLips and New Pornographers

My son and I caught 3 songs .
We both liked them.
I'll probably be acquiring some of their music in the future.
What's with the cape?

I didn't realize that this was some sort of a faux-pas...this is a music discussion board, right?


Anyways, here's my Day 1:

Sound Team are a band to watch. Really liked their energy and they do indie-rock without fucking about like so many of their peers...like...

Ghostland Observatory...who are a bunch of fucking idiots. They can go fuck themselves.

The Subways suck live...well, the singer/guitarist sucks. The drummer and bass player should find someone else to write/sing/play guitar.

Was in the photo pit for Cursive and heard the first three songs. I will now check them out. I like seeing older guys make smart indie-rock...cool horn section. Some twit snatched the Hard Rock/CKOne pass off of me while I was in the pit...I realized this later as I remembered someone tugging on it when I was in there. Assholes.

Agualung - What will this guy do when he can't ape Coldplay anymore?

Husky Rescue - Would be better served in the evening, but that's a sweet sound they have there.

The M's were much better this day than they were with the same material at the Hideout last year for their Block Party. I loved the horns (I'm sensing a pattern...)

Panic! At The Disco have won me over. I loved their covers of Radiohead's "Karma Police" and the Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" and having the Lolla clowns onstage was cool and the glam clothes were hot. Fun band.

The Blisters were easily the most enjoyable set of the day. And this was on the freakin' Kidzapalooza stage! I saw Jeff Tweedy and Sue (Jeff looks freaky), Glenn Kotche and Fred Armisen...I vow that I'll walk up and say hi to Armisen if I see him today or tomorrow, but I didn't want to bother him at that moment.

Editors were damn good...sounded better live than on record. Nice version of "Blood"

Mute Math were dreadfully dull

Ryan Adams...well, I already called him a twat elsewhere, so let's leave it at that.

Lady Sovereign is growing on me more and more. I like this "Midget"

Iron & Wine have turned me around too. I pretty much just laid in the grass while their gentle sound washed over me. This band has the potential to go over big with the jam band crowd if they want to.

I ended my night with My Morning Jacket. I was pretty far gone by this point, but I caught more than half of their set and wished I had the energy to stay for all of it and to see a portion of Sleater-Kinney, but honestly, knowing I had two more days to go, I had to leave.

I'm not getting there today until around 2:30...

One of them had a cape. ha! ha! Awesome.

Thanks for sharing, jjh!

You can listen to and buy their two albums at Trashy Moped Recordings. Paparazzi Lightning is their latest and the one I own, but there is some good stuff on delete.delete.i.eat.meat too.

I'm so pissed AT&T blueroom are broadcasting Blues Traveler instead of Broken Social Scene..what kinda shit is that

I understand the idea behind not showing all of the sets the weekend of, but they should film all of them and have them all available to view afterwards.

okay, i may be slightly late as far as reporting this news, but for the benefit of those who are still at home and are planning to leave for Lollapalooza later today, know this:

LAST NIGHT THERE WAS NO TOILET PAPER IN THE PLASTIC OUTHOUSES NEAR THE PETRILLO BANDSHELL. SO IF YOU DECIDE TO EAT AT THE NEARBY HAROLD'S CHICKEN BEFOREHAND, TAKE A SOFT ROLL OF TISSUE OR SOMETHING WITH YOU TO GRANT PARK SO YOU WON'T HAFTA USE YOUR SHIRT!!

I hope for all our sakes that this prob has been taken care of, but in case it hasn't, you've been warned! I wouldn't lie to ya...



I wonder what the deal is with the sidescreen projections? Last night's Sleater-Kinney set was filmed so well, they HAD to have been usin' it for something later on...

yeah, and they were fucking great. My full review of this and the full day is pending.



Did you notice the Butler field grass smelled like shit too?

you guys, i am totally posting from lollapalooza right now, from the att blue "air conditioned and im sitting here because im too tired and sick to walk over and see flaming lips" room.

air conditioned. there's some guy sleeping on my foot and from what i can see,all other people on a laptop are on myspace. kids are fun.

I have never been a Flaming Lips fan...still not convinced...but goddam can those guys put on a show. Thax Douglas, the ladies dressed as Martians, the guys dressed as Santa Claus, all them damn balloons and beach balls (including a gigantic ball with Wayne Coyne in it!) being tossed around the crowd; musically, I cannot get into them, but stage presence-wise, they kicked ass all over the New Pornographers, whose music I like more, but show-wise: zzzzzzzzz.

Generally stayed on the north part of the fest primarily because lots of the bands I wanted to see were there and the schedule of the bands would have had me either moving back and forth nearly every slot throughout the day. I guess it's a good complaint in a way.....there were so many acts I wanted to see in such a large area that I had to make the executive decision and pick a side.


I think this statement is worthy of the beginning of the post


Flaming Lips disappointed the hell out of me. I'm fine with confetti, aliens, santa claus, space bubbles, and fog but gimmicks are only truly cool when there is really great music behind it. From Wayne making songs go on too long by wanting to do a sing along to simply relying too much on the confetti to get the show going, they were easily last on my list........given that my drive-by of Kill Hannah is included on this list, that's pretty low. Now officially pissed that I missed Common for them.


hands down best of the evening on the North End: Thievery Corporation
sitar player, guitar player, conga drums, regular drums, horn section, two djs and lord knows what else. These guys brought it, looked like they were having a blast and really got the crowd going.

the others....

Lyrics Born were fucking lovely.

Dresden Dolls. I had my doubts given that they put on such a great small club show that I thought they couldn't possibly bring it 1. outside and 2. in the sunlight. Man was I wrong....lots of energy between these two.

Feist. Puts on a good show, not bad at all.

Blackalicious- woooooo!!!!!!!

Sonic Youth- Eh.

Peeping Tom- wow was that bass loud. decent show.

Manu Chau- this guy just had a ball on stage. Started out a bit bland (to me) with the reggae-ish songs but 15 minutes in it just clicked. Couples were dancing on the flattened, muddy grass.

Day 2:

Be Your Own Pet - waaaaaaaaaay better than they have any right to be. It won't work once they're in their mid-20s, but for the moment they were a blast.

Nada Surf - same as usual.

Go! Team - fun but I thought it'd be more fun. It took them a while to win the crowd over.

Built to Spill - wow, it might've been where i was sitting, but this sounded awful. Whoever was playing one stage over totally drowned BTS out. Shame.

Wolfmother - solid. There were enough meatheads there to start 10 new fraternities.

Gnarls - enh. Loved the tennis outfits though.

Smoking Popes - a blast as always, nothing makes me laugh more than a grinning Eli. Played two new songs from the upcoming NEW SMOKING POPES ALBUM!

Lips - sadly, I couldn't hear shit where I was (behind the soundboard). Saw the aliens and stuff, but it was so crowded I ended up leaving. Bogus.

NP - good, but that Metro show will never be topped.

Kanye - favorite show of the weekend so far. The guy is fucking awesome.

My Day 2 report


Rainer Maria: DUe to Red line screwup delay, only caught half their set, But that half was solid. They may have ost a step from their earlier records, but now they sound like a chick fronted Idlewild. Not a bad thing, IMHO.

The Go! Team: Best set of the day. Huge energy, got the crowd moving. Loved it.

Coheed and Cambria: Very good, but the singers hair in the iwnd was comical. Also had a prob with their setlist arrangement. Totally front loaded. Dont they know they need to put the noodling in the MIDDLE of the set? That said, I really enjoyed them.

Skipped wolfmother cause we were hungry, and the crowd was SILLY large for this band. I have no idea why it was so big. Easily the biggest afternoon crowd I have seen at this years fest.

Sonic Youth: Played a lot off Rather Ripped. Not that its bad, but since I have never seen them live before, I was a little dissapointed. Also, they paced themselves poorly. They finished with nearly 12 minutes left in their set, and left the stage. They realized their mistake and came back for one more, but they could have easliy played 3 songs in that space. Also, why the extra bassist?!

Smoking Popes: Smoking. THey were having a great time, and so did the crowd. Good to see this band back in shape. Got an autograph from em after the set.

skipped the lips in favor of some desert and the popes signing.

New Pornos: Fun fun fun. They sounded great, and were full of snarky energy. runner up for best set.

Manu Chao: Never heard anything before tonight. It was fun for what it was. SPent most of the set smoking a cigar sitting in the middle of the field.

Tomorow:

I have cubs tix unfortunately, and have family coming to the game, so I'm gonna miss everything up to (I hope no later) Rev. Horton Heat. Then the Queens, and maybe a bit of the Chili peppers (or maybe not).

I'm so painfully tired... but the pretty asian girl was just so damn cute! Anyway, started the day off with Nada Surf, got there before anyone was playing anywhere, so got to see Manu Chau do soundcheck, it was awesome and he seemed like a pretty cool guy, obliging to a few girls' requests for pics. The croud grew large rather quickly, to the point where I couldn't sit if I wanted to, but like I said, the girl beside me was eye candy...
Nada Surf came on and completely blew me away-plus it was the lead singer's B-day so it was all good.
The Built to Spill fans instantaneously replaced the Nada Surf fans, so I had to keep standing. I figured I was in a great front row spot for BTS so I wasn't going to try to get out. Heard Feist from across the field and there were a few WTF? moments, even the guys from BTS, who were doing there soundcheck looked over in a "that's music?" glance. Anyway, they were too loud so one of the stage managers came out and told them to cut the sound/got into a little spat with the lead singer. Sure enough-when they started their sound was shitty and all over the place. It took until the third song to finally sound right and one of the guitarists went on his "does bud light care about us? does adidas care about us? does Perry care about us?" rant. They were awesome while playing, but they took too long between songs and offered no real gab, which killed momentum.
I went to eat, sat by Gnarls-it was okay, heard "Crazy" then left for the Smoking Popes.
Smoking Popes were fun, but I could tell that although the crowd was large and the band was having fun, many had never heard them before. Most of these people quickly left. I got a vid of them doing their first new song, but I should have recorded the second one instead...Overall I was pleased and enjoyed myself.
Common was pretty awesome and I was maybe ten people back, somehow by mid show I was twice as far... Either way, I had fun, thought he was great, he had fun, and the large crowd did as well. Immediately after there was a huge density increase in the crowd, so no room to move, and no New Pornographers for me...
Since I was in an immobile position, I stayed for Kanye, and realized that this was going to be THE MOMENT of the festival and sure enough, it was. All of Hutchinson Field was packed and facing towards the stage...The show was slow on momentum but not excitement for the first four songs as the whole band got off the stage along with Kanye and the lights were off after each one. After his DJ got done with his showcase Kanye offered an apology and said there were sound problems, he was being embarrased in his home town and that there would be serious consequences... from there on it was a great show; the flood of people amazed me, they sang to everything. Guests included GLC, Lupe Fiasco, Common, and Twista. I had fun, and am glad I got a chance to witness the great homecoming.
I need rest. Goodnight.

maybe it's me, but I think the sound has been consistently sub caliber for every band on that ATT stage all weekend. It's a shame.

Today's highlights for me were Go Team and Wolf Mother.

Well, there wasn't too much discussion in those, just links to protected Windows Media Player audio files that had already been talked about in other places if we cared, but I was really just making a little joke. Don't get too worked up over it.


Day 2:

Nada Surf: We got there right as "Popular" started which seemed like a good starting place for them. They put on a pretty solid show. I only have a passing familiarity with their albums, but I still enjoyed myself.

Feist: I was obsessed with Let It Die for a few weeks earlier in the year so I was pretty excited to see that it made the transition to the live performance. This was probably the closest I was to any of the stages today and until the Flaming Lips it was my favorite performance of the day. The new material she played sounded really good and even though there was some sound bleeding from the Playstation stage I still thought it sounded great. My brother who had only heard little parts of a few Feist songs was converted which was cool. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Dan and andyant walked right past me as they were leaving. I would have said hi, but I think I spent too long staring at them trying to figure out if I recognized them from pictures on the board.

Built To Spill: We only stayed for half the set. It was good when they were playing, but I'm not that familar with their songs and they were taking too long in between each song.

Wolfmother: My first Perry Farrell sighting was for the introduction. The crowd was much bigger than I expected, especially at 3:30 in the afternoon. They put on a really good show and I wish that I hadn't missed them at the Metro back in May. One thing that did surprise me was that the sound wasn't as loud as some of the other bands I had already seen at Lollapalooza this year. You would think they would be as loud as possible with their psuedo-Sabbath sound.

Sonic Youth: I think if I hadn't gone in expecting mostly Rather Ripped songs I would have been dissapointed, but knowing that I had a great time. 2nd Beatle Bob sighting of the weekend. I can't really think of anything else to write about Sonic Youth except that I'm insanly jealous of anyone at the Sonic Youth/Feist show at the Double Door tonight.

Flaming Lips: This was probably my second favorite set of the weekend so far (right behind My Morning Jacket). It was my first time seeing the Lips, so I'd imagine that if I had seen the costumes and confetti and inflatable ball in the crowd before it might not have been as exciting, but the huge crowd certainly helped. I surprised myself in knowing all the lyrics to the songs and I managed to get some decent pictures from where I was standing also. I'd like to see them in a headlining show in a regular venue sometime, but they're one of those bands that has gotten to a weird level where they're probably too big for most clubs, but not big enough for arenas. It will be interesting to see how they tour once festival season is over.

New Pornographers: We left as soon as the Flaming Lips ended and we got over to the other side of the park a few songs into the set. We stayed for about 15 or 20 minutes and then left to get a spot for Kanye West. In retrospect I kind-of wish we had stayed and just been in the back for Kanye, but I'll get to that in the next one. I enjoyed what I heard and then I heard most of the rest of the set from across the field. I really do hope they decided to come to Chicago again because that's a rather rare thing [/sarcasm].

Kanye West: I'm divided on this set. I thought that Kanye put on a very good performance other than for the technical issues. But at the same time I felt something was wrong with the crowd. Maybe it was just where I was standing (which was surrounded by bros without shirts on wearing backwards hats and giant fake "bling" and the girls who would like those people), but there was something unsettling about hearing a crowd that was probably 90% white rap/sing along with songs that use "we" to refer to the black community (such as the "We weren't supposed to make it past 25 but the jokes on you we still alive" part from "We Don't Care) or similar things (like having a bunch of white girls sing along with "He leave your ass for a white girl" from "Gold Digger). I don't know if it's just me feeling superior to the rest of the crowd because I actually understand the context of these "socially conscious" rap songs instead of just thinking of them as something to dance to or what. It just made me feel uncomfortable and also made it harder for me to just enjoy the show. While I'm sure Kanye loves being able to fill one full end of Grant Park, I can't help but think that his music (especially his non-singles) would work much better in a theatre setting. I know when tour dates had first been anounced for the Late Registration tour, he was originally supposed to play the Rosemont Theatre which I think would have been a great venue for him to indulge in his songs that feature more of a "spoken word" vibe to them, but then it was changed to the UIC Pavillion (maybe?) which was a better fit for the amount of fans there but I personally don't think it was for the music.

I had a great time today, but it was a really long day for me. Tomorrow should be shorter as it looks like I'm going to get there around 2 and see Ben Kweller, Andrew Bird, the Shins, Queens of the Stone Age, Broken Social Scene, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Flaming Lips played the best set of the whole fest.

Yeah, I was a little disappointed with the sound mix in the beginning of their show.
'Goin' against your mind' , the shows opener, was all over the place. Too bad because I really
love this song in a pair of headphones.
Conventional Wisdom was great. Also, I loved that Gladiator cover.

Nada Surf - We were running late and we missed the whole set

Go! Team - Go! Team were enjoyable, got parts of the crowd dancing along.

Built To Spill - somebody needed to shoot Peeping Tom for playing so loud, Built To Spill's sound was pretty terrible. They started out playing "Going Against Your Mind," and I could hardly hear it. I gave up on them after that. Most disapointing set of the day

Wolfmother - they rocked the balls out of Grant Park. They got the big Sabbath thing going, but they're just so good at it that you can't complain.

Gnarls Barkley - Gnarls Barkley is god! Was pretty up close, under the screen, what an awesome set, Greenhornes cover, and the Doors ode where Celo goes, "I think Jim Morrison had sex with my momma." I heard "Crazy" three times already this weekend, covered by The Racantours and Kanye West and once by Gnarls and Gnarls does it best. Clearly "Crazy" is the song of the year.

Smoking Popes - The Smoking Popes sounded so good it was hard to cut out early to see the flips. I'll see them again.

Flaming Lips - I missed the big balloon opening because we stuck around for the Popes too long and we got a crappy spot where the sound was bad so I pissed off a lot of people by moving closer to the stage, I was complaing about people doing this kind of thing yesterday and here I am doing it today, what a loser I am but the sound was so awful in the back. Overall I wasn't too impressed with their set but I'm sure it had a lot to do with my spot.

Kanye West - Got a decent spot for Kanye and the sound was so awful we had to scream "turn it up" It was fixed when Kanye complained about it and was fine from there on. Kanye was about what I expected from Mr. West. It was good.

The sound was so much better on Friday. They better fix that shit today.
So far Gnarls Barkley was the set of the fest for me.
I'm wiped out but I'm gonna try to get there early today.