LOLLA DAY 1

This years Lollapalooza sold out all 3 days bringing the total amount of people at Millennium Park for the weekend to 225,000. Holy shit, that is a lot of people. (Not counting the amount of people that swapped the easily removed wristband from a friend.) The first day set the tone for what was going to be a very crowded, and very hot weekend down on Chicago’s lakefront. Walking in I was already a little annoyed. I could see the entrances on Columbus and decided to make a pit stop at Panda Express in order to get some business finished from the night before. Remember you can act like you are gonna buy something and they will let you use their facilities! I trekked back out and entered the madness under the giant inflatable Lollapalooza sign while friendly voices from WXRT guided me along the way. After about a half hour of shuffling my feet I was finally at the security check. My bag was filled with a blanket and two sealed, festival approved water bottles. It was at this point that I realized I could probably have anything in that bag because all I got was a squeeze at the bottom of my sack. Thank God Obama didn’t make his rumored appearance. Once I was in I took a look at Buckingham Fountain, thought of Al Bundy, and was on my mission.

I headed over to see Jeff Tweedy perform on the Kids stage. I promptly left because there was a significant crowd of children and I could barely hear Jeff’s guitar or voice through the bass from one of the main stages. There were also 4 year olds flowin' to the most generic rap beats ever produced right behind me. The sound bleeding always seems to be a problem with me and this wouldn’t be the last time this weekend at Lolla. I have seen Tweedy acoustically perform a bunch of times and decided to move on not crying over spilt milk.

Relatively close by I ventured over to the MySpace stage for a band I was told ‘rocked live’. The Kills are a two person band consisting of a British dude and an American babe. I picked up the latest Kills album “Midnight Boom” about 2 months ago and had a few select tracks I wanted to hear. They wasted no time and opened with U.R.A. Fever followed a song later by Sour Cherry. As the set went on however, it started to drag. Not because I didn’t know the songs, but because I started to realize what I thought of a lot of the bands at this years Lolla. They would be much better at a smaller indoor venue. Their sound just doesn’t work outside and while they tried their damnest to work the crowd I just kept thinking I would be rocking out harder in my apartment just listening to their CD. The babe was pretty hot though, and chick rock stars get me all willy-nilly so I stayed.

Next up was The Black Keys. “We’re from Akron, Ohio,” Dan Auerbach the singer/ guitarist yelled. “We’re basically neighbors.” The Black Keys consist only of a guitarist and drummer while creating sound that appears to include a bass player. Chicago being the blues capital of the world made a perfect fit for this riff driven twosome. Sound issues crept up again however making their set a little lackluster. The shear energy in The Black Keys music sounded muffled as they tore through favorites like Your Touch and Strange Desire.

After grabbing some moderately priced food and a $5 beer I walked around a bit and did some people watching. I have one question. Did we travel back in time to 1985 and no one told me about it? I have never seen so many florescent sunglasses and jean shorts in my life. Another popular item of clothing was the shorty-short track shorts on dudes. That coupled with all the new wave dos really had me contemplating my cargo shorts and crew-cut look. I digress.

The Raconteurs were on the Bud Light stage and I had to fight the wave headed towards Radiohead whom were playing on the opposite side of the park. It was only 6, but they started at 8 and people were getting ready to stake their territory out before it started. Who could blame them, there were 75,000 people in the park and I would say a good 75% were there to see Thom Yorke and the boys. Not being a Radio-head I took this opportunity to get pretty close for Jack White’s ‘other’ band. The Raconteurs are made up of Jack White (of The White Stripes), Brendan Benson (solo), Jack Lawrence (of The Greenhornes and Blanche), and Patrick Keller(also of The Greenhornes). Some might say that this band is not as good as all its parts separately but they sure are tight playing together. The harmonies sounded fantastic and their set will definitely cause me to revisit their latest album, “Consolers of the Lonely”. Jack White’s talking between songs was pure unintended hilarity and I found myself laughing just trying to make out what exactly he was saying. Brendan Benson sported a sheriff’s badge while belting out songs like Old Enough. Their entire set was high energy and they didn’t miss a beat.




Radiohead was on the AT&T stage or the main stage and had the 8-10pm time slot all to themselves. The sun was setting when they started in with 15 Step. Not being the biggest Radiohead fan I was very happy to have them kick it off with that song. “In Rainbows” is such a solid album and the most consistent of all the Radiohead albums in my opinion. I wanted a heavy “In Rainbows” set and boy did I get it. The first half of the show lagged a bit with Thom Yorke admitting that they were all a bit jet lagged. The sun was now all the way down and I was about to see a light show like I have never seen before. What appeared to be paper-like streamers (I was later told they were not paper) were hanging from the top of the stage. Reflected on those streamers were lights that corresponded with the music like an equalizer. The video screens behind the band and to the right and left displayed split screens mainly of front man Yorke and various foot pedals. It made for a very artistic presence. It all came together during Everything in it’s Right Place when the words to the song were displayed on those streamers and fireworks erupted in the background. Radiohead truly does put on one of the best light shows I have ever seen. 2+2=5 and Idioteque closed out the show and it was time to hit the streets. Be back with a Day 2 review.

Daniel Haas (Apehands)