Lollapalooza - Day 3

Beware the hot sauce

R says that the way to avoid the rain is to carry an expesnive umbrella around with you. Given the way that the weather radar looked before we headed out today, she must be right.
Walking in, heard a little bit of Ben Kweller. Nothing too original sounding there.
Headed to the north end and caught the second half of the Nickel Creek set. They were okay, and earned some points for a cover of "Toxic" by Britney Spears. (Amusing since NC could be loosely categorized as alt-country.)
Today's sets were plagued somewhat by sound issues. This was unfortunate, since the first two days I thought the audio production was pretty good, all things considered (the naturally iffy acoustics of a big outside space, sound bleed-over from other stages, wind shear, etc.) Those issues started with the Andrew Bird set. He did play some good stuff, and his instrumental multi-tasking abilities are undeniable. But unless you had heard his recordings, the subtleties and originality of his work may have been hard to distinguish. Oh, well, it was nice to hear him anyway, and I wouldn't mind seeing him again.
Then we turned around to face the other stage for the Shins. Where Bird's set suffered from bad production, the Shins were plagued by blown speakers; the sound barely carried halfway across the field and even that required starining somewhat to hear it (as opposed to the previous day, when we could hear Manu Chao playing on that stage from as far back as Buckingham Fountain). We stayed for about twenty minutes of that, then drifted off for some food. R went to see Matisyahu, and reported back favorably on his set. I preferred to see Of Montreal. They were the highlight of the day. Dressed as brightly as anyof the random clowns walking around the fairgrounds and cavorting across the stage as if it were electrified, they were obviously having a good time and doing so in spite of yet more technical issues (the lead singer's guitar pedal crapped out about halfway through). I liked this band before, and even R, who liked some of their stuff but was a little iffy on them in general, confessed a new respect for them after seeing the latter half of their set.
Next we caught the end of the Poi Dog Pondering set; they were decent and put in a solid if not particularly energetic performance. And then Wilco, who were on the stage that the Shins had been on previously and where the sound issues continued. We put up with that for a little while before heading out, catching some of the Queens of the Stone Age set on the way out (I think they are okay, but their stuff all sounds like other bands to my ears).
Overall, I would grade today a C+
The whole festival gets a solid B; they did a good job mixing up the styles, and despite the sound issues, the production was decent most of the time. There were some unfortunate scheduling conflicts, but I did get to see the majority of the bands that I really wanted to see and that made it worth the price. Even though three days is a bit draining, I'll look forward to seeing what they come up with for next year.

Lollapalooza - Day 2

Gnarls Barkley

If I had any intention of losing my voice at this festival, today would have been the day to do it. Crowd participipation, call-outs, say "yeah", sing-alongs, am I being redundant yet?
Lyrics Born got us started with the high energy, loud, wave your hands in the air theme, working the stage like we were all at the gym in an aerobics class. He did as well as one can do with an act that is better suited to the sweaty, reverberating confines of a club, and yes that is a compliment.
Gnarls Barkley picked up on one of LB's other themes, complimenting the ladies exhaustively and giving off the "how many of you nubile young women are gonna see me backstage" vibe. Dressed in suburban white tennis outfits, every song was tight and well choreographed but they blew their wad a little early, choosing to play "Crazy" about 2/3 of the way through their set. It was actually kind of sad seeing the exodus after that song; it just proves that they could have not even tried, they could have played 50+ minutes of crap and everyone would have stayed just to hear the hit single. (This is the stuff of a future rant about downloading singles versus hearing entire albums, if I can get in the proper frame of mind to write it.)
We caught some of the Blackalicious set next (unfortunately scheduled half against Gnarls; what the hell?) which continued with the call-out theme. Didn't see too much of them, but they were good.
Took a break to stand in line for food, then went over to see the Flaming Lips. Wayne Coyne decided it would be a good day to stand around and mumble a lot of incoherent nonsense, exhorting the crowd to sing along and seeming somehow put off by the rather weak response. Wayne, you can expect that when you're the headliner, but maybe everyone was so distracted by the twenty or so blue balloons bouncing around the audience and the two astronauts, alien, giant santa and santa chorus on the stage to really focus on what you wanted them to do. Just dig in and play the crowd pleasing back catalogue, man, give the people what they want. So yeah, even though I am amused by their theatrics, I have definitely seen better Lips sets.
We went back to the south end and grabbed a chunk of hill for the New Pornographers set. Once again, the 7:30-8:30 block of time yielded the highlight of the day, but Neko Case, sweetie, where were you? Carl Newman provided some amusing between-song banter, and the band was in lock-step, charging through the highlights of their catalogue. (An aside: We were highly entertained, during their set, by a little girl with one of those blue balloons using the entire hillside crowd as playmates as she smacked it back and forth to people. This kid had so much infectious energy, and I think she made everyone in that section smile.)
R and I finished up by checking out Manu Chao for a little while, and probably could have stayed for their set (what we heard was very good) but we were both tired at that point.
Overall, Day 2 gets a B-

Lollapalooza - Day 1

Sleater-Kinney

Arrived in time to hear the end of the Cursive set. They sounded pretty good, though I didn't actually see them.
Next - Panic at the Disco. Decent, but not spectacular. They did a cover of Karma Police. Then I walked to the north side of Grant Park to see the Eels. They were kind of boring, which I was surprised about, because I was under the impression that their live sets were worthwhile.
Turned around to face the other stage for Stars, who played a lot of my favorite songs and turned in a decent if vocally shady performance.
Sought out some shade for a bit before heading toward the central section of the fest where Mates of State were playing and getting rapidly sunburnt. They put a lot of energy into it, and the crowd was better than I expected it to be for them. They also played many of my favorites. (Nobody else I know likes them, though).
Drifted south again to hear The Secret Machines, who were kind of boring.
Then back to the north end for My Morning Jacket. Their performance was strong, but seemed to drag out due to the anticipation of seeing Sleater-Kinney in what was one of their last ever shows. They were the absolute highlight of the day.
Hung around for a couple Death Cab for Cutie songs, but they sounded kind of flat and I was tired at that point, so I took off.
Overall, I give Day 1 a C+/B-

Pitchfork Day 2

Union Park, Chicago
July 30th
Heat index: over 100 degrees

Met up at J & K's again; this time Milo joined us for the festivities.
The theme for today was "find a shady spot to sit down".
So that was the first thing we did, catching the end of the Jens Lekman set. Which, surprisingly (to me anyway) was not bad. He has more energy and swing in his live set, which would add a lot to his rather bland recordings.
Our primary objective was to see The National, so we staked out a good spot in full view of the sun's rays and silently took bets on whether the lead singer would make it through the set without imploding or bursting into flames. He didn't, but he did seem to harness the solar enegy and convey it via his strained vocal cords into a fireball of emotion emanating out into the audience. They played a couple new songs, both relatively mellow and sad but definitely good.
We wandered over to the misting tent for a break, then heard a bit of the Liars. They definitely bring a lot of energy to a performance, but I'm still not a big fan.
Prior to the Liars, we could hear a bit of the CSS set from the little south stage/tent, and it sounded pretty good. That's a band worth further investigation.
After another time-out in the shade with a round of beers, Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock were on. We lost Milo at this point. They did a good hip-hop/tag-team rap set, definitely one of the more fun and crowd-pleasing acts on the bill.
By this point we were all kind of tired and hungry, so we picked up some thai food (which was pretty good) and then browsed through the poster tents (I picked up another Jay Ryan piece, of course), then headed out.
Overall, a very well put together music fest, and something I'll be keeping an eye out for next year.