So this post is a week or two late, but We've been busy with vacations and work travel. But anyway....we went to Lollapalooza 2009 in Chicago's Grant Park!
It was a great time to be had of 3 days and 130 bands on 8 Stages right in the middle of Downtown Chicago...(when is Cleveland going to figure it out that the "So Called" home of Rock'n Roll needs a Summer Music Festival. I've got the great spot of Burke Lake Front Airport picked out.)
Day 1:
Day one was a wet one...it rained most of the day...not the pouring rain, but that steady mist drizzle that just keeps you wet and cold....We Kept warm with some beers. Here's a shot of the North Stage when it cleared up...Sporting the Peoples Cartel www.peoplescartel.com
Day one list of bands: Early on we walked around just to people watch and check out the atmosphere. Then made our way to the North Field to see Bon Iver and stayed most of the Day at the North Field checking out Ben Folds, Fleet Foxes, then made our way south to Check out Peter, Bjorn, & John, and Of Montreal, which was a very interesting show to say the least...it's definitely a stage show performance and you had to be there. We finished off the day with Kings Of Leon on the North Stage with a faint beat of "Personal Jesus" from Depeche Mode on the South Stage. KOL played a great set, much better than this year's Cleveland Show.
DAY TWO!
Day two I felt a bit famous, mainly because I was wearing our new Cleveland WTF! (What THE FONT!) Tee. Everywhere I walked someone yelled "Clevelaaaand!!!" and they had on a Tribe hat. It's was cool to see so many Clevelanders at the Show. Even when I got out of a cab later that night to go meet a friend in the City, right as I got out, someone yelled "Clevelaaaand!!!", and they had grown up in Shaker Heights. So anyway...back to Day Two....it was a longer, Hotter day and our group grew buy one...my GF's friend from Colorado meant us on the "EL" and we headed to the Park.
First we checked out Langhorne Slim a Folk/Alt-Country Group from PA. They rocked the Very Shady and Cool BMI Stage. Then it was a short stop for Ida Maria and on to the south field for Atmosphere...Minneapolis's Hip-Hop Icon...apparently. I had never heard of him until that day. It sounded like the Rap part of Linkin Park..not really my mug of beer. We stayed on the South Field for Gomez...which was a really good set. 3 different Singers/Songwriters and each of them have their own style of music.
We then moved back North passed Perry's Set in Perry's Tent, grabbed some food, Beer and a bottle of wine in a squeezable sports bottle (now that says class). We set up for a good area for Santigold (yes that's how she spells it now...look it up) and we listened to the Artic Monkeys 100 yards away at the Main North Stage.
Sanitgold came out this time (I saw her last winter at the HOB) with a full band, which I wanted to see her play with instead of a DJ. It was a great set and she killed it that day...best set by far of the day. After that I ran South to see Chicago's own Rise Against...
After Rise Against I grabbed a Lobster Corn Dog and sat on a hill for Animal Collective then we made our way back to the north Field for Ben Harper and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. The YYY's closed out the north stage and Tool closed the south stage. I had never seen either one so I did both...the YYY's were better.
DAY 3:
Day 3 was the hottest and Bestest day....peaking out at 98 and many great sets. The "Lolla" group even started handing out free water which was nice. On our way to see Bat For Lashes, we ran into Kyle Roth a Cleveland area web designer and he was sporting our "Hello Cleveland" Tee...
It was cool to meet him, his wife and their friends. He shot this pic of us....
After Bat For Lashes, we went to the North Stage for Kaiser Chiefs who were born to be Rock Stars...the rocked out, got the crowd into it and it was one of the best sets of the weekend. Next up was Vampire Weekend, but we caught a little of The Ravonettes, Gang Gang Dance and Dan Deacon on the way to the South Stage. Vampire Weekend was good, but I feel they would have been better playing on a secondary stage rather than the Biggest stage there...it just didn't fit that band (not saying that they shouldn't be on the big stage...but it would have sounded better on the secondary stage on the field.)
After VW we caught some of the Passion Pit Set on the way to Akron's Own Dan Auerbach, who played on the secondary stage on the North field (the best stage there).
Dan rocked out with the "Fast Five" and their beards...here's a pic..
After that we just stayed put and got a good spot for Band Of Horses a band that I had never seen live. Lou Reed came on 15 minutes late and screwed around on stage, messing up lyrics, ending each song with what felt like 5 minutes of feedback....just basically sucked and the BOH crowd started a "fuck Lou Reed" chant...He eventually went over his time by 20 minutes and into BOH set time. Setting them up for a 30 minutes set because Jane's Addiction had to go on at 8:30 to close the weekend. So the Band of Horses came on 25 minutes late to chants and eruption of fan love. It was by far the best show we saw all weekend. They played harder than I expected and really got the crowd involved. All of the sudden the lights and sound came on at the main stage 100 yards away and Janes Addiction started. You would think BOH would have to go off, because both sound system were overlapping and apparently was a mess of sound in the middle of the field....but no! Ben Bidwell, the front man for BOH belts out "..let's do one more!!!" and the crowd just erupted again!!! I was like holy shit! this little indie band is taking on Alt Rock God's Jane's Addiction and Perry the inventor of Lollapalooza..."this is Awesome"! They rocked out another song and at the end....during a guitar solo from Dave Navarro, Ben yells to the crowd "WE'RE GOING TO BLOW THAT SHIT OUT!!!" pointing to the other stage "ONE MORE!!" I was now emotionally involved with this rock show and jumped and cheered...they only played one more song, be we all wanted more....that was the closing band for me...they went from one of the bands on my iPod to one of my favorites...here's a pick of Ben Bidwell Singing with the crowd or "Blowing that Shit out"
I can't wait for next years "Palooz"
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