Farrell children
So, I was pretty much free to wander Lollapalooza at my leisure last weekend, which was nice. I saw a whole lot of bands, got to hang out with some folks, got plenty of exercise and sweated out some toxins. Since I didn't get to write about it elsewhere, I decided to give you loyal readers some random observations and a rundown of the ten best sets I saw.
-Performers I watched (in order): Ghostland Observatory, Chin Up Chin Up, G. Love (solo), Son Volt, Charlie Musselwhite, Viva Voce, Sparklehorse, M.I.A., moe., Blonde Redhead, Satellite Party, LCD Soundsystem, Femi Kuti and The Positive Force, Daft Punk, Sound Tribe Sector 9, The Roots, Regina Spektor, Roky Erickson and the Explosives, The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Patti Smith, Interpol, Apostle of Hustle, Iggy & The Stooges, Peter Bjorn and John, !!!, Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, Pearl Jam
-Performers I only heard from a distance (didn't actually see them): Against Me!, Bang Bang Bang, Blue October, Cold War Kids, DJ Craze and DJ Klever, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Los Campesinos!, Jack's Mannequin, Kings of Leon, Motion City Soundtrack, Muse, The Polyphonic Spree, Slightly Stoopid, Rhymefest, Amy Winehouse
-This year's performers who previously performed at Lollapalooza: The Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, Blue October, Cold War Kids, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Ghostland Observatory, G. Love and Special Sauce, The Hold Steady, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Pearl Jam, The Roots, Satellite Party, Soulive, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Spoon, Yo La Tengo
-Better than I thought they'd be: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, moe.
-Not as good as I thought they'd be: The Hold Steady, Patti Smith
-Strangest bookings: Silverchair, Charlie Musselwhite
-Cancelled: Sean Lennon (months prior), Kinky (days prior), CSS (hours prior)
-Most embarassing set: Perry Farrell's new band Satellite Party, who began and ended with Jane's Addiction songs, sandwiched a number of others into their show and even did Porno for Pyros' "Pets" for good measure
-Most inappropriate moment: G. Love, playing on the children's stage, distinctly slipping the word "damn" into his closing song
-Best quote from the stage: "Do you think Eddie Vedder's dad calls him Ed Ved? ED VED! Do you think Perry Farrell's dad calls him Pere Fare? PERE FARE!" - Nic Offer (!!!)
-Best quote from the stage (runner-up): "Some people don't want us back next year. The Sun-Times doesn't want us back. They don't think we have good manners." - Perry Farrell (Satellite Party, co-founder)
-Number of times I walked completely across Grant Park: 13
-Grossest food I mistakenly bought: The "Ruben Roll," which I assumed would be a corned beef wrap but turned out to be two deep-fried egg roll wrappers stuffed with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese
-Price of bottled water: $2, compared to $1 for the same brand and size of bottled water at Pitchfork
-Most joyous discovery: The luxurious spaciousness of wheelchair accessible porta-potties
MY TOP TEN PERFORMANCES:
1. The Roots - The veteran Philly collective put on the most eclectic, dynamic, engaging show of the weekend. From a solid base of hip-hop, they jumped from funk to rock to soul to jazz and back to hard rhyming. They managed to make their hour in the middle of the second day seem too brief, yet covered so much ground that it was impossible to leave unsatisfied. Black Thought cut through the booming group without turning his rhymes into a screaming mess, remaining the thoughtful and authoritative MC he is in the studio while ramping up the energy for a joyous audience. The Roots just never stopped moving. I really, really need to see them do a full headlining show.
2. Blonde Redhead - One Japanese gal and two Italian dudes based in New York City put on one of the lousest sets I witnessed over the weekend, and I was sitting pretty far away for most of it. Just as the motherfucking sun was blasting straight into the audience's eyes on the super-hot first night, their gathering storm of squalling guitars built to an ear-splitting pitch, the pink-orange ball of burning pain forcing everyone to become literal shoegazers. Straight into the cosmos... pure psychedelic bliss. I wished I knew more about Blonde Redhead going in.
3. TV on the Radio - These scenesters' favorites from New York played in the same slot as Broken Social Scene did last year - across the field and directly before the final fest headliners (Pearl Jam in '07, Red Hot Chili Peppers in '06), forfeiting 15 minutes of stage time in compensation for exposure to the weekend's biggest and most mainstream audience. My expectation from their records was a sumptuous, immersive set on which I could float out of the park for good. I got that, but it was way more rocked up than I'd imagined. The vocal harmonies soared and snarled, their intricate rhythms propelling spastic, orgiastic whoops from a crowd swaying dazed, sun-blazed and amazed before the stage.
4. Daft Punk - French electro-funk duo Daft Punk closed out Friday opposite Ben Harper, who I thought was pretty amazing when I saw him a decade ago. I'm no big fan of dance music, but I'd seen Harper before, and I do love vocoders. And holy crap, not since Pink Floyd themselves have I seen a light show so overwhelmingly eye-searing. The two dudes were perched in the middle of a big flashing pyramid, working their computers and jiggling their shiny, helmeted heads while a rainbow of throbbing lights pulsed and flashed in time with the heart-squishing bass. With all those people shaking their asses and the fresh evening breeze coming off the lake, I felt like I was at some European hillside rave. No, I didn't dance, but I could not help bopping around a little.
5. Interpol - The toughest choice of the entire weekend for me came at the end of the second night, when Interpol and Muse played on opposite ends of the park. I totally dig both of them, had never seen either before and wasn't about to waste 15 minutes hustling between stages to see half of both. However, I met up with some friends who intended to see Interpol, and I'd had kind of a tumultuous morning, so I decided that the New Yorkers' velvety gloom was more in tune with my mood than the proggy exaltations of the Brits. In no way do I regret my choice, because their stormy, glittering pulsations complemented the evening's brief cloudbursts, mesmerizing and almost ritualistic. No joke, some dude standing next to me fell over on his face while he was watching them.
6. !!! - I find the idea of dance-punk a sketchy one. A mix of thumping electronic beats and confrontational yet simple loud rock can be entertainingly bratty, but it can also be obnoxiously juvenile. Luckily, Californians !!! (say "chik chik chik") have been doing this stuff for more than a decade, and they know where the line between those points is drawn. Grating and endearing at once, they banged out spry hipster jams punctuated by political slogans and frequent admonitions to those of us refusing to dance. !!! is the kind of band I would like to take a cynical attitude toward, but they're too guileless, too convincing, too good at what they do. Pure energy like theirs cannot be faked.
7. Femi Kuti and The Positive Force - Speaking of pure energy, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to see the son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti working his magic. I caught the beginning of LCD Soundsystem, but as entertaining as that was, I wish I'd trucked to the other end of the park sooner for Kuti's competing Friday night set, because the half I caught was awesome. He had, like, six or seven horns, several percussionists, three gorgeously thick African princesses on backup vocals and a host of other dudes plucking and shaking stuff. At the center, Femi howled and growled and strutted and wailed on his sax, seemingly possessed by the jazzy polyrhythms circling him. His set was way more intense than those of a lot of the rock bands I saw over the weekend, and I walked away feeling lighter and happier.
8. Iggy & The Stooges - With a noticeable lack of anything resembling a metal band at the fest this year, we fans of the less polite types of rock had to take our musical aggression where we could get it. That said, an aging headbanger could hardly ask for a better placebo than the godfathers of punk. You read my review of Ig and the boys' last Chicago show, so you'll remember I was pretty enthused about their live reunion bid. However, since I'd already seen them, I watched the end of Apostle of Hustle's set before sauntering over to where The Stooges were hammering out their sweaty, bluesy pre-punk scorchers to a rejuvenated mid-day crowd on Sunday. You'd think maybe the heat would slow down these old-timers, but those dirty riffs kept tearing away, and good old Iggy Pop leapt and humped and convulsed like a madman. I'm telling you, see Iggy & The Stooges before they're not doing shows or dead or whatever.
9. M.I.A. - This British MC of Sri Lankan origin got a lot of hype a couple of years back, the press focusing on her background as the daughter of a revolutionary as often as her music. She combines the most militant percussive aspects of grime, dancehall and IDM into the sound of conflict, an idiosyncratic and forward-thinking clatter that, combined with her fiercely political rhymes, brings to mind the glory days of Public Enemy. As a performer, she was riveting, a lightning rod clad in flourescent gear, shuddering to her complex beats, sprightly spreading her vigor to awake everyone and everything within earshot. I hope she confounded every audience member who expected a more conventional girl rapper.
10. Roky Erickson and the Explosives - I only caught a few songs of the psych rock cult hero while walking between other stages, but I'm glad I took the time to stop by for a few of Erickson's barnburners. Nearly lost for good in a haze of mental illness and legal troubles, the former 13th Floor Elevator returned to performing two years ago, and it was a great move. What I saw of his set on Saturday kicked serious ass. I'm not too familiar with his music, but what I heard were very Stooges-like slabs of gritty garage rock, touching on blues and proto-metal without becoming either. It's pretty shameful how few people were watching him... it's not like The Hold Steady was really exciting or anything.
-Performers I watched (in order): Ghostland Observatory, Chin Up Chin Up, G. Love (solo), Son Volt, Charlie Musselwhite, Viva Voce, Sparklehorse, M.I.A., moe., Blonde Redhead, Satellite Party, LCD Soundsystem, Femi Kuti and The Positive Force, Daft Punk, Sound Tribe Sector 9, The Roots, Regina Spektor, Roky Erickson and the Explosives, The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Patti Smith, Interpol, Apostle of Hustle, Iggy & The Stooges, Peter Bjorn and John, !!!, Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, Pearl Jam
-Performers I only heard from a distance (didn't actually see them): Against Me!, Bang Bang Bang, Blue October, Cold War Kids, DJ Craze and DJ Klever, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Los Campesinos!, Jack's Mannequin, Kings of Leon, Motion City Soundtrack, Muse, The Polyphonic Spree, Slightly Stoopid, Rhymefest, Amy Winehouse
-This year's performers who previously performed at Lollapalooza: The Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, Blue October, Cold War Kids, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Ghostland Observatory, G. Love and Special Sauce, The Hold Steady, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Pearl Jam, The Roots, Satellite Party, Soulive, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Spoon, Yo La Tengo
-Better than I thought they'd be: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, moe.
-Not as good as I thought they'd be: The Hold Steady, Patti Smith
-Strangest bookings: Silverchair, Charlie Musselwhite
-Cancelled: Sean Lennon (months prior), Kinky (days prior), CSS (hours prior)
-Most embarassing set: Perry Farrell's new band Satellite Party, who began and ended with Jane's Addiction songs, sandwiched a number of others into their show and even did Porno for Pyros' "Pets" for good measure
-Most inappropriate moment: G. Love, playing on the children's stage, distinctly slipping the word "damn" into his closing song
-Best quote from the stage: "Do you think Eddie Vedder's dad calls him Ed Ved? ED VED! Do you think Perry Farrell's dad calls him Pere Fare? PERE FARE!" - Nic Offer (!!!)
-Best quote from the stage (runner-up): "Some people don't want us back next year. The Sun-Times doesn't want us back. They don't think we have good manners." - Perry Farrell (Satellite Party, co-founder)
-Number of times I walked completely across Grant Park: 13
-Grossest food I mistakenly bought: The "Ruben Roll," which I assumed would be a corned beef wrap but turned out to be two deep-fried egg roll wrappers stuffed with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese
-Price of bottled water: $2, compared to $1 for the same brand and size of bottled water at Pitchfork
-Most joyous discovery: The luxurious spaciousness of wheelchair accessible porta-potties
MY TOP TEN PERFORMANCES:
1. The Roots - The veteran Philly collective put on the most eclectic, dynamic, engaging show of the weekend. From a solid base of hip-hop, they jumped from funk to rock to soul to jazz and back to hard rhyming. They managed to make their hour in the middle of the second day seem too brief, yet covered so much ground that it was impossible to leave unsatisfied. Black Thought cut through the booming group without turning his rhymes into a screaming mess, remaining the thoughtful and authoritative MC he is in the studio while ramping up the energy for a joyous audience. The Roots just never stopped moving. I really, really need to see them do a full headlining show.
2. Blonde Redhead - One Japanese gal and two Italian dudes based in New York City put on one of the lousest sets I witnessed over the weekend, and I was sitting pretty far away for most of it. Just as the motherfucking sun was blasting straight into the audience's eyes on the super-hot first night, their gathering storm of squalling guitars built to an ear-splitting pitch, the pink-orange ball of burning pain forcing everyone to become literal shoegazers. Straight into the cosmos... pure psychedelic bliss. I wished I knew more about Blonde Redhead going in.
3. TV on the Radio - These scenesters' favorites from New York played in the same slot as Broken Social Scene did last year - across the field and directly before the final fest headliners (Pearl Jam in '07, Red Hot Chili Peppers in '06), forfeiting 15 minutes of stage time in compensation for exposure to the weekend's biggest and most mainstream audience. My expectation from their records was a sumptuous, immersive set on which I could float out of the park for good. I got that, but it was way more rocked up than I'd imagined. The vocal harmonies soared and snarled, their intricate rhythms propelling spastic, orgiastic whoops from a crowd swaying dazed, sun-blazed and amazed before the stage.
4. Daft Punk - French electro-funk duo Daft Punk closed out Friday opposite Ben Harper, who I thought was pretty amazing when I saw him a decade ago. I'm no big fan of dance music, but I'd seen Harper before, and I do love vocoders. And holy crap, not since Pink Floyd themselves have I seen a light show so overwhelmingly eye-searing. The two dudes were perched in the middle of a big flashing pyramid, working their computers and jiggling their shiny, helmeted heads while a rainbow of throbbing lights pulsed and flashed in time with the heart-squishing bass. With all those people shaking their asses and the fresh evening breeze coming off the lake, I felt like I was at some European hillside rave. No, I didn't dance, but I could not help bopping around a little.
5. Interpol - The toughest choice of the entire weekend for me came at the end of the second night, when Interpol and Muse played on opposite ends of the park. I totally dig both of them, had never seen either before and wasn't about to waste 15 minutes hustling between stages to see half of both. However, I met up with some friends who intended to see Interpol, and I'd had kind of a tumultuous morning, so I decided that the New Yorkers' velvety gloom was more in tune with my mood than the proggy exaltations of the Brits. In no way do I regret my choice, because their stormy, glittering pulsations complemented the evening's brief cloudbursts, mesmerizing and almost ritualistic. No joke, some dude standing next to me fell over on his face while he was watching them.
6. !!! - I find the idea of dance-punk a sketchy one. A mix of thumping electronic beats and confrontational yet simple loud rock can be entertainingly bratty, but it can also be obnoxiously juvenile. Luckily, Californians !!! (say "chik chik chik") have been doing this stuff for more than a decade, and they know where the line between those points is drawn. Grating and endearing at once, they banged out spry hipster jams punctuated by political slogans and frequent admonitions to those of us refusing to dance. !!! is the kind of band I would like to take a cynical attitude toward, but they're too guileless, too convincing, too good at what they do. Pure energy like theirs cannot be faked.
7. Femi Kuti and The Positive Force - Speaking of pure energy, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to see the son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti working his magic. I caught the beginning of LCD Soundsystem, but as entertaining as that was, I wish I'd trucked to the other end of the park sooner for Kuti's competing Friday night set, because the half I caught was awesome. He had, like, six or seven horns, several percussionists, three gorgeously thick African princesses on backup vocals and a host of other dudes plucking and shaking stuff. At the center, Femi howled and growled and strutted and wailed on his sax, seemingly possessed by the jazzy polyrhythms circling him. His set was way more intense than those of a lot of the rock bands I saw over the weekend, and I walked away feeling lighter and happier.
8. Iggy & The Stooges - With a noticeable lack of anything resembling a metal band at the fest this year, we fans of the less polite types of rock had to take our musical aggression where we could get it. That said, an aging headbanger could hardly ask for a better placebo than the godfathers of punk. You read my review of Ig and the boys' last Chicago show, so you'll remember I was pretty enthused about their live reunion bid. However, since I'd already seen them, I watched the end of Apostle of Hustle's set before sauntering over to where The Stooges were hammering out their sweaty, bluesy pre-punk scorchers to a rejuvenated mid-day crowd on Sunday. You'd think maybe the heat would slow down these old-timers, but those dirty riffs kept tearing away, and good old Iggy Pop leapt and humped and convulsed like a madman. I'm telling you, see Iggy & The Stooges before they're not doing shows or dead or whatever.
9. M.I.A. - This British MC of Sri Lankan origin got a lot of hype a couple of years back, the press focusing on her background as the daughter of a revolutionary as often as her music. She combines the most militant percussive aspects of grime, dancehall and IDM into the sound of conflict, an idiosyncratic and forward-thinking clatter that, combined with her fiercely political rhymes, brings to mind the glory days of Public Enemy. As a performer, she was riveting, a lightning rod clad in flourescent gear, shuddering to her complex beats, sprightly spreading her vigor to awake everyone and everything within earshot. I hope she confounded every audience member who expected a more conventional girl rapper.
10. Roky Erickson and the Explosives - I only caught a few songs of the psych rock cult hero while walking between other stages, but I'm glad I took the time to stop by for a few of Erickson's barnburners. Nearly lost for good in a haze of mental illness and legal troubles, the former 13th Floor Elevator returned to performing two years ago, and it was a great move. What I saw of his set on Saturday kicked serious ass. I'm not too familiar with his music, but what I heard were very Stooges-like slabs of gritty garage rock, touching on blues and proto-metal without becoming either. It's pretty shameful how few people were watching him... it's not like The Hold Steady was really exciting or anything.
posted by SoulReaper at 5:32 PM
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