Rather belated tidbits from Lollapalooza ’08

It’s almost a week after the fact at this point, which is like a lifetime in Internet time, but I’m still keen to write a few words about where I was last weekend. I attended Lollapalooza, the utterly ginormous beast of a music festival that takes over Chicago once a year. You may have heard of it.

Up until this year I had never attended any sort of multi-day music festival. In less than a month’s time I’ve been to two of them. Back in July I went to the Pitchfork Music Festival for a day. Spoon was playing and I had missed them a few month’s back due to unprecedented demand and Ticketmaster fuckery. I had never particularly wanted to go to a music festival, but not for any specific reason. It just didn’t seem like a thing I needed to do.

Radiohead and the promise of other excellence was the clincher. Even before the lineup was officially announced it was pretty clear that Radiohead would be there. Thanks to my wife I’ve come around on them. I had joined the haters pretty adamantly after the release of Kid A. But, I can always change my mind.

Friday

My sister-in-law flew in to Chicago for the festival, but didn’t arrive until 2:00 AM the night before thanks to inclement weather somewhere. As such, the three of us — my wife, her sister, and myself — didn’t make it to Grant Park until around 1 o’clock. We caught the end of The Black Lips, a band I’d seen before in March, who were probably excellent. Then we wandered around a bit to get our bearings. Returning to the same stage we listened to The Go! Team. I probably would have been into their set had it been later in the day. As yet I wasn’t quite in the zone I needed to be for their set. I rather like what I’ve heard of their albums though.

After that, we made the long trek over to the opposite side of the park to get in place for Gogol Bordello. I heard a bit of The Kills, who seem to have some promise. Apparently the heat was too much for them and their set had to be cut short. It was brutally hot on Friday. The wife was pretty beat down at this point. I left her in the south field to replenish water and pick up much appreciated vegan cupcakes and cookies from Chicago’s Bleeding Heart Bakery.

Gogol Bordello rocked incredibly fucking hard. I’ve been a fan since discovering them through lead singer Eugene Hütz’s role in Everything is Illuminated but hadn’t really considered myself to be a true fan until this show. This was one of the best performances of the entire weekend. I’m going to do everything in my power to see them again should they come through town again.

It was a short jaunt over to see Mates of State, one of the wife’s favorite bands. She’s right, they really are the most adorable couple in indie rock. She gave them one of the vegan cookies I’d bought earlier during an autograph session. They’re vegan, or Kori is anyway. They even did one of the only PETA ads that make sense: the one in which people would rather go naked than wear fur as opposed to going naked rather than… wearing M&Ms?

After the Mates of State autograph we headed back to Radiohead’s stage where we plopped ourself in the dirt and waited rather than trying to catch CSS or Stephen Malkmus. Did I mention it was fucking hot? Because it really was. Radiohead, by the way, was pretty damned amazing. They had pretty lights too, which was great because we were parked about a half-mile away from the stage.

Saturday

Saturday didn’t have as much going on so we took the opportunity to stay at home, get some errands run, and buy a real meal. We didn’t make it to the park until Explosions in the Sky played. There was an inexplicably large crowd assembled for an instrumental band. Some kid behind me kept yelling “Whoo!” directly in my ear because he was a foot shorter than I am. Still an amazing show. One of the guys in the band is the spitting image of John Gruber.

Okkervil River came next. I last saw them open for The New Pornographers a few months back. Where I first saw them is much more interesting. I first saw Okkervil River back in 2001 or 2002 in a tiny restaurant-cum-bar in Huntington, WV that regularly featured open mic nights and bands in the larger dining area/smoking section. I made a poster for that show. Really nice guys.

Unlike everyone I know who attended Lollapalooza this year my wife and I chose Wilco over Rage Against the Machine. I don’t regret that decision in the slightest. Wilco played a great set including most of my favorites: “I am Trying to Break Your Heart,” “Monday,” and “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” among many others. They also had fabulous Grand Ole Opry style suits. With kittens and dolphins.

Sunday

Sunday was the longest day. Unlike the previous days we were there for the entire day. Which was great, because we got catch The Octopus Project bright and early. Fun fact: I also made a poster for the band while living in Huntington. I never saw them though. Some fuckwad in New York City stole their stuff and they had to cancel the tour. I had forgotten how they’re all just incredibly good looking people.

After that it was local favorite Kid Sister. I don’t have much to say, but I rather enjoyed her. The Weakerthans were a no-show, but nobody bother to tell anyone until they announced “Chicago’s own Office!” and great crowds of disappointed fans headed in the opposite direction. We slowly made our way back to the main stage for Brazilian Girls but the heat was taking its toll on me. I had to retreat to what shade I could find.

I really wanted to be excited for Iron & Wine, whom I love, but the relentless heat pushed me away. I managed to catch the entire set from the periphery. I decided it didn’t matter too much because I already know I’ll buy their albums. Besides I need my energy for Girl Talk.

Lord how I needed my energy. I hadn’t seen a show like this the entire festival, though Gogol Bordello came the closest. Girl Talk was the show I was most looking forward to all weekend. More than Radiohead, more than Wilco, more than Kanye West or Nine Inch Nails.

Girl Talk is one guy and a laptop computer. He’s one of those “mashup” artists you may have heard about. Unlike most of those other guys he doesn’t just put one song versus another one, but creates a seething, cacophonous quilt of sound that you can dance to. Just about anything could get thrown in there. If you haven’t heard it yet, do yourself a favor and check out Girl Talk’s most recent album Feed the Animals which is available as a “pay what you want” download. Maybe it’s not for you, but I can’t get enough. He’s coming back to Chicago on November 8th (pretty much as soon as he isn’t subject to C3’s exclusivity clause) and I cannot fucking wait.

After Girl Talk was over I was pretty much done. There were still two more headlining acts, plus a bunch of other good bands, but I hardly cared. We chose Mark Ronson and Kanye West as both were artists we liked, but would likely never pay to see separately. Mark Ronson was a lot of fun. The set wasn’t fantastic, but he had such energy and charm it was impossible not to love him. As for Kanye, I guess he did all right but I’m only really familiar with the big hits. About a half hour in the wife looked at me and said that her 16-year-old self wanted to see what Trent Reznor was up to on the other side of the park. That sounded just fine with me. We arrived in the middle of one of his new instrumental things, but the set picked up incredibly soon afterward. We heard “Head Like a Hole,” “Terrible Lie,” and “Hurt” and we let the old anger flare up again.