Lollapalooza 2008 (8/4/08)

Just completed Lollapalooza weekend 2008 in Chi-town. As always, it was a total blast. This was the 4th year that Lollapalooza was a Chicago-based music festival…and the first time they sold it out. In fact, all three days were sell outs with 75,000 people attending each day. Despite the huge influx of people, the event remains a well-run machine thanks to the City of Chicago and C3 Presents from Austin, Texas. What makes it so special? The unique location (in the heart of Chicago’s beautiful parks surrounded by the amazing skyline now known as Gotham City thanks to Batman), the great summer weather (mid-80s and not even THAT humid this year), the Midwest vibe of the crowd, the tasty food from local Chicago restaurants (ribs, pizza, pulled pork, cheesecake on a stick, pad thai, etc), the prices for food and drink ($3 for Vitamin Water, $5 for great sandwiches), the plethora of port-o-potties, and of course the incredible musical line-up.

Yes, a musical line-up that allowed us to see all of this in just 3 days: Jeff Tweedy solo acoustic, Duffy, The Black Keys, Cat Power, Raconteurs, Radiohead, Dierks Bentley, Perry Farrell, Explosions in the Sky, Okkervil River, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Wilco, Rage Against The Machine, Flosstradamus, Iron & Wine, The National, and Nine Inch Nails. The electric jolt of happy buzz from all that music is what kept us (a group in the top 1% of the age bracket) bopping around for 3 days in the heat to the endless barrage of music, noise, freaks, funny t-shirts, mile-long walks and heart-attack-on-a-plate meals while surrounded by the energy of people born between 1983-1992. I’m not used to being in places where you’re old if you were born before 1980 but that was the case here! This didn’t stop our ever-evolving crew for a second from having a blast….in fact it probably inspired us. After all, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were learning our way through this type of environment at Grateful Dead shows at Alpine Valley. That’s in our DNA now…

Reviews? On Friday, Tweedy played the Kids Stage and was hilarious as he kept asking the kids to shout out requests. Since that area was packed with Wilco fans (who tend to be significantly older than kindergarten), there weren’t many requests coming from kids. “Am I putting you kids to sleep? You’re all kind of nodding off and staring in the wrong direction! OK, adults – YOU shout out some requests.” Tweedy played acoustic versions of several Wilco songs and lectured the kids that “if your parents don’t have any Woody Guthrie music in your house, then they are BAD parents.” He of course launched into a Woody Guthrie tune at that point. When he played “New Madrid”, he was joined by a former member of Uncle Tupelo (unfortunately not Jay Farrar, so it was not a notable reunion…but was still great to hear). We ran from him to Duffy, who actually sounded better than her CD. She had a great voice and proved that she’s worthy of all the UK hype she has received for her retro-soulful sound. This was a definite highlight. The Black Keys did their thing and brought the garage rock to Lolla. Good stuff. Cat Power was great, although her mellow, heroin-rock vibe wasn’t an ideal fit with the bright summer sky and the rush of people throughout the area trying to get settled for the Raconteurs at the nearby stage. I’d like to see her in a small, dark club when I’m not worried about being crushed by too many sweaty young people or standing behind The Tallest Guy At The Festival for a more popular act. The Raconteurs of course rocked the house. The combo of Jack White, who can do no wrong with his wild stage presence and his guitar & vocal talents with Brendan Benson who can sing like Dennis DeYoung of Styx, is both fun and compelling. Due to some brutal scheduling (something that should be fixed for next year), we had to bail on the Raconteurs half-way through to bolt to the other main stage a mile away in time for Radiohead. Radiohead was The Headliner of the entire event. Normally this would close out the festival, but Radiohead was only available today. They were stellar as usual, covering their catalog from their most recent release, In Rainbows, all the way back to The Bends. Thom Yorke’s unique stage presence and all of the crazy sounds the rest of the band squeezes out of their instruments always makes for an interesting set that works all parts of your brain (in case the special cookies you brought and mixed into a bag of Bear Naked granola weren’t already doing that for you).

After Radiohead, we trekked all the way out to the South Loop to hit Reggie’s Rock Club (2105 South State). A guy I’m friendly with opened the club 10 months ago and I have to say it’s the best club I’ve been to in America since The Wetlands in New York. There’s a rock club in one room, an intimate acoustic-music kind of stage in another room that is surrounded by a full bar and restaurant with walls smothered in rock memorabilia, and a phenomenal record store on the top level that you haven’t seen the likes of since 1979. The owner gave us a full tour and then topped it off by showing us his penthouse loft at the top of the building! We felt like we were in an Entourage episode as we took the elevator from the club (where SPIN magazine was hosting a Lollapalooza party) to the loft that was covered in more rock memorabilia, African art, all kinds of random trinkets, hand-made furniture, sports memorabilia, and anything else unique you could think of! We sat out on the massive deck, had some beers, ate a snack at the bar-like kitchen and then headed down to the restaurant room to try out the food. After eating a burger and a portabello mushroom sandwich, I can tell you that you won’t find better food in a music club anywhere in the US. (OK, so I haven’t dined at every music club in the U.S., but I’m pretty confident I can stand by that quote.) The burger had some special spice on it as well as crumbled onion ring pieces, etc….The bottom line is: if you have any music fan in your heart or soul, GO TO REGGIES the next time you’re in Chicago!! They even have the Reggies Rock Bus that picks people up at sports events, concerts, etc…all you have to do is call the club and request the bus! The South Loop isn’t exactly Beverly Hills, so keep that in mind as you trek out there….but don’t skip the trek. As Ferris Bueller would say, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

On Saturday, we heard Dierks Bentley as we were walking in to the festival. I liked what I heard and intend to check out more of this country-rocker’s stuff. The rumor going around at this point was that Slash was on the grounds and was going to jam with Perry Farrell at the DJ Tent. That area was packed as people waited for the Big Moment. I stood there for 15 minutes wondering what was going on. Perry was spinning records with some friends on stage. The records were playing quietly and he was paying more attention to his friends than the music or the audience. No one knew whether his set had started or if he was just warming up. Every once in a while, Perry would grab the mike, yell “yeah, Lollapalooza” and then chug some champagne with one arm up in the air as he received applause from the crowd. It was all so bizar that I started to wonder whether something funny had been put into my purple Vitamin Water. I was solo at this point so I walked slowly through the crowd to hear what people were saying. “Dude, is this the show or is he warming up?” “Where is Slash?” “Who is Slash?” “He’s that dude with the hat from Guns n Roses.” “Who is Perry Farrell?” “He’s from Jane’s Addiction”. “What’s Jane’s Addiction?” “I don’t get it – is this the show?” After 20 minutes of this, I couldn’t take another minute of the circus act. I bailed to get my second serving of pulled pork and headed over to see Explosions In the Sky, a MAJOR HIGHLIGHT of the entire festival. This Austin, Texas quartet serves up some intense instrumental music that goes from mellow soundscapes to huge powerful crescendos as the musicians jump around like they’re testing new pairs of Nike Air. Hypnotic, captivating and moving, this is a band worth listening to and seeing live again for sure. Caught a couple minutes of Okkervil River on the way to some pulled BBQ turkey and Bud Lite. Good folkie-indie-rock. Next came Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. DAMN this was good! This former prison guard has soul oozing out of her pores. She works the stage like Tina Turner on Red Bull and is backed by a band that puts the Blues Brothers to shame. If you’ve seen Amy Winehouse perform, you’ve seen this band. I would go see this band any time in a club. Hot stuff. Had to leave early to get a good spot for Rage Against the Machine. As always, VERY powerful. This rhythm section is like a tank plowing through a building. Combine that with Tom Morello’s crazy guitar sounds and Zack de la Rocha’s passionate anger and you’ve got a ball-busting rock band with a message. The message is basically anarchy, but it’s damn exciting to watch them convey it. They had to stop their set 3 times due to the mosh pit getting completely out of control. Kids were passing out and getting hurt near the stage as the maniacs slammed around in reaction to the tunes. Zack had to make a speech about taking care of each other…and even handed the mike to a security guard as they warned that the show would be cut short if people didn’t take care of one another. They tore through their classic material as the massive audience freaked out. We left half-way through due to the painful scheduling snafu (why, C3….why?) so we could run to the mile-away other main stage to catch the second half of Wilco. All of Wilco and their visiting horn section were wearing crazy, colorful, rhinestone covered country-western suits that Tweedy bragged the band had sewn together. He even joked that they were cooler than Radiohead because Radiohead didn’t sew anything! Wilco played a great set of their strong material that dipped back to Being There. They’re still on a roll with the amazing musicianship enhancing Tweedy’s songs.

As we walked to Michigan Avenue after the show, thousands of people were crowding near the Congress hotel to scream and cheer at the top of their lungs. The youthful energy of the crowd was completely electrified by Rage Against the Machine. We were witnessing the happiest energy possible truly exploding out of everyone who attended the event. At the same time, if we didn’t know any better, we could have imagined we were at the 1968 Democratic Convention as it felt like chaos was literally taking place before our very eyes. Cops were everywhere (mostly on horseback) so nothing got out of control but it definitely had that feeling that anything could happen, good or horrible. Bodies everywhere screaming at the top of their lungs can be a bit disorienting to say the least. We jumped into our favorite post-Lolla hang, the Hilton Hotel bar. There’s nothing like a cushy couch in front of a TV and a giant window facing the concert crowd as you sip a gin and tonic and munch on bar pizza.

Sunday kicked things off with Iron & Wine. ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT! His albums are amazing but live was even better, featuring incredible musicianship and harmonies adding intricate layers of sound to each song. It was unique, mellow, trippy and Grateful Dead like. I felt that he could take this show to a huge level with the right amount of hard work and marketing. Next we caught techno DJs Flosstradamus at the techno tent, where they were spinning incredibly fun, trippy techno. At least it was fun until the fat guy near us projectile vomited his beer all over the place. That led us to bail and get some pulled pork and Vitamin Water. While we ate, we talked to some of the 20-somethings who traveled from Cleveland, St. Louis and Colorado to enjoy the event. We also talked to a late 20-something army veteran who had served overseas and felt that Ron Paul should be President no matter what. Only Ron Paul can handle what lies before us, according to this veteran. His friend, who hadn’t heard of anyone in politics other than Ron Paul, George Bush, John McCain and Barack Obama, agreed that Ron Paul should definitely be our leader. After this enlightening conversation, we ran in to catch Broken Social Scene. The Canadian indie pop-rock group played a fun set of their experimental music that featured a lot of people on stage and all kinds of instruments from horns to fiddles. Then we caught a few minutes of The National. They sounded good, opening their set with “Start A War” and drawing a decent crowd. Unfortunately, the pressure to get a spot for Nine Inch Nails pulled us (and most of the attention for The National) over to the bigger stage in the area for the next set. Trent Reznor should be proud. He made headlines when he played the first Lollapalooza in 1991 and there he was, drawing a massive crowd in 2008 for a show that deserved an A+, hands down. It freaked me out to think that I was already a big, longtime concert-goer in 1991 and most of this crowd was either in diapers or learning multiplication at that time. The fantastic part of this set, other than the incredible performance, top-notch musicianship, artful lighting, and smart set-pacing was the passion the audience fed back to the band. They jumped up and down and sang along like they personally felt the angst in every lyric. When the band played “Hurt” near the end of the set, a song Trent introduced as one he “wrote while in a very dark place and then passed it on to a friend [Johnny Cash]”, the crowd literally sang along like their lives depended on it. This set, loaded with great new material that included an excellent ambient mid-set, felt like it was coming from an artist at the top of his game who still feels he has something to prove.

All good things must come to an end. Lolla 2008 ended as we were all escorted out through the gates via the long, horizontal line of Chicago police on horseback. We headed to the legendary Dues for some Chicago deep-dish pizza, part of our annual Lolla closure routine. As they called our party of 4 to be seated, “table for Trent Reznor”, we happily sat down to eat gobs of bread and cheese and begin looking forward to Lolla 2009. Festival!