Sunday was the third and final day of lollapalooza, and it was by far the hottest day of the three. With the heat index touching triple digits, and little shade available throughout the park, there was really little choice but to get baked under the blistering sun and sweat until your clothes were drenched. i must have lost close to 10 lbs just from the sweat, but those 10 lbs were but a small price to pay for a day of music and fun. anyways, onwards to the rundown...
1:10 p.m.- we've just entered the park after grabbing some lunch at mcD's . after buying some water, we make our way to the playstation stage, where we are able to snag a spot beneath a wall which is offering just enough protection from the sun where, if we sit down, we're able to be completely out of the sun. money. as we sit there enjoying the valuable protection from the midday sun, we can hear a band wrapping up they're set at the bud stage nearby. i immediately start enjoying the catchy dance-rock that i'm hearing, and look at my schedule to find out the name of the band. turns out they were a british band called friendly fires. as i'm reading their bio, a familiar tune comes up, which i recognize immediately from this recent commercial for wii fit. i liked the set so much in fact that i downloaded their self-titled album, and let me tell you, it's rock solid. i highly suggest checking it out. my favorite tracks include "skeleton boy" and "photobooth".
1:38- still entrenched in our shady spot by the playstation stage, where a band called portugal. the man. is now playing. according to the band's bio, the indie-rockers hail from a little town called wasilla, ak...perhaps you've heard of it? i wish i could say that band's performance could redeem that town's reputation in my eyes, but i wasn't really digging their stuff. they seemed to be having some difficulty with their sound, as the whole set came off rather fuzzy sounding. my other friends seemed to enjoy them though, so it may have just been an issue of personal taste.
2:15 p.m.- i've made it over to the bud stage where i meet up with nicole and kyle to wait for the kaiser chiefs to go on. once again the same old lolla clips are playing on the jumbotron, and at this point it's gotten beyond ridiculously annoying. my advice to the lolla organizers for next year, instead of having the same 10 clips play on loop all weekend long, why not show some video of the crowd. people love to people watch, and believe me, with the type of people coming to lollapalooza, you're not going to find much better people watching than that.
3:29- the kaiser chiefs are just wrapping up their set, and i must say that i was really glad i chose to see them. in reality, the band has only two or three really good songs, particularly "everyday i love you less and less" and "ruby", (which i posted a video of below), so i was skeptical of their ability to keep me entertained for a whole hour. but what i didn't know was that their lead singer could work a crowd so well. he jumped down off the stage on several occasions to climb up on the fence separating the crowd from the stage, and during all the songs he directed the crowd to either wave their arms side to side or up and down, or clap along with the beat. the best moment however, was when he climbed up on top of a ten foot tall speaker on the side of the stage and then tossed his mike into the crowd below, who caught the mike and took turns belting out the chorus. the kaiser chiefs may not have been the best band to play that weekend, but there were very few bands that worked the crowd better than they did.
4:00 p.m.- back at perry's with cas, coadman, and carol, to catch a bit of the hood internet,which was, as my friend cas described, "a poor man's girl talk". they mashed together a bunch of different songs (the best was when "rollout" came on), and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. but i think what really got the crowd excited was the free water bottles the lolla volunteers were distributing throughout the crowd. many took their free water and started spraying it up in the air and dousing the overheated crowd. i grabbed two myself and downed one almost instantaneously. with my thirst slayed and my dance fix satisfied, we moved onwards.
5:27 p.m.- we're at the citi stage, where "girl talk" played his amazing set a year ago, and we're right in the middle of passion pit's set. you can usually tell how much a crowd is enjoying a set by the number of people crowd surfing, and after the first few songs, there was a sea of crowd surfers being passed throughout the audience. seeing as we were pretty close to the stage, we started to get a steady stream of surfers pass our way. the shit hit the fan, however, when one young man passed over cas's head, and as cas reached up to pass the kid forwards, the kid's foot swung suddenly, striking my friend in the face and knocking his glasses off. the blow sent cas reeling, meanwhile the kid, without enough support below him, feel crashing to the pavement below. the kid got up and seemed just fine, but that was it for cas, as he went scurrying for the sidelines to nurse his wounds. other than that incident, though, the set was a good one, featuring a lot of upbeat electro-pop tunes. i recommend checking out their album, titled "manners."
6:40 p.m.- i've reunited with cj, nathan, and matty ice, who've found a nice little spot on a hill flanking the south field, which is the field south of buckingham fountain. taking the opportunity to get off our feet, we sprawl out on the ground and take a little break. meanwhile, way far down at the end of the field, snoop dogg has begun his set at the chicago 2016 stage. always the consummate entertainer, snoop dogg worked the crowd into the frenzy, at one point shouting out, "if you want to get f*cked up tonight, throw your hands up and say, hellll yeah!" i surveyed the people around me on the hill, and saw a thirty-something couple lift their cans of beer up, a group of teenage girls throw their hands up with glee, and a twenty something dude light up his pipe to take a hit. it was then that i thought to myself that only snoop dogg could elicit such a response from such a diverse group of people.
8:15 p.m.- we're at the nearby vitamin water stage, and the silversun pickups are ripping through their set. the smashing pumpkins sound a likes played very well in the first time i've seen them live, my only complaint is the volume on their guitars seemed a little low. i've attached a video of their rendition of "panic switch" down below.
9:50 p.m.- the killers are just wrapping up their set. i used to really love these guys, but i've sort of gotten over them as time pass. they played a workman like set, going through most of their hits with each one sounding like they may sound on the album. i'm also still a little ambivalent to lead singer brandon flowers. the guy seems to really want to be a great front man, mixing a little bit of freddy mercury and bruce springsteen. the problem is he just doesn't have the charisma or bravado to pull it off effectively. at one point he told a story of the band's flight from las vegas to chicago, narrating the trip from take off to "flying over the majestic rockies" to touching down in chi-town, all while some johnny cash like train music played in the background. i could only shake my head at how cheesy it was. nonetheless, playing hits like "somebody told me", "spaceman", and "read my mind" (see below), they played like a worthy headliner and were a fitting end to the weekend.
That'll wrap up Lolla 2009. Lots of great music, lots of sunshine, lots of budweiser, and a lot of fun. Can't wait til next year!
-PG
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