Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lollapalooza Day 2

Leaving the Arctic Monkey's show the night before was a good idea, as I had a lot more energy to get myself through the day on Saturday. My feet no longer hurt, I wasn't yawning, I was ready to go.

Band of Skulls

We got there early, and met up with some friends to catch Band of Skulls. All of my friends who came in from out of town was really looking forward to this set. We were discussing Band of Skulls Friday morning while we were at breakfast, and someone (I forget who) brought up the fact that this band was getting no Lolla hype whatsoever. Whenever any of us read recommendations from various professional music writers about who to catch at Lollapalooza, Band of Skulls never came up. Why? They are great!

Band of Skulls

They had an early, crappy time slot, but they rose to the occasion. Their set was amazing, one of my favorites of the weekend. It must be difficult, as a touring band normally playing night shows, to be full of energy and play outside at 11:15 AM. But they did. I would love to see them in a tiny venue like Schuba's.

thenewno2

After Band of Skulls we wandered over to catch thenewno2. Why do I continue to be surprised by crowds at Lollapalooza? First I was surprised to see how big of a crowd they drew. Then I was surprised to see people singing along. This was another band that didn't really get much press before the festival. They were really good. A bit dancey, a bit mellow. We hung out in the trees and listened.

Living Things

One of the things that makes festivals fun is to go check out a band that either you have never heard of or wouldn't normally see, and make a discovery. This year, that band for us was Living Things. We checked out the music on their MySpace page earlier in the week, and liked it enough to decide to see them. The lead singer reminded me of Mick Jagger, both his lips and his swagger. Their music was a bit harder but still danceable. The guitarist was nice to look at. I had been debating between them and The Constantines, and almost changed my mind at the last minute. I'm glad I didn't.

Originally we planned on checking out Miike Snow next, but we were hungry and thirsty, and decided to get lunch instead. We wandered over to the beer garden, where I was glad to see they had my favorite summer beer, Land Shark. We grabbed some beer and some pork chop sandwiches, then sat and listened to Kaskade at Perry's. Kaskade was pretty cool, especially when the Chicago flags started waving.

After that we caught most of Ida Maria's set. She was great again, and I loved that she covered "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by Iggy and the Stooges.

Care Bears on Fire

Curiosity got the better of us, and we had to check out Care Bears on Fire. Interestingly enough, a bunch of our friends were there too. They were so cute! I loved the lead singer's guitar strap - pink skulls! One of my friends remarked how comfortable they were in front of an audience, with their small talk on stage and all. The lead singer asked the crowd if we caught Of Montreal's set from the night before. I would say that their music might not quite be my thing, but man, they were kids! And they did an impressive cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears.

Care Bears on Fire

Next was my relaxation time. We sat in the shade of the trees, relaxed, and listened to Chairlift. It was really easy to relax to their set. I don't think I even saw the band on stage. I just sat and listened. It was great.

Glasvegas

Although they sounded good, the biggest disappointment of the weekend for me was Glasvegas. I probably was anticipating this set a bit too much because I love the album, and I didn't get to see them at Coachella because they canceled. The first 20 - 25 minutes of the set were great -- exactly what I was expecting. After that, there were a few ballads. For an outdoor set in the afternoon, it was too long and drawn out. They needed to pick the crowd back up, and didn't seem to do so. It got a little better towards the end, but by then I was gone. I wanted to love the whole thing so badly, but I just didn't. The first part was great, though. And I have to give the lead singer props. He made some, um, not so clean statements early in the set. Later on he apologized, saying that he now saw that there were a lot of small children in the audience, and he didn't realize that. I apologized for the inappropriateness of his earlier comments. That was cool of him.

We went and grabbed some dinner, then sat on a curb and listened to Lykke Li. Like Chairlift, we never really saw her on stage, we just listened. I liked her a lot more than I expected to. She seemed more upbeat live than I remember the album being. She covered a Kings of Leon song, but now, for the life of me, I can't remember which one it was.

Next we scoped out our spot for Tool. Unfortunately, that required sitting through Animal Collective's set. What was that? It was awful. I have to admit, the only Animal Collective album I ever listened to was Strawberry Jam. The didnt' really enjoy it the first time I heard it, but I thought maybe I wasn't in the right mood. I tried a couple of more times, and it didn't take. I had been reading blogs and reviews proclaiming it one of the best albums of that year, and I thought I must have been missing something. I was comforted when I found out that a lot of my friends, people whose taste I admire, felt the same way I did. I was hoping that maybe they would be good live, and maybe I would hear something I was missing. Oh no. It was just noise that went on and on and on and didn't stop. And they went long, and didn't stop when Tool took the stage. Granted, maybe Tool should have waited a few minutes before starting, but still. They just needed to stop. Ugh. Worst set of the weekend, hands down.

Saturday Night - Tool

Tool, on the other hand, sounded amazing. Everything was right on, and it was just what I needed to cleanse my palette after Animal Collective. I was so excited for my boyfriend, as Tool is one of his all-time favorite bands, and this was the first time he was seeing them live. He loved the set, except for the fact that, like Depeche Mode the night before, the screens mostly showed videos instead of the band. We were far back, and although we could see the stage, we couldn't see it clearly. But they sounded amazing, that was the important thing. And, like the night before, we headed out a bit early to check out another show.

1 Comments:

Blogger ROCKNROLLPIMP said...

TOOL!!
i so love that band
never got animal collective either
ugh

8:28 PM  

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