Some lolla highlights

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything. The weekend of Lolla I was busy being at the festival, hosting guests and staying out waaay too late. And I'm starting to get more freelance gigs that actually pay, so the blog gets neglected. I've got a couple lengthy takes on the palooza, and this is the first:

HIGHLIGHTS

The Rapture: Such a fun band. Critically doesn’t get the respect they deserve considering the number of bands out there they do what they do, but worse, and seem to get as much if not more attention for it. Not an ounce of pretentiousness: these guys just wanted to get people to dance, which they kind of did (at 3 p.m. it was a little too early in the day for dancing).

My Morning Jacket: One of the few band’s that’s given me goose bumps every time I’ve seen them play. I’m not sure any man in mainstream music has a voice like Jim James’. It’s captivating. Part of the reason it’s so isn’t just because it sounds great, but because you can really feel the emotion he performs with through it. He just gets up there and opens up those pipes as hard as he can. It’s amazing. They brought on the Chicago children’s orchestra to play the second half of the set, which I thought was pretty neat. Ending with a cover of Chicagoan Cutis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” was the perfect touch.

I also had the joy of catching James perform a short solo set at the kid’s stage. He performed Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connect" and the Chipmunk’s Christmas song and as far as I could tell, without a single hint of irony. It might have been the most touching moment of the whole festival.

Kings of Leon: Very workmanlike site. These Southern studs just play their material as it sounds on record, and they play it well. There’s no fucking around, no banter, no jamming. If you like this band’s records, you’ll love them live. If you’re expecting frills, then look somewhere else. Eddie Vedder did come on stage for closer “Slow Nights, So Long” and bang the shit out of some tambourines.

TV on the Radio: These guys were gypped by a short set that was made even shorter because of the MMJ-Mayfield finale. But for 40 minutes I couldn’t keep my eye off them. They actually played about as much material off Desperate Youth/Bloodthirsty Babes as they did off Return to Cookie Mountain, which was a surprise, but not a disappointment. They reinvent their material so much live I felt like I was hearing new songs. They’re much more aggressive and up-tempo live than on record, which only makes the songs more riveting.

Peter Bjorn and John: This set was delayed about a half hour because of sound issueds, but once they got started things went fairly well. They didn’t sound as bombastic as I’d heard they were supposed to live (the played a down-tempo, acoustic version of “Amsterdam,” which I thought was dull), but this summer’s ubiquitous hit, “Young Folks,” was tight, as was “Objects of My Obsession,” which they performed with the most potency of any song during the set.

LCD Soundsystem: Probably the best act of the whole festival. It’s not so much that these guys do anything extraordinary on stage (frontman James Murphy pretty much stood at the mic the whole set). It’s that they do their thing so well, and what they do is so much fun. The sun was just setting on the first day of the festival, and the crowd, which was facing the orange tinged skyline, was dancing its brains out towards the end of their gig, especially when they performed “All My Friends.” I gotta see these guys next time they come to town, as they’re likely twice a good in club setting.

Interpol: It was towards the end of Saturday night and I was getting drunk and trying to plan a party for afterwards, so my attention was a little diverted. But there was nothing disappointing about this set. The songs were crisp and tight; these guys have put out quite a bit of solid material in just under five years, plenty to fill and hour and a half set with songs you know and like. They’re been-doing-blow-by-ourselves-all-night-and-we-hate-ourselves-for-it attitude transfers over to the live show well. The band looked as unhappy up there in their black suits as they sound on record.

Daft Punk: Rumors are swirling that the real two members of Daft Punk haven’t actually been some of their recent live shows. But who cares? The joy of this set wasn’t the people pushing the buttons, it was the atmosphere that was created. The light show, which progressed from Atari-like graphics to a full blown digital spectacle, was pretty cool. But you really didn’t even need to be looking at the stage to enjoy this show; just walking around the park downtown at night with hits like “Around the World,” and “One More Time” playing loudly was enthralling enough.

Spoon: I was pretty disappointed with the two previous Spoon shows I'd attended, but Britt and the gang brought their lunch pales this time around. I’d never before seen them put so much raw energy into a show. They’re not the most animated characters on stage, nor do they stray away from their album sound (which was kind of why they were dull before) but they did it with so much precision and fire this time around that I couldn’t help but sing along with them. You perhaps don’t realize that these guys have really not made a bad album — or even a bad song for that matter — until you hear them perform bits and pieces of their entire catalogue slive. The only thing disappointing from this set was the number of songs of their I love that they didn’t play, especially off the new album. I could have stood there and listened to them for another hour and the smile on my face would have gone nowhere.

Pearl Jam: I haven’t really gotten into anything this band has done since Vrs. came out, which seems like a lifetime ago. When I was 15 and 16, that and Ten were two of my favorite albums. I’d kind of grown out of the band over the last decade (unlike the majority of their fanbase, which still reveres them with God-like status even though its been years since they made anything that was as good as those first two records). That said, they are the perfect band to headline a festival like Lollapalooza. Their sound is big and anthemic, and after a decade of playing arena shows, they know what they’re doing. Hometown boy Vedder’s banter was genuine. He talked of how great it felt to be playing in the downtown of a city he used to walk around with his headphones on as a teenager. And how Chicagoans should boycott British Petroleum, who just last week announced they’re going to begin dumping more toxic waste into Lake Michigan, despite the fact that over the last 20 years much progress has been made in cleaning the blue cess pool up. And of course there was the anti Bush talk, which is just as much a cliché these days as it is profound, but at least it got lots of cheers.