Lollapalooza!

Heading to Lollapalooza today...stay tuned for updates each night on my favorite shows!

Friday: Got to the festival around 1:00 and headed straight to see Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears. Wow. This was the second time I saw them and let me tell you -- it is a must see show. Even the onslaught of pouring rain couldn't stop these guys. Black Joe Lewis is one of the better unknown front men in the business. He is a mix between Andre 3000 from Outkast and James Brown. Every single song had the entire crowd dancing and having a blast. I can't wait until they swing back through Chicago to see them again. Here is a clip of them performing at last year's festival...there weren't too many good youtube clips of the show from this year, but this one is a must see from 2008. The pic below was taken with my blackberry during the downpour...it was well worth it!

At 3:00 I went to see Bon Iver. This guy is also incredible. He sings with so much emotion in his songs and really puts on a surprisingly great set. By the time this show started I think Noah was getting his Ark ready because the rain was so ridiculous. Anyhow, it was great to see another one of my favorite bands live in person.

Immediately following Bon Iver was Ben Folds. This guy is the most ridiculously talented piano player/entertainer I have had the pleasure of seeing five times. This time was no exception. The rain continued to pour and some ornery fans wouldn't put their umbrellas down...so I pretty much just listened to the show. The best highlight was when Folds covered Snoop Dogg's "Bitches Ain't Shit" Here is his performance of "Rockin' the Suburbs" another great song! He never fails to impress and I had a great time listening to mostly new music with a few old favorites.

The rain had taken a lot out of me at this point so I decided to go relax for a bit. I heard some songs by The Fleet Foxes and The Decembrists in the background, but finding a dry place to eat and relax was worth missing a few bands. At 6:30 it was off to see the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John. The great thing about this show is that it was at a smaller stage. I think this was the third straight year that the trio has played Lollapalooza. They put on a nice show...not my favorite but still decent.

The two headliners on Friday were Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode. I figured that since about 80% of the festivalgoers were heading north for KOL, I would head south to see DM. I heard great things about the KOL show, but I figured that I would be able to see them perform at a live show in the near future. Here is one clip I found on youtube of KOL performing "Use Somebody" Depeche Mode is a classic band, that if given the opportunity, I would have to go see. They did not disappoint. The more sparse crowd allowed me to enjoy the music instead of fighting for personal space. The played some new and some old with classics such as "Policy of Truth" and "Enjoy the Silence" The stage was pretty unbelievable and they capped off the night with "Personal Jesus"

All in all it was a great time despite the rain. I ran into some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while and enjoyed tons of great music with them! Stay tuned for a Saturday review...

Saturday: 95 degrees, 100% humidity, No rain whatsoever...A little better than the downpours on Friday...

Started off the day with Quinn Sullivan, a 10 year old electric blues guitar prodigy. The show was at the kidzapalooza stage and had a nice intimate crowd. Alissa and I got there when the show started...by the time all of the festivalgoers got the text "Buddy Guy will be joining Quinn on stage..." the crowd got huge! So we had third row seats for this awesome experience...Quinn did some of his original songs and he REALLY is that good. Buddy Guy came out to join him for the last song entitled "Buddy Guy Blues" which I think is an original for Quinn. This pic shows how close we really were to the action:

I had seen youtube clips of Quinn and heard about him through a few other news sources so I was excited to see him in person. Check out his stuff here.

After starting off the day on the right foot we headed over to Perry's, a stage devoted to the ravers in the crowd. Animal Collective was doing an hour DJ set. It was more to just get out of the heat and relax for a bit before heading to see Gomez. They are one of my favorite bands to see live. They have so much energy and all of the vocalists have such great distinct voices. The crowd there was pretty good, but it was nice to have a little bit of space for once at a show to really enjoy the music. This was my second time seeing them, the first time was at The Vic, a really cool smaller venue near Wrigley Field. Here is a pic that I took while they were playing "See the World":

After Gomez we bounced around between Arctic Monkeys and Santigold. Both bands seemed to be pretty good, but I don't really know that much about them. After taking a beating from the sun, Alissa decided to head home and I settled between two stages. TV on the Radio played at 6:30 right before Ben Harper at 7:30. TV on the Radio was highly recommended by Adam Rosenthal so I tried to pay attention as much as possible! They put on a high energy show but I was pretty far back so I didn't get the full experience...I'd definitely like to see them again after listening more to their stuff on iTunes. I was more excited to see Ben Harper. I have been a fan of his since college (10 years ago...wow)!!! He really avoided playing any old favorites and instead stuck to the new stuff. Damon had told me that he heard the new band wasn't as good as his old band...and I must say I kind of agree. They played a lot of songs with BH on slide guitar, which is always awesome since he is so talented. I think that the highlight of the show for me was when they covered Led Zeppelin's Good Times, Bad Times. The only thing left to ponder was which of the two headliners, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Tool, I should go see. After pondering this for about a second I decided on neither. Instead, Damon and Joanna and I headed over to Perry's for Bassnectar. This was an experience I wasn't expecting at Lolla...Bassnectar is a DJ who plays some really trippy stuff...I was expecting more of a GirlTalk mashup set, but instead he played his own stuff which was really "bass-ey" (sp?) -- it was super high energy and a lot of fun to end the night with some crazy young raver kids dancing their tails off.

My two days at Lollapalooza this year were good, not great. The fact that the Beastie Boys had to cancel was a huge disappointment and the quality of bands didn't compare to years past (Wilco, Flaming Lips, Weezer, Daft Punk, Pearl Jam) but I still had a great time...listening to new bands and old favorites. I would have to say that Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears was my personal favorite, followed by Quinn Sullivan, Ben Folds, and of course Depeche Mode. We had to skip Sunday because we had a wedding to attend...and given the weather and my lack of energy we decided to not push our luck. There were a few bands that I really wanted to see -- Vampire Weekend, Kaiser Chiefs, and Jane's Addiction...I guess I'll have to hope they are on the bill for next year!