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Yesterday was Lollapalooza's first ever sell out (as is Saturday), cramming over 75,000 people into Grant Park, and it felt we were jostled by every single one during Radiohead's closing headline set. We bumped into fest curator Perry Farrell and spotted a few other celebs standing at the side of the stages. Also in attendance? The sun. One of the loudest cheers we heard all day was when the first cloud blessed us with its presence...around 5 p.m. Amongst the sun and beer cups was some fantastic music and some performances that left us wanting a little more.
When we first entered the grounds around 11:30, we were greeted by the sight of enthusiastic Radiohead fans sprinting to the AT&T stage to stake their claim. For us, though, it was off to see Bang Camaro, who lived up to their name. The raucous metal got the fest off to a rousing start, exactly what we needed in the heat, working up a sweat with powerful fist-pumping. From there, we crossed over to catch the throbbing, pulsing swagger of Holy Fuck. They held there own on the mammoth stage and the crowd gathered seemed to be into it. Rogue Wave was up next on our schedule and, like the other bands, their songs captured the hot mood well. They breezed through selections like "Every Moment" and "Publish My Love," sunny psych-pop for a sunny day. They were also the first band to experience sound issues, being drowned out by Manchester Orchestra at the nearby Citi stage.
Shortly before the Rogue Wave set ended, we sprinted (or rather, walked kind of fast) to the other end of the park to catch The Go! Team and were rewarded for our efforts. Turning in one of the most enjoyable sets of the day, Ninja bounced around the stage like a 5-year old on Red Bull while Ian, Kaori, and the rest of the Team jammed behind her. The crowd jumped and waved and beat back the heat with their dancing. All this in spite of suffering the same problem that plagued almost every set we saw: the music was cranked loud but the vocals were way too low. Still, it was easily one of our favorite sets of the day, especially in light of what was to come.
Duffy was next and while we dig her soulful sounds, her set left us...underwhelmed? Maybe it was the heat finally getting to us, especially on the concrete surrounding the Playstation stage, but it seemed that Duffy's mid-tempo ballads and shuffles sucked the energy out of us. We thought her vocals were ace, but the set lacked the energy necessary to keep us from falling asleep in the heat. The Black Keys' dirty garage blues propped us up a bit, crushing through songs like "3 AM Automatic," and their set featured the aforementioned cloud cover, bringing us a brief respite from the heat. Unfortunately, the following set by Cat Power again left us craving a nap in the shade. We've never had a problem with Chan's performances, but, like many sets, it seemed the vocals weren't loud enough and, like Duffy, her mid-tempo stylings weren't enough to keep our energy up.
It was with this in mind that we made our first "screw this" decision of the weekend and made our way to hear Grizzly Bear. Their woozy brand of indie-pop was easy listening as we set up camp in the shade to the side of the stage and hydrated, trying to get our second (or third or fourth) wind for the evening. The rest gave us back our energy and we made our way down to Bloc Party. Lead man Kele Okereke was the first rocker we saw proudly sporting Obama paraphernalia but certainly won't be the last. Their Brit-dance-punk-indie set was a good set-up for the band that followed, the one everyone came to see.
Ah yes. The Head, as we obnoxiously refer to them sometimes. Finally. Radiohead's set spanned their entire catalog (save debut LP Pablo Honey) and it was our first chance to hear the band live since the release of In Rainbows and the songs sounded just as fantastic live as they do on record. "We're from Eng-uh-land," Thom Yorke declared for the uninitiated. That was about the extent of his chatting with the large crowd, but his frantic, spastic style of dancing was more than enough to entertain us. Stand-outs included "There, There," "The Bends," and "Reckoner," though we doubt many fans will forget the impromptu fireworks show that went off as the band launched into "Fake Plastic Trees." Our only complaints stem from the same sound issue that plagued other sets: from our vantage point at stage left, the vocals seemed lower than any other band that day and at quieter points, the chattering crowd around us threatened to drown out the band entirely. Still, we thought Thom & Co. performed a very solid two-hour set worthy of the anticipation that surrounded their appearance.
And now? Well, we do it all over again. For the next two days.
Pass the water, please.
Photo by Jim Kopeny
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Wasn't too impressed with Radiohead's set (actually, have never been too impressed with Radiohead period). Left early and don't feel too bad about it.
Saw Mates of State, The Kills, Yeasayer, Gogol Bordello, Bloc Party, etc. (i.e. I was tied to the South side of the park). Gogol Bordello probably was one of the few bands who really had stage presence. They do riff on one theme a bit, but the energy is infectious.
you mean that someone who doesn't like radiohead wasn't impressed with their set? that's surprising. thanks for sharing
Not everyone has to adore Radiohead, but yelling to each other how they're not as good as Springsteen through their entire set does not make me love you. In fact it really pisses me off, because they are what I paid lolla lots of money to see.
Yes, I am cranky.
Yeah, the sound for Radiohead was too quiet, particularly the vocals. Awesome lights/stage set though, and Malkmus' set right before was pretty good.
Did the whining neighbors across the street have anything to do with the lowered sound levels?
unfortunately, i wasn't able to make it. but i saw the map and saw there were two extra stages ... pretty close to some of the main stages. that seemed to me to be a little greedy, and would potentially replicate the first year's sound bleed problems. there's one comment there that is commenting on it.
any thoughts from anyone else? i have to live vicariously through y'all.
Clarenceweatherspoon:
Actually there was some story in the trib about the Lollapalooza organizers trying to minimize the bleed over from stages, I think that may have had an impact.
I've seen radiohead live and they are usually anything but too quiet.
I'm not a lolla-fan. Perry ferrell's stench wafts over the thing for me a bit too much. Not to mention the 90 non-compete clause, the lack of local focus and general MADNESS of the crowds.
I'd rather got see one or two bands I really like than run about grant park catching dribs and drabs of many bands. But more power to you brave souls.
if i wanted to know about it i would have gone to the concert.
If I wanted to know about it, I would have gone to the concert.
...Except then I read through this whole article just so I could get down to the bottom here and post a comment about how I didn't want to hear about it, when I could have just not read the article at all.
Jeez.
FWIW, this is not the second Lala.... the first one was in '90 or '91
and toured the country. I was there for #1 and #2 in Chicago
and now I'm old and live in the 'burbs... :D
"you mean that someone who doesn't like radiohead wasn't impressed with their set? that's surprising. thanks for sharing"
You're welcome asshole!!!!!
And yeah, I did think it was worth sharing. I've been luke warm on this band for a while and this lackluster show was something that swayed me to the negative. My favorite was Pitchfork's review of the performance:
"The band is always dependably great, but the weirdly disinterested crowd and somewhat awkward setting made this something a bit less than it should have been."
"Weirdly disinterested".....I guess that's the polite phrase for "bored." Lemmings.
Again, to be clear, I don't hate Radiohead...I just feel neither here nor there about them. And yesterday did kind of convince me that their live show isn't for me (this is after me seeing them play live on TV before and feel not too enthused). I include the quote above as a discussion point about how this band is written about: Why is an audience of 75,000 at a music fest with a variety of bands/artists labeled "weirdly disinterested"? Were they expected to be silent? Are that many people after a day of oven-like heat expected to be thoroughly attentive and awake? How about the obvious: "Not everyone likes the same bands" and/or "Radiohead had an off night." I think it's ok to say that, it has happened to many bands before.
I don't think Radiohead had an off night at all. I think that, at least the people around me, expected to hear "Karma Police" and "Creep" instead of listening to a band reinvent past songs and experiment with nuance. They're not U2 or Coldplay, who will gladly run through empty anthems-by-number for the masses. I thought Radiohead's energetic re-working of "The Gloaming" was stunning, but people who never heard that song to begin with couldn't care less. That's OK - I understand that the reasons why I love the band are the same reasons some people are apathetic or maddened by them. Nothing wrong with either optinion. Different strokes.
My 14-year-old flannel-clad self would weep at my saying this, but: I hate how Lollapalooza trashes my neighborhood, and all those drunk puking sunburnt hippies can die in a fire. I wish it were at a venue away from where people live.
juniper, it sounds to me like you're the one that needs to be away from other people. anyone who lives downtown and complains about noise, people, etc. is fucking ridiculous
Juniper, I wish it was all hippies. All hippies do is sit in the dirt. It's the meathead drunks who want to fuck or fuck with everyone they see that I have a problem with.
tc3 - nicely put, thanks.
tc3, I walked into Lolla knowing that a lot of the bands who were playing were ones I either didn't know well or had never heard of. In Radiohead's case, it's a band I admittedly don't know too well. With the exception of maybe "There There" if you asked me the set list from last night I wouldn't have a clue. But with that said, plenty of people (including myself) know that they were not going to play "Creep". It really just wasn't an engaging show. I can say that after hearing amazing, engaging instrumental sets by Explosions in the Sky and Battles. And fine, I'll get hated on for saying it, but in a fight both of those bands would have taken Radiohead's lunch money. They just didn't bring it.
I'm not hating. All I'm saying is that I haven't heard anyone who actually likes Radiohead say anything bad about the performance. They're not your cup of tea, no big deal.
I'm a big fan of Radiohead and thought they put on a great set. The sound could have been better, but then again, I'm not sure how feasible it really is acoustically to fill a field with 75,000 audience members. There are drunken/stoned meatheads at any festival this size. If you let them ruin it for you, it's entirely your fault.
Reckoner not Reckoning.
The sound most definitely could've been better. I was also a bit back, stage left and felt it was a little low. I think the general "disinterestedness" may have had a lot to do with the fact that it was so humid/hot/exhausting (a la all the walking) and coupled with the fact that the majority of the crowd was either drunk and/or high. I will say that I was able to tune the crowd out when I really wanted to and while I wish that I had seen and heard better I was still pretty moved by their set. The timing of the climax of Fake Plastic Trees with the climax in fireworks over the Field Museum was enough to stir my soul.
The Black Keys, for me, were one of the sets that I was most disappointed in. I began about a hundred feet stage left from the soundboard and the sound was atrocious. Then we moved more back and center and the sound was still really shoddy. At that point we were so disenchanted with it that we checked out two songs of Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears, that was a happy accident.
Agree with you on Duffy, though it was really cute when she said something about the heat commenting how "I'm not going to lie to you and pretend this is OK!" Pretty amusing.
Loved Radiohead, nice to hear so much from the Bends, probably the best record of the 90's.
"unfortunately, i wasn't able to make it. but i saw the map and saw there were two extra stages"
Smussy there were actually 2 less stages this year than last year.
CSS rocked! (as they always do), sorry you guys missed it!