One Last Lollapalooza Musing
By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 8, 2006 6:46PM
Whew! Happy, sore, tired, but mainly thrilled Lollapalooza spends her time in our home town. We'd like to give props to each and every one of the fans who stood their ground to be down front for whoever was their favorite band from The Flaming Lips to Wilco or The Raconteurs and the Chili Peppers. You guys are the ones who made Lollapalooza the best! Here are just a few more thoughts on the bands that performed.
The Subways really got us off on the right foot with all of their energy. They rocked us with a new song "Shake Shake" and ended the set perfectly with "Rock & Roll Queen". We agreed with their complaints about the state of radio today and wishes that it be less homogenized.
Panic! At the Disco upped the stage performance ante with all the vaudevillian girls and boys dancing around. More theatrical than anything else, but nothing compared to The Flaming Lips. We nearly forgot that we were supposed to be listening to the music with all the antics and mayhem going on during Wayne and Co.'s performance. Confetti guns, big blue balloons, the "magical" walking on the crowd, alien dancing girls, santas and more.
The Living Things pulled out the rock star vibe while professing their love of America, yet hatred for the current administration. "Bom Bom Bom" and "God Made Hate" were two songs that epitomized their semi-glam rock sound.
We had to check out Mike Patton's new venture Peeping Tom and were not disappointed with the hip-hop and industrial/punk mix. Of course, we have a soft spot for all of Patton's incarnations ever since that hug from him at a Faith No More show during our formative years.
Wolfmother was probably one of our most anticipated bands, if only because they are so everywhere right now and we wanted to see how they would perform live. The crowd went crazy for their Black Sabbath sound and screamed along to every single song. These Aussies sure are taking advantage of their notoriety and don't seem to be just riding the waves.
Hometown heroes, Wilco, were fun and gave us some new songs to mull over. The mix of old and new reminded us why we keep buying their albums and seeing them live. Tweedy's dressed up mountain man look was interesting to say the least.
The Burden Brothers hard rockin' set impressed us. But the rabid fans were really what made them come alive at the Playstation stage.
Our personal disappointments at Lolla were few and mainly due to the larger stages not providing the right atmosphere for the Dresden Dolls or deadboy & The Elephantmen. Little movement from the musicians and the bands' set up caused the members to be so far apart leaving little ability for interaction between them. We will definitely see these guys again in smaller venues, though.
The least technical set was by Be Your Own Pet, but they are YOUNG and will come into their own musically soon enough. "Damn Damn Leash" is still stuck in our head, so they are doing something right. Our biggest regret was choosing Kanye West over Manu Chao. It sounded like quite the party over on the other side of the park, while all we got was some technical difficulties and, sorry to say, a less than stellar appearance from Kanye.
We can't wait until next year! We are going to up the treadmill workouts hoping that our endurance is at a peak for the long Grant Park trek between stages for Lollapalooza 2007. Boy, does the Buckingham Fountain now hold an entirely different meaning for us - we're only halfway across?!