Lollapalooza 2008: Day 2 Recap
By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 3, 2008 4:30PM
We rested, rehydrated, and recovered from Day 1 in preparation for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, Mother Nature decided to have pity on the festival-goers: while clouds were still completely absent from the sky on Saturday, the temperature and humidity were considerably lower than on Friday and the breeze off Lake Michigan made the weather downright pleasant to enjoy all the great music. There's no rest for the weary and with some big decisions looming in Sunday's line-up (i.e., the Gnarls-Girl Talk-National conundrum), we dove right in to Saturday's sets.
The last time we saw the Gutter Twins (in March) their brand of moody, booze-soaked noir turned Metro into a simmering cauldron of hormones. Our main concern (besides wondering if Dulli and Lanegan would catch fire like vampires if the sun touched their skin) was: would the music translate in a mid-afternoon slot? We needn’t have worried. Dulli was his usual soulful self during an inspired reading of “God’s Children” while Lanegan was pure stoic menace on the rocker “Idle Hands,” which even had some of the dullards waiting for Rage Against the Machine pumping their fists in the air.
We've never been into house music, but after catching a bit of MGMT's set (and their ridiculously large crowd), we decided to check out Booka Shade. After all, that's part of the fun of these fests: checking out the acts you've never seen before. While they didn't convert us to the house side, we still dug their pulsing rhythms and the way they used squeals and sirens to make danceable beats. Not a bad way to spend some time in the, um, shade at the side of the Citi stage.
Over at the Playstation stage (AKA the Petrillo Band Shell) DeVotchka had one of the best walk-up crowds of the fest so far. By the time this Colorado-based band’s hit their stride with their genre mash of Eastern European styles, folk, lush pop and Ennio Morricone-inspired orchestration a rapt audience had formed. Bonus points for bassist Jeanie Schroder for doing double duty on sousaphone.
Next up was Explosions in the Sky at the Bud Light stage. The Austin band packed a Texas-sized wallop in their epic set. One of our favorites of the day, the band crashed through their set with sweeping, crunching guitars and throbbing bass, not to mention the amazing job Chris Hrasky did crashing the drums. It was a swirling chaos barely contained and somehow refined into beauty under the sunny sky.
After the catharsis that was Explosions in the Sky, we lowered our expectations a bit for Okkervil River. Even then, we were let down by their performance, although many in the crowd didn’t seem to mind, singing along faithfully with lead singer Will Sheff to every word.
Meanwhile, Jamie Lidell was holding court on the MySpace stage. When we saw him at Pitchfork last year, we were bowled over by the way he used his voice manipulations and loops to create a solo symphony. This year, we were equally impressed, but this time by his full band performance. While we still dug his vocal acrobatics, we couldn't help but long for more action with his backing band, especially on songs from his most recent LP, Jim. "Little Bit Of Feel Good" was one of the stand-outs for us, as was watching Lidell jump, dance, and strut around the stage with style. He brought the funk-infused soul that we had been hoping for from Duffy on Friday, and then some.
From there we crossed over to catch Lupe Fiasco. We had high hopes for the former Kanye protege and he didn't let us down. Decked out in a dapper three-piece white suit (sans jacket) and silver kicks, Lupe bounded onto the stage while his outstanding band played the theme song to Rocky. A little bit of swagger? Or just a stage trick he learned from his mentor? Whatever the case, Lupe backed up the hype with a blazing rendition of "Kick, Push" before tearing through an amazing set. Backed at times by a gospel choir and joined on stage by fellow Chicagoan Matthew Santos, Lupe fired through the early evening sunlight with the performance we'll most remember from Saturday. As he closed his set with an extended version of "Superstar," he affirmed for us that though Kanye will get the big festival closing set tonight, Lupe has stepped out of Kanye's shadow and is a force to be reckoned with all his own.
Lupe’s band, which was stopping on every dime he dropped (and made change), only whetted our appetite for Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Jones is a ball of fire onstage and the Dap-Kings are tighter than corduroys on a hipster. Part soul revue, part revival, part sex-ed class, Jones vamped and strutted her way across the stage, dragging men from the crowd twice to dance with her and even ceding the spotlight for one song to local soul legend Syl Johnson for a spirited take of his classic hit “Different Strokes,” complete with dueling pelvic thrusts between him and Jones.
We thought about hitting the DJ tent to hear DJ Momjeans a.k.a. Danny Masterson (you know, the dude from That 70's Show who's the brother of that dude from Malcolm in the Middle who's married to the red-head girl from That 70's Show) but that would only encourage him, so it was on to the headliners
It was a toss-up for us between Wilco and Rage Against the Machine, until we remembered that three-fourths of Rage formed Audioslave. A good decision, in retrospect. If Gram Parsons were alive he would have approved of the Nudie suits Wilco wore as they took to the Bud Light stage. Of the suits, Tweedy cracked, “We spent the past few months doing a lot of sewing in preparation for this show.” Other highlights of Wilco’s set included Nels Cline’s lead guitar dripping over the lazy California pop on an inspired “Impossible Germany,” the crowd singing along with Tweedy’s every word on “I Am Trying to Break Your Hear,” John Stirratt handling lead vocals on “It’s Just That Simple.” A horn section augmented Wilco for the last quarter of the show, which closed with a tough, frenetic rendition of “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” from Being There.
After the party ended at Grant Park, we headed out to various after-shows, including Schuba's where we caught Okkervil River. Will Sheff & Co. redeemed any doubts we might have had, only proving the point that so many of the bands, while okay at festivals, really thrive in the smaller, intimate venues, devoid of the disinterested fest-goers there to catch the headliner. Isn't that always the case? But the real story of the night was the frantic, kinetic opening set by fellow-Austiners The Octopus Project. Coming off like the dance-punk, Ritalin-snorting, hyperactive little brother of fellow Texans Explosions in the Sky, the quartet stole the show right out from under Sheff and his crew.
And now? Well, two down, one to go. With high temps predicted to be in the lower 80's, it appears as if we have again lucked out and might actually survive the weekend. But don't expect us to be anything other than zombies at the office tomorrow.
So here we go. Once more with feeling.
Additional reporting by Chuck Sudo
Photo by Marcus Gilmer