Lollapalooza Day Two: Soldiering On

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 7, 2011 6:30PM

Patrick Stump photo by Jim Kopeny

The second day of Lollapalooza tends to be the one where people hit their rhythm. They probably overdid it Friday so they spend Saturday moving a little slower. It seems as if more folks are camped out in single spots or, if they are moving around, they're sampling a little of this and that. The only spot that proved the exception to the rule was Perry's Stage, which was already going into overdrive in the early afternoon. So far we've seen a bunch of great bands but none of them have matched the energy or the zeal of the kids in the aircraft hangar-sized dance tent. Let's turn things over to Kimberly Bellware to recap most of the day's events. - Tankboy

Few acts during Lollapalooza’s second day were new to us, so we kicked off the afternoon with a band we had never heard and about whom we knew absolutely zilch. Typhoon, the 12-piece band from Portland, turned out to be a knockout surprise. Of the dozen members, seemingly half of them were brass given the presence of Typhoon’s blaring, beautiful horn melodies. Like a younger, looser Arcade Fire, the sprawling band worked in strings, a boatload of guitars and two sets of drums. Lead singer Kyle Morton’s shoulders most of the vocal work with his clear and powerful voice, though when the entire band joins in to sing--particularly as they did on the gorgeous, give-you-goosebumps number “The Honest Truth”--the resulting chorus of voices is as stunning as it is uplifting. Though Typhoon’s arrangements were intricate and full, the band kept their music neat and unpretentious, making them an early favorite of day 2.

When a band hustles as hard as Fitz and the Tantrums, it’s hard not to like them. Vocalists Michael Fitzpatrick and Nicole Scaggs are a magnetic combo with sassy moves that match their soulful voices. The band describes itself as “soul-influenced with the Stax-era nostalgia as apparent as the nods to funk and ska and even flecks of CCR Southern bayou rock. The band masters genre blending with the peppery horns, fat bass and sputtery drums; interestingly, the band plays with no guitars at all. Like all great soul music, Fitz and the Tantrums’ aren’t just catchy, their songs also tell good stories. “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” and “Rich Girls” were colorful numbers about (what else) love and heartbreak. New track “6 a.m.” sounded like an improbable marriage of Steve Winwood and Sly and the Family Stone--which still sounded pretty good. The band took on a few covers, too, including a sizzling version of The Raconteurs “Steady As She Goes” and Eurhythmics “Sweet Dreams.” During their song “Moneygrabber,” Fitz drummer John Wicks was absolutely unstoppable. Even the flautist looked badass. There’s something almost cartoonish about the group, in the way that the rest of the band minus Scaggs plays with a perma-shaded straight-man cool while Fitzpatrick, in his cinnamon colored suit writhes and howls like a less skeezy Jon Spencer. The obvious goal here is fun, and Fitz and the Tantrumbs more than made that happen for themselves and for the crowd.

While blue-eyed soul singer Mayer Hawthorne has never disappointed us, it seemed downright unfair to put two of the festivals’ throwback soul groups one right after another--on adjacent stages, no less. Following Fitz and the Tantrums electrifying set, Hawthorne’s warm, mellow crooning would seem like barely a spark in comparison. The unruffled Hawthorne certainly made the best of it, turning in a true-to-form block of songs of oldies-but-goodies like “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” and newer tracks like “Dream,” the latter of which was woven in with Hall & Oats’ “You Make My Dreams Come True.” Hawthorne tossed in a prettied-up cover of the Snoop Dogg and Pharrell William’s, “Beautiful,” a track that seems tailor-made for Hawthorne’s airy falsetto. It’s getting a little harder these days to tell when Hawthorne is covering a influence of his or singing one of his own songs, but we don’t much mind a retro facsimile when it’s done with this much aplomb.

Former Fall Out Boy member Patrick Stump started his set late, so we caught only a bit before moving on. Though the foundation of his solo music still sounded very close to the emo punk of FoB, there were groovier layers of R&B over the whole thing. The bass was a bit much in the beginning, fuzzing out the rest of the instruments, though Stump for the most part could clearly be heard. We had a hard time really getting into it, but once Stump has worked out the kinks a bit more, it seems like this material could be plenty promising.

Cee Lo Green photo by Jim Kopeny

If you’ve ever had a nightmare in which a fat man in sunglasses dressed like a futuristic puffer fish yells at you and tells you what turns him on, then you have an approximate idea of Cee Lo Green’s abysmal set. We’ve been fans of the helium-voiced singer since his days in Goodie Mob, and expected to hear anything--a mix of R&B, edgy Gnarles Barkley style rock, catchy, soul-fused “Fuck You” ditties--but the startling dreck Green and his fembot “band” lamely peddled. Anyone who saw Green’s peacock getup at the Grammy’s is aware of his penchant for theatrical costumes and stage props, but his Demolition Man style setup struck a sour note with us. It was hard to pick which was more offensive--the fact that Green punked out on using a real band or even real backup singers (rather than the poorly-cued backup track) or the fact that he hired a crew of hot women only to dress them like hookers from outer space and use them as stage decoration to posture (very poorly) with some instruments. If Green had wanted to be surrounded by ladies, surely he could have picked some that actually know how to play music instead ones who just stood there looking like trade show models in S&M gear. As engaging a performer as we’ve seen Cee Lo before, he could have really used the help of live accompaniment, since his usual charisma was apparently out to lunch during the set. Instead of charming or playful, Green came off as annoyed and entitled, switching between cajoling the audience into getting more excited and chiding them with thinly-veiled hostility. Leading off with a hard-edged cover of Danzig’s “Mother” seemed to confuse and disappoint the crowd hoping to hear something along the lines of “Fuck You.” His own songs, like “Satisfy,” registered as weakly as the covers, like Billy Idol’s “Flesh for Fantasy.” When he finally got to Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” a number the audience would recognize a litter easier, Green managed to turn one of the best songs of the early aughts into a forgettable mess of lackluster enthusiasm and strange orchestral backing arrangements. His set was scheduled for a full hour, and in that time it felt like Green only sang five or six songs, losing the rest of the time to awkward DJ transitions that built up to nothing, long pauses that killed what little momentum he was building and embarrassing starts and stops. It wasn’t clear whether Green was experiencing some technical issues or just didn’t give a shit, but when the difference isn’t obvious, it’s never a good sign. Green cut out of the last 15 minutes of his set, throwing his crowd the bone they had been waiting for. “Fuck You” may have been the only song that truly set the crowd on fire, but Green’s tepid effort made it feel more like dying embers.

Like a Swedish Stevie Nicks, the pint-sized Lykke Li donned a cape-like shroud as she zipped around the stage. Lykke Li’s tunes span the range of sweetly affecting heartbreak and edgy, thrash dance pop, the latter of which would have been more fitting for the outdoor festival. The more intimate, slow numbers like “I Know Places” made the energy dip, with the crowd near the back seeming restless. When the music got punchier with “I’m Good, I’m Gone” the crowd perked up. The band Lykke Li has been playing with added some terrific dimension to her sound which seems to find its shape as its played out. Some of Lykke Li’s biggest hits have been remixed and retooled by herself and other acts like The Black Kids, so when she and her band played with the start and stop teasing beats of “Dance Dance Dance,” “I’m Good, I’m Gone” and “Rich Kid Blues,” her set picked up the most steam. Her megaphone, a trusty aide during her “Youth Novels” tour, made a reappearance for “Little Bit,” with the heavy percussion filled out by the band making more than a few audiences members shake their stuff. For the closing track, Lykke Li took her song “Shotgun” from her newest album, out for a spin. By now she was fully commanding the crowd and was hopefully making mental notes for the future: more blasts like “Shotgun;” leave the downer numbers for the indoor venues. - Kimberly Bellware

While we had high hopes for Eminem's closing set we ended up witnessing a thudding, plodding set that failed to carry over and immediacy or engagement. It was well produced but incredibly boring and might have been the biggest letdown we've experienced thus far this weekend. We made our way to the opposite end of the park to catch some of the usually reliable My Morning Jacket but were met with sleepiness there as well. There wasn't really anything wrong with either of the evening's headliners but there was really anything great about them either. We're looking to the Foo Fighters to remedy the headline situation tonight with their festival closing set (even if we are also a little curious to go see the kids just absolutely lose their minds to Deadmau5 too). - Tankboy