Too Long: The Lolla Post
Well, It has been a while since I’ve been on here. I was planning on doing Lolla ‘09 updates but that wasn’t going to work (Thanks at&t). No excuses. Sorry.
BUT, in the intervening time, I have been crazy busy. Whether it was finishing work, a move or a music festival, I have kept myself occupied all week long.
LOLLAPALOOZA 2009
For four years now, I have been attended the greatest, most scenic, music festival in the world: Lollapalooza. Being from the western ‘burbs, I have always loved Chicago and could not think of a more beautiful venue for a festival that Grant Park, the personification of The City in a Garden.
Now in complete opposition to that sentiment: Friday was the shittiest day of weather I have ever experienced at Lolla. Raining from the minute we got inside the park (about 11:20) until about half way through The Decemberists (6:30), Friday was almost a complete wash (pun intended [sorry]).
Hockey started out the day with a tight but malfunction prone set. After only a few songs, Hockey’s audio violently cut out. After a 5 minute acoustic dance session and a 5 minute silent awkward nothing session, Hockey got back to doing what it does best: Rocking out.
…but then the sound went out again and I said fuck this and left. It was like Peter, Bjorn and John ‘07 all over again.
Hopping around from set to set, my friends and I saw bits and pieces of Zap Mama, Bon Iver and The Virgins. All good but not good enough to merit standing in the rain for hours at a time.
Then Ben Folds changed the mood for the whole day.
With a hit here and a hit there, including the classics Bitches Ain’t Shit, Landed, Army and Rocking the Suburbs, Folds - single handedly - awoke the day from a rain drenched slumber and got the crowd singing and dancing along.
Then The Decemberists followed by playing The Hazards of Love, their Indie Folk Opera album, in it’s entirety. We stayed until the interlude, not because it wasn’t an amazing and beautiful performance, but because of Montreal was playing in 30 minutes on the opposite side of Grant Park and we were not going to miss that spectacle for anything in the world.
For an hour, Kevin Barnes and company pumped out hallucinogenic dance pop song after hallucinogenic dance pop song. Bringing out singer Janelle Monae for a few songs (INCLUDING BOWIE’S MOONAGE DAYDREAM), of brought the house down with their delightfully over-the-top stage show - which includes about 5 actors, multiple costume changes for actors and band members alike and a giant X shaped cross that someone is “nailed” to.
Capping the night, Depeche Mode played to a half filled South field and The Kings of Leon played a very chillaxed concert on the North stage.
Saturday started out much sunnier, warmer and relaxed. With few bands I knew well and ‘needed’ to see, Saturday was a nice day to go see a set and then hop back into the shade of das Beergarden.
Starting with the underwhelming Constantines, we quickly moved on and headed to the beergarden, located next to the ‘Perry’s’ Stage (the DJ stage), and listened to Kaskade jam hot beats and great songs into a Girl Talk-esque dance party.
From there, we moved on to the aptly named Atmosphere, whose slow jam style hip hop lended itself well to the warm afternoon sun. The Arctic Monkeys were next and they too put on a good show, but their music is still new to me so their show was a bit long for me.
After a quick stop for food - and an even quicker stop at Lykke Li (read: THIS SUCKED) - Animal collective was next on the bill. I had been looking forward to this show for some time, and I cannot stress how much I like this band, but seriously? That’s your show? A slow, moody, unenergetic set filled with eight songs, AND NO MY GIRLS? That may have been my biggest Lollapalooza disappointment since The Shins.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs closed Saturday with an always entertaining set but Sunday was about to rock my socks.
Arriving late in the day, the Kaiser Chiefs came to please - me in particular. They played both Ruby and I Predict a Riot, the two songs of theirs I knew well. Next was the ever-fun Vampire Weekend. I mean, how can anyone not like this band. My heterosexual life partner and I couldn’t stop from dancing to A Punk. It’s just not possible unless you are a wet blanket (You know who you are).
Next was Cold War Kids, who also played every song of theirs I know (this was a wonderful trend all Lolla). But up next was Snoop D O double G: And he did not fucking disappoint. 187, Gin and Juice and Nuthin’ But a G Thing lit up the crowd while the crowd lit up. It was Amazing how many songs he ‘played’ in the 30 minutes I saw that I knew by heart. It was tight.
To experience all I could at Lolla, I decided to rave out at Perry’s stage to MSTRKRFT. This was the first time I had ever attended a show at the DJ stage and it was nuts. Bodies were crowd surfing, water bottlers were being tossed, it was an all out rave.
But the highlight of this years festival had to be the last show: Jane’s Addiction. If you went to the Killers, you’re a bad person. Sorry. For the first time in 17 years, Jane’s was back with the original lineup playing the original hits. And when you open up a show with a helicopter with a spotlight attached flying dangerously low over the crowd, you know it’s going to be a great night.
The Party Better Crash Us.
I love of Montreal. Kevin Barnes continues to make me profoundly happy all the time, whether it is when he creates super sexual alter egos, talks about his profound love of the NFL or when he does this - Covers an awesome band and an awesome song, but jams it with the distinct feel of of. (listen to more here) The of show at Lolla ‘09 should be an eargasmic sexsplosion. (More on Lolla to come…)
Goin’ for the sweep
My last weekend with the fam before moving back to Bloomington, we decided to go to The Cell and watch Buehrle and company take on the Yankees.
The Dead Weather | The Vic, Chicago
Apparently Jack White got tired of his two bands, his budding acting career and producing albums because his new gig is The Dead Weather.
Playing at the Vic on the North Side of Chicago on Tuesday, July 28, White - with Alison Mosshart (of The Kills fame), Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs and Greenhorns fame) and Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age fame) - tore the house down in a quick but efficient 70 minute set.
Playing most of their first and only album, Horehound, and splicing in a couple of covers, The Dead Weather proved to be less of a ‘Jack White Featuring…” and more of an ensemble outfit. Of course, while White did do his fair share of frontmanning, he probably spent 70 percent of the show on the skins - in one of the strangest kit set ups I’ve ever seen.
The dark and heavy songs set the mood quickly and the crowd soon joined in, many lighting cigarettes (illegally), and the show was off to a furious and fantastic start. 60 Feet Tall and Hang You from the Heavens were both played early in the set amping up the mood as quickly as can be expected.
White and Mosshart quickly began alternating dominance from song to song, verse to verse, wavering from White’s calm and confident to Mosshart’s sexual and theatrical. In fact, Mosshart’s stage presence trumped everyone else’s combined because of her rare combination of voice, passion and overt sexuality: She truly is a commanding frontman and wonderful foil to White.
The dichotomy between the two finally came to a head in the main set’s soulful last song, Will There Be Enough Water? When both White and Mosshart stood at the same mic and sang, staring into each others’ eyes - sexual tension and pure aggression dripping from the stage.
With a three song Encore, once again, The Dead Weather proved to be on a mission to melt faces. Somebody get the aircraft carrier: Mission Accomplished. Tossing aside his guitar in full sustain, White joined his newest crew for one last bow and walked of the stage to thunderous applause as his guitar, tormented from the evening’s work, continued to wail into the night.
Everything in its Right Place
Well, it was bound to happen. I’m too indie, too hipster, too scene for my own good.
I adore a Radiohead album.
Even as I write this, I must remind myself, ‘Radiohead doesn’t have a space…’ How sad is that?
Given all of their albums shortly before the release of In Rainbows - an album which I enjoy, but find some songs tedious and unappealing - I had been coerced into listening to The Bends and the well known songs from other albums.
But last night, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I put Kid A on the iTunes and turned random off - I was going to listen to this album from beginning to end, like it or lump it hate it.
It may have been the visually entrancing album artwork, or it may have been the hauntingly scenic chords that open up Everything in its Right Place but something quickly caught my attention in a way few - if any - Radiohead songs had ever done.
The constant use of electronically synthesized vocals, melodies and drum beats as well as beautiful layering so reminded me of the indie sounds coming out of Brooklyn in the past few years (i.e. MGMT, Animal Collective and Yeasayer) that I was almost shock to see that Kid A was the 2000 release for Radiohead. This sound wasn’t ahead of the curve, it was past the curve and off at the next exit before mainstream had a chance to catch up.
Idioteque is so good it’s stupid. Lyrically, the song seems to be depicting, at minimum, a mass panic or, at maximum, a mass Apocalypse. I mean, the song’s lyrics were drawn out of a hat - literally - and yet they flow together in a disjointed way that only helps fuel this feel of panic and terror. Combine a sick-nasty beat with more haunting chord progressions and you have one of the best songs I have heard in a long while.
In and of itself, Kid A is a well planned, well produced record that starts off with an unsettling tone and somehow explores this extreme range of emotions one can experience without leaving this eerie realm.
Time to Pretend | MGMT
Perhaps the greatest “Driving-home-from-work-on-a-Friday-so-get-amped-for-the-weekend” song I have ever heard. It’s time to chillax.
After two nights in Astoria, Queens, my mom, dad and I have moved out of my sister’s new apartment (View pictured above) and have headed east to Smithtown. During the drive from Queens to Smithtown, I decided to listen to bands based out of Brooklyn: Vampire Weekend, Matt and Kim and MGMT.
Air conditioning and my own room are a major plus and now that it’s almost time for the wedding, I can relax and spend some quality time with the extended family.
