Wipert's Pilgrimage I: Holla-palooza

For all of those interested, here's an act-by-act recount of my Lollapalooza experience. I had intended it to be more clever or entertaining, but it's already taken far too long to write so I gave up on that. Nevertheless, enjoy!

Friday!

Much like last year's M83, Sound Team got the festival off to a great start. Unfortunately they didn't bring the elephant from the "Your Eyes are Liars" video, but the six-piece's energy nearly made up for that. Quote The Hero, "Sound Team is a good version of The Walkmen."


At this point, I had a tough decicion to make. There were four bands playing at once, all of which I would have enjoyed seeing. I decided to start off at Anathallo. I made the right decision, as they opened with "A Great Wind, More Ash," which featured members running around frantically between bells, orchestra drums, vocal duties, and keyobards. These guys played with such energy that it was hard to leave. Luckily they'll be playing a show with Rainer Maria in a couple weeks, so I'll get to catch their full set then.


I did leave Anathallo so I could check out a Finnish four-piece female-voxed electro-rock band, Husky Rescue (or as I like to call them, "Claire from tv's lost and some euro trash"). I walked up just as they were playing one of my two favorite songs ("City Lights"), which was immediately followed by my favorite song, "Summertime Cowboy." They played well, and their live show is an improvement to the album, but overall the show was nothing spectacular.


On the way back to Wipert and The Hero, I stopped by Aqualung just long enough to be enchanted by "Strange & Beautiful." Once I realized that Aqualung has brought along a sign language interpreter with him, I decided I'd seen enough. (I later realized that Lollapalooza provided this interpreter for various acts, as I saw her at Death Cab later that day. Why Lollapalooza decided to do this is way beyond me.) I decided to head back and meet up with Captain Emo Jr. and The Hero at Cursive.

Cursive was basically a snooze fest, and I learned that Dan and Mike were already waiting for Panic! at the Disco. I met them at their stellar spot for Panic! at the Disco, or more appropriately Panic! at the Burlesque Show. While these guys are not a band I would typically listen to, they were very entertaining, mostly due to the burlesque dancers that came on stage throughout the set. Their covers of "Karma Police" and "Tonight Tonight" seemed a little overambitious, but were all in all a good time.


Next came Editors. After seeing a couple songs, all of which seemed to be the same, we decided to make the trip to the other side of the park to see Stars. Boy was this a mistake. For some reason I keep thinking these guys will be good when I see them, but they never are.

As Wipert and Mike went to see Ryan Adams, I went off to see Mates of State, who have never (until this weekend) disappointed live. Unfortunately, a festival is not the ideal setting to see the Mates. There's far too much distance between them, so their loving glances don't have the same effect. Not only this, but they came out wearing sunglasses! I understand the sun's out, but the staring is about half of the live appeal of the band. This combined with the song selection--mostly songs from their most recent two albums--and I was not very happy.


I decided to go see The Secret Machines, who I had heard good things about. I wasn't impressed right away, so I decided to go get a good spot for the next show. The Secret Machines turned out to be Mike's favorite, and according to Wipert it was one of the "five best shows he's ever seen." While Wipert's claim can't be taken seriously, Mike's made me wish I had stuck around.

Next came My Morning Jacket, who played a flawless, incredibly energetic mix of old and new material. After MMJ, we staked out a spot for the headliner, Death Cab for Cutie. Last year, I had relatively low expectations for Death Cab that were shattered. This year my expectations were high, and still shattered. Say what you will about their new album (which I maintain is a good album), but their live show is better than ever. Undoubtedly much of this was due to the stunning visuals that their new fame has afforded them. The highlight of the day came when they played Company Calls and Company Calls epilogue back to back. I'm very glad to see that they still play a very healthy mix of older songs. Also, Gibbard is a far better drummer than I thought, and the real drummer is perhaps the best drummer I have ever seen.

Saturday!

Again, we showed up early to open the day with Rainer Maria, who has recently become a favorite of mine. Not many people showed up to see them so early, so we were about fourth row to see them. These guys put on an incredibly clean show, and Caithlin De Marrais gave a phenomenal vocal performance. Go see them and Anathallo!


After RM came a disappointing Nada Surf. As always, they sounded good, but their song selection left much to be desired. I saw only one song from High/Low and one from The Proximity Effect. They played a very low energy set except for Hyperspace.

Next came another disappointment: Feist. I'm a big fan of Let it Die, but it did not translate very well to the festival setting. I feel I should have given her more of a chance, but I decided to go check out The Go! Team, who were playing at the same time.

The Go! Team, on the other hand, were perfect for the setting, as they put on one of the most entertaining sets of the weekend. I had seen them last year at Pitchfork Music Festival, but that was from afar. These guys had such extreme and contagious energy, that they became a crowd favorite. They were also the first of two bands I saw to bring local favorite Beetle Bob on stage to dance with them.
Next came Coheed and Cambria, who were much, much harder than I thought. I was expecting some emo-pop, and I got a full-blown Metal band, gothic imagery included. What happened to the whiny voice I fell in love with in "Blood Red Summer"? Sad. Not my thing, but this was Wipert's favorite set of the weekend (I guess that makes two of the top 5 shows ever this weekend.) I will say that I do love the lead singer's hair.

Calexico followed, and played a very good set. One of their epic songs would have knocked me off my feet, had I been standing. After their set, and a brief stop to see Gnarls Barkley play a very lackluster Crazy (and tell the women in the audience to flash him), we decided we were too tired to stick around to see a few bands we weren't all that interested in. In hindsight, after looking at pictures of the Flaming Lips show, we should have stayed, but at the time very little could have kept us there.

Sunday!

Refreshed from our Saturday viewing of the surprisingly entertaining Talladega Nights, we were ready to go on Sunday. We started off by seeing What Made Milwaukee Famous play a rather mediocre indie-pop set. Next was Sparta, who played a good set of, again, music I have never particularly enjoyed listening to.

We migrated to the North side of the festival to see The Frames take the stage with charisma and a series of fantastic crescendos. They got off to a slow start, but by the end I had fallen in love with their epic style. Another appearance from Beetle Bob contributed to a great set from these Irishmen. Mike and I went to check out Hot Chip lead a mini-dance party on one of the smaller stages as Wipert ventured off to see Kweller. Why? I don't know.


After this I walked around to various stages, each leading to something slightly horrifying. Nickel Creek played a cover of Britney Spear's "Toxic," The New Amsterdams played some mediocre folk rock, and Jared Leto's 30 Miles to Mars played an abysmal version of their really-not-so-bad, "The Kill." At this point I went to check out the Guitar Hero tournament, which tourned out to be a SongStar (Karaoke) tournament. This ended up being very entertaining, as there was a series of people dressed up as fictitious super heroes dancing on stage (like mascot dance party, but not quite as good) and two hosts that could have passed for good G4 stars.

Following this madness was a disappointingly quiet set by The Shins, and then some blissful indie-pop goodness from Of Montreal. Their music wasn't too great, but their banter was very entertaining, as they blamed Russians for their equipment malfunctions and told the audience, "Call us!" as they left the stage. I was extremely entertained by the latter.

We sat through the last half of She Wants Revenge and the full set of Queens of the Stone Age to get a good spot for Broken Social Scene. Their set was flawless. There were seventeen members with them for this show, and each contributed (except maybe the Stars girl) to closing off Lollapalooza (for us, at least) with an unbelievable show. Their opening song ("Jimmy," I think) was one of the best songs I have ever seen live, as it featured half a dozen trumpets and trombones all coming in to give the greatest aurgasm of the weekend. The only downsides to the show were the lack of old material and the length. BSS was kept to 45 minutes in order to bring out Red Hot Chili Peppers. The crowd stood around chanting for about 15 minutes, so they could have easily played a couple more, but Perry Ferrel is a genuine nutbar.

All in all, I had a great weekend with The Hero and Captain Emo Jr. The energy the bands had was unreal. Most bands commented on how great it was being at Lollapalooza, playing with so many great bands for so many people. This created an intense level of energy that cycled between the audience and the band, and several bands I have seen before played with more energy and enthusiasm than I have ever witnessed. While the heat and the mile walk between stages made it exhausting, seeing so many great bands play in a setting in which they are genuinely excited to play made the experience well worth it.