First off, yes, I am a slacker for not having finished these reviews by now, but I figure as long as they’re done before 2009, there’s still plenty of time for you to decide to go to the next one. So, on to day 2…
I was utterly unprepared for the heat, humidity, and miles of walking that is Lollapalooza, so Saturday morning I faced the walk from the train station to the front gate with a slightly less peppy attitude than the day before. We had our backpack with a towel (yes, I’m one hoopy frood), ponchos (which of course means it didn’t rain all weekend), a change of clothes, suntan lotion, and water. This is the first time I’ve been to a festival that’s so cool about bringing in your own beverages. The rule is you can bring in bottled water as long as it has the factory seal, but they never checked to see that our bottles were sealed.
There is only entrance for the 75,000 attendees, with two main lines, one going North and the other South. We had learned the day before, however, that there is also a third option- if you stand in the area where the two lines meet at the actual gates, an amazing whirlpool occurs which will miraculously pull you in to the festival and allow you to avoid the pesky waiting in line thing. OK, the truth is that the day before we noticed that the lines are watched about as closely as Palin’s daughter on a date, and that nobody was stopping blatant line jumping or tossing liquor-laden backpacks over the fence to friends already inside, let alone blocking people from making a clumpy ‘middle line’. I like to properly stand in que with the best of them, but this was not the time for noble line minding, I had a hot date with a couple Tings.
As worn down as I may have felt facing the entrance, the release of popping out of the bottleneck woke me right up and I was ready to head to the far South stage for The Ting Tings. Take a big ass bowl, add Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, brownie mix and Pop Rocks, then pour in some Mountain Dew. Now eat it while jumping up and down and that is what it is line starting your day with The Ting Tings. Katie White owned the stage, strutting and bopping the entire length, climbing down to Mick Jagger at the video guy, and reaching out to the crowd, all while a grimacing Jules De Martino beat the living hell out of his drums to the point where I started to feel a little sorry for them. The crowd was obviously energized by this earnest performance, especially when they played their single “That’s Not My Name”. This was a great way to start the day and had me all warmed up for the next concert of the day.
The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go (Live on KCRW: Morning Becomes Eclectic)
Dr Dog is one of the bands I learned of only when I started looking into Lolla bands a few months before the show, but that I fell totally in love with. Considering they have four albums under their belts and have been together for almost 10 years according to Wikipedia, I was not expecting them to look as young as they did. These guys are 100% pros and fit all the energy and music they could into the hour allotted to them on the little MySpace stage. Much of the crowd knew the lyrics to every song, and as the five guys gave their all, for a little while it felt as if we’d been transported from this sunny public park to a little local gin joint. If you get a chance to see these guys, do it, you won’t be disappointed.
When Dr Dog’s set ended I rushed over to the next stage to try and catch Foals, whose set had been scheduled to start 15 minutes before Dr Dog ended. The stage was fucking mobbed. People covered the area in front of the stage, up the hills, into the shrubs, and out into the crosswalks. We were so far away I could only see the stage through the boyfriend’s camera, and the sound was not set up for being so far away, so I tried to listen to a little and then gave up to go catch the Gutter Twins, whose set had started when Dr Dog’s set ended. Yeah, I was definitely chasing my tail at this point.
The Gutter Twins were on the gigantic South Stage, so we could hear them right away. In fact, I could hear them over the Foals while I was trying to watch the Foals. Genius band and a genius show. As people littered the field catching quick bites or enjoying their drinks, Lanegan’s (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, Mad Season) ominous growl swirled with Dulli’s (Afghan Whigs) sweet harmonies. Playing mostly off of their debut album, the gloriously haunting Saturnalia, they did throw in an awesome surprise at the end by wrapping things up with “Number Nine” from their other side project, the Twilight Singers.
The Gutter Twins - The Stations
The next band that I wanted to see was the Homemade Jamz Blues Band. I’d heard a story about them on npr and was excited to get the chance to check them out over in the kids area, Kidzapalooza. On our way to the stage we passed through kids jumping rope, facepainting, and fingerpainting. I would have never thought to bring a kid to this, but I don’t have any, either. Still, the ones who were there were having a blast. We got to the kiddy stage and found some space on the bleachers while surprise guest Mason Jennings was still playing. Homemade Jamz is a band made up of the three Perry siblings, aged 9, 14, and 16 years old, who play homemade muffler guitars and sing lyrics written by their father, who sometimes plays harmonica with his kids. These kids are fantastic. Frontman Ryan knows his blues and he sang, played, and downright exuded blues as if he was far older than his 16 years. I hope they stick with this as they age, because with such talent as such young ages I can’t wait to hear what their futures hold.
Homemade Jamz Blues Band - Penny Waiting On Change
After a quick bite, we walked through local Chicago DJ Bald Eagle’s set and over to Okkervil River. This was another case of big band, little stage, and the Playstation 3 stage was nowhere near prepared to handle the crowd that gathered for this brilliant group. There was no way we were getting any closer than the outer rings, so unfortunately we also missed out on much of this performance and decided to call it a day and get some rest/recovery for a big Sunday.
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