Lollapalozza

Aug. 30, 2006

Getting to Lollapalooza can be a trip and a half.  Over 150,000 music fans traveled from as close as their hometown of Chicago and from as far away as the UK and Japan for the three-day music festival held August 4-6 in Grant Park. Tickets sell out quickly, coveted press passes are applied for months in advance, and bands clamor by the hundreds to play at what has become one of the United States’ top three concert events of each summer. And all for good reason.
A festival with a complex and somewhat difficult history, Lollapalooza nonetheless has become known for showcasing both big-name musicians and cutting edge acts, often exposing newbie bands to large audiences early on.  It began in 1991 as a touring festival, hyping such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Ice T. Lollapalooza toured annually for the next six years, bringing along the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mercury Rev, Smashing Pumpkins, The Beastie Boys, The Verve, Stereolab, Moby, Ben Folds Five, Orbital, Audioslave, Rooney, and Queens of the Stone Age. Each year’s lineup aimed squarely at indie-rock fans. 
In 2004, the show was unceremon-iously cancelled due to weak ticket sales, but it returned in force last year, when it was taken off of the touring route and instead placed in Chicago’s downtown Grant Park, a serene middle-of-the-city oasis with beautiful lake and skyline views. 
 
BIGGER & BETTER
This year, festival founder Perry Farrell (formerly of the band Jane’s Addiction) expanded the festival even more. The
layout, centered around the impress-ive Buckingham Fountain, astounded fest-ival attendees upon arrival. 
“Well, the festival used to only go to the right of Grant Park,” Farrell explained, “but this year, we added a whole half-mile to the left, so there was a lot more to see and do, and we have eight stages now.”  The weather even cooperated, again to Farrell’s delight.  “Yes, yes, the weather was fantastic,” he enthused, “the production was smooth, and everyone looked to be having a good time.”  
The prevailing mood was most definitely “good time” all across the mile-long Lollapalooza grounds, whether you were a fan or one of the bands; many of even the big-name bands could be spotted stealthily catching other musicians’ sets, and there were several bands that were generating quite a buzz before they even played, the UK’s Editors being one of them, which made it even more worth while for the band to push through the red tape that almost prevented them from getting to Lollapalooza in the first place. 
“Well... we had a little run in with customs coming in, as I’d lost one of the forms that was supposed to be with my passport,” Editors guitarist Chris Urbanowicz chuckled, “but luckily we made it here, and it all turned out fine.” 
The Editors hail from Birmingham, England, and although they’ve already toured a good chunk of the U.S., this might be one of their best chances to really break in the States, a market that’s notorious for being slow to pick up on overseas acts no matter how brilliant they are.  If you’ve heard it, then you know that Editors’ sweeping, perfectly sung R.E.M./Joy Division influenced songs should be spawning hit after hit on the radio stations here, but it simply isn’t so... yet.
“We’re definitely a lot bigger in the UK than we are here,” Urbanowicz continued, “but we absolutely looked forward to playing at Lollapalooza.  There’s a much different feel to the U.S. festivals than the ones in England; the ones here are a lot more rushed, and of course it’s much hotter,” he laughed, “so it’s good that there were people waiting to see us, and we especially enjoyed playing the new songs.” 

TOP PICKS
In addition to the expected favorites that were scheduled to perform, among them The Flaming Lips, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie, Ween, Ryan Adams, Wilco, and the they’ve-still-got-it Violent Femmes, who got the crowd roaring along when they played their biggest hit, “Blister in the Sun,” there were plenty of other up-and-comers to see. 
Southampton, England’s Aqualung, although placed in an early-in-the-day timeslot, nonetheless won the crowd over with his piano-based, lovely Britpop, perfectly ringing through the sunny air above the Adidas-Champs stage. 
Former Sunny Day Real Estate singer/songwriter Jeremy Enigk, who just completed his new solo album, was another much-talked-about show.  Enigk, who said that his new set of songs are about the same things as usual - “it’s always about the same things to me, songs about love, God, friends...” - performed with an abun-dance of feeling, causing festival listeners, whether diehard Enigk fans or new to his sound, to walk away stunned by the depth of his new songs and his ability to translate them beautifully live.
New Orleans band Mute Math were another interesting surprise, merging electronic and ambient sounds with rock, new wave, reggae, and jazz to make for a unique blend that pulled in even the most casual walkers-by. 
On the heavier side of things, Coheed and Cambria and Australia’s Wolfmother both seemed to have found a legion of new fans, and, on the funky hip-hop side, listeners could be seen grooving away to the likes of Common, Blackalicious, Sa-Ra, and Lady Sovereign. 
JAM BANDS
For the Phish phans in the crowd, there were several quality jam bands, includ-ing Umphrey’s McGee, Particle, and Disco Biscuits.  To showcase a more worldly variety of pop music, fans were treated to sets from the Polynesian-influenced Poi Dog Pondering, Jewish reggae art-ist Matisyahu, and French-Latin folk sing-er Manu Chao. And, going back to the indie-rockers, Eels have a huge but focused fan base that is likely to widen greatly after their Lolla performance, which was loaded with oddities and anchored by hard-rocking versions of album tracks such as “Mother Mary” and “Souljacker Part 1.” 
In spite of the sound problems that plagued the Bud Light stage where Eels were performing, their choice of setlist - and the way they executed it - was quite an unusual and energetic switch, since, in their original format on the Eels’ albums, their songs are put together with a lot of care and delicacy, making for a much more refined sound than what they did here live. 
Joining Editors in the buzz band category were several more bands that were repeatedly talked about throughout the event, these being Dresden Dolls, The Secret Machines, Living Things, and White Stripe Jack White’s new band project, The Raconteurs. 
The Raconteurs, which are comprised of Detroiter White along with cult favorite Brendan Benson, Greenhornes members Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, and touring member Dean Fertita (of The Waxwings), drew perhaps one of the most rabid crowds at Lollapalooza, with an endless field of fans crowded up against the AT&T stage to see them rip through an hour-long set that included plenty of songs from their new album as well as a couple of covers, most notably David Bowie’s “It Ain’t Easy,” Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” (as heard in the movie “Kill Bill”), and their unexpected version of Gnarls Barkley’s current hit “Crazy.” 
The next day, Living Things were introduced by Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell himself as “one of my favorite bands at this year’s festival,” and brought in-your-face glam rock to an afternoon stage to the surprise of the quickly-growing crowd that drifted in early in the day to see them play.  The Secret Machines were another standout, fusing influences from Pink Floyd and Ride with their own shoegazing style to mesmerize their early evening audience.  And duo Dresden Dolls impressed audiences not once, but twice at Lollapalooza, sitting in with the Violent Femmes on Friday (singer/pianist Amanda Palmer played the melodica, while drummer Brian Viglione played the washboard) and performing their own stunning set on Saturday night. 
 
CRUDE DUDES  
“I can really empathize with Perry,” mused Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. “He has the same vision that we do of putting on an entire event -- a full show -- but it’s hard because sometimes you go through all of that turmoil to make things so beautiful. And you end up playing to the lowest common denominator -- that person who just wants a beer and a pretzel and to watch a band.” 
Palmer’s right, of course, to some degree;  there was the usual contingent of crude concert-goers at Lollapalooza, the kind who think nothing of stepping right in front of another fan, yelling something just for the sake of yelling, or flinging their arm, complete with beer, up into the air at the most inappropriate moment. 
But that kind of thoughtless festival attendee seems to be diminishing at Lollapalooza, probably because of Farrell’s intent to put on a more complex, artistically-expressive event,
not just throwing a bunch of
bands up onstage. Festivals
will reap what they sow, and with Lollapalooza leaning towards more innovative bands, as well as other thoughtful offerings, it’s slowly weeding out the riff-raff and drawing
in those who appreciate Farrell’s vision.
Part of what makes that
vision whole are all of the “bonus” areas at Lollapalooza.  In addition to what Grant Park has naturally -- lots of shady areas for strolling and sitting, pretty vistas to look at, and easy-to-traverse walkways -- Farrell has the event grounds set up so that you’re never at a loss of things to do - eat, drink, explore,
or enjoy.
“In addition to the music, we had the Mindfield area, which is very inter-active and to which we added our Mindfield text messaging game, so you could win prizes and time backstage.  And we had the Kidzapalooza stage, on which we managed to get Patti Smith to perform -- I was over the moon about Patti being here,” Farrell explained, “and we’re really trying to honor diversity in music with all of our other acts.” 
There’s a lot of diversity all the way around at Lollapalooza, as a quick stroll would indicate.  There were food vendors representing just about every cuisine you could think of;  a Lollapalooza store at which you could purchase both official
Lollapalooza merchandise and t-shirts from your favorite band; a vendor area with more opportunities to shop; the nifty AT&T Oasis, a giant air-conditioned tent festooned with cool water misters (outside on the patio, which also had greenery and umbrella-topped tables), plus free computers, Internet access, and video feeds of Lolla performances (inside); and the Who Arted? area, an outdoor museum of eclectically modern paintings and sculptures.  

TOP CAUSES
A special Causapalooza area was set up, as well, focusing on environmental concerns, a cause as close to Farrell’s heart as his music. 
“As much of a watershed as
Lollapalooza has been in the past, we’re referring to even more causes now,” he
points out, “and one of our main concerns
are the plants and animals of the world, and how we’re all being affected by global warming.  The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) was here, stopglobalwarming.org was here, and they’re all part of how we’re insisting that industrials, the government, and environmentalists all work together for our planet.  We’re really glad that they came out.  It’s really good to see everyone who came out to Grant Park.”  
What does the future hold for Lollapalooza? Lollapalooza Executive Producer Charles Attal has the answer.  “This is a beautiful park, and we’re not planning to move Lollapalooza out of here any time soon,” he explained, smiling. “We’re concentrating on Chicago right now, and we think that this is going to be the best music festival in the world.”
 
For info on next year’s Lollapalooza plus photos and archived video footage
of this year’s performances, check out www.lollapalooza.com.