Lollapalooza report 2008

Sept. 7, 2008

A near quarter-million people and 90-degree temperatures made for one crowded Grant Park as this year’s Lollapalooza festival weekend began in August. Chicago was the stage for three days of world-class rock, indie, electronica, and hip-hop music - that is, if you could fend your way through the massive crowds, keep track of all the bands you wanted to see, and not pass out from heatstroke. With its easy-to-reach destination, the clean and green environment of the park (no mosquitos or mud bogs here), and surrounding city life, Lollapalooza proves to be a great August road trip each year, and a highlight of the summer festival season.

WELCOME TO LOLLA
Upon entering the park - thankfully, through the subdued press entrance, as the lines at the giant, inflated Lollapalooza logo that marked the front gate were huge and looked to be moving veeeeery slowly with the sun beating down overhead - it was obvious that festival founder Perry Farrell and crew had once again done a great job. Brightly colored murals framed the sleekly outfitted stages, storm fences protected Grant Park’s abundant shrubbery, sculptures and other quirky touches dotted the walkways and plazas, and everyone at the non-stage booths - the environmental Green Street area, the many food and beverage booths, the Playstation, AT&T, and FYE tents, and of course the recycling areas - looked chipper and ready to go. With a mile of activities, eight stages, and a whopping 120 bands (give or take a few), this was gonna be a busy day. And how appropriate was it that cool indie rockers Rogue Wave were playing their song “Lake Michigan” - right in front of Lake Michigan, of course - right as I was arriving?

THE KICKOFF
Rogue Wave was just the beginning of the huge flood of acts that would make up the Lollapalooza weekend. Buzz bands Yeasayer and The Go! Team fought it out on opposite main stage ends of the park around 2 p.m., immediately followed by sets from retro singer Duffy, The Kills, and sass-rockers Louis XIV, who showed up in snazzy suits in spite of heat. After a break for some food from the eclectic lineup of Lolla food vendors (who offered everything from grilled italian sandwiches to gyros, German bratwurst to Mexican quesadillas to shish kebab) and some of the famed Sweet Leaf iced tea to wash it all down, the music rocked on into the night with sets by Mates of State, Jack White’s Raconteurs, Bloc Party, a DJ set from VHS or Beta, and the night’s headliners, Radiohead. You’d think the exhausted-looking hordes of fans would’ve been too tired to return on Saturday, given the giant droves of slowly trudging people exiting Grant Park and heading up Michigan Avenue - but of course, they’d be back. Oh, yes, they would.

SATURDAY HEAT
Saturday dawned late for Lolla - the music didn’t start until 11:15 a.m. or so (musicians’ hours) - but those in the know knew that this would be the biggest day of the weekend. The Ting Tings, Foals, Dr. Dog, and The Gutter Twins - the new project of Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli - got things moving early on. Perry Farrell made his scheduled apparance at his own DJ stage (creatively dubbed “Perry’s”) with several special guests, while DeVotchKa, electronica gurus Booka Shade, MGMT, and Explosions in the Sky all fought the relentless afternoon sun to put on great side stage shows - but things didn’t really start cranking until Brit soulster Jamie Lidell took one of the main stages.
“Given the way he sings, I thought he was some Motown guy,” a bystander next to me chuckled. Nope - Lidell is a Brit all the way, and showed up in his incongruous outfit of skinny pants, unshirted blazer, and trademark fat-rim black glasses to rip through his electro-pop-soul songs in a polished and energetic fashion, accompanied by his top-notch band who belied their skills by garbing themselves in a white and red spandex jumpsuit (the bass player), and a bathrobe and Chinese hat (the saxophone player). Lidell’s performance and smooth vocals were impressive, and well-deserving of his main stage position.
Next up, Battles attacked their electronica equipment and guitars on a side stage, as the Chicago Tribune photographers tried to capture panoramic views of the tightly-packed crowds. As afternoon approached, a slight breeze finally offered a little relief.

PEACE...
The sun began heading towards the horizon, and the music continued to heat up. Lupe Fiasco brought his ego along (calling Lolla “Lupepalooza”) but put on a great show nonetheless, bouncing back and forth across the stage in his all-white ensemble and even causing the worn-out journalists watching the show from the shaded hill of the press tent to stand up and pay attention. More soul arrived in the form of comeback queen Sharon Jones, the 50-something singer who exhibited as much vim and vigor with her band, The Dap-Kings, as old-school icon Tina Turner did in her heyday.
It was the night’s headliners who would prove to be polarizing forces, though. On one end of Grant Park, Wilco took the stage in brightly-colored, custom-made suits spangled with sequins and appliques, and proceeded to offer up a classic Lolla set to a hometown crowd. Their red and blue stage lights contrasted with the Chicago skyline in the background, and the band played plenty of singalongable hits to perfection (“Can’t Stand It” and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” being two of the best), and even offered up a new song as a Lolla treat. Rumors of an appearance by presidential hopeful Barack Obama were not to be, however (it was thought that Obama would show up to introduce Wilco as a means of reaching out to the young adult demographic, as Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy has been a strong supporter of Obama’s campaign) - but the Wilco performance was more than enough for the massed crowds, who stood and swayed happily while Lolla’s decorative search lights criss-crossed the dark sky.
Unfortunately, things were not so peaceful on the other end of the Park. Rage Against the Machine was the night’s other headliner, playing during the same time as Wilco - and their fans were a little more, er, shall we say “wound up.”
“Huh. Glad I’m on this side of the park,” a fellow photographer said to me as we stood in the Wilco photo pit observing the masses of people - mostly guys who were already pumping their fists in the air - moving in the other direction. “Looks like all the drunken meatheads are headed that way.”
That would prove to be quite the understatement.

... AND TEMPORARY ANARCHY
Fans had begun lining up for the Rage set even during Lupe’s set on the same stage at 6:30, and by 8:30, they were ready to, well, rage. Literally. Air raid sirens announced the band’s arrival, and the crowd pushed forward violently as Rage began to perform, causing several dozen fans to be hauled over the stage-front barricades by security to avoid their being crushed. As Rage’s politically-charged set continued - frontman Zack de la Rocha inciting the crowd by yelling, “if our troops aren’t pulled out of Afghanistan soon, I know a lot of people who are gonna stand up and burn down every office of the Senate” - things kept getting worse. In spite of the band eventually noticing the trouble and de la Rocha stopping the set to direct people to step back, the crowd just got more wound up, with more people yelling for help and being assisted by security. Meanwhile, a bottleneck of jammed people, many trying to just get out, began to form from the Rage stage all the way out to the park’s perimeter fence.
Across the street from Grant Park was a huge mass of people who didn’t get tickets to the festival, sitting along Columbus Drive listening to Rage’s concert from outside the fence. Security decided to open part of a guarded access gate to allow some of those attending the concert in the park to escape the quickly-worsening fray - and the non-ticketed crowd across the street took full advantage, rushing the fence in two giant packs of what was said to easily be over 500 people. It took almost a dozen police on horseback and several police vehicles to stop the rush of people forcing, shoving, and trampling their way into the park; around 40 people were transported to the hospital. A sad end to an otherwise great day and an otherwise smoothly-run festival.
Let me just say that although I appreciated the reports from my fellow journalists, I’m glad they were all safe, and also glad I had personally chosen to watch the Wilco set on the other end of Lolla, where the music was far more positive, and the most dangerous thing going on was the glare off of the sequins on Jeff Tweedy and crew’s suits.

AND THE WRAP-UP
Lollapalooza personnel did a great job cleaning up from that unfortunate incident - although, as was expected, there was a bit of a pall over things as a more quiet Sunday got started. I, myself, didn’t arrive until around noon, since the music once again didn’t start until around 11 a.m.
Few sights are nicer on a roasting-hot Chicago day than free lemonade and water in the press tent. Once I’d snagged a few beverages, I was ready for day three. Crowds were definitely more subdued this morning - no surprise, given the events of the night before - but there was still a lot of music to be seen and heard.
Ha Ha Tonka were first up on Sunday, followed by a host of fellow under-the-radar bands who were playing their hearts out so that a year from now, you’d be saying, “Hey! I saw them first at Lollapalooza!” Among the bands vying for the tired fans’ attention were The Whigs, The Octopus Project, Office, Newton Faulkner, Chromeo, and singer-songwriter Sam Beam, otherwise known as Iron and Wine.
A bit of a lull hit the Lolla afternoon around 3 o’clock, but that was probably a good thing, as attendees would need a break in order to regroup for the evening’s headliners.
Mark Ronson, The National, Love and Rockets, and Blues Traveler started revving things up around 5 p.m. - coupled with a peppy set from Flogging Molly and a crazily eclectic performance from Flosstradamus in the DJ tent. Things were almost back at peak Lolla energy levels.
And then the headliners took up their posts, once again at opposite ends of the park. On one side, it was Nine Inch Nails, who opened with several dark electro-metal songs from their recent album, the band garbed in intimidating black urban commando gear and backing up an even more scary-looking Trent Reznor, who bared his teeth at the audience and whose
vocals were aggressively grating on forceful
versions of NIN tracks like “Discipline” and “March of the Pigs.”
On the other end of the park, a more cooperative hip-hopster Kanye West proved just as flashy as ever - he took the stage on time for once, but of course had to drag along plenty of smoke, a live percussionist and DJ, a crazily over-the-top lighting show, and hugely bombastic tracks like “Gold Digger” and “Flashing Lights.”
And by 10:30 p.m., Lolla was over for this summer, the crowds were filtering out onto Columbus and Michigan Avenues, and you could already overhear people speculating on the fact that Rage probably won’t be invited back next year - but how great it will be to find out what acts this musically diverse and always edgy fest will indeed have to offer for 2009.
To keep an eye on Lollapalooza’s plans and announcements, check out the official site online at www.lollapalooza.com.