August 2, 2008, 2:14 am : Lollapalooza 2008 | Friday Aug, Saturday Aug 2, Sunday Aug 3

Day 3| Sunday Aug 3
Sunday cooled off considerably, to the point of being pleasant and breezy, rather than a death-march from one stage to the next in the blazing heat. The highlights of the last day of Lollapalooza were certainly later in the day for me: Girl Talk rocked the place - a skinny white dude in knee-high socks, satin shorts and a tank top blasting a mashed-up rocking set with the biggest worked-up crowd I’d seen at one of the side-stages. I’ve posted a funny clip of a girl who climbed a tree and spent the entire hour-long set bouncing on, or humping the tree, depending on what music Girl Talk was blasting.
Of course, my highlight of the day was Nine Inch Nails. I had a break position to view (right by the soundbooth), the night got dark a little early with the clouds and Trent Reznor and co played new stuff and instrumentals the first half and then beat the living snot out of the crowd the second half. I really dig the digital effects and faux interactivity of their set, with LED videos interacting with the movement of the band, especially when Trent ‘played drums’ on a giant screen. This is where I hope outdoor performance goes, and as usual NIN are leading the way and finally getting recognised for it. On the advertising side, winning Gold at Cannes this year for the promotional work for Year Zero will hopefully encourage more performers to hire companies like 42 Entertainment to bring some fresh, weird thinking to the way you package and promote music business. The last batch of pics (ahhhhhhh….sniffle) are here.

Day 2| Saturday Aug 2
The heat has pulled back slightly, a nice wind coming off the Lake and some decent bands on today. Highlights have been The Gutter Twins. I wasn’t a big Afghan Wigs or Screaming Trees fan, but Gutter Twins were really rocking and looked great too. Mark Lanegan must have had his hands glued to the mike stand - I’m pretty sure he didn’t move once during the show. After a quick detour to check out the Barney’s Co-Op sale and the Jeff Koons show (both were pretty spectacular in their own way…), I caught Foals, Devotchka, Toadies and then did the mad dash between Rage Against the Machine and Wilco. I should have just gone to Wilco and stayed - the Rage crowd was full of dudes my age, off the leash for the night, getting very aggressive and hammered. Not that I have anything against aggression and beer - just not at a tribute show! I saw Rage last year at Coachella and they STILL haven’t put out a new record. I ask, are they sticking it to the MAN, or their FANS? By the time I got to Wilco, they must have played War on War (fave Wilco tune) or left it out of the set (hopefully the latter). Jeff Tweedy and Co. had on amazing cowboy-style Nudie suits, which were great fun, just like Wilco. It was an on-form set and I shot about 5 mins of video of them performing a work in progress tune. New pics from the day uploaded here, including lotsa random crowd shots. Watch for the idiot buying a hash pipe with about 5 people taking his picture.

Day 1| Friday Aug 1
The First day of any festival can be a mixed bag if it is on a Friday. People arriving, lots of folks at work and lots of new bands (or struggling old ones) on the bill. This is easily the best Friday I’ve had in ages, with a few discoveries like Free Sol, Holy F*ck, Louis XIV putting rocking sets to crowds still small enough to get right to the front (and roast in 90 degree + heat). I check out the know bands I know I’m supposed to like (but haven’t bothered beyond a couple of songs) like Grizzly Bear, Mates of State, The Kills and Black Keys. I stood through Bloc Party (who seemed either nervous or bored, probably both) and then got the wind knocked out of me by Radiohead. To quote the first band I saw today, HOLY FUCK! I haven’t seen them for ages and they were a blast, especially the sun set, their groovy planet-friendly lights (mostly LEDs) and they rocked the crap out of the place for 2 hours! I’ve seen alot of rock show, with some pretty spectacular staging, but the one of the most wonderful has got to be a warm night, surrounded by some groovy not-too-wasted people, listening to ‘Everything in its right place’ and ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ back to back, with a spectacular fireworks show out over the Lake. The crowd was so quiet that Thom Yorke asked if we were still out there. I’ve loaded a clip into YouTube, which doesn’t do it justice, but captures a little moment that touched my heart, right through my extremely sweaty shrt. Made it back to hotel, rode up in the elevator with the drummer from the Raconteurs. I didn’t want to say something dumb cuz I skipped their set to see Bloc Party, which was a dumb move. It did get me an awesome spot surrounded by short people for Radiohead, but I thought that whole story might take longer than six floors, so I just said ‘Hey’. He said ‘Hey’, back. Lots of other muso types lurking around and looking skinny and cool. It is pretty easy to tell them apart - we the normal people are the ones with the sweaty shirts and sunburn (that would be me) and the rockers are the ones who don’t sweat and smoke like a MF! Photos from Day 1 are here.

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