We saw every band on my list for today. I don't know when I've ever walked so much in one day before, but it was totally worth it. Battles was incredible, Explosions in the Sky was incredible, Rage was beyond incredible. We were up the hill away from the stage and the sound was good, they had the crowd going, they just put on an awesome live show. I can't wait to see them again, and I wouldn't have counted myself amongst their fans before this. We stayed until the end of their show, so we're missing out on Moby, but I'm happy with the trade-off. Maybe Moby can come to Lolla next year.
MGMT was kind of a joke. I went to them by myself from Foals (who were also amazing...those guys bring a huge amount of energy to the stage) and could NOT believe all of the people already on the field 30 minutes before the show. The Russian went to see Dierks Bentley, who apparently was amazed that a field full of people showed up to see him, and we were supposed to meet at MGMT. Somehow I got shuffled to the middle of that crowd. It was like Daft Punk last year, where there were so many people around that you couldn't move to scratch your nose if you had to, and then the crowd-surfing started. Unfortunately it went from back to front, which is idiotic, because nobody can see that there's somebody about to kick them in the head. Anyway, the sound sucked, nobody could hear, and between songs all I could hear was thousands of frat boys chanting "turn it up!". I had heard that their live show was pretty bad, and now I can vouch for that. However, I really, really wanted to see them, and it was worth the nice lobster red that my arms and neck turned while standing in the sun listening for music I couldn't hear. That said, Booka Shade was playing the Citi stage next door, and I COULD hear them, and they sounded amazing. Next chance I get, I'm def going to check them out.
I do regret missing Broken Social Scene, but I have a higher chance of seeing them elsewhere outside Lolla than I do Battles, and some decisions just gotta be made. The Ting Tings were actually really good, and we did catch De Novo Dahl, who just made me wish I could have heard more. Turned around and saw the first half of Does It Offend You Yeah, then booked it to the phone stage to get to the last half of the Ting Tings.
And I did see Hyde! DJ Momjeans isn't all that great as a DJ, but DJ AM who was on before him flat out rocked Perry's club.
No regrets on seeing Rage instead of Wilco. And, of course there was a political rant in the middle, but ironically, it didn't make me want to get up and leave (which is exactly what we did during Pearl Jam's set last year). My only regret is that Zack's Mom didn't introduce them, but I'll live.
BTW, there is a nasty rumor floating around that Trent Reznor is sick and NIN may not play tomorrow night. This must not happen.
ETA: photo of Trent at RATM tonight...why didn't he just ask for the day off to see them instead of freaking us all out thinking he was sick?
Anyway, day 2 down. Kinda sad knowing tomorrow is the last day for another year. We've already decided to come back, tho. Lolla does that to ya. :)
Posted by tomiandc at August 3, 2008 12:27 AM