I just realized I never posted on the 3rd day of Lolla. We're home now, and I think we both need a vacation from our vacation. However, a good time was had by all (well, most, I hear there were some broken limbs at Rage and NIN) and can't wait to go back next year. As usual, day 3 went by way too quickly.
We got a late start from the beginning, so missed Office (or so we thought) and headed straight over to Wild Sweet Orange, who turned out to be really good. If you get a chance to listen to this Birmingham, AL band, do it.
After that we headed over to the Playstation stage to see the Weakerthans, only to find out they'd canceled (bus break-down). This was upsetting, I've wanted to see them for awhile, however, if CSS is any indication they could always come back next year. Anyway, Office played in their place, and we didn't stick around long. I just couldn't get into them. At this point we decided that sleep was more important, and after walking around the grounds for awhile looking for a good napping spot, we headed back to our hotel (yay for 3 day wristbands!) and took a nap. Went back at 4:30 or so to wander around and catch Flogging Molly, who was outstanding (!), while the Russian went to Blues Traveler, which he will not live down anytime soon. After FM and BT we saw Gnarls Barkley, who was outstanding, as usual (so I hear). Stuck around for Girl Talk (who is crazy good!), half of Mark Ronson, half of the National (who I decided I don't care for live) and then split the last set between NIN and Kanye West. The Russian got a great kick out of crushing Kanye's head, which I attempted to video, but it didn't turn out. Darn the luck. I thought NIN was kind of weak, but everyone else loved the performance so it must have just been last day blues for me. I was hoping to hear Capital G, and we waited around while he played a bunch of stuff from Ghosts, but in a festival crowd, I didn't really feel like it carried very well. Kanye was entertaining, but no Glow in the Dark suit.
Anyway, speculation begins now on next year's headliners. Foo Fighters, anyone? :)
All in all, we had a great time and heard some new stuff to get excited about, the weather was fabulous, met lots of random people, and can't wait to go back. With the lack of any Dave Navarro sightings, I'm just hoping that Jane's does some kind of reunion tour for this box set release. Will travel!
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. :)
So, here we are in sunny Chicago, attending our favorite music festival. Yesterday we saw some great acts, including Bang Camaro, a little bit of the Black Lips, the Magic Wands, Manchester Orchestra (who aren't that great live), the Parlor Mob, a little bit of Noah and the Whale's DJ set (which did include Billy Jean, yep, the Michael Jackson one (is there another?)), The Kills, Gogol Bordello (who was absolutely amazing and now I want all of their cds...even the Russian loved them. Who'da thunk he could get into gypsy punk?), Mates of State, Bloc Party, CSS (who was so cute! That's all I could keep saying. We were really close to that one, so I got some good pics. I'm really glad they were able to make it this year after last year's flight debacle.) and RADIOHEAD. We were close enough for Radiohead that I didn't want to get any closer. I took one photo of the crowd on our way down to their stage, it was a total sea of people. Oh, AND we completed the Mindfield scavenger hunt, although we were disappointed that finishing it just gets us a chance to win VIP tix for Lolla 09.
Supposedly this will be a total sellout. I understand that yesterday was sold out, today is already, and they expect tomorrow to sell out sometime today. Crazy!
Anyway, today's schedule is a little more packed than yesterday's: De Novo Dahl, Does it Offend You Yeah?, The Ting Tings (I am soooo hoping they don't cancel, but there have been rumors), Foals, MGMT (who I've been dying to see, BUT, Perry has a "special guest" on his stage right then. Supposedly it's somebody bald, which could mean a couple of people I'd like to see. I'm really hoping it's Moby, since we're going to his aftershow tonight at Visions, so I wouldn't mind missing him at Perry's), Explosions in the Sky, Uffie, Battles (kinda torn here between them and Broken Social Scene. I wish I knew who BSS was going to have on their lineup here), DJ Momjeans (just showing up for a photo, I love Hyde!), and Rage Against the Machine. However, the Russian wants to check out Wilco, so we may wander back and forth between them and Rage. I want to leave a little early to get ready for Moby, and won't care if we miss the Rage riot, because there will surely be one, right? (Overheard during Radiohead last night: Hey, that's the VIP area, when Rage plays tomorrow we should burn that down)
So, I have mixed reviews about seeing Radiohead. The sound was just ok, it could have been louder (I didn't even need earplugs...from where we were standing, not that far away, my car speakers have hurt my ears more), the screen usage absolutely sucked. Most bands will use the 2 giant screens on either side of the stage to show closeups of what's going on onstage, but they split each screen into 6 parts to show macro shots of their hands and Thom's head. I guess you'd have to be there to really know how bad it sucked, but just take my word for it. There was very little crowd interaction, which seemed mean for the people who had camped out on the phone stage all day just to see them, and half the time when they did say something it was unintelligible (I don't think they were on anything, tho, I think it was a problem with the sound). It sounded to me like part of Bodysnatchers was messed up, but I don't know if anyone else picked up on it or maybe it's supposed to sound like that live. They played everything from In Rainbows, and the Russian and I were betting on whether they'd play Creep. I said no, because I think they quit playing it at least 5 years ago, he said they'd have to play it so the rest of their set wouldn't suck so bad (he doesn't like IR), but they didn't play it. Anyway, Elijah Wood (Frodo!) was there! And, it's Radiohead, who I still love, but might try to see again some other time without 80,000 people around in a festival setting.
Off for today!