Lollapalooza: Day 2 - August 4, 2007

Chicago, Grant Park [11 am to 10 pm] ~$195

"You want it all, but you can't have it!"

I walked into Lollapalooza around 1 pm and heard Ludo covering Faith No More's "Epic" and the The Sippy Cups (on the Kidz Stage) covering the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll"! This had to be a good sign, great sign even!

I heard these songs on the way to check out Tapes 'n Tapes. This band was decent. I was looking forward to seeing them live, but, though they were good, they didn't do much for me. The music made me feel like I was at a friend's garage watching a band from the neighborhood play. I left a few minutes early to get to the Stephen Marley stage on time.

To put it mildly, I'm bit of a fanatical Bob Marley fan (my first concert was The Melody Makers), so I had Stephen Marley on the short list of acts I had to see this weekend. Stephen Marley was excellent. He came out covering his father's "Punky Reggae Party", and covered many Bob Marley songs in a way only the Marley family can do. To those who have never seen any of the Marleys live then it may sound like Bob's offspring are covering their father just to make a living, but this is a family where it is not the case. Each and everyone of them find the true heart and soul of the Marley magic. It is always great to see one of the Marley clan; this is especially true in this case. Stephen has a resounding likeness to Bob. During the show I realized that Stephen is around the age when Bob was at the peak of his stardom. Great show, great show. In addition to the amazing covers, Stephen played tracks from his excellent new album, Mind Control. He has produced many musicians giving him a tight connection to the music he creates on stage. Stephen is starting to turn out some really poignant songs. A small boy (Stephen's son , I'm sure) danced around stage left and waved a Rasta flag. Marley played a joyous, invigorating set all around. He and the (great) band closed the show with "Could You Be Loved." Perfect!

After Stephen Marley I had to grab a bite to eat and I planned to relax my quickly deteriorating body (...the standing and walking and standing and walking was breaking me down...), but I was quickly caught up by the crowd filling all the available space from the next stage down to the food vendors. The Cold War Kids were on this stage and pulling off a wild performance. I heard that they are great live, but this was a wonderful surprise! I'm not a huge fan of their recent album, but luckily I caught about 25 minutes of their set and headed off to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I'll be sure to catch a future Cold War Kids show.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah turned out to be an interesting act to watch live. I enjoy their music, but have heard stories of poor live CYHSY performances from a few people who saw them last year. I trust the personal reviews that I heard, so I have to imagine that CYHSY have worked out their Freshmen jitters. They played an energetic, infectious set. The crowd was crazy for the group. People danced, sang, bounced, you name it. This band that I saw were tight and ready to push out some more tunes.

Ok, well, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ended and I hate to say that I missed seeing Regina Spektor, but I've seen her twice and I HAD to take a rest. I laid out on one of the surrounding hills closer to where the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were soon to play and listened to the terrible music coming from this "new" band (new to me that is), The Hold Steady. What a poor mix of camp AC/DC and Bud Light commercials. I needed to rest. What can I say? Once again the local paper gave me some bad advice. The Hold Steady were the recommended act of the two (them and Regina Spektor). Additionally, I have read a lot strong reviews about them since, but, man, I just hated this band.

So, the music that was ruining my rest eventually ended and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' stage was all filled up and ready for the band from Brooklyn. Karen O and the boys were introduced by Perry Farrell, stating that they are exciting, wonderful and one of his favorite bands. Karen O came out draped in a white and black overcoat with long tassels. A very "Karen O sight". The three piece band had an additional player for most of the show (a guitarist who came out wearing a mask for the first song). They rocked the crowd and Karen O put on an excellent performance, apparently finding something comical since she was close to cracking up laughing as she sang most of the songs in the second half of the set. I am inclined to think that the sight of the person translating the song into sign language from the front of stage left was making her laugh. It was an all around good time.

After the YYYs, I had to make my way back across the park to see Patti Smith. I am ashamed to say that I hadn't seen her before Lollapalooza. I have heard nothing but great things about her stage presence and performance. I arrived to a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" but I had to leave shortly thereafter to run over to the box office to get my wife a ticket for Sunday. When I returned she was playing her classics "Because the Night" and "Gloria", then Nirvana's "Smell's Like Teen Spirit", then one last Patti Smith original. I only caught about four songs, but the point was taken. See more Patti Smith!

Luckily Patti Smith was playing near the next and last stage of my Saturday night, the Interpol stage. It is interesting to note that throughout the day every other shirt that I saw seemed to be a Muse shirt (Muse were playing opposite Interpol across the park), but I have never really cared for their music. More importantly, I really wanted to see Interpol. They came out all dressed in black and proceeded to play a set that made me, I'm embarrassed to say, think of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I say this because Interpol made me think of the book where the vampire Lestat had a band and became a rock star. Silly, I know, but Interpol just reminded me of the scenes from that story (book three, I think). Point being (weird point being) that they had this interesting dark seriousness to their performance working for them. Well, that is until Paul Banks would talk between songs, as well as when he strapped on a flying V guitar with the word "breasts" written in tape on it. (I thought that was really strange and in opposition to the image they were fronting on stage.) Anyway, Interpol were great. Which brings me back to the whole Muse vs. Interpol saga. I have no doubt that more people were at the Muse stage (the youtube video uploads and blogs reinforce this), but we had a strong, faithful crew at our stage. Someone near me yelled "Fuck Muse!" That said it for me. Fuck Muse, Interpol were the only band on the planet we were interested in at that time.

Videos:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Satan Says Dance" from Lollapalooza, Day 2 - August 4, 2007

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps" from Lollapalooza, Day 2 -August 4, 2007

Interpol - "Pioneer to the Falls" from Lollapalooza, Day 2 - August 4, 2007


Saturday's set lists from Lollapalooza.com


Read the review of Day 1!