Lollapalooza: Day 1

you know, i'll tell you what. Lollapalooza was worth every ounce of effort we put into it. ticket cost? yes. literally 1000+ miles of driving? even. sore feet, sweaty bodies, impersonating sardines in their cans and standing in one place under the hot sun for six hours? i promise - every bit of it.

i'm also here to tell you that you don't need press passes to do this thing. how do i know? because that's how we did it. we were genuine festival-goers, wrestling our way to the front of crowds and running back and forth between stages, always with a good chance of being unsuccessful. and it was damn fun. so here is the re-cap, starting with Day 1, coming from the bloggers whose press passes got lost in the mail.

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getting there
by circumstances involving alarm clocks, long drives from Ohio and Chicago traffic and construction - we actually didn't make it to the festival grounds until around 3:30 in the afternoon. that said, we weren't even able to get our act together to take pictures until Mates of State (kind of) and then mainly The Raconteurs. but here is a run-down of what we heard, and pictures are included where applicable.

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Mute Math
these New Orleans-native prog rockers had it going really well on the AMD stage, one of two smaller stages that drew modest crowds. they were up against Stars on the Adidas/Champs stage and Editors on the Q101 stage, but they managed well enough regardless. we here at NfT enjoy them quite a bit, and mentioned them in our second post ever, if you can believe it. we were told their live performance was what made the band - and we completely agree.

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Ryan Adams
per usual in the world of Ryan Adams, his set was as characteristically fucked-up as he was. completely drunk and delirious from the heat, his songs were still top-notch, but selections were meant to surprise (and in doing so, didn't surprise me) and his between-song banter made absolutely zero sense. anyway, it's an experience to see him live regardless of his sobriety or coherence. we caught very little and wandered off. check the AT&T blueroom in a few days for a webcast of the performance that i missed most of.

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Lady Sovereign
contrary to whatever, i'm supposed to be impressed with the large crowd that swarmed the stage where this five-foot-one rapping brit girl was bopping around with big beats and a beer in her hand - but i'm not. i'm actually surprised she doesn't already have a place at a bigger stage, rather than letting fans spill out beyond the confines of the itty-bitty Playstation. her set was strong, her rhythm was on, and she shows serious maturing in her performance and in her confident swagger. she owns the crowd, always. quite the act.

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Mates Of State
confession: i've never seen this couple live. i was very happy to have caught what i did of their set: they're talented musicians with a relaxed chemistry on stage. i've always enjoyed Bring It Back and i thought they upheld it very well with this AMD stage peformance.

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The Raconteurs
i believe i need hardly convince you that this was one of the best acts Lollapalooza had to offer, hands down. you just cannot miss Jack White live. our pictures aren't that fantastic, but you can bet we were flipping out to their set. covering "Crazy" never gets old, and their performance was so much more badass for it.

click here for the full flickr set

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Death Cab for Cutie
though this felt like the 600th time i've seen them live, they're still so good. they surprised me with the performance they were able to deliver in a festival setting, even though i know they were there last year. they were the proud first night co-headliners (Ween was the other act).



click here for the full flickr set

day one down; read on for the rest.  shan  4:16 PM  |  view comments (0)