Real to reel

Local observations from a movie, music buff

Radiohead saves Lolla

The Brit band delivered at Chicago’s largest music festival, but was it worth it?

By Dan Ochwat

I’m 31 years old. Fighting for a footprint of grass — in the pre-sound tent area — with thousands of “Christmas and Easter” music fans is losing its appeal, but it was Radiohead. The first band to sell out a day at Lollapalooza packed a sweat-soaked crowd — pumpers to bumpers — covering every inch of grass on the south end of Grant Park.

Inhaling secondhand “smoke,” taking elbows, feeling faint, Radiohead was worth it ... for the first hour (then I had to crawl out to some high ground). But for all of the annoyances (crowds, theme-park feel and, really, it’s the crowds) that Lollapalooza bags with its hefty price tag, they did give us Radiohead, for two hours. The Brit band played a solid set, rolling out more of its recent gems that were backed by a visual presentation recalling the look of the band’s secret online shows. Truthfully, Thom Yorke’s pitch-perfect (for him) vocals just lifted the mood.

But I question, is any other band worth the torture?

On Saturday, the second band to ever sell out a day at Lollapalooza, Rage Against the Machine, apparently delivered a performance that caused hundreds of brash and juvenile retards to mosh their way to having the set be shut down twice for crowd control. Reportedly, kids were being carted away due to fainting, too. What’s more, outside the festival fences, more meatheads attempted to bum rush the fest when a security gate was opened to let some fed-up festivalgoers free. I received info about the crowd issues via text message, from my friend Vince, who snapped this photo of some dudes near him (see inset). Thankfully, I chose the adult show — Wilco, a classy, beyond-satisfying performance. And the crowd was a love fest.

As for Sunday, a far less dramatic day by comparison, I skipped out on the dueling headliners — Nine Inch Nails and Kanye West (frankly, neither could compete with a new episode of “Mad Men”). However, I did have an enlightened moment during my exit. Walking back, I noticed many delusionally tough kids yelling, “Kanye sucks,” to innocents trekking toward the south end of Grant Park to catch the egomaniac rapper. At that moment, I realized what’s wrong with Lollapalooza. Festivals are supposed to be unified, communal events.

Pitchfork Music Festival, Bonnaroo, even the Austin City Limits Festival (which is put on by the same group as Lollapalooza) deliver a unified, “We’re all here for the same music” vibe. There isn’t an ugly competition like Wilco vs. Rage or Kanye vs. NIN. Granted, all festivals have you choose who you’re going to see, but there isn’t any negativity. At least, not on this scale. I admit, one year at Austin City Limits, I was baffled by people choosing a performance by Los Lonely Boys, but I didn’t curse anyone out for it.

Because Lollapalooza is so gigantic, it spans too wide a range of artists, gathering too wide a range of fans — all thrown into the same 90-degree, baseball-diamond dusty blender. Eventually, the diverse crowds — Mr. Mohawk and Mrs. Stupid Kanye Shutter Shades — merge, fighting to get to their respective stages, bumping around Buckingham Fountain and filling up the merchandise tent. At peak times, the fest can be simply overwhelming.

But perhaps I’m a curmudgeon. This festival is built for teens who mom and dad let free for the weekend to catch a bunch of bands at once. We adults should stick with seeing our favorite bands at our favorite local venues. (You know, as soon as Lollapalooza frees them from their contract to not play 60 days before or 30 days after the festival. See you guys at the Metro Sept. 3.)

 

The Best Performances
Because I didn’t get to review the Pitchfork Music Festival, I’m going to include some of the fine performances at that festival along with some Lollapalooza standouts not named Radiohead. You know what, I’ll rank ‘em.

1. Spoon. After seeing them at Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and a previous Pitchfork, I fully anticipated another disappointing Spoon set. However, this year, headlining Pitchfork, they fulfilled what every Spoon fan had been dying to see: They brought horns! They even one-upped that by bringing on stage Bradford Cox of Deerhunter for a cameo, letting us know that they’re still tapped into their indie roots.

2. Yeasayer. This New York band bolstered their fan base at Lollapalooza on Saturday. The set was crisp, and they’re one of the few bands that can take a hard-to-translate album with its ethereal sonic tricks, change it up for a live setting, and sound better.

3. Saul Williams. Donning war paint and feathers, this rock rapper lit up the stage and stood out as a new talent on the brink. He’s genuine, too. I saw him at the Gnarls Barkley show hugging fans and being gracious and quiet — the opposite of his frenetic music.

4. The Foals. New to me, this British rock band made a massive impression with solid rock tunes that, dare I say, seem danceable. They were a refreshing early afternoon set on Saturday at Lollapalooza.

5. The Hold Steady. I’m getting sick of writing about how good this band is. They simply played another killer set that almost killed us die-hard fans again.

6. Les Savy Fav. The band’s second Pitchfork Festival appearance, and in typical fashion, frontman Tim Harrington led another wonderfully exciting performance through hair-brained antics, topped by him stepping into a garbage can and having the crowd carry it. Once descended, he declared in his best Oscar the Grouch, “This place stinks!” Hilarious.

7. Grizzly Bear. A late addition to Lollapalooza, the poppy, freak-folk wonders blessed us fans with new songs that met expectations. Now we have to somehow patiently wait for the new album.

8. Fleet Foxes. You know, I don’t even really like this laid-back sub-pop band, but the harmonies on display at Pitchfork were magic. They need to have a harmony-off with Grizzly Bear.

9. Titus Andronicus. Interviewed in last month’s issue of The Real Chicago, frontman Patrick Stickles kicked off a rainy Saturday at Pitchfork with manic energy, waving a flag-draped mic and delivering fierce, New Jersey rock anthems.

10. Animal Collective. Closing out Saturday night at Pitchfork, the experimental band recreated its not-from-this-world sound to perfection, and blessed fans with the unexpected intro of Panda Bear’s brilliant, “Comfy in Nautica.”

As for some disappointing sets, all at Lollapalooza: MGMT lulled me to sleep for a half hour before breaking out their good songs. However, the pre-teen crowd was crowd surfing and going nuts, so I wasn’t hearing what they were. Rogue Wave fell victim to Lollapalooza’s classic multi-stage crossfire, being drowned out by a heavy rock band. They just didn’t sound clear. Bloc Party also didn’t sound very clear, and their dance rock was greeted with a disinterested crowd who only wanted to see Radiohead. Finally, Broken Social Scene, one of my favorites, were clearly saving up for their afterparty show at Metro. Though Kevin Drew did deliver the best line of Lollapalooza: “Hello Chicago slash Gotham City!”

Concert Calendar
The best way to recover from Lollapalooza? See more live music. Here are a handful of upcoming shows that I recommend. On 8/17, the side project of Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs plays the Empty Bottle. The sultry, acoustic sounds of Great Lake Swimmers play Schubas on 8/22, and rapper Aesop Rock rocks the Abbey Pub on 8/23.

On 8/28, a wonderful, calm fall show, folk artist Sam Amidon, whose 2008 album is one of the year’s best, and modern classical performer Nico Muhly visit the Lakeshore Theatre. On 9/3, also one of the year’s best albums this year comes from the disturbed but powerful Xiu Xiu, and he plays the Bottom Lounge.

On 9/6, the Glasgow-based alt band Sons and Daughters play the Double Door, and on 9/12 two great shows come to town with Holy Fuck’s instrumental brilliance rocking Subterranean, and The Walkmen playing Metro.

Keep sending me your music or anything else on your mind at danochwat@hotmail.com. I’ve also joined the MySpace army, so give The Real Chicago some love at http://www.myspace.com/danochwat

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