Tuesday, August 11, 2009

August 9 Lollapalooza Day Three


Today the weather was perfect. The main entrance was at Buckingham Fountain. The first band we saw today was Davy Knowles and the Back Door Slam. They had a sixties blues rock sound. Good way to kick off a beautiful summer day of music. RIYL - Cream, Eric Clapton in the Sixties, bluesy rock guitar
On my way to see the Kaiser Chiefs, I stopped to watch the Greencards. I'm not a fan of bluegrass country music, but they were very good at what they do. RIYL - bluegrass, foot stomping music
I read these guys, Portugal The Man, were from Wasilla, Alaska. I've been there and it is a strange place to start a rock band. They were listed as an experimental art rock band. They definitely rocked. RIYL - guitar rock
My most pleasant surprise of the whole weekend was the Kaiser Chiefs. I knew a few of the songs going in and left a huge fan. They stormed the stage and from the very first chord put on a great show. I was dancing, ok maybe jumping up & down and swiveling my hips is a better description, the whole hour they played. RIYL - good time rock and roll with danceable tunes, Franz Ferdinand, The Cure
The Kaiser Chiefs were so good, this girl stripped naked and danced to all the songs.
Easily one of the most popular bands was Vampire Weekend. They packed the much larger south main stage field. The band also had the speakers in the middle of the park lowered to ground level and the sound was great right in front of them. So that is where we watched the whole show. They easily matched all the hype about them. Good times rocking out to their quirky melodic songs. RIYL - geek rock, good songwriting from an interesting point of view, great melodies
These dancers at Perry's DJ stage decided this fountain was a good place to cool down while still dancing.
Dan Auerbach, one half of the Black Keys, put on a fantastic show with his full band. Country grunge is how I described it to my brother. I really enjoyed his set. RIYL - country played by a garage rock band, bluesy country
The temps probably reached the 90's by the afternoon. The Chicago Fire Department brought out this huge water mister and hooked it up to a hydrant. Some people just danced under that while watching the north main stage.
Others danced in the shade of the parks many trees or even in the trees. I do love the hippie chick look.
Snoop Dogg packed the park for his set. I do like rap music but in concert the songs disintegrate into lame call & response shouts to raise your hands and shake your ass. The beats did make it easy for this old fat white boy to dance. RIYL - slow drawl rap, smoking pot, seeing a rap legend
We had some dinner and watched Deerhunter. They were kind of a noise rock band. Not my cup of tea but I watched for several songs. RIYL - Sonic Youth I guess.
Another big surprise for me was Silversun Pickups. I might have been the only one in the huge crowd that wasn't a die hard fan. The kids around me were dancing and singing every song. By the end of the set I was in the middle of the frenzied crowd and I was a die hard fan myself. I love when seeing a band just blows you away. The guitarist was using pedals to loop and delay his guitar to duplicate the sound, he ended the show with amazing technical guitar sounds that had the crowd going crazy. RIYL - Smashing Pumpkins, grunge 2009 style
We watched the Killers from the back of the park. They cranked out their hits and had the whole north end of the park dancing. We left after a few songs and walked down Columbus past the stage and over to the Roosevelt subway station. We could still hear the Killers bouncing off the buildings. A cool ending to 3 great days.

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