Lollapalooza, Day 1

Not surprisingly, things have been pretty busy at work this week since I've gotten back from Chicago, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to talk about Lollapalooza. While I have a little bit of time tonight, I figured I'd cover Day One (Friday, August 4th).

The day started with a bit of a scare -- when we got to Grant Park at 11:00 am, we found what looked like the world's longest line of people waiting to get in. We could hear a couple of bands inside sound-checking, and we were a little nervous that there might be a serious delay getting in and we'd miss the early bands. No need to worry. Once the doors finally opened, the lines sped along, and we got through the 5-block line in about 6 minutes. Crisis averted.

The first band we caught was recent "it" band Midlake. The band had a pretty good crowd for an early show on the first day of the weekend, though I couldn't help looking around trying to match up every member of the crowd with which blog they run. In what was a bit of foreshadowing of things to come, the band's set was a little off at the beginning due to the absolutely loudest, most brain-destroying bass I've ever heard in my life. They eventually worked out the kinks a few songs in, and the band sounded pretty damn good. For the rest of the weekend, it was pretty much a given that the mix was screwed up for the first couple of songs. Pretty much the only negative the entire weekend.

Midlake:


From Midlake I ran across the park to catch Cursive. I've been a fan of the band for 7 or 8 years now, but somehow have managed to miss them every time they've been in NYC in that time. No idea why, though I've had tickets to most of those shows and still not gone. Now I wish I'd gone to some of them. The band was great, and simply kicked ass. While I'm not a huge fan of their new album, I'm definitely going to have to check them out when they come back in the fall.

This is a shot of downtown Chicago from the crowd for Cursive:


Cursive:


From Cursive I pinballed around a bit, catching about 1/2 of The M's set, then 1/2 of Kelley Stoltz, and then 1/2 of Jeremy Enigk. The M's didn't do a whole lot for me, but I was really impressed with Kelley Stoltz, whose music I had never heard before. I'm gonna have to pick up some of his stuff, and post some tunes here. He really is excellent. And Jeremy was pretty good too, though I'm looking forward to catching a full set from him at Bowery Ballroom this Friday.

The M's:


Kelley Stoltz:


Jeremy Enigk:


From Jeremy it was over the Bud Light stage, where I spent pretty much the rest of the weekend. First up was Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Unlike his more rock oriented set at the Bowery last month, Ryan's set at Lollapalooza was, as my friend Matt referred to it, "Ryan Garcia". It was essentially a Grateful Dead set, between jamming out on Ryan's songs and covers of no less than -3- Dead covers ("He's Gone", ""Wharf Rat" and "Franklin's Tower"), and guess what? It was wonderful. Ryan's been doing the neo-Dead thing for a year or two now, and I think he's finally perfected it. That's not to say that I don't want to see some "alt-country" and "rock" sets from him in the future, but if his Dead sets are going to be this good, I hope he sticks with it for a while.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals:


After Ryan I camped out at the Bud Light stage and got a pretty good spot for My Morning Jacket. I'd only seen them live once before, at the 2004 Austin City Limits festival, and found them to be the surprise of the festival. This time around, I wasn't surprised how good they were. Simply put, they put on my favorite set of Day 1, and probably my #2 or #3 set of the weekend. Can't wait to see them again.

My Morning Jacket:


Then I moved across the field to check out Sleater-Kinney for the first, and last, time ever. I've never been a huge fan and, well, this set didn't change my opinion.

Sleater-Kinney:


I ditched S-K after a few songs to grab a snack and wait for my friends to finish up at S-K so we could go get drunk. All in all, a great first day, and a taste of even better things to come.

View of downtown at the end of Day One: