lolla ‘08 recap

What a crazy few weeks.  I think sitting here on Tuesday, August 5 is the first length of relaxation time I’ve had in a month.  The bar exam last week was followed by 10,000 “catch-up” errands and then three days of Lollapalooza.  Now I have a full month until I can finally start my career … four years after I graduated undergrad.

Here are my top 3 worst moments, best moments, surprise acts, and best acts from Lollapalooza ‘08.

Worst moments:

1) Was it just me, or was this year’s Lolla about 10 times more crowded than past years?  I think it really cut down on the experience because one of the great things about Lolla had been your ability to freely move from stage to stage to see acts that you wanted to see or weren’t necessarily planning on seeing normally.  This year, even for the midday acts, you had to be there 15-20 minutes before the show started to get a good spot, otherwise it wasn’t even worth it.  I spent the same amount of time at this year’s Lolla as I did in past years, and I saw about 10 fewer bands.  While I think this was the only year that the concert legitimately sold out, I think the organizers authorized waaaaaaaay too many tickets.  This was definitely my biggest complaint.

2) Cell phone service was atrocious.  Calls wouldn’t work and texts were delayed a half hour.  If you had planned on meeting up with anyone at the concert, you quickly realized that wasn’t happening.

3) I thought the sound was subpar this year, especially for the headliners.  Last year I remember getting blown away from the sheer volume of Daft Punk’s set, and this year wasn’t even close to getting that powerful.  Not sure if this was attributed to residents complaining or what.

Best Moments:

1) The weather.  Aside from Friday afternoon being a little too toasty, the weather was unbeatable on Saturday and Sunday.

2) All around, good headliners.  I still remember Lolla ‘06 and seeing Ween (who?) close the show on Saturday.  This year, I thought Radiohead/Wilco/Rage/Kanye/NIN was a pretty good bunch.

3) Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy doing his best Ernie McCracken impersonation:

Jeff Tweedy

3 Best Surprise Acts:

1) Girl Talk – who knew that a former biomedical engineer could cut and paste classic songs to create an ultra-intense, glorified dance party?

2) Duffy – think Amy Winehouse, only better voice and 1000X less messed-up.

3) Chromeo – 2 Expos fans who make catchy dance tunes.

3 Best Acts (that I saw)

Note: I opted to see Wilco over Rage on Saturday night because I didn’t feel like getting trampled.  If I had seen Rage, this list might be different.

1) Wilco – thank you, RATM, for taking all of the fans to the South end of Grant Park because I was able to get pretty close to see these guys.  While not as intimate as their Winter Residency, these guys kept the show going with a bunch of crowd favorites.

2) Kanye / Lupe Fiasco – I’m putting these two together because I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed their two acts, and I was impressed that they actually had backup bands as opposed to just singing along with a sound track.  They both really know how to entertain a crowd and both put on a good “show” (I won’t go so far as to say it was a “concert”).

3) Blues Traveler – I missed these guys in ‘06 and made a point to see them this year.  They definitely rocked out and provided the second best blast-from-the-past moments (behind Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom”) when they played “Runaround” and “Hook”.  John Popper, along with the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, has one of the most underrated voices in rock.

As far as how these acts compare to past years’, I would put Red Hot Chili Peppers in ‘06 and Pearl Jam last year above all of this year’s bands.

~ by mcarey99 on August 5, 2008.