2 Aug 2008 - Lollapalooza (De Novo Dahl, The Postelles, Mason Jennings, Devotchka, Okkervil River)

De Novo Dahl
A prefect start to a nice sunny day - this band greeted the morning in bright orange and yellow rompers, which stood out nicely against the walls of the band shell. I'd never heard of them before, save for one song that I'd downloaded from the Lollapalooza site, but they kept me occupied and glad I'd gotten up early and made it downtown.

The Postelles
Next up was another group of fresh young faces. The crowd wasn't too big - they had a solid performance, and they really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I kept listening to their catchy little pop songs for several weeks after the show.




Mason Jennings
I've seen Mason several times since I first "discovered" him 9 long years ago. It's been interesting seeing his style, lyrics, fan base and band members change. I enjoyed Robert Skoro as his bass player for a few years, but since then haven't noticed anyone of consequence in his band. That sort of hints to me that he might be a pain to work with, but what do I know? He has a woman playing bass now, and that's cool in my book.




Devotchka
This is a band that has come a long way since I first saw them as a random opening act when I was living in Denver back in 2000. They were fun, and I'm glad that a band with sousaphone, accordion and theremin can get invited to play such large venues. ah, the power of indie film, because I don't know that they'd have had so much exposure without Little Miss Sunshine and the like.





Okkervil River
And finally, I worked my way to the front for Okkervil River. I'd seen them once before, but being right against the rail was much more exciting than being in the balcony at the Riv. The whole band has such a great energy, and seemed to really be enjoying the day, (except for the lone female, sort of absently playing guitar off to the side.) I had fun playing with my new camera while they performed. "The President's Dead," and "For Real" were standouts, but "Westfall" blew my mind.

1 Aug 2008 - Lollapalooza (Yeasayer, Gogol Bordello, Mates of State, Cadence Weapon, The Cool Kids, Stephen Malkmus, and just a smidge of Radiohead)

Here it is Boxing Day, and I'm attempting to update ye olde blog. I figure I'll start where I left off, and see how far I get.

When we last spoke, I had just returned from the mega-festival that that takes place in beautiful downtown Chicago: Lollapalooza. When I first bought my three-day pass, I thought for sure one of my friends would join me for at least part of it. But, alas, I was flying solo, left to navigate to sea of pot smoke and sunscreen on my own.

Even though I got down there pretty early on Friday, the time I'd planned to spend listening to Rogue Wave was spent waiting in line instead. When I finally got in and made my way to the stage where #2 on my list (Yeasayer) was playing, I was starting to feel pretty old and uncool compared to all of the teenage hipsters surrounding me.

I couldn't get very close for Yeasayer, and that was a bad moment. I wondered if I was going to spend the next three days craning my neck to see bands that I liked, but didn't love. I couldn't imagine that that many thousands of people were there to see Yeasayer, who I didn't think had garnered such a following yet. Eventually, I got into the flow of things - learned some of the tricks to getting closer to the stage - and became thankful that I was there alone, and could follow my own agenda.

I'll just provide a few words on each act I caught, and throw in a couple of pictures where appropriate. More for sake of my own documentation than for your enjoyement, but if you like it, awesome.

Yeasayer
I was too far away to really get anything special from their live performance. After listening to their album, I was expecting to see some more interesting instruments (steel drums perhaps?) Chris Keating was a bit of a diva - refusing to take off his jacket despite the 90s temps. It was just okay, from my vantage point.


Gogol Bordello
If I had moved to the front after Yeasayer, I probably would have been able to get a great spot for this set. They sounded great, and put on a good show visually, complete with dancing ladies. Eugene Hütz really connected with the audience, and helped to put me in the mood for the rest of the weekend of rock.



Mates of State
Major disappointment here. I'd been listening to them sporadically for the last couple of years, and thought it would be neat to see them live. But, really they didn't bring anything new to a live performance than a recording. The keyboard and drums were about as far away from each other as possible on the stage, and, with Kori's head always hanging down (see below photo) there didn't seem to be any connection between them.



Cadence Weapon
Finally, I got was just a couple rows back from the stage for this young Canadian's set. Despite being afriad that the bass was going to change the direction of my blood flow or make my eyeballs implode, I had a lot of fun. I took a few mediocre pictures, but I liked what happened to this one when I started playing around with it.



The Cool Kids
Now, despite living in Chicago, and hearing the name before, I'd never heard The Cool Kids, so their hometown energy was a nice treat. I didn't stay for the whole set though, because I'd had enough life-changes bass for one afternoon, and I wanted to catch Stephen Malkmus.




Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
I felt a little more in my element watching them - I recognized a few of the songs from Real Emotional Trash, had a relatively good view for showing up halfway through the set, and I was among my peers, so therefore didn't feel old and uncool. I liked that he had so many women playing real instruments in his band. After it was over, I listed a little to Radiohead as I left the park. I was probably more than a quarter mile from the stage, and I'd had enough for the day.