Lollapalooza Aftermath

August 3, 2005

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Let me begin by saying that I hate, absolutely hate, these types of entries. I hate most blogs because they are basically posts about what someone had done that day or what they are planning on doing or whatever, and the bottom line is that no one's life is interesting enough that they need to write about it all the time. That being said, I am breaking one of my rules and writing about shit I did mainly because I wanted to write something about Lollapalooza and a simple rambling wouldn't cover everything I wanted to say. So...

	Two Retards

I knew the $85 tag ($100 after fees) on Lollapalooza was worth it when I first heard about the bands involved. Once the stages were announced I was even more confident in my initial assessment and now my only question was whether I'd be able to endure live shows for 24 hours over two days. The line up on Day 1 looked great. If everything went as planned I'd be able to see (in order): And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Liz Phair, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Bravery, Billy Idol, The Black Keys, Pixies, and Weezer. On Day 2 I would see (in order): OK Go, The Ponys, Kasabian, Louis XIV, Tegan and Sara, Ben Kweller, The Arcade Fire, Spoon, The Killers, and Death Cab For Cutie. Net result was 18 bands for $100, so around $6 for each band - more than worth it.

Day 1:

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M83
I had time to kill before the first band I wanted to see so we popped in to this M83 show. I can't even describe this music. After about 20 min, I decided that M83 is from the future and traveled back in time to show people of 2005 what music will be like in 25 years. I wonder if any of my descendants are in the band. [Grade: C]

	Trail of Dead

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
After M83 I headed to Trail of Dead. I only have one Trail of Dead CD (Source Tags & Codes) and I enjoyed it a lot. After awhile they fell off my radar so I was glad I could check them out. I am really glad I did see them because they blew my fucking mind. They played with tons of energy, really got the crowed excited, played a great set, and the lead singer used the walkway (between the stage and soundboard) effectively. They had two drummers (and sets) and after their set they proceeded to destroy their equipment (metal style). I thought they could be called And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead And Instruments. If every show I saw during Lollapalooza was this good then I would have spent $200 for a ticket. This show was fucking awesome. [Grade: A+]

	Liz Phair

Liz Phair
I watched this show from afar. I have seen Liz Phair twice before, once at the Metro and again at the House of Blues. She put on a good show. Tried to play a good mix of songs and get the crowd into it. I think either people like Liz Phair or they don't. If you do like her then she can do no wrong, if you don't like her, you probably wished they would have gotten another band to play. I like her a lot but since I saw her before, and ran into friends, and needed to decompress after Trail of Dead, I watched about 30 minutes of the show then just hung out. Still though, I love Liz Phair and I couldn't imagine a Lollapalooza without her. [Grade: B+]

	Brian Jonestown Massacre

Brian Jonestown Massacre
Jay, my friend in California, told me about BJM about four months ago. I didn't check them out so I was happy they were playing Lolla and I could finally hear what he was talking about. They were playing against Dashboard Confessional. Since I saw Dashboard a few years back, I decided to see BJM. I made the wrong choice. BJM sucked. Their lead singer was too into himself. After each song he spent about five minutes either tuning his guitar or just fucking around and he would constantly insult Dashboard. I am not a hard core Dashboard fan, I don't even have one of their CDs, but c'mon, no way does a band need to pander to the lowest common denominator. Their performance sucked but I did like the few songs they actually did play. [Grade: D]

	The Bravery

The Bravery
This was my biggest conflict for Day 1. The Bravery vs. Cake. I really like Cake but I don't have any of their CDs. I have a group of 3-4 people that are HUGE Cake fans and love their shows. I do like the Bravery and anyone that thinks they are a rip-off or watered down version of The Killers is a complete retard (and must also think that Smashing Pumpkins ripped off Pearl Jam who ripped off Nirvana just because they all were "grunge" bands). Anyways, so I chose Bravery for two reasons a) it wouldn't be as crowded as Cake and b) I would pay to see Cake if they headlined a show and I wasn't sure if I could say the same for The Bravery. The Bravery show was really good. They played a good set and it was everything I expected from a band that was just hitting that next level of fame. [Grade: B+]

Cake
The Bravery ended and Cake was still playing so I got too hear The Distance, which is great song. I really couldn't even say I saw Cake but I feel like I should include them. [Grade: A]

	Billy Idol

Billy Idol
After Cake we took a break, got some food and some more beer and then wandered over to Billy Idol. Idol is a rock legend, yet I still didn't have the strongest desire to see him perform. From what I heard from friends and the little I did see, Billy was good, I really wasn't paying attention all that much. It started to rain and I ran into friends so in this hour Billy was more of a background performer. Also, I cannot talk about or see Billy Idol without imagining the "See, Billy Idol gets it. I don't know why she doesn't get it" line from The Wedding Singer. [Grade: N/A]

The Black Keys
The Black Keys were awesome. They put on a good show and it was exactly as I expected. Their songs are very blues rock so it wasn't really the type of hard rock show like some of the other bands but they were still a great band to see live. [Grade: B]

	=W=

Weezer
The next band I saw was Weezer. This was a big decision for me, it's not that there was another band playing at the same time but really it was whether I wanted to skip the Pixies to get up close for Weezer. Since I am a moderate-to-low Pixies fan and since they would still be audible from the Weezer stage and since this would (probably) be the only time I'd see Weezer this year AND since I love their new album, I decided to spend the hour trying to get as close to Weezer as I could. It was hot, sweaty, and many times I questioned my decision. Brad, Devon, Matt, and Lisa also were with me so that made it much more enjoyable. At around 8:15 the roadies started to hang the infamous =W=. <awesome> 8:45 finally rolls around and Weezer starts to play. They were FUCKING AWESOME. This was the 2nd best Weezer show I've ever seen, second only to the secret show I saw in 2001 at the Fireside 2 (and I think that's only #1 because there were only 200ppl there). Before this point (and excluding the Fireside show) most Weezer shows could be re-created by putting four cardboard cutouts in a room and playing the CD in the back really loud. Rivers did little to make the shows unique. 95% of this is due to his problems with crowds and whatever but still, after seeing them 5x, I expected a similar performance. I am glad to say that I was wrong. Rivers and crew put on a great show. Sadly, I think Pat, Scott, and Brian would all play shows with this much energy but in my opinion Rivers kept them all in check...but the Lolla show he just let loose and played. I loved it. A fucking great ending to a great day of rock. [Grade: A+]

Day 2:

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	Same Monkeys

It was supposed to be 115 degrees out today...and the meteorologists were proven right. My original plan (before Saturday) was to see OK Go at 11:30 and then would have killed the next three hours with The Ponys, Kasabian, and Louis XIV until Tegan & Sara at 3:30. After Saturday, I was too tired to get up and head to Lolla just to see OK Go. I saw The Donnas open for them back in early 2003 and OK Go sucked. They were so bad we left the show early. I called up Lance that morning and decided we'd get to Lolla at 2:00 in order to check out Louis XIV. God blessed Lance and me with impeccable timing because we got to Lolla at 2:20. And just so you know I am, in fact, not counting being late to meet Andy and Stephanie on Saturday.

	Louis XIV

Louis XIV
I had only heard of Louis XIV and never heard Louis XIV. They put on a good show but I wasn't blown away. I think I could grow to like them if I listened to them more but I didn't care for them enough to buy their CD. I would appreciate it if someone would let me archive their Louis XIV CD. [Grade: B]

Dinosaur Jr.
We left Louis XIV after about 30 min and checked out the 2nd half of Dinosaur Jr. I've never heard of Dinosaur Jr. but they were OK. The lead singer is kind of scary in a "retired school counselor trying to start a band" kind of way - similar to Mr. Rosso from Freaks and Geeks. [Grade: B]

	Tegan sans Sara They were the suckiest bunch of sucks to ever suck.

Tegan & Sara
I was really looking forward to seeing Tegan & Sara. They opened for The Killers earlier this year and I didn't know it at the time so Brad and I missed them. I've listened to some of their songs and liked what I heard so I was hoping they'd be as good live. It's around 3:30 now so even though it's hot, it's not as hot as it was an hour or so before. Sara is wearing black jeans and a black tank top, very rock-and-roll-y. They perform a couple songs and after about 15 minutes, Sara leaves due to heat exhaustion. Tegan finishes the song and then Sara comes back on....only to leave again after 5 minutes. Then Tegan pulls the plug on the show. They played for 30 minutes. I liked what I heard but they get no credit in my book. EVERYONE knew it was going to be a hot day Sunday. Most people dressed appropriately enough and if they didn't they at least tolerated the heat. Sara gets to sit next to a fan, free drinks all day, and she gets heatstroke after 10 minutes. Fuck that! I know these people have to look like rock stars but if you're going to fucking pass-out, then put on lighter clothes and shorts. How do they expect to make it in the business if the sun destroys their act in 15 minutes?! Horse shit! [Grade: D-]

Ok...actually, there is another reason they suck. They made me miss Satellite Party. I should have done my Lollapalooza research. I never heard of Satellite Party and since I wanted to see Tegan & Sara, I didn't bother to check up on them. Since the T&S show sucked and since I would have rather watched Satellite Party, I am changing their grade. [Grade: F]

FUCK! I just read this news story about Weezer in Rolling Stone and apparently Tegan & Sara turned down the chance to open for Weezer on their tour. I am done with these two! [Grade: F-]

	Satellite Party

Satellite Party
Satellite Party is a new supergroup fronted by Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros) and is made up of Nuno Bettencourt (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Tony Kanal (No Doubt, bass), Steve Ferlazzo (Keyboards), Kevin Figueiredo (Drums). They were fucking awesome. I wish I saw more than just the last half of their set. Fucking Tegan & Sara! What I did saw blew my mind though. Perry Farrell was also the MC for most of Lollapalooza. I've decided that he is also from the future (like M83) but from way in the future...years and years after M83...100 years from now future. Perry Farrell most likely came back to rock the 20th and 21st centuries. I would like to sit down with him to discuss the future and how things have changed from now until then. I would also find out if anyone actually invented light sabers. [Grade: A]

	The Arcade Fire

The Arcade Fire
Next on the agenda was either Ben Kweller or Drive-By Truckers. Since I already saw Ben Kweller back in 2002 and I had never heard of Truckers and since Arcade Fire was one of the top three bands I wanted to see, I bit the bullet and took the extra hour to try and get as close to the stage as I could. It was well worth it. The Arcade Fire are PHENOMENAL live. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it. The Arcade Fire was also the only other band to use the walkway to the soundboard (similar to Trail of Dead). They had eight or nine members and they rotated instruments a lot. They also have two violin players, a French/Freedom horn player, and somehow they even got Gilda Radner and Napoleon Dynamite to join the band. One of the funniest parts was when Napoleon Dynamite played percussion on a guy's helmet while the guy in the helmet played on another helmet. [Grade: A+]

	The Killers

The Killers
After Arcade Fire I needed a break so I hung out with friends until The Killers performed. I had seen Killers twice before and I knew they'd draw a huge crowd and after The Arcade Fire sauna I didn't want to spend 2 hours in heat fighting crowds so I stayed back. The Killers put on a great show as I expected. The first Killers show I ever saw was back in September 2004 and they sucked. They played for about 40 minutes and they weren't energetic and although I would say that I definitely got my $15 worth it was nothing more than that. In May 2005 when I saw them they were awesome and same goes for their Lolla performance. [Grade: A]

	Death Cab For Cutie

Death Cab For Cutie
By the time Death Cab played (8:30) I was really fucking tired. Death Cab is really mellow Emo music and that's exactly how their show was. Anyone that complained it was too mellow must never have listened to Death Cab in the first place. We only stayed for about 3/4 of the show because most people had to work the next day and we didn't want to fight all the crowds. [Grade: A-]

Best performances (in chronological order): Trail of Dead, Weezer, The Arcade Fire

Worst performance: Tegan & Sara

So that's it. Lollapalooza blew my fucking mind.

The End...until Lollapalooza 2006.

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