Day Three of Lollapalooza started off rather gloomy and mild — perfect weather for me and my Irish/Swedish skin — and it would serve as a fitting start to a slow-starting Sunday for most of the festival goers. It seemed that everyone was moving a little slower on Sunday but that didn’t stop the music…
We started off our day with the Benevento/Russo Duo — truly one of my favorite musical acts right now — and caught a fantastic set featuring many songs I hoped and wanted to hear. It was heavy on the Play Pause Stop material (not surprisingly). Also, I got to meet up with my buddy Patrick from down south and we both saw the mysterious figure known to all as Banana Man amidst the Duo fans…
From there, we went over and grabbed a spot in the shade for part of Pepper’s set. Totally unimpressive, by the way…
The Shins were started soon so we went over and tried to get a spot early. The crowd was really fillin’ in over there and it was clear that it would be one of the more popular sets of the day. Once the band came on and started playing, the only indication of this was the jumbotron showing the band playing — no one could hear anything from where we were standing. First song ends and the crowd begins chanting “turn it up! turn it up!” Next song begins and the bass drum is noticably more punchy and crappy sounding. Second song ends and the crowd chants “louder! louder!” with no noticable difference on song three.
It totally sucked. They didn’t even come close to having good sound for the set and yet the band soldiered on. About 4:50pm rolls around and we realize that we’ve got ten minutes until Of Montreal starts playing on the other side of the park — we decide to head over…
This turned out to be one of the smarter decisions we made all weekend. Of Montreal completely dance-rocked the crowd into a fun frenzy. It was great and it definitely made up for the sound problems plauging The Shins’ set…
Wilco was playing across the park again and we blasted through a few small segments of the crowd to get a spot with good views of the monitor. The set was awesome. Jeff Tweedy was clearly having fun — more banter than usual, plenty of joking, plenty of hometown Chicago references, etc. “I’m proud of you, Chicago…you clearly know how to go to a music festival!” says Jeff…
Good times.
Lollapalooza is definitely well-run and definitely worth the money (especially considering the lineup) — they still deserve some criticism but that’s the subject of another blog post — and I would definitely go again next year if I have the chance.
