Iris is working on uploading some pics, and I really can't wait til we can share these videos with you!
So here's a quick rundown on the rest of the bands we saw last night.
Blonde Redhead--you know, I really wanted to like these guys. The critics love them, my cool friends in the know love them, but they did not engage me *at all*. They're like Interpol or Ladytron without the hooks. I also suspect that a large outdoor festival is just not the best venue for them. One would need to listen to their album or see them in a small club. They just couldn't hold my attention in Grant Park. In fact, the Blonde Redhead set was where I learned that my camera phone has "fun tools," so I spent that time taking silly pictures of Mr. Maise. Also, Kazu Makino's vocals really just border on screechy at times. During the last song, Mr. Maise asked, "Is she practicing her sperm whale calls?" So yeah, everyone loves this Italian-Japanese indie trio, but I died a little inside.
Fortunately, Satellite Party, Perry Farrell's new band came up next, and they played a solid, fun set. Perry Farrell looks the same, sounds the same, and he doesn't give a shit what band he's in, he'll play the Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyro's favorites. He twirls like a whirling dervish and has little drunken/high conversations with the audience that turn into interesting little segueways to the next song. "My darlings, I just want to get down there and pet all of you," he announced before playing "Pets." "Are you...kinky?" he asked before playing a song that must have been entitled "Kinky." "The forecast was going to call for rain today, but since it's not raining, I dub this day INSANITY RAIN DAY!" he decreed, before playing..."Insanity Rain." And so on. Interestingly enough, at one point, he claimed that the Chicago Sun Times did not want Lollapalooza to return to Chicago. Now Jim Derogatis, the music critic for the Sun Times, has been especially cranky about Lollapalooza this year, but I wouldn't say that he's called for an outright ban of the festival. All the old favorites, like "Been Caught Stealing" and "Jane Says" sounded great, and Farrell was accompanied by a swimsuit-clad dancer/backup vocalist who may be his wife. I just really enjoyed this set...it was nice to hear some songs I knew, and Farrell did start this whole festival to begin with.
LCD Soundsystem--what can I say? This was clearly the best performance of the night. Who would ever believe that these schlumpy-looking guys would produce this infectious dancepunk??? They had all the hipsters dancing like dorks in the park. I'm not terribly familiar with a lot of their music, but standouts included "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" (ha ha), "North American Scum" and "Yeah." The latter, in particular, was stretched out to about 15 minutes, but it never lost its energy. James Murphy really won me over with his witty average guy commentary. "I don't really know what to say. Usually when bands don't know what to say, they'll shout, ARE YOU READY??? Which doesn't make any sense. Why should you be ready? We're the ones playing..." He praised the guys dancing in the audience for not scaring the girls away. It was just a great set, and I can't wait til Iris gets her videos up for this because I feel like those will say it all. I highly recommend this band to anyone, anytime.
Daft Punk--okay, this band is legendary, influential, visionary, and produce an astounding show. But we could only take about 30 minutes of it. It's very repetitive techno, and as Mr. Maise said, we forgot our ecstasy and our glowsticks in our other pants. Their set is remiscent of $25,000 Pyramid, and they sit inside the pyramid, wearing these eerie-looking motorcycle helmets. Lights and lasers are flashing and there's a LOT of lead up to songs like "Around the World." Honestly, I can't imagine that we would have gotten any more out of it staying for the full 90 minutes, and the chick with the pigtails in front of me was threatening to clock me in the head with her fancy moves.
And that is that for the first day, kids. I'll try to fill this in a little better later on, but we're late for brunch at Ro's...more to come!
