Lollapalooza 2007 - Day 1

Yesterday Jason and I were at Day 1 of Lollapalooza. A friend of the family couldn't use his 3-day passes and so passed them onto us. Jason and I aren't huge into the music scene so we knew that most of what we would be seeing would be new.

We started with Ted Leo & the Pharmacists as per the recommendation of the Chicagoist and the Chicago tribune. We got there about 45 minutes early and were able to stand right next to the stage. They start and none of the mics are working....and then all of a sudden they get the technology worked out and they started rocking out. Oh while we were waiting for the show to start there were two guys in front of us that were (I know nerds....) big big music nerds...but not in a cool way. The one guy talked really loud and didn't stop. Finally they saw some friends and stepped aside...but I know all about a concert they went to in Gary. Wacky. We moved back a little because we had ended up right in front of the speakers and on the way back we ran into a Fermilab person. Always funny seeing people outside of their usual venue.

The show ended and we headed over to the other stage in the field to see Jack's Mannequin. I know their song Dark Blue, and thought it was music that would probably fit my style. And I was correct. This ended up being my favorite show musically of the day....and the fact that one of the band members had a giant silver 1980s era bass ....and there was a Grand Piano on stage and the singer needed two mics right next to each other made it for a great show as well.

After this show we had some time before the next show we wanted to see and so headed back into the city to get out of the sun and heat and have a beer. While walked down Congress Ave, a girl walking by said, "Hey hey....." I looked at her and did a double take and realized it was a friend that I was pretty good friends with in high school. I haven't seen her since then and so it was quite the random meet up.

Heading back to Lollapalooza and we saw Blonde Redhead which I was in between of liking and questioning whether the whining into the mic was anything worth listening to. Bad stage presence as they didn't seem to be having much fun up there. They were actually the exact opposite of the next band we saw.

Heading again just across the field we caught the band Satellite Party. The front man for this band is Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros. He's also the creator of Lollapalooza so we thought it would be fitting to go see his show. Talk about someone that likes to be on stage! I think this was my second favorite show and not because I loved the music (although they pulled out some old Jane's Addiction which was super fun) but because it was just a good show. Farrell was jumping all over the stage and they had a gogo girl dancer. It was just fun times.

We decided to stay in the field as the headliner Daft Punk was playing on the same stage. I had no idea what to expect, but had heard some of their songs which I thought were fun. Yeah.....uh.....well their entrance was interesting. They have these helmets on that make them look like aliens and they were standing in this big pyramid thing and then the stage would light up and there was loud noises....and yes it was fun. But really....an hour an half of two guys on stage when in the end (quote of the day), "They are just two guys standing in a triangle". Strange.....but still fun. So we headed over to the see the other headliner of of the night, Ben Harper. We grabbed some fries and listened to a couple of his songs and realized that our 5am wake up call was catching up with us, so we headed home.

A great first day of music. We saw bands we would have never heard of and had a ton of fun. Today is day two and I am really excited because we are going to catch Pete Yorn, Regina Spektor, Snow Patrol and Interpol. Stay tuned for our report from Day 2.