...In which our heroine survived the rock n'roll bacchanal, yet again.

Lollapalooza 2008 has come and gone. All that's left now is my nasty sunburn and the dirt caked onto my Chucks.

We arrived in Chicago around noon on Friday and checked back into the Congress Plaza Hotel, which was quite the Lolla hotspot. It was relentlessly hot with temperatures in the nineties, so we didn't head out until around 2 to see the weekend's first band, Louis XIV. From then we were off, and when the weekend was done, had seen a total of eighteen bands.
In order:
Louis XIV
The Black Keys
Cat Power
The Raconteurs
Radiohead
The Gutter Twins
MGMT
Lupe Fiasco
Toadies
Rage Against the Machine
The Whigs
Nicole Atkins and the Sea
Black Kids
G. Love & Special Sauce
Flogging Molly
Love and Rockets
The National
Nine Inch Nails

First to talk about was the vibe of the weekend itself. I loved the hippie/bohemian feel of the festival and there's something totally liberating about screaming "I'D RATHER DIE THAN GIVE YOU CONTROL" along with 75,000 other sweaty, hungry, unwashed people. People watching at concerts is always fun, but Lolla amplifies it. In the daytime, its checking out tattoos (the best was Homer Simpson as Buddha) and t-shirts, and in the night, its watching drunk fools get dragged out of the crowd in various stages of consciousness.

I do have to say I was apprehensive about going with a big group (six people) after Cassie and I had so much fun by ourselves last year. It wasn't just logisitics of feeding and housing six people in a hotel room, but making sure everyone got along.

And unfortunately, by around five on Friday, it became apparent that my apprehension was well founded. The group was split into two groups: those who came to see the bands and those who came to party. I was really annoyed when people started falling asleep at shows after a long day of partying. The group left Nate and I alone at Radiohead after partying too much all day after just forty minutes of the show, and I was alone for Nine Inch Nails because my companions were tired. They paid too much money to leave early and fall asleep. Most of the weekend, I almost felt like I'd be having more fun on my own without the whims of five other people to follow. I was there for the music, and while I do like to have my cake and eat it too, everything else was second to the bands I wanted to see.

Even besides the excess partying, I just got fed up with people who did things like didn't bring water and then ask for mine. The whole weekend was meant as a last hurrah kind of trip for us and it really did make me realize how much I'm going to miss some people and how little I'm going to miss others.

BUT...as I said, the weekend was about the music so Katydid presents her Top 6 of Lollapalooza 2008:

1. Rage Against the Machine
Could the number one spot belong to anyone else but Rage? Of course not. Electricity was in the air from the moment we walked in the sold out fest. Would Obama show...would there be riots...how bad would the moshing be? We staked out a spot after Lupe Fiasco that we thought would be far enough from the stage to avoid the harcore moshers.
We were wrong. So wrong.
The crowd went nuts from the first notes of "Testify." Rage sounded so musically precise and Morello gets the most amazing sounds out of that guitar. The crowd was wild of course. "Bulls on Parade" was second and just when I was thinking we were on the edge of the madness, all hell broke loose.
I would guess 5,000 people all decided at once they needed to get out of the pit. Within a matter of seconds, we went from being fine to being swept up in the mob. I couldn't breathe, couldn't stand. I was falling and separated from my friends and holding onto a random guy behind me. I kept thinking about the Who and Pearl Jam tragedies as I looked at the only open place, the sky...and then in about two minutes it was over and I magically was able to pull myself to Aaron. The endorphin rush kicked in and I realized that I hadn't panicked too bad and I was all intact. Paige lost her shoes, but things could have been much worse. It was the most scared I've ever been in my life. We ended up about 100 feet from where we started and after we settled, Zack addressed the crowd to chill out...then after the fourth song, and the seventh. Things finally calmed down in our new spot and we were able to enjoy the rest of the show.
Musically, Rage was everything I could ever want them to be. The music was so angry but yet so technically efficient. I would've liked to heard "The Ghost of Tom Joad" but oh well. I especially enjoyed the chorus change in "Killing in the Name Of" to "Some of those who burn crosses/Are the same who hold office" and Zack's speech about how the Reps and Dems are both guilty of driving this country in a poor direction.
Rage did do just that--rage. They were political and loud and perfect.

The best photo I took, most of them are blurry because I was just glad to be alive:

2. Nine Inch Nails

This was my third time seeing NIN, so I was up for anything at all, having already seen every song I ever wanted to hear live in Cincinnati and Columbus. Nonetheless, Trent Reznor never disappoints me and I'm a bigger fan of NIN than anyone else that was at the fest. The LCD screen and light show was tremendous and perfectly synchronized, which you'll be able to see in some of the pictures and videos below. Trent told the audience he was having a rough time with his voice, but I thought he sounded fantastic, as did the overall clarity of music throughout the weekend. I'm not usually into such heavy music, but NIN has perfected the art of industrial music. As always, highlights included a rousing "March of the Pigs," "Terrible Lie," and "Closer." I actually really enjoyed the instrumental break that showcased stuff from Ghosts I-IV and I mean c'mon, Trent Reznor playing marimba? As far as pure enjoyment this show was number one, but I would've liked a few more songs from the early years. This show also provided me with my most profound moment of the weekend, during "Hurt." The tears have come every time I've seen it performed live, and Trent's speech beforehand ("I wrote this song in a very dark time in my life...then later, I gave it away to a friend") really amplified the emotion.

Trent Reznor, the angriest man to ever capture my affection:

And another, just because:

The whole group of ever-rotating musicians:


The only picture I took all weekend that's actually good:
3. The Raconteurs

We left this show early to stake out a place for Radiohead, which I now know was a mistake. I was really excited to see Jack White's virtuoso guitar skills again, and the man does not disappoint. Nate and I were hoping to hear some really cool cover like "Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down" but the regular setlist proved to be quite alright. Jack did this really cool improv thing during "Steady as She Goes" that sounded like Van Halen and that song was a massive sing-a-long and the highlight of the show. The whole band destroyed instruments and strings, which always makes me happy to know that there's energy going into the performance. Brendan Benson was some kind of intoxicated as he knocked his mic over and was bleary-eyed the whole show. As long as Jack White makes music, I'll be listening.

The man himself:

Brendan Benson, half alive:

4. Radiohead This was a close call for the #3 spot, but the first half of Radiohead was just too damn lethargic. That, coupled with the fact that I never actually saw any of the band made the experience less than perfect. BUT...the music itself sounded great. I wasn't expecting a hit parade of things like "Creep" "Karma Police" and "High and Dry" right in a row--that just isn't the kind of band Radiohead is. Nate and I were thrilled to hear lots of stuff from OK Computer, Kid A, and The Bends. As fireworks went off, you could've heard a pin drop for the final line of "Fake Plastic Trees," a song I don't really like, but in the context of the setting, was breathtaking. The only things I really really wanted to hear were "Optimistic" and "Idioteque," both of which they did, and also the whole of In Rainbows. Mostly, this show just made me want to see Radiohead again in a more sedate, compressed setting to let the complexity of their music stand out.

I'm short, my pictures aren't the best, deal:

Thom Yorke, being Jesus:


The split screen was actually pretty annoying for those of us who can't always see the stage:

5. The Black Keys

Before last year's Lolla, I had never listened to The Black Keys. After a stellar performance last year, I became a fan, and was eager to see them again this year. I love that two completely dorky white dudes from Akron can play such fierce blues rock. Highlights included "Girl is on My Mind" "Your Touch" and "Strange Times." The Black Keys were every bit as musically precise as NIN, but there was still a feeling that they could be making things up as they went along. Amongst all the aspiring hipster types (ahem) it was nice to hear some good ol' fashioned blues.

Patrick Carney broke like 20 pairs of drum sticks:

I get a crush on like every third rock star I see:

6. The Gutter Twins

I had to make a list of six just to include this band, a duo of ex-Afghan Whig Greg Dulli and ex-Screaming Tree Mark Lanegan. The Afghan Whigs were, in my humble opinion, the best band to ever come out of Cincinnati. Dulli wrote some outstanding, hateful, passionate music about love and relationships on the Whigs best two albums, Gentlemen and Black Love. He also DJ'd a bit for WOXY back in the day, so what a shock, I have a big rock star crush on him too. I was so very excited to see Mr. Dulli with Mr. Lanegan, being all angry and hateful, what they both do best. The sunny day and jubilant atmosphere was not the best place for the music of the Twins, but it was still lovely. If Satan took up residence in the Haight-Asbury in 1968 and started playing psychedelic rock, this is what it would sound like. Lanegan's gravelly growl and Dulli's high pitched whine go so well together with the heavy, trippy music. They even covered Massive Attack's "Live With Me," which wasn't suprising considering Dulli has covered everything from "When Doves Cry" to "Lost in the Supermarket."

Too many years and too many beers have not been kind to Greg Dulli (on the left):

Mark Lanegan was like Tom Waits Jr.:


And now the video portion of the program, beginning with Nate doing interpretive dance to "My Sweet Lord":

Radiohead doing "The National Anthem":

Nine Inch Nails, "Closer":

Lollapalooza 2008: I survived and have now seen over 70 bands live. I'm well on my way to Band-Aid status.