THE BIG LOLLAPALOOZA REPORT

[scottieking]

A Magical Musical Buffet - Scottieking's Lollapalooza Report

Chapter One - Return to Chi-town

This being my second time to Chicago I think I had a different sense of anticipation than my three

travelling compatriots all of whom were newbies.That city, as I have raved before, is really like no other.

Vibe, architecture, culture, you name it, it has it.

Thursday was dedicated to a nice little walk-around and an amazing meal at this place called Brazazz.

No word of a lie for 39.99 they bring you 18 different kinds of meat on giant skrews and give you a

yes please/no thank you button to turn when you do or don't want to eat. Unbelievable.

Note: this was not a traditional Team Scott adventure. Guigsy stayed at a different hotel with a different

crew. Miraculously, both teams found each other often and will collaborate on one of our great festival

stories.

Chapter Two - Perry's Circus in the Park

Welcome to Lollapalooza! I had a really hard time envisioning how this one was going to play out being in

a giant downtown park but play out it did. Taking over a space about the size of three city blocks, the festival

encompassed the best parts of Grant Park.

I'll get the raving about the smoothness and prepardness of the festival out of the way early. Top notch all the

way. Two food areas with pretty killer cuisine (and for a fest, reasonable prices) Chinese meat, Chicago pizza,

Pulled Pork, Greek you name it. TONS AND TONS AND TONS of portapotties and on the scale 10 being

Big Cypress' onstage portapotty and 1 being Lemonwheel's overflowwing heaps , I give them a solid 8.

Two big stages, facing two medium stage on the opposite corners, with 4 smaller stages made for lots of variety.

And for the most part, very few sound bleed problems. Nothing's perfect but this was an A-one run show.

Chapter Three - Day One Music

I hope some of you got to read through the Haiku's I posted about day one.

Allow me to elaborate further. Setlists where available provided by Lollapalooza website (stars are

an Itune availability thing). I'm rating stuff because I'm a teacher and can't help myself

The Eels - 7/10

* Saturday Morning

* Old Shit/New Shit

* Rock Show (cover)*

* Crazy Love (Crazy Music) (Willie Dixon cover)*

* Eyes Down*

* Jesus Gonna Be Here (Tom Waits cover)*

* I Like Birds

* Mother Mary*

* My Beloved Monster

* A Magic World

* Not Ready Yet

* Souljacker Part 1

* I Put a Spell On You (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover)*

* That's Life*

First time seeing E and the boys. It was a weird one. There were sound problems and the set was the opposite of what I'd heard from

the band recently (which was the Live at Town Hall set). Loud, distorted, with strange costumes and performance artist in a security

shirt doing Kung-fu. Interesting start to the fest for me.

Caught a bit of the Stars but they weren't lighting anyone on fire so we ate and got ready for.

Ryan Adams Team Scott Rating 8/10 General Concensus - 5/10 or lower

* What Sin*

* Please Do Not Let Me Go

* Dear Chicago

* Peaceful Valley

* Nobody's Girl

* Now He's Gone (Grateful Dead cover)*

* Hickory Wind (Gram Parsons cover)*

* Cold Roses

* Wharf Rat (Grateful Dead cover)*

* Shakedown On 9th St.

* Franklin's Tower (Grateful Dead cover)*

* I See Monsters

Rock's Enfant Terrible put on a very self centered show but for a couple guys who love a little Dead in the afternoon, we had a blast.

The crowd, confused by us and Ryan, did not. Fun too was watching Ryan play late and completely piss off the Lolla staff. All and all

glad I caught him before he dies (which could be in the next two years or so)

Iron and Wine - 8/10

naked as we came

sodom, south georgia

woman king

evening on the ground (lilith's song)

sinning hands

on your wings

new song*

freedom hangs like heaven

teeth in the grass

jezebel

upward over the mountain

trapeze swinger

I LOVE Sam and this was a perfect chance to chill out and relax....except the Mates of State show was so loud at one of the smaller stages,

Sam proved his versitility, plugged in and re-worked a few tunes for a louder Iron and Wine show. Good times and good versions. Made the push

over to see

My Morning Jacket - 10/10!!!

* At Dawn

* Off the Record

* What a Wonderful Man

* Gideon

* Anytime

* Way That He Sings

* Dondante

* Golden

* Wordless Chorus

* One Big Holiday

* Mahgeetah

I cannot express in enough words the energy that this band was putting out. They have found a way to make Jim sound balanced and not

forced, they are melodic and sonic, and they looked thrilled to be there. Powerful stuff. A band at the apex of its power. Will never miss them

again.

Used the time between shows to refuel and make the 15min trek between stages to catch the Violent Femmes "Add it Up"

Ween - 9/10

* Exactly Where I'm At

* What Deaner Was Talkin' About

* Spinal Meningitis Got Me Down

* The Stallion Pt. 3

* Light Me Up*

* Take Me Away

* Touch My Tooter

* I Can't Put My Finger On It

* Puertoricanpower*

* Voodoo Lady

* Baby Bitch

* Buckingham Green

* Captain

* The H.I.V. Song

* The Mollusk

* I'll Be Your Jonny On Th' Spot

* Wavin' My Dick in the Wind

* Ocean Man

* Doctor Rock

* Someday*

I love this band and they looked like they were having a blast. Gene looks really healthy and of the late night closers this hands down was

my favorite. Lots of room as most people were over holding hands and crying to Death Cab. Partied with some excellent folks and had a blast. Great end to the day.

Chapter Four - Where's the party at?

One thing that was seriously lacking was the aftershow party scene. Two factors really. 1) Lack of energy. These days are facking tiring and I ain't got the mojo, especially when we stayed right beside Grant Park and air conditioned rooms beckoned. 2) Everything was sold out. Sonic Youth. The Umphrey's/Bisco thing. Anywoo, enough on why we are lame, there's a great aftershow story coming up in Chapter 8.

Chapter Five - Day Two Music - Bands on the Run

To expand my post from Day Two, I really only saw two complete shows the whole day, the rest of the time was spent burning around the park trying to stuff

ourselves as full of music as we had of meat on Thursday. So some general thoughts

Cold War Kids - Good indy fare. Favorite new band of the weekend.

The Go!Team - Great energy, they move like a musical Chinese firedrill. Still not as good as the album.

Feist - Bad decision to try and stay soft in the face of a louder side stage. My girlfriend liked it.

Built to Spill - 7.5/10

* Goin' Against Your Mind

* Made Up Dreams

* Sidewalk

* Traces*

* Big Dipper*

* Good Ol' Boredom*

* Conventional Wisdom*

* Rearrange (Cover of Gladiator's)*

* Carry the Zero

* Untrustable

This was a musically brilliant show that was a sonic treat for Built to Spill fans, myself include. But you know when there's

someone in the room who is clearly not having a good time and it brings everyone down. That was them. Big downer and

rantings how they don't need corp rock and Perry.

Here's my busiest hour of the day - I saw Calexico (zzzz), Lyrics Born (throw your hands in the air), Particle

(really killer Radiohead cover - National Anthem>Mar 11), and Wolfmother (loud) in the span of 60 mins.

Gnarls Barkley - Fun if you like the new album

Sonic Youth - Fun if you like Sonic Youth

Flaming Lips - 10/10

* Ta! Da!*

* Race For the Prize

* Free Radicals

* Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1

* Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 2

* Vein of Stars

* The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

* The W.A.N.D.

* My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

* She Don't Use Jelly

* Do You Realize?

These guys are possibly the greatest show men of their musical generation. Unbelievable, genuine energy and gratitude towards

the crowd. If you haven't seen these guys, do so before it's too late.

RUN to

New Pornographers - 8.5/10 - Caught most of this and man oh man, did they kick ass! Short set and the only reason

it gets marks off is no Neko and A.C. shouldn't be allowed to talk into a mic. Annoying. I'm guessing they had some converts

sucked in on their way to

Kanye West - Great D.J. Great orchestra. One whiny diva flipping out on sound people and playing more of others music

than his own. Left half way through.

Chapter Six - Chicago Comic Con

Okay, so no one cares, but I also got to check out one of the biggest comic conventions in North America on Sunday.

Sure I missed Perry and Patty Smith, Nickel Creek and the Shins, but I did get to see Jaws from the Bond movies, Dirk

Benedict, and Lou Ferigno. As well I scored 50% off graphic novels, a wicked Superman vs Spiderman Giant Size , and

some cool original Silver Surfer art.

Chapter Seven - Final Day

Got there late and missed the Shins. Took one last look around before the double dose of adios that would be

Wilco - 8/10

* Shot in the Arm

* Impossible Germany*

* I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

* What Light*

* The Late Greats

* Handshake Drugs

* Via Chicago

* Let's Fight*

* War on War

* Jesus, Etc.

* Heavy Metal Drummer

* Walken*

* I'm the Man Who Loves You

* Hummingbird

I love this band. I also love Chicago. This band is Chicago (no jackass, not like Peter Cetera Chicago) HUGE crowd,

great energy. The new songs are growing on me quite a bit and look how many of them got played. Diane made the

right call as we beat the rush out during Hummingbird and caught

Broken Social Scene 9/10

I can't find a setlist but Cause=Time was playing as we rolled up and Ibi blew the crowd AWAY! The whole gang was there minus

Jason but plus Emilie who wasn't even playing the festival.

ENCORE OF THE WEEKEND - which of course never happened. But the crowd stayed for 10 mins after the show screaming and

begging for more. The band took curtain calls but it was a testement to their power.

Red Hot Chili Peppers 7/10

* Can't Stop

* Dani California

* Scar Tissue

* Charlie

* Fortune Faded

* Readymade

* Throw Away Your Television

* Snow (Hey Oh)

* Me & My Friends

* For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her - (Simon & Garfunkle cover) - John Frusciante Solo*

* Wet Sand

* Right On Time*

* Don't Forget Me

* Tell Me Baby

* By The Way

* Give It Away + Encore

They were what they are. Kendis is so lucky he has one of the best backing bands in the world. Johhny F was blowing me

away and his Simon and Garfunkel cover was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. Big rock show goodbye.

We marched out satisfied, went swimming in the fountains and prepared for what would be the adventure of the weekend

Chapter 8 - Bustle in your Hedgerow

So we all (10 of us) agreed that we would meet out at the Abbey Pub to see Bustle in your Hedgerow which is usually

Marco Benevento on keys and Joe Russo on drums (the Benevento/Russo Duo) and Dave Dreiwitz on bass (Ween) with a guy

from Particle (the one that just quit) but instead was Brendan Baliss from Umphrey's!

So we get there ($20 cab ride) only to find it sold out and no chance of getting in. Since we came in teams, we assumed Team A

who arrived much earlier would have gotten in. I sent the two in Team B in with the extras they scored at Will Call from these guys,

and prepared for the enivatble ride home with Team C. We mulled and moped. A bouncer was wearing a Canada shirt and it turns

out he LOVES Canada. I mean loves. Is a Jays fan. Has Bell Express View. Likes Corner Gas and Peter Mansbridge??? I mean

loves us. But there's not much he can do but wrist band us for alcohol. Meanwhile it turns out team A didn't get in either. SO now

we need 8 tickets. Just about to give up our man Leroy, (yes Leroy) appears and very subtley begins to stamp our hands and tells

us to go back to the pub and come through that way. We're in. Here's what we got...

Set One: The Song Remains the Same, Ramble On, Immigrant Song^, What Is and What Should Never Be, Travelling Riverside Blues^^, Four Sticks, Bring It Back Home

Set Two: Moby Dick, Over the Hills and Far Away, Fool in the Rain*$, Heartbreaker, All of My Love, Good Times Bad Times > How Many More Times*, The Ocean

Notes:

^ with Mike Keneally on guitar

^^ with Sarah Zimmerman (Philadelphia School of Rock) on guitar

* Brendan on vocals

$ Marco jumped off stage to play a different keyboard

What a sweat box! I'll let Guigsy tell the piano story. Finally, an aftershow to talk about!!!

Chapter Nine - Final Thoughts

Well, certainly Chicago and Lollapalooza provideth again. I can't wait for my next excuse to get back to the place. Lollapalooza provided

me with the fullest plate of music I've ever been served and while all wasn't delicious, most was tasty and I'd go back to the restaurant

anyday. Thanks to Perry Farell, the city of Chicago, Brazazz and of course, my travelling companions. And to you dearest reader for

reading.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Guest

[afro poppa]

wow I am so glad you had fun, looks like this is not to be missed next year!

[Jaimoe]

Nice report Scottie. For one of the rare times, I'm jealous of those that went to Lollapalooza. I'm not a festival guy, but this year's fest looked dynamite on paper - and then after reading the glowing reports (like yours) only confirms the greatness of this year's festival.

[gentlemonkey]

Sweeeet shit, scottie!

Were the majority of 'the Bustle' covers instrumental? nice after show!!

Is Dirk Benedict, Face from A-TEAM? wicked if so.

I cant imagine a better back to back than MMJ>WEEN.

Sounds like a wicked time.

And, that waiter looks a little weird, by the way.

[Schwa.]

great review mr. king!

[Booche]

I wish I had been a part of Team Scottie for this one.

[fluffhead77]

sounds like you folk had a mediocre time, figures...

[guigsy]

hey monkey - the bustle stuff was all instrumental unless the crowd picked up the vocals, which was awesome and happened a few times. oh, and brendan did vocals on fool in the rain.

the benevento piano bit: there was a house piano behind black curtains on the floor RIGHT BESIDE where we were standing, and before fool in the rain started i see marco motioning to the sound guy and gesturing towards the piano - figured something was up - so, in the quiet part after the breakdown before the crazy piano part, well, benevento jumps off stage runs right beside us behind the curtain and starts fucking wailing away on it - i didnt get a very good picture, but my buddy Ren got a fucking wicked shot - if i get it off him i'll post it when im back. cool moment, though - crowd surged on us in the corner, but we managed to stay alive.

great read scottie - glad you guys made it back safe and sound.