Lollapalooza '08

Kilgore_Trout

so who was there?!? how great was it?!? im still in awe! saw 3 of my favorite bands 3 nights in a row as well as a bunch or other great acts! NIN being the only one i hadnt seen before last night and wow! their live show is incredible! i got my ass kicked by the crowd (even worse than RAGE) and their light show is INSANE! does it offend you, yeah? put on a great show saturday morning... the gutter twins were amazing eventhough mark just stood there like a statue... my only complaint was that radiohead played the EXACT same set that they did at st. louis... obviously not something to bitch about, but ive heard they mix it up alot and they shouldve assumed that alot of chicago people were at both... still an incredible show... i was about 30 yards from the stage for every headliner!

Lolla did it again! it tops itself every year! and the weather couldnt have been more perfect! lame poster this year though

lets hear some other peoples opinion... i saw ALOT of PJ shirts and tattoos (talked to a few of them) so i trust alot of people from here were there

cubbieblue82

Great weekend!!!

My favs were probably Radiohead, Rage, Battles, John Butler, and The National. Iron and Wine was better than I expected. Jamie Lidell was interesting. I agree, Explosions were very good! Perfect band for a hot summer afternoon in the city. Gutter Twins would have been better at night, but what can you do.

I thought NIN slowed their set down to much with the Ghosts stuff, but for the hardcore fans I'm sure even that was great. Just not as much fun for the casual fan.

Would have loved to have seen Wilco, but couldn't pass up on Rage, and I've seen Wilco 2x's in the past year anyway. Also, Saul Williams and Steven Malkmus were casualties of schedule conflicts for me. :(

I felt like they crammed to many people in this year though, but with the weather so nice, I couldn't have pictured it any better!

LukinFan

poster link?

and how was rage?

Kilgore_Trout

LukinFan wrote:

poster link?

and how was rage?

http://www.expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/84065

rage was great! the crowd was crazy so they had to stop a few times to get everyone to step back and calm down (which kindof killed the momentum alot)... thought it was funny how many people were bitching about it... its a RAGE CONCERT! you should expect to get roughed up! they played their usual greatest hits setlist but it was phenomenal as usual! nice politcal rant during "wake up"

and i agree that NIN slowed it down a little too much in the middle of their setlist... i consider myself a pretty big fan so i was glad to hear something off of ghosts, but i wouldve preferred a different track... but my legs were all warmed up from jumping and moshing the first few songs and then its hard to get back into after slowing down for so long... mightve passed out if it was just rockin the whole time... pretty damn hot... wouldve liked to hear * fucker... trent was very sincere and grateful before playing hurt

cubbieblue82

sgossard3 wrote:

http://www.expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/84065

rage was great! the crowd was crazy so they had to stop a few times to get everyone to step back and calm down (which kindof killed the momentum alot)... thought it was funny how many people were bitching about it... its a RAGE CONCERT! you should expect to get roughed up! they played their usual greatest hits setlist but it was phenomenal as usual! nice politcal rant during "wake up"

and i agree that NIN slowed it down a little too much in the middle of their setlist... i consider myself a pretty big fan so i was glad to hear something off of ghosts, but i wouldve preferred a different track... but my legs were all warmed up from jumping and moshing the first few songs and then its hard to get back into after slowing down for so long... mightve passed out if it was just rockin the whole time... pretty damn hot... wouldve liked to hear * fucker... trent was very sincere and grateful before playing hurt

I wasn't extremely close for Rage, but there was still quite a bit of moshing in my area. People were acting like they had never seen a moshpit before! I almost got in a fight when I realized that the guy behind me was trying to open up my backpack. All because I wasn't standing still, and might have "bumped" into him a few times. It was great to finally see those songs played live after listening to those albums for so long...

LukinFan

sgossard3 wrote:

http://www.expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/84065

rage was great! the crowd was crazy so they had to stop a few times to get everyone to step back and calm down (which kindof killed the momentum alot)... thought it was funny how many people were bitching about it... its a RAGE CONCERT! you should expect to get roughed up! they played their usual greatest hits setlist but it was phenomenal as usual! nice politcal rant during "wake up"

and i agree that NIN slowed it down a little too much in the middle of their setlist... i consider myself a pretty big fan so i was glad to hear something off of ghosts, but i wouldve preferred a different track... but my legs were all warmed up from jumping and moshing the first few songs and then its hard to get back into after slowing down for so long... mightve passed out if it was just rockin the whole time... pretty damn hot... wouldve liked to hear * fucker... trent was very sincere and grateful before playing hurt

thanks- yeah, that's kind of a weak poster. But it sounds like Rage rocked!

hoopinman

sgossard3 wrote:

and i agree that NIN slowed it down a little too much in the middle of their setlist... i consider myself a pretty big fan so i was glad to hear something off of ghosts, but i wouldve preferred a different track... but my legs were all warmed up from jumping and moshing the first few songs and then its hard to get back into after slowing down for so long... mightve passed out if it was just rockin the whole time... pretty damn hot... wouldve liked to hear * fucker... trent was very sincere and grateful before playing hurt

Im just amazed that NIN is doin some soft acoustic shit...I mean Justin Meldal Johnson(who was Beck's musical director for years) is playing a standup bass I heard????

Kilgore_Trout

hoopinman wrote:

Im just amazed that NIN is doin some soft acoustic shit...I mean Justin Meldal Johnson(who was Beck's musical director for years) is playing a standup bass I heard????

i wouldnt go so far as to say "soft"... very rich in layers and nuances... even gently abrasive at time... though that sounds somewhat contradictory... definitely plenty for the mind to toy with like everything trents responsible for

and yep... the standup made an appearance on 2 or 3 songs last night

SENROCK

i heard radiohead was not all that. rage & nin great. Slash and Perry at the kidapalooza sounded CRAZY!!!!!! And i LOVE G-love!!!!!

Kilgore_Trout

SENROCK! wrote:

i heard radiohead was not all that. rage & nin great. Slash and Perry at the kidapalooza sounded CRAZY!!!!!! And i LOVE G-love!!!!!

who said that about radiohead?!? it was GREAT! nowhere near the insane violent energy of rage and NIN but still... definitely what ive come to expect and love about their live shows... as usual a little lacking in crowd interaction from thom, but thats just not his thing

i got a hint about slash being there the day before during jeff tweedys set (a highlight i forgot to mention before... i was literally 10 feet away from the guy!) they said something like "if youve played guitar hero, youll probably know tomorrows guest"... so i immediately thought of slash and figured itd be cool to see... but forgot to check it out the next day cause i was drinkin

anyone know what they played? / got a video link?

SENROCK

sgossard3 wrote:

who said that about radiohead?!? it was GREAT! nowhere near the insane violent energy of rage and NIN but still... definitely what ive come to expect and love about their live shows... as usual a little lacking in crowd interaction from thom, but thats just not his thing

i got a hint about slash being there the day before during jeff tweedys set (a highlight i forgot to mention before... i was literally 10 feet away from the guy!) they said something like "if youve played guitar hero, youll probably know tomorrows guest"... so i immediately thought of slash and figured itd be cool to see... but forgot to check it out the next day cause i was drinkin

anyone know what they played? / got a video link?

i will NOT reveal my source!!!
I totally believed them tho cuz radiohead does NOTHING for me. no offense.

not sure of the songs slash and perry played. i heard them but i dont remember!!! :eek: i missed being there this year!

lalalalaaaaaaaa

Radiohead was amazing, and I wasn't a fan right up until they went on that stage. They gave the best performance of the entire festival imo. Rage was good, but their sound sucked. There was a huge area of people who couldn't really hear them. Nails was cool too, but obviously Reznor couldn't perform 100% due to illness. Terrible Lie and Big Come Down still ruled.

Loved Battles, Saul Williams, Love and Rockets, Brazilian Girls (pussy & marijuana haha), and Does It Offend's dj set...I was dancin' for 3 days straight! I'm wiped!

DeetroitBaasketball

cubbieblue82 wrote:

I thought NIN slowed their set down to much with the Ghosts stuff, but for the hardcore fans I'm sure even that was great. Just not as much fun for the casual fan.

Agreed - I actually left when they were playing stuff from Ghosts. I like the music, but for a concert I got a little bored. One song would have been okay, but they droned on for too long. I'm sure I missed out, instead I went to Kanye who promoted himself and exploited his dead mother. It was lose-lose.

Radiohead and Rage were amazing. Rage sounded perfect where I was - in the middle somewhere. I thought having to stop the show mid-song was pretty funny, although I'm sure the people who were getting hurt weren't laughing.

Radiohead is a great band and sound just as great in concert - but if you don't like them, you don't like them. I never saw them before and loved their set-list. Only wished I could have heard "My Iron Lung", but that is a small complaint.

Kilgore_Trout

DeetroitBaasketball wrote:

Radiohead is a great band and sound just as great in concert - but if you don't like them, you don't like them. I never saw them before and loved their set-list. Only wished I could have heard "My Iron Lung", but that is a small complaint.

you got all the obama shit going on around the festival and 2 other headliners you know are gonna get political the following nights and then you dont play "electioneering"??? FUCK! (was hoping for that and "go to sleep")

hardboiled

sgossard3 wrote:

who said that about radiohead?!? it was GREAT! nowhere near the insane violent energy of rage and NIN but still... definitely what ive come to expect and love about their live shows... as usual a little lacking in crowd interaction from thom, but thats just not his thing

It was good, but not great. I'd been told by many people that seeing them live would change my mind about radiohead, but that wasn't the case. It was a pretty boring set. Thom was as pretentious as ever. An hour and a half into the set he hadn't spoken a word to the crowd and played videotape and house of cards back to back, then faults the crowd for being quiet and subdued. Sorry Thom, if you want some excitement, you've got to play songs that aren't lullabies or funeral dirges. That said, when they were on, they were very good. Kid A and the National Anthem were standouts. But it is quite sad that they neglected so much of their more energetic material, especially when playing a hot outdoor festival.

Lolla was good, but paled compared to the last 2 years. Granted, I may be biased as I spent the 2-3 days before and during moving apartments and was exhausted and sore much of the weekend. Only got to see Radiohead on Saturday. Wilco and Rage were on fire (split their sets). Lupe Fiasco was awesome. Broken Social Scene and John Butler were also pretty good. Nine Inch Nails was the highlight for me though. Some of their instrumental interludes were kind of momentum killers, but at least those jams had a groove, which can't be said for the mellow tunes in Radiohead's set. I'm amazed to hear Trent was sick, can't imagine what they would have done at full strength because the set in general was incredible.

Kilgore_Trout

anyone try to get their wristband off without cutting it yet? i just tried fire, pliers, hammer, screw driver, and more fire and that lil black fuckers not moving... must be made out of the same stuff as the black box on a plane... i would pursue it more agressively except i dont wanna inadvertently slit my own wrist... i want it in one piece though!

hardboiled

sgossard3 wrote:

anyone try to get their wristband off without cutting it yet? i just tried fire, pliers, hammer, screw driver, and more fire and that lil black fuckers not moving... must be made out of the same stuff as the black box on a plane... i would pursue it more agressively except i dont wanna inadvertently slit my own wrist... i want it in one piece though!

I ended up just cutting mine and then moving the black thing off. It was kind of a bummer, but whatcha gonna do?

DeetroitBaasketball

hardboiled wrote:

It was good, but not great. I'd been told by many people that seeing them live would change my mind about radiohead, but that wasn't the case. It was a pretty boring set. Thom was as pretentious as ever. An hour and a half into the set he hadn't spoken a word to the crowd and played videotape and house of cards back to back, then faults the crowd for being quiet and subdued. Sorry Thom, if you want some excitement, you've got to play songs that aren't lullabies or funeral dirges. That said, when they were on, they were very good. Kid A and the National Anthem were standouts. But it is quite sad that they neglected so much of their more energetic material, especially when playing a hot outdoor festival.

I didn't think he was faulting the crowd so much - he made a joke and everyone cheered, he laughed and it was all good. He seemed in good spirits, many around me noticed as well. I thought was very energetic with his grooves on stage. Of course I would call myself a Radiohead fan and even though their music may be depressing at times, gets me goin.

One thing I've noticed at about every concert I've been to - no one connects with the crowd like Eddie Vedder, PJ fans are lucky and biased in this way. Except maybe an old local (Grand Rapids, MI) band called Domestic Problems, it is rare (at the PJ level). So I do agree that his lack of talking was a negative, but this is typical. How much did Reznor talk? What about their songs that droned? It's funny that your complaints of Radiohead, are similar to my complaints of NIN. To each his own.

Also, I gave up and cut my band yesterday. Tried everything as well.

lalalalaaaaaaaa

sgossard3 wrote:

anyone try to get their wristband off without cutting it yet? i just tried fire, pliers, hammer, screw driver, and more fire and that lil black fuckers not moving... must be made out of the same stuff as the black box on a plane... i would pursue it more agressively except i dont wanna inadvertently slit my own wrist... i want it in one piece though!

You just get a screwdriver and bend the clip inside the black thing...comes right off.

JOEJOEJOE

Lolla was a blast...NIN were great...the instrumentals slowed the momentum, but after that, they went back to the loud angry stuff....crowd wasn't as harsh as RATM.

Radiohead was cool...great lights

We watched Rage from the platform in the Lolla lounge...no way were we gonna get in the thick of things during their set.....the field was packed for their set...an amazing sight to see

For the most part, the backwards baseball cap-wearing/shirtless drunks behaved themselves.

This was my first Lolla (been to all of the Coachellas), and the venue was HUGE! It was great to see bands performing under the lights of the Chicago skyline.

Love and Rockets were great, even though most of the crowd were there to get a good spot for NIN.

The weather was muggy, so we got there around 4pm each day ('cept for Saturday..we got there early to see Does it Offend You, Yeah?, but went back to the hotel for a bit of a nap before coming back for Broken Social Scene).

Luckily, we got out of the city before the tornado warnings!

Overall, a fun experience.

edit: I used brut stregnth to rip off the wristband!

hardboiled

DeetroitBaasketball wrote:

I didn't think he was faulting the crowd so much - he made a joke and everyone cheered, he laughed and it was all good. He seemed in good spirits, many around me noticed as well. I thought was very energetic with his grooves on stage. Of course I would call myself a Radiohead fan and even though their music may be depressing at times, gets me goin.

One thing I've noticed at about every concert I've been to - no one connects with the crowd like Eddie Vedder, PJ fans are lucky and biased in this way. Except maybe an old local (Grand Rapids, MI) band called Domestic Problems, it is rare (at the PJ level). So I do agree that his lack of talking was a negative, but this is typical. How much did Reznor talk? What about their songs that droned? It's funny that your complaints of Radiohead, are similar to my complaints of NIN. To each his own.

Also, I gave up and cut my band yesterday. Tried everything as well.

That's true. It did occur to me that the last band I saw on that scale before Radiohead was Pearl Jam and they are better than any band I've ever seen at engaging a crowd. They had the whole place jumping at last year's Lolla. I love listening to that bootleg. The way they came right out with Why Go and Corduroy just hooked the crowd. Radiohead at their best never seemed to have the kind of rapport Ed got by the first chorus.

Reznor did not talk much, it's true. But I felt like their set at least had some serious energy, singalongs, connection, etc. The intensity and energy of most of the songs made up for it. You can miss one or the other, but not both. I felt Radiohead missed on both. I agree the NIN set dragged in the middle a bit, but I like their instrumentals better. At least they were killer, creepy jams that you could move to (or trip balls to, which I rather wish I had done, hehe). I like those songs better because they at least had rhythm. I felt like Radiohead's droning songs would have been great in a concert hall with a seat, but when you've just got a piano ballad with whining, indecipherable lyrics, there's nothing to respond to. It's a stylistic choice I suppose. I prefer music to words, and I like a lot of hip hop and some electronica, so something with a killer groove that i can at least bob my head to suits me better than a simple piano ditty that I just listen to while staring at the stage. The crowd seemed to feel the same where I was. I've never heard as much talking at a show as there was when Radiohead played a slow song. There was some of that during NIN, but even during the down parts, people seemed mostly hypnotized and into what was going on.