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August 10, 2010
Part One of Kyle's Five Part Lollapalooza Review: Friday
Wavves: Lollapalooza got off to a rocky start with Wavves - no matter how many Vs the band's name has, or how many members of the late Jay Reatard's band they acquire, I'm just not the biggest fan of their sound. They lost major points when they played their "aren't we so hipster and ironic" cover song, which they proudly announced was from the Encino Man Soundtrack. Dudes... it would have been cooler if you didn't say where the song was from. Not much cooler, but still.
The Constellations: Things hardly got any better at my next stop, where I met up with my friends. The program booklet called The Constellations music "indie-pop" but I felt like a number of the songs were coming dangerously close to Kid Rock territory for my tastes.
Jukebox the Ghost: The day took a huge leap toward awesome as I headed over to the BMI stage. In the past the Lolla side stages have been where I've discovered and fell in love with a good number of early afternoon bands in past years (Blind Pilot and Wild Sweet Orange were a couple of wonderful stumbled upon bands). I had a little bit of a heart flutter when I saw the adorable publicity photo in the program book and read the comparisons to Ben Folds. Jukebox the Ghost lived up to these things, and were the first tally in the win column for the day.
The Big Pink: After meeting up with AV Club buddy Josh Modell and grabbing a pie shake (that's right a pie... in shake form) I hit up The Big Pink. The electronic rock sounds of the Big Pink made me feel like I was attending a late 80s Lolla, but it didn't sound dated. I'm interested in listening to more of of the Big Pink's work, especially knowing that in the past they have received support from Patrick Wolf's sister.
The New Pornographers: After a couple of popular CD releases, and the skyrocketing popularity of member Neko Case, I felt a little sad that the New Pornographers were downgraded to the 4:00 PM timeslot this year, after having been the pre-headliner act just a couple of Lolla's ago. If they were upset about the snub, it didn't translate to their music, which sounded just as good as ever.
Semi Precious Weapons: Taking a little break from The New Pornographers, I bopped over to see "Lady Gaga's favorite band," who were also her past touring partners. While their music wasn't necessarily my favorite, their attitude was fantastic to watch on display - no surprise for a band signed to Perez Hilton's record label. During the two songs I watched (neither of which were the song that Lady Gaga showed up an cameoed on, by the way) singer Justin Tranter proclaimed to the audience "I want to fuck every one of you" and proceeded to pour and spit an entire bottle of champagne on the jumping, screaming audience. That's what I want out of a festival performance.
Matt & Kim: Speaking of spectacle, I about crapped my pants when I saw Matt from Matt & Kim climb the stage scaffolding to the very top, and then dangle from it BY ONE ARM! Yikes. While Matt & Kim probably wouldn't even be in my top 5 male/female duo bands which seem so popular lately, they always put on a great show (especially in their stripping music video for Lessons Learned).
Hot Chip: I love my Brit bands, and Hot Chip was a lot of fun to see in this festival setting. While their music seemed to be inspiring foot tapping rather than full on dancing from the fans gathered early to see Lady Gaga, everyone seemed fairly content with the tunes.
Chromeo: I'll be honest, I was listening to Chromeo from a distance as I camped out for Gaga, and so didn't get a very good idea of how the show was going, but I did clap when I heard "Fancy Footwork" drifting in...
Lady Gaga: Check tomorrow's post for a recap of all the good and bad of Lady Gaga's performance.
