Lollypop-apalooza 2008 Recap

Spin has a full spread on last Thursday’s Lollapalooza’s Pre-Party show at the Magic Stick in Detroit.

Speaking of Lollapalooza I have a few thoughts on this past weekend’s festival.

Being that this is my fourth Lollapalooza festival in Chicago’s Grant Park, this may have been the first time I have ever had to wait for a pisser. They sold out ever day and 75,000 people is just way too many for me. I suspect that the max capacity crowd was due to the fact that going to festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Coachella are now really, really trendy, and for the fact that they pumped up the headliners and skimped on the quality of daytime acts. I was throughly disappointed in this year’s lineup; but their were a few local related high points.

First, I thought I would take back my observation from this past June of The Raconteurs show in Detroit. The Raconteurs played almost the exact same set as their June show and still did not interact with the crowd a whole lot and Jack still played with his back to the crowd during the first song “Consoler of the Lonely.” I suspect this may have something to do with his amp during this song which was absent the antique looking mirror. Anyway, I feel that it was clearly not intentionally for the Detroit crowd. I will say that their performance this past weekend was better then their June 7th show simply because they seemed more loose; however they lost most of the crowed when they ended their main set with the slower paced “Blue Veins” – folks had to go get their spot for Radiohead Jack.

Ann Arbor’s Tally Hall had a nice turnout for their show on the northeast mini stage on Sunday. It was the perfect setting under the shady trees overlooking Lake Michigan; however, I did notice that the crowed seemed to be very under 21 – maybe this has to do with their recent MTV exposure. Still, they sounded fantastic and I would take the time to see these guys play live again.

All and all it was a fun weekend but quite possibly my last Lollapalooza. NIN played a lot of new stuff, which I’m sorry to say lacks the intensity and energy of their classics. Also, Rage Against The Machine insisted on telling the crowd to calm down during their set all the while they kept playing the most anger filled songs in their catalog – seemed a little pointless to me.