Lollapalooza 2006: In review

Jeff Tweedy (Wilco frontman), in all his shaggy glory, was very happy to play in front of his hometown crowd.

Going into Lollapalooza this year, there were two things almost everyone in attendance were sure of: One is that Lollapalooza would be much bigger than last year and two being that there should be three days of incredible live music. What wasn't expected though was everyone's decision to do a cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," a song that was played at least five times-- including Gnarls' own performance. Also unexpected was the genuinely nice weather that lasted all weekend long. All and all, it was an oustanding showing this year, and using Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy to sum it up, "I'm very proud of you, Chicago." With that said, here is an in-depth look at Lollapalooza 2006.

Surprises

The Go! Team got the crowd going on day 2.

Two of the biggest surprises this year came from The Go! Team and The Hold Steady, a couple of groups that I was pretty familiar with before, but had no idea what I was in for when it came to live performances. The Hold Steady really translates well live, and I was disappointed that they weren't offered a shot at getting an afterset at the House of Blues-- they're pretty much the ultimate late night party band. Between Craig Finn's incredibly witty lyrics while performing, and even funnier stories and musings in between songs (many of which were either religion or baseball related), he had the audience drawn to him in a way that's very difficult to do in such a large setting. For my money, these guys were among the highlights of the show. The Go! Team has carried quite a reputation for being an amazing live show with their unrelenting energy and crowd interaction. Yet, even knowing that going in, I still wasn't ready for what would be one of the most fun performances of the weekend. Sure, there were other bands that were better, but in terms of fun, The Go! Team were about as good as it gets, with lead vocalist Ninja mustering up more dance moves than I thought would be possible given the humidity. Another surprise was from the Austin, TX group Sound Team. While I have been a fan of many other Austin, TX groups (Spoon and perhaps lesser-known Fastball come to mind), I still wasn't expecting these guys to be as good as they were. They certainly weren't flashy, but their atmospheric wall-to-wall sound of guitar matched to solid lyrics and musicianship made for a very entertaining one-hour set. The final surprise goes to bluegrass group Nickel Creek (pictured left).

While I was already familiar with their exceptional abilities as musician, seeing them live gave a completely new perspective on them as a group-- as by setlists end they were easily one of the most laid-back groups to perform out of the three days. They threw in a few surprising covers as they did Radiohead's "Nice Dream," which came complete with a mini-rant compliments of frontman Chris Thile of how much they like Radiohead and how incredible Thom Yorke is,
and the shockingly good cover of Britney
Spears' "Toxic." Another nice touch was the band throwing in a cover of The Band's "The Weight" during their performance of "The Fox." Add in a two minute tap dancing session by bassist Mark Schatz, and you've got yet another highlight from the California-based band.

Dissapointments

Gnarls Barkley and their backup band, all adorned in Wimbledon gear, unfortunately left many disappointed.

Unfortunately, these come with the territory of having such large scale music festivals. The biggest disappointment though, and most easily preventable, was the terrible sound. While most of the sound leakage was fixed-- a problem that plagued last year's Lollapalooza-- there were far too many performances ruined by bad sound. The most infamous of these problems was during Kanye West's performance to which even he said "someone might be getting fired tonight."

"Can you hear me now?" Kanye's sound problems left many fans in the dark for the first half of the show.

Besides that, Gnarls Barkley, or more specifically Cee-Lo, dissapointed-- his voice was so shot that at times the background singers were more audible. It didn't help things that 99% of the people that were there were only there to hear "Crazy"-- a song that had already been covered by everyone from Mates of State to The Raconteurs.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers perhaps gave the crowd a bit too much Stadium Arcadium and not enough BloodSugarSexMagik

The final disappointment was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' setlist. The performance itself was incredible, even if it was the Flea and Frusciante talent show more often than not, but since the setlist only included a couple songs from before the album Californication, it was hard to be completely satisfied. Sleater-Kinney and Death Cab for Cutie round out the last two disappointments of the night. Sleater-Kinney, despite performing their second to last concert, really seemed to lack energy, and even though they went 15 minutes over in their set, they only seemed to be going through the motions. Death Cab for Cutie, after performing a marvelous headliner last year, disappointed with a fairly mediocre setlist-- leaving the majority of casual fans in the cold and even driving away a few of the die-hards.

Highlights

Mike James (frontman of My Morning Jacket) and company completely rocked out during their one hour set.

While the headliners were all quite fine and good, the band that really made the most of their hour was My Morning Jacket. They were already my pick to be one of the best bets this year, despite playing at the same time as The Raconteurs, and certainly didn't disappoint. While ordinarily it'd be a bad thing that the majority of songs were from their latest two albums, considering that they're the two most acclaimed in their collection, it seemed to be the most logical. Jim James' howling vocals were even more chill inducing live than they were on album and each of the solos were incredibly crisp as well. In addition to possibly setting the record for most props used on a Lollapalooza stage, The Flaming Lips were in top form as well, with lead singer Wayne Coyne encouraging sing alongs and fan participation all through the set. Adding a touch of nostalgia, the Flaming Lips introduced "She Don't Use Jelly" using a clip from an old Chicago performance. All in all it was a great show, with the extra flare of Wayne Coyne walking on the audience in his inflated bubble, the hundreds of extras dancing on stage, and inflatable santas and aliens all adding to the flare.

The Flaming Lips put on quite the spectacle, pulling out all the stops possible during their hour long set.

Kanye West, technical difficulties aside, put on a great show that will surely be remembered for many years to come, as it marked his first grand-scale homecoming. Similarly, Wilco, also put on an outstanding showing in front of lead singer Jeff Tweedy's hometown, and performed a number of new songs for the crowd on hand. Eels definitely put on one of the stranger shows, which was to be expected, but what wasn't expected (at least from me) was how they managed to rock from beginning to end without any hesitation, including closing out with a cover of "I Put a Spell on You" and, finally, "That's Life."

Wolfmother (bottom right)put on an outstanding show that the crowd really got into, as seen through the numerous body surfers and the giant mosh pit that took place towards the front of the stage. Each of the band members, particularly lead singer Andrew Stockdale, had a stage presence rarely seen from such a relatively new band.

Between the great crowd, relatively nice weather, and good performances all-around, I have to say that this year's Lollapalooza was even better than I was anticipating. Hopefully next year, Perry Farrell and company will look to improve both the sound as well as the number of food booths next year. As far as lineup predictions are concerned, maybe next summer will finally be the year we see a Smashing Pumpkins reunion, or maybe even a Radiohead apperance. Time will tell, but as always, I will release any info as it becomes available.

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