Lollapalooza Day 3: Pearl Jam, Modest Mouse And The Stooges

By the third day of Lollapalooza last year, I was definitely slipping. The bodily stress of walking back and forth between the two sides of Grant Park meant there was no way to catch all of Day 3. It was just too tiring. This year was a little better because of the demographic scheduling, but the standing alone takes its toll. So, while I'd have liked to see White Rabbits, The Cribs and David Vandervelde, the thought of spending another 11 or 12 hours in the park seemed a bit much. Nine hours, on the other hand, that I could do, even with the sweltering 38C heat. When I finally did get to the park, I found there were more people at the big stages than on either of the previous two days, and at the end of the day I found out why.But before the conclusion, the day had plenty to offer...

Los Campesinos!
A very small but dedicated crowd came out for the first North American performance from the seven-piece Arts & Crafts band. Hailing from Wales, the members look like a bunch of kids, but they play a brand of indie pop that will put them in a league with Architecture In Helsinki and The Unicorns (and, coincidentally, the guitarist wore a shirt promoting the defunct Montreal band). They frequently made jokes about the performer on the Bud Light stage next door, Amy Winehouse, and, after an agonizingly long soundcheck, played louder than any of the other small stage bands in an effort to drown the crooner out. Los Campesinos' infectious energy was one of the highlights of the weekend. An awesome cover of Pavement's "Frontwards" didn't hurt either.

Amy Winehouse
I caught the end of Wino's highly anticipated act and, having done so, I can't say with any certainty what that's all about. First, the anorexic-looking, beehived, tattoo-covered singer looked about as interested in the proceedings as she does with food. She barely moved during the two songs and before the second had even concluded, sulked off stage without even waving to the thousands who had turned up at 2:15 p.m. to see her. Sure, she's got a great voice and I didn't mind the songs (even if they were a little lite radio), but showmanship this was not.

Apostle Of Hustle
I was going to check out Annuals in the same time slot until I saw Marty Kinack, Broken Social Scene's soundman extraordinaire, in a cafe across the street. At that point, I switched my schedule to see Andrew Whiteman's three-piece Apostle Of Hustle. The combination of Kinack's awesome sound manipulation and Whiteman's bizarre energy brought an almost chilling goodness to "National Anthem Of Nowhere" and the rest of the tracks played during the set. I'm not going to write too much about Apostle because I'm seeing him again this weekend at the Wolfe Island Music Fest, but suffice it to say, anybody else heading to Kingston this weekend is in for a treat.

Iggy Pop And The Stooges
There are two kind of reunions. There are the ones like those by The Pixies and The Police, bands who haven't really gotten close to the studio and have (or will have by the end of this year) played to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of fans worldwide. Then there are the bands like Mission Of Burma, Dinosaur Jr. and The Stooges who all take a stab at producing new material. The first two had great success with their comeback albums. The latter, not so much. The Weirdness isn't even a weird album, it's just a bad album. It took the fun out of what was, a few years ago, one of the most welcomed reunions of the 100 or so bands who've returned from the woods. The large crowd at The Stooges set and the adulation Iggy Pop received implied that people aren't totally sick of the Detroit legends (or what's left of them), but their set left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I won't say that their old material — specifically the epic "I Wanna Be Your Dog" — sounded bad, but when they descended into their Weirdness material, it actually dragged down the quality of their earlier work. If The Stooges want to keep going, they should drop the pretense of being a relevant band and fully embrace the past. Otherwise, the audiences will eventually get sick of The Stooges 2.0.

Peter Bjorn And John
The Citi stage was a bit cursed this weekend. After the cancellation of CSS, the most anticipated set on the stage belonged to Peter Bjorn And John. I thought The Rapture had a big side stage crowd, but I had no idea their numbers would be shattered by the Swedes, whose "Young Folks" single has propelled them to international stardom. Midway through the third song, however, the stage's sound blew out. Not just an amp or two — the entire stage. Faced with a long wait and given the fact I saw the highlights of their set at Coachella in the spring, I ditched for the other side of the park, a wise decision considering it took about 30 minutes to fix the problems.

Yo La Tengo
I'm glad I left Citi when I did, because Hoboken, New Jersey, indie icons Yo La Tengo pulled out I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One's "Autumn Sweater" and "Stockholm Syndrome" in the first 20 minutes of their performance. Ira Kaplan was also his usual wry self, casually asking before "Mr. Tough," "I guess I would be remiss if I didn't ask how you guys are doing?" After the crowd responded with typical enthusiasm, Kaplan declared, "Really? What a coincidence, we're also doing 'Whoooooo!" The group focused mostly on last year's I'm Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (still fun to write), which is just fine since it's also standing up as one of the band's best.

Modest Mouse
Sometimes you just can't win with a band. Modest Mouse's performance at the Hummingbird in Toronto this spring was among the most disappointing I'd seen from them due to the absence of bassist Eric Judy and the group's decision to move forward with "bass by committee" instead. This time, Judy was in the lineup, and Brock seemed both sharp and ready to entertain. It's just too bad he chose a setlist that catered only to the shirtless jocks. After starting with a note-perfect and searing "Bury Me With It," followed by an equally riveting "Paper Thin Walls," it was on to basically all of the MOR material from Good News From People Who Love Bad News and this year's We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. The highlight of the set, aside from the first two songs and a too-little-too-late "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes," was watching the frat boys dancing in near tears during eye-rolling tracks such as "Missed The Boat" and "We've Got Everything." I don't hate all of either Good News or We Were Dead, not even by a mile, but the songs I don't like, I don't like a lot. And I swear, all of them were performed. Bands have to grow, I get that, but it's tough when your all-time favourites jump the shark. Plus, I skipped My Morning Jacket playing with Chicago's Youth Symphony Orchestra. Poor choice.

TV On The Radio
One group who are nowhere near the edge of oblivion are Brooklyn's TV On The Radio. Last year, the penultimate 45-minute set belonged to Broken Social Scene, who seized on the opportunity to play to thousands more fans than usual and put on the performance of their lives. I don't think TVOTR quite reached the heights of that set, but with a far larger crowd watching in anticipation of Pearl Jam, they still stuck to their strongest material — set opener "Young Liars," "Wolf Like Me," "I Was A Lover" and a bombastic set closing "Staring At The Sun," among others. It wasn't exactly transcendent, but an audience waiting for Seattle's grunge heroes were more than appreciative, and I think the band, given the chance to do it over, wouldn't hesitate taking the shortened set time for the audience of about 30-40,000.

Pearl Jam
The reason TVOTR had such huge numbers was the imminent arrival of the festival's headlining performers — Pearl Jam. Besides a fan-club show in the city on Aug. 2, this was the group's only appearance in North America this year, and holy shit, did the Pearl Jam faithful arrive en masse to see it. In three years, I had never seen a crowd like this one. Hutchinson Field was entirely filled. Thousands of heads packed the field floor and the low-lying hills on either side. People even spilled out the back into the laneway at the field's end. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one place in my life (I didn't attend SARSstock or the Pope's last appearance in Canada, both of whose audiences would have crushed this one, but I digress). Pearl Jam were a big get for the festival, whose headliner in 2006, Red Hot Chili Peppers, were flat and hollow compared to Eddie Vedder and co. Every song performed was a hit, and people pumped fists and sang loudly from the front row to the back. Tirades against petrol company BP Amaco, who have been dumping sludge in Lake Michigan, the band did an hilarious impromptu song that contained only the words "Don't go to BP Amaco") and President George W. Bush were met with piles of applause, almost as much as was reserved for the songs, "Even Flow," "Alive," "Do The Evolution" and "Not For You. Oh, and Stone Gossard did a guitar solo behind his head, a display of such technical skill it boggled the mind. As I've said before, you don't have to be a diehard PJ fan to appreciate their sets, and the feeling and goodwill in the field when fireworks went up behind the band was enough to declare this year's festival closer a massive success.

In closing, whether Lolla organizers can keep their shit together and keep producing a festival that balances indie cool with mainstream sort of cool will be interesting to see. They've booked their spot in Grant Park until 2011, so I hope they can keep it up. A little less filler in the lower ranks would be a good move. The quality gap between bands like Apostle Of Hustle and High Class Elite was staggering (to say nothing of the inclusion of the Last Band Standing contest winners, perhaps some of the worst bands I've ever heard. Honestly, nobody needs to see bands at 11:15 a.m. anyway. Stop the madness). But most of the highs were as high as they've been for the last two years, and that bodes very well for a healthy future.

Best Of The Fest
Here's one last look at some of the highs and lows of Lollapalooza 2007:

Best Banter: "Can I get less Amy Winehouse in my monitors?" — Gareth Campesinos! of Los Campesinos!
Best T-shirt: "SUITS SUCK" — Two weeks after the Entourage's delusional Billy Walsh sports the shirt, some guy had himself a perfect replica. Me = jealous.
Best Dressed: Daft Punk. Sorry, but in my books, robot suits are going to win every time.
Worst Dressed: Perry Farrell. Hands down. I can't believe Farrell purports to be straight and then sports yellow nylon outfits with bad tuxedo frills. I don't care how hot his wife is. He couldn't be more gay if he tried.
Best Celebrity Sighting: Danny Masterson. Not because I particularly care about him, but he did come early on Saturday because he's a massive Tokyo Police Club fan. Then he promptly went back to his hotel to sleep 'til later in the day.
Worst Celebrity Sighting: Ashlee Simpson. Just a biscuit ahead of boyfriend Pete Wentz. Though I do love the irony of terrible musicians just hanging out watching talented ones. Also, Dennis Rodman, who appeared onstage with Pearl Jam, would have won, but I left before the stage invasion during "Rockin' In The Free World."