Lollapalooza 2008: Day One With Radiohead

This was Lollapalooza's fourth year in Grant Park and my fourth year attending. As I've mentioned in previous years, Chicago is the perfect locale for a major festival: It's a reasonable distance from east or west, north or south, so it draws fans from all over North America. Lolla's organizers have been working every year to improve both the quality of the lineup and what the festival offers attendees (like $2 water). But this year's Lolla was something else for a number of reasons.

The biggest is the headliners. Lollapalooza snagged five stellar headliners and one pretty popular undercard. By securing Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, Wilco and The Raconteurs (the last being the undercard for unopposed headliner Radiohead), Lolla's braintrust was rewarded with three straight days of sellouts — a whopping 225,000 in overall attendance.

The daytime lineups weren't too shabby either, so I changed my strategy this year. Instead of staying in one place or going out of my way to watch a number of artists I'd seen or reviewed in the past, I made an effort to check out as many acts as I could, energy and time permitting (crossing from the north to the south end of Grant Park is, at a minimum, a 10-minute endeavour). Here's what transpired on day one:

11:30 a.m. I can't think of a better way to start the festival than with K'naan, one of its myriad Canadian acts. It's been three years since the Somalian-born, Toronto-based rapper made a splash with The Dusty Foot Philosopher, and live versions of some of his best known tracks, including set highlight "Strugglin'," have been significantly reworked. Only closer "Soobax" sounded the same. K'naan also showcased a few new strong tracks to an audience that grew exponentially as the gates of the park opened. With plenty of audience participation, K'naan made more than a few new fans in an unforgiving time slot.

12:15 p.m. Past Lollapaloozas have made a habit of slotting a few future stars in the noon-1 p.m. slots. Tokyo Police Club drew a huge early crowd last year, and 2006 featured The Hold Steady and Feist playing in the early afternoon sun. That sun was especially hot and got more sweltering by the second as Atlanta's Black Lips hit the Bud Light stage. They played fast and furious, and the ramshackle quartet raced through about 20-or-so tracks in front of a massive early crowd. This year's festival was front-loaded, and those with tickets got to the park early. Moving from end to end became difficult in little-to-no time. In any event, seeing the Lips again was a must for me because in case you haven't heard, they're currently banned from Canada and are fantastic. That they were able to make this set seem as intimate as any I've seen in a club was a testament to their skill.

1:30 p.m. I know one Manchester Orchestra song, which is on the NHL 08 soundtrack and they played it as I walked past, leading me to believe they have no other recorded material.

1:40 p.m. I clearly heard Rogue Wave's set from the shade of the media area, and I'm pretty confident I didn't miss a thing visually. If the music is this monotonous, I can only imagine how phenomenally non-dynamic they are as performers.

2:15 p.m. The second day of the 2005 Grant Park Lolla was the second-hottest day in Chicago history (at the time, anyway). It felt hotter as Yeasayer rolled on to the AT&T stage at the south end of the park. But being drenched in sunscreen and sweat is a small price to pay for an hour with Brooklyn's latest party purveyors. Yeasayer's performance was nothing short of phenomenal. It far exceeded the energy of last year's All Hour Cymbals. Even with a slight dip at about the 30-minute mark, they raised their game in the final quarter of the hour and left the stage early winners at the festival.

3:15 p.m. I felt bad for The Kills' Allison Mosshart and Jamie Hince. They had to play on the MySpace stage in direct mid-afternoon sunlight. Mosshart looked like she was quickly dying under her pile of hair, but the pair soldiered on despite obvious distress. The Kills turned out a surprisingly strong performance, even if neither them, nor I, could make it past the 40-minute mark. As I walked away, they finally, thankfully, gave in.

4:15 p.m. I made a mistake going to see Gogol Bordello. There's nothing wrong with the band, who I generally love, but I've seen them more than enough in the past. Nothing about this performance was different than the other three or so. Gogol are a consummate live act, a group almost entirely built to perform. And yet, if you've seen one of their shows, you've pretty much seen them all. I'm extra disappointed in my decision to stay on the south end of the park because...

5:00 p.m... I should have been at the Bud Light stage for The Black Keys, whose Attack & Release is one of the most compelling records of 2008. I would have loved to see them do more than two songs, but, again, the 15-minute walk across Grant Park slowed me. At least I was unexpectedly on the park's north end, so I saw Cat Power.

5:15 p.m. Too bad the goodwill from Chan Marshall's journey into sobriety is officially over. Holy crap, is her delta blues obsession ever boring. This is coming from a big Cat Power supporter. I was no fan of her uncomfortable nervous breakdown shows, and I'm glad she's more comfortable with herself and her powerful voice. But, that's still no excuse to roll out one meandering slow jam after another in what feels like 47 degree Celsius heat. For an artist with a catalogue so filled with excellent music, it's sad to see it all ignored for eye-rolling covers like "New York."

5:50 p.m. If Yeasayer's stellar performance was a pleasant surprise, Grizzly Bear's on the tiny Citi stage was a complete shock. It's not that I don't like the band, in fact, I think they're great. It's just that I wouldn't have equated their complex experimental rock with an absolutely magnetic live experience. Their harmonies and guitar work were immaculate as they ran through a murderer's row of tracks from their short catalogue, highlighted by Yellow House's "Knife" and the electric version of "Little Brother" from the Friend EP. I'm more than a little excited to see a full set when they open for Radiohead later this month.

6:15 p.m. How long have Bloc Party been on the road? It seems like four straight years now. I'm pretty sure they've been through every major North American city at least once in the last half decade or so. I still hadn't caught them since A Weekend In The City came out at the beginning of last year. With a bit of perspective, I can say the songs from that record have held up surprisingly well. "Hunting For Witches" and "Waiting For The 7.18" positively bounced through the park as the sun mercifully began to dip behind Chicago's famous skyline. The newer tracks sounded somewhat richer than their counterparts from Silent Alarm. Those songs sounded great, too, but this performance has me anxious to revisit AWITC for the first time in a while.

7:00 p.m. I had to ditch Bloc Party just as the set was reaching its peak to see a band I have, for too many reasons to count, never seen until now. Cansei De Ser Sexy, or CSS as they're most commonly known, are going through growing pains. Their complicated Donkey sophomore effort can't hold a candle to its simple, but infinitely catchy self-titled predecessor. It's pretty clear the surprisingly easy-to-manoeuvre crowd (tens of thousands were busy camping out for Radiohead) thought so, too. They'd cheer wildly for "Meeting Paris Hilton" and mildly for "Left Behind." Lovefoxxx's voice, such a draw for the band on disc, was often out of tune and the group's sound was somewhat muted instead of pounding. There were a few bands this weekend whose records I like who just didn't have the live chops to match — I never imagined CSS would be one of them.

7:20 p.m. Back in the media area (barely, there was a monsoon of people in the south end of the park for the night's ridiculously anticipated headliners), I heard Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks blow the Toronto set I saw them play two weeks ago out of the water. In 40 short minutes, Malkmus and company played mostly quick and loud, and they did it with a precision that was sorely missing at The Phoenix in July. Plus, they pulled out "Pencil Rot," a Face The Truth gem I never thought I'd hear live. Malkmus' long overdue return to Lollapalooza (look that story up on the internets) was a triumphant one.

8:00 p.m. Radiohead had two hours to play, and it was obvious they intended to use all of it. The pounding beat of "15 Step" started about a minute after Malkmus put down his guitar.

A little background: Radiohead have wanted to play this particular show for years. Before Lolla was in Grant Park, the band asked the city to allow them to use the space and were shot down. Maybe it was a good thing they waited, because I can't imagine a more dedicated and massive crowd seeing them at any point before this one.

There were drawbacks to the numbers. For one, if you didn't spend a good portion of the day waiting in front of the AT&T stage, you probably a) couldn't see the band and b) couldn't hear them very well (Lolla had some serious issues projecting sound on the AT&T stage past the first half of the park's south end, but more on that in the day two review). I could fix the latter by forcing my way up the right side of the crowd, but not the former. The light show was impressive enough, yet I could't help feeling a little left out without really being able to see the band, all of whose members seemed genuinely excited to be playing to this many people.

It didn't help that the set list was average. With a few exceptions — notably first encore closer "Optimistic" and "The Bends" — Radiohead didn't deliver much in the way of surprises to the extremely high-paying crowd. While they sounded great and some of the In Rainbows, OK Computer and Kid A standouts gave the two-encore performance a big boost, I could't help but feel a bit detached. I'm sure I'll feel differently seeing them a lot more directly in Toronto, but this was by far my least favourite experience seeing my favourite band. By evening's end, I couldn't help wondering if Lolla had peaked. But the following two days, indicated this wasn't the case.

Check back on Wednesday for a review of day two. Here was Radiohead's set list:

"15 Step"
"Airbag"
"There There"
"All I Need"
"Nude"
"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
"The Gloaming"
"The National Anthem"
"Faust Arp"
"No Surprises"
"Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
"Reckoner"
"Lucky"
"The Bends"
"Everything In Its Right Place"
"Fake Plastic Trees"
"Bodysnatchers"
"Videotape"
"Paranoid Android"
"Dollars And Cents"
"House Of Cards"
"Optimistic"
"2+2=5"
"Idioteque"