Lollapalooza 2005
 

I was just curious to know if anyone is attending this weekend. Instead of a tour it is now a one-city festival here in Chicago. It's also at Grant Park which makes for a great location.

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of the bands on the list.

What I can't understand is how the Pixies did not earn the main billing. It seems that Widespread Panic is being given two time slots and are ending the show on Sunday night.

Other bands I'm looking forward to seeing are the Dandy Warhols, Tegan and Sara, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ambulance Ltd., Death Cab for Cutie, Kaiser Chiefs, and others.

So, is anyone else going or have most people given up on the Lollapalooza name?

I wish I could, I'll be on vacation, definitely let me know how Tegan and Sara are!!
Deathcab should play some new stuff too!! Heard some of it...awesome.

IMHO Lalapalooza died after 97'. If they had Incubus, Tool, and Sonic Youth I'd might go. The old Lalapalooza really needs to come back.

$125 or something for a couple dozen shitty bands + Pixies, Death Cab, M83, and Arcade Fire? Hell no.

Last weekend I was at the Intonation Festival in Chicago. Broken Social Scene, Prefuse 73, Andrew Bird, Les Savy Fav, The Decemberists, Tortoise, The Wrens, Deerhoof, and a half dozen other good bands (The Hold Steady, Out Hud, etc.) for $22.

No contest.

i'm going for dinosaur jr.

saw them shortly after i moved here ('90) at the vic & they were awesome.

this time i'm bringing my 5-yr old.

wish I could have gone to either of them although I would have had more fun at intonation....(love broken social scene and decemberists)

I'd go just for The Pixies and Dandy Warhols

Ok, I just got home a little while ago.

These were the bands I watched: Ambulance Ltd, then moved to ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead; Kaiser Chiefs; Cake; Billy Idol; Pixies; Weezer.

Trail of Dead are a good live band which is why we left Ambulance Ltd to go watch them.

Kaiser Chiefs put on a decent show but the singer was losing his voice, which hurt their performance. Still, there was a lot of energy onstage. They pulled two fans from the audience and had them sing "Oh My God". Surprisingly, they sounded pretty good.

Billy Idol - I loved this guy 20 years ago but he's rather uninspiring live.

Cake - Saw them a few years ago on Unlimited Sunshine and wasn't impressed. I had originally thought they suffered by having the Flaming Lips perform before them which is a very tough act to follow. Realized today that they just simply suck live.

Pixies - What can I say? By far the best band of the day and drew the largest crowd easily. Their scheduled end time was 8:30 but the crowd kept them an extra 15 minutes.

Weezer - one of the few bands I've ever seen that actually make their songs sound boring when played live.

Tomorrow we have Tegan and Sara, The Arcade Fire, Dandy Warhols, Death Cab for Cutie, G. Love and Special Sauce, and The Killers. The Dandy Warhols and The Killers are playing at the same time, so I'll probably end up watching Dandy Warhols.

I was planning on going cause i wanted to see the Killers along with some others but mostly the Killers, since i missed their last chicago concert, but when i saw the price of the 2 day pass, i was like, its not worth the $. If i didnt miss them before, i woulda seen the Killers for like $20.

Ok, I just got home and can sum up today's festivities with just one word:

Oh-my-fucking-god-it's-so-fucking-hot-I-think-I'm-going-to-pass-out-just-how-fucking-hot-is-it-anyway??

Seriously, I don't know the temp, but when Ben Kweller came out, the man who introduced him said it had finally cooled down to 104. I drank about 8 bottles of water in 5 hours and didn't pee once, it was that hot. Believe me when I say that it was freakin' damn hot! Ohh shesus was seeing black spots and was gettin loopy, so she found a spot in the shade and plopped herself.

Okay, now for the bands we saw: Tegan and Sara, The Arcade Fire, Dandy Warhols, and Death Cab for Cutie. We didn't see as many bands because it was too damn hot to stand out there, so we watched alternate sets, sat our asses in the shade with a bunch of water, then went back to another band.

Tegan and Sara: Unfortunately they had to cut their set short as apparently you Canadians aren't used to this freakin' hot weather and Sara seemingly was suffering from either heat exhaustion or heat stroke. She left the stage, Tegan finished the song and ended their set. They got through I think 4 songs. They did sound good for what they played.

The Arcade Fire : I don't want to sound blasphemous, but I think they had a bigger crowd than the Pixies last night. They wore 3 piece suits in the 100 degree heat and still commanded the stage better than most other bands at the festival. They also won over a lot of new fans as well. A man in front of me turned around and in a thick Irish accent asked me where they were from. I told him I'm pretty certain they're American. "No fuckin' way; they sound good enough to be Irish. I never heard them before, but I like 'em."

Dandy Warhols: What the fuck is happening to one of my favorite bands? They played what seemed like a 25 minute long cover of The Smiths "What She Said". It's like they're turning into a too-hip jam band or something. They also brought out Brian Jonestown Massacre and performed a couple of songs with them.

Death Cab for Cutie: Not too bad, they played a few songs from their upcoming album. They had a pretty decent stage presence but were sometimes a little too mellow. Both ohh shesus and I would have preferred The Postal Service, but you take what you can get.

All in all, it wasn't the greatest festival ever, but it was worth the money to see some decent acts.

Over the past two days, I would say the best performances came from Kaiser Chiefs, the Pixies, and the Arcade Fire.

I did want to see the Killers, but I was under the mistaken impression that the Dandy Warhols would put on a better show. I should have gone to see the Killers instead. The Dandy Warhols were a big let-down this time. They're much better in the smaller clubs, and when they keep their songs under 25 minutes. Seriously, I think in their 1 hour set, they played like 6 songs. I'm probably exaggerating, but it seemed like it.

jumpin'..........did you not wander over for any of dinosaur, jr.'s set?

i am a guitar player who hates guitar solos, but holy shit does j. mascis rock.

their cover of the cure's "just like heaven" made it worth being out in 100+ degrees...

i spent most of the day in the shade at the kiddiepalooza area, though.

i agree, the pixies were good, too..

I WENT WITH MY MOM! It was actually pretty cool. We only went on Sunday, but I would have liked to see M83 on Sat. I shelled out $67 to see the Dandy Warhols. Literally. I don't really care for the kind of music at the festival, but I knew how much my mom wanted to go, so I went so she could go. We saw most of Kasabian, then just kinda hung around the rest of the day. We saw a bit of The Arcade Fire, didn't care for them, hung around some more... Tegan and Sara were ok for a few minutes, then we went over to check out Satellite Party, eh, not so hot... went back in the shade for a while, caught the tail end of that shitty rap group at Parkways stage... so we could get prime position for The Dandy's... TDW's put on an awesome show... so much that I wasn't too interested in watching Death Cab afterwards. And I really like Death Cab... We had fun, all in all. I'm glad my mom was able to go because seeing Courtney of the Dandy's was really cool for her.

Unfortunately, we were running a little late on Sunday, didn't get to the field until around 2. After walking from the Jackson stop in that heat, the first thing we had to do was cool off and get something to drink. We ended up meeting some really cool people and got to talking to them, by the time we realized what time it was, it was already after 3. Now, the big question is will Mascis and Barlow get along long enough to record anything new?

The Arcade Fire is from Canada, dude!

fuckin' eh..........i caught the "92 show........it was awesome....


and i agree.........the more recent shows have sucked.