Culture

Lollapalooza: A NowPublic blog roundup

by Kaitlin | August 7, 2007 at 09:41 am

780 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

So it goes: 2007's Lollapalooza, the last of the great summer fests (give or take) went out this weekend, not with a whimper, but a bang. A stellar lineup and the accomodating people of Chicago's Grant Park nearly guaranteed a good time for all. Free water?? Helpful employees?? What a revelation! Here's what the blogs (big and small) had to say about Lol this year:

We survived Lollapalooza 2007! After Perry Farrell decided to revive the rock franchise in 2005 as a one-site festival, naysayers might have longed for the glory days of 1992 and 1994, when "alternative" still meant something and the Fall Out Boys were still eating paste.

Killing it as always were TV On The Radio ("Staring At The Sun" one of the best set-closing staples in rock right now) and, of course, the one and only !!!. Nic Offer and his smirked up pelvic thrusting put yet another tally point in his column for front man of the year, though his crowd-baiting exhibitionism wasn't quite enough to cover up the absence of other-vocalist John Pugh, who has in fact quit the band (we confirmed with Nic later that night).

I devised a plan which I called "Hit it and quit it." Get in, see some bands, and get out before I got bored or sunburned or too wasted. I ended up getting sunburned anyway. But I saw some great sets and had a few pleasant surprises, which is all you can really ask for.

Not really, of course. There's a lot more you can ask for... like good sound and short beer lines, both of which were handled very professionally this year.

"Kings of Leon" was very good. They sounded good and played great. Ed joined them for one song which really got the crowd going.

"My Morning Jacket" was good. They were joined on stage by members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. I couldn't see them, except on the big screen over my head, but the sounded awesome. Ed didn't join MMJ during their set. There was no 'Reign Over Me'.

Between KOL and MMJ the security guys would provide us with water. They'd pour, we held our mouths open. Occassionaly they'd actually give us a bottle of water to pass around. We were in tight, but not too bad.

As an aside, the crew at Lollapalooza were astoundingly nice -- both to those who were ill from the heat and those perhaps in need of special assistance. They had free wheelchairs to rent, great access (save for some annoying steps or steep hills here and there, which can't be helped in a park -- although the Lolla folks did their best to mitigate such issues with makeshift ramps and such) and pleasant, accommodating folks to help where needed -- without making you feel like a burden or somehow a pain.