Lollapalooza far surpassed our wildest expectations. After a day of experiencing a day in the life outside of Lolla land, we break down our favorite shows, best and worst memories and more in our wrap-up.
What were the top 5 shows?
Zack\n1. Flaming Lips: What a feast for the senses. Every song was a gift from Wayne Coyne, the coolest gray-haired man in rock since Jerry Garcia (Rob reminds me that Neil Young is gray as well, but still…I haven't seen Neil Young signing girls' asses before shows and blowing confetti and smoke machines on a crowd after surfing over them in a plastic bubble.) \n2. Matisyahu: He sang from the heart with chutzpah, inciting widespread crowd surfing, Israeli flag waving, and even a Matis-wannabe with a fake beard, top hat, and glasses crowd surfing. When he ran up and down the aisles and his yarmulke fell off he looked like the nerdy kid from Hebrew school, but rapped like he'd have to eat pork if he didn't kick serious ass. L'chaim!\n3. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Perry Ferell introduced them as the best rock band in the country, and fresh off the Flaming Lips show and five weeks removed from seeing Radiohead I was reticent to agree. There is no doubt that they rock supremely hard though. \n4. Blackalicious: Gift of Gab is my new favorite rapper with his freestyle's so fast I had to close my eyes to focus on the words. When he says, "freestyle?" I suggest you sit back and prepare to have your mind blown. \n5. Ben Kweller/Ween: I can't leave either of them off. I loved every second. Ween reminded the crowd why they deserve headliner status and Kweller showed off his awesome piano/guitar skills, even though he looks like a 15 year old muppet.
Rob\n1. Flaming Lips: I don't think anyone who saw that performance could deny that the Flaming Lips brought everything they had to Lollapalooza. They have certainly secured a place as one of the best live acts that I have had an opportunity to see.\n2. Blackalicious: Seeing Blackalicious was a long time coming for me. Seeing them with RV Salters was like a dream come true.\n3. Matisyahu: Matisyahu kicked my ass and made me pay for dinner. Coming into the festival I wasn't that psyched to see him, but after he left the stage I was chanting "one more song" with the rest of the crowd.\n4. The Subways: The Subways were for all intents and purposes the first concert of the festival and they did a great job of pumping up the audience, getting them ready for a great weekend.\n5. Built to Spill: I went to go see these guys because I vaguely remembered the name from somewhere or another, and there was no one else I wanted to see. It turns out one of my friends has one of their albums but he never played it for me because he didn't think I would like it. Oh, how very wrong he was.
Best moment:
Zack\nCrowd surfing during the encore of the Matisyahu show. It was the most fun I've had being lifted over people's heads with people wearing yarmulke's since my Bar Mitzvah.\nHonorable mention goes to enjoying free drinks and food backstage, schmoozing with the artists and press backstage as Kanye wrapped up an incredible day and night of music. Rob and I kind of looked at each other, nodded, and without saying anything, realized we had the best job in the world.
Rob\nI am going to have to go with Zack on this one. Sitting backstage during Kanye West sipping free alcohol in big comfy chairs is one of those moments that I will never forget.
Most Disappointing:\nZack\nIf you're going to pay homage to Jethro Tull by naming your band "Aqualung" I suggest you not suck as much as they did. Also, "Cursive" is now getting bad reviews in print.
Rob\nI was not all that impressed by Wilco. I had honestly never heard any of their music before (or at least don't remember it) and the way people hyped them I was expecting a little more than what I got. It was a pretty static performance. It had its moments but they didn't seem to bring their A game like everyone else at the festival.
Second place goes to Zack's sense of direction since he managed to get lost in his own neighborhood…a lot.
\nMost Surprising: \nZack\nI like hip hop acts!?: Blackalicious, Gnarls Barkley, and Kanye all made me feel less white. And Built to Spill was tenacious.
Rob\nI would have to go with Built to Spill on this one. I went from having no idea who they were to wanting to throw down vast amounts of cash to buy their entire catalog.
Worst moment:\nZack\nBeing dragged away the front row of The Flaming Lips show in a headlock by two 400 pound security guards who tried to rip my pass for the next day off my arm.
Honorable mention: Being lost in a cab in the city, batteries drained on both our cell phones, potentially homeless for the night.
Rob\nI am going to have to go with wandering the streets of Chicago, lost and hungry, with no way of contacting anyone and only a vague idea of the address we are supposed to find. Not exactly the best way to cap off the first night.
Ways to improve festival:\nZack\nI'll leave this to Rob. I'm more of the glass half-full kind of guy.
Rob\nSince Zack is too much of a wussy to do it I will call them out on what went wrong… not much. The only real problem I had with the festival was the one hour sets. It is quite simply not enough time to see some of these bands. Plus, since it takes fifteen minutes to walk from one end of the venue to the other, it makes it even harder to see all the bands you want.
Sad we missed:\nZack\nWhile I in no way regret seeing the mesmerizing Matisyahu show, I was sad I missed The Shins playing on the opposite stage.\nHonorable mention: I made a point to see My Morning Jacket, since I missed them at Bonnaroo, but ended up choosing the rare opportunity to see Jack White's side project The Raconteurs.
Rob\nI really would have liked to have seen the Shins, but Matisyahu was great. My biggest regret is going to Wilco instead of Queens of the Stone Age. I did get to hear the end of their set and it sounded pretty good. And from what I saw on the jumbo-tron Broken Social Scene looked like they just might have put on one of the best concerts that nobody got a chance to hear. Also, I would have liked to have seen Sleater-Kinney's penultimate performance, but I decided to listen to the Violent Femmes and get good seats for Ween instead.
Advice for next year:\nZack\nBring a nice change of clothes. The ones you wear all day will be sweaty (If you do it right) and you'll want to look nice for the after shows.
Which reminds me: go to after shows. We were exhausted by the end of every day, but we should have manned up and drank some red bull to see even more music
Rob\nFigure out where the stages are and plan accordingly. You are not going to want to traverse the entire park more than two or three times, so you are going to have to make sacrifices.
Better than Bonnaroo?\nZack\nYes, but it is a tough choice.
Rob\nYou better believe it.
