Lollapalooza '08 Day 2

Things I did yesterday at Lollapalooza:

Enjoyed the weather: Yesterday, the weather was altogether more pleasant than it was Friday, when it was as hot as a race horse's pussy. The only real downside was that the girls were less apt to strip down to almost nothing. But what are you gonna do?

Walked around a bit: There's all this other shit at Lollapalooza besides the bands that I never get around to checking out. Yesterday, I got there a little bit early, so I said what the fuck. New this year is a DJ tent named Perry's (after Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell, natch.) I stopped by a couple of times, but I was never compelled to stick around for too long. They were playing a lot of hipster bullshit. Yesterday, the two big headliners there were DJ AM and Danny Masterson, who I believe might be an actor on the WB. The kids area, Kidzapalooza, looked it might have been the most chill area in the park to hang out. But there's a sign at the entrance that says you have to have a kid to go in. I went in anyway. I didn't get kicked out or anything, but I would have felt kinda weird about hanging around.

Didn't drink any fucking Merlot: Beer at Lollapalooza is $5 each, and a glass of wine is something along those lines. They'll also sell you an entire bottle of wine for $24. I figured it probably wasn't worth anywhere near $24; but after dropping $50 on beer Friday night, when I wasn't even gonna drink that much, I figured it might be worth my while to see how drunk I could get off one $24 bottle of wine. I know I've had times before where one bottle of wine has done the trick. But you know how wine is. My mileage tends to vary. They had Blackstone Merlot and Black Stone Pinot Grigio. I opted for the white, natch. I actually ended up drinking the entire thing in the half an hour or so I spent waiting for Okkervil River to go on. I didn't get as drunk as I would have liked (if only I wasn't so big), but I got nice and buzzed. I couldn't be too upset.

Saw The Ting Tings: Based on the name alone, this is the kind of hipster bullshit I wouldn't have sweated missing, if I'd shown up a bit later in the afternoon. Granted I've got their new (and I think only) album and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. But sometimes I like a lot of weird shit. Plus, I was concerned with how these kids went from being entirely unheard of as recently as a few months ago to making a big splash at SXSW to playing the same stage as Radiohead (the big one!) at Lollapalooza. As it turns out, they're just that good. Live, they're every bit as much as a gas as they are on record. Maybe even more so.

Saw MGMT: MGMT, I'm sad to say, was kinda the opposite. Their album, Oracular Spectacular, is my shit, even more so than that Ting Tings album. And apparently, it's pretty much everyone's shit. Based on what I've heard, there may have been more people in the crowd for MGMT, way early in the afternoon, than there were for the almighty Wilco. They were obviously all there to hear "Electric Feel" and the few other danceable numbers from Oracular Spectacular. But since there's only a few of them, and since they had an hour to play, their set kinda dragged on. Also problematic: "Electric Feel" doesn't really come off that well live. They must not have brought enough instruments to really pull it off. I doubt anyone would have given a shit if they just rocked to a recording.

Saw Okkervil River: Pretty much my favorite band out right now. I caught them a few months ago here in the STL when they were opening for the New Pornographers. This set was even better. There weren't that many people there, considering this was motherfucking Lollapalooza (they were on the same street buskers stage as Cat Power), but I think the few people there were more into it. Seeing Will Sheff's huge, bizarre-looking head on a jumbotron (and when's the next time this is likely to happen) only adds to the dramatic effect. I was hoping they might do a couple of joints from the new album, which leaked the other day, but I guess they didn't want to encourage any illegal downloading.

Saw Rage: Speaking of illegal shit, Rage's set last night was a fucking mess. Being about halfway back in the field, in the middle of a huge sea of mofos, I wasn't at the best vantage point to see everything that went down. But I'd believe pretty much anything you told me. It was fucking anarchy. It seemed like there were as many people there as there were for Radiohead last night. Which wouldn't seem to make sense, since they were playing opposite Wilco. But I heard there was hardly anyone at Wilco. I also heard a whole bunch of people snuck in. Some people jumped fences. And then, when a gate opened to let someone's tour bus out, a huge sea of people who were listening from the other side of the fence swarmed in. This all combined to crush the poor bastards who were right up against the stage. Rage actually stopped the show at least four times to try to get people to step back. I was in a similar situation when I saw Rage right up against the stage at Rock the Bells last year, and I'd be willing to bet it was even worse then, though there wasn't any of this shit about stopping the show to get people to back up. The difference? Way more girls go to Lolla than Rock the Bells.