My Really Brief Look Back at Lollapalooza 2008

by Wayne

So, I don't have pics, I'm sure we're all sick to death of hearing about Lollapalooza for one year, and, more importantly, I'm lazy, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

Day One

Black Keys - Only saw the last two songs. Both were excellent. Big sound out of two guys.

Grizzly Bear - Very good. Great drummer. Lovely vocals.

Bloc Party - Only saw a handful of songs. Not bad. Not great, either. Some good hooks.

Radiohead - Spec-fuckin-tacular. Jonny Greenwood is my hero. Excellent lighting set-up.

Day Two

Explosions in the Sky - Wonderful. Perfect band to listen to on a lovely Saturday afternoon. Terrific interplay between the 4 musicians. Magnificent guitar work.

Battles - Easily my favorite non-headliners of the whole fest. The fact that the crowd was singing along to such a seemingly non-singalongable song as "Atlas" says everything about how great this band is live.

Lupe Fiasco - Only caught his last song, but it was very entertaining.

Rage Against the Machine - Yes, it was crazy. Yes, I feared for my life for a bit. Yes, it was exhilarating. Props to Zach de la Rocha for doing his best to keep shit from getting TOO out of hand, and for the unintentional hilarious line of the weekend ("Everyone here needs to take care of each other! Now, this next song is called 'A Bullet in the Head'!")

Day Three

Love & Rockets - Borrrr - ing.

The National - I was only able to listen to them, as I was already set for Nine Inch Nails, but I enjoy these guys alot. Great vocalist.

Nine Inch Nails - Maybe my favorite set of the weekend. Trent was amazing, the band was on fire (especially drummer Josh Freese), the stage production was pretty astounding, and the setlist touched on a little of everything. Great, great, great.

So, that's the gist of it. A great experience, good weather, fantastic times. One of the best concert going experiences of the year.