So this is a half-assed review and recap of Lollapalooza 2009, but quite honestly this festival is so big with so much to do and see yet there is still so much I missed, words just 
aren’t really adequate. I will say this for starters, Sunday was the most fun I’ve ever had at any concert. Ever. Not necessarily the “best” show or even legendary show I’ve seen; it was 150% pure joy and adrenaline. I’ve never experienced anything quite like how happy Jane’s Addiction made me.
Other highlights: sitting next to Tom Gray from Gomez at Breakfast. Seeing Kings of Leon at the Pub Friday night. A fat guy passed out but still managing to roll in the mud and his own vomit. White Lies. No Security. Good friends. Old friends. New friends. Cheap food. Free Water. Friendly people. Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing just a brief bit of “What ya Want” by The Beastie Boys. Museum of Contemporary Art. New Belt Buckle (pictured below). Striking a good deal with the art dealer. Trees.
So here’s a recap of my personal weekend mostly told through images and photos that I managed to shoot while partying my ass off…
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DAY 1: “Gonna kick tomorrow…”
To be truthful, most of the Friday scene was pretty miserable. It rained almost the entire day and it really put a damper on most of the shows. Umbrellas everywhere made seeing the bands difficult and the mud and puddles made making one’s way from one side of the park to the other even more difficult. While I had my share of music and particularly enjoyed White Lies (sort of an 80′s sounding version of The Killers but… suicidal), frankly by about seven o’clock I had had enough. It broke my heart to miss the headliners of the evening (Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon) and the groovy sounds of Thievery Corp. and Of Montreal but I knew more great music would follow the next day to make my $180 more than worth it. So I packed up my sopping wet and shivering self and went “home” to some good wine and friends. Recharging for tomorrow.
DAY 2: “Til the shadows and the light were one…”
Aside from a scheduling snafu that put all of the really well known bands at the same end of the park at the same time – which clogged the festival up with people to unmovable proportions – day two was a much more uplifting day. The park had dried up (due to heat and some obvious overnight “landscaping” by the grounds crew) and the sun was shining. A little hungover from the wine the previous night we slept in a little and got some more breakfast. After a hearty meal we hit the festival with a vengeance stopping all over the place; seeing Atmosphere, Gomez, Chairlift, Perry Farrell, Santigold, Lykke Li (pictured in the main image at the top), a bit of Ben Harper and the amazing entertainment of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Despite missing TV on the Radio because of the aforementioned crowds, it was a full day of music and awesome.
DAY 3: “She sing a song and I listen to what it says…”
Heat index of about a million didn’t stop the people from braving the summer sun to ensure they saw what was probably going to be the best day of the festival. With the likes of Silversun Pickups, Band of Horses, Portugal. The Man, Snoop Dogg, Neko Case, Vampire Weekend, The Raveonettes, The Killers, Lou Reed and of course Jane’s Addiction hitting the stages on Sunday nothing was going to stop me from enjoying this day… and I was right. While a lot of the day was spent in the shade of the trees enjoying the sights and rhythms around us, some of the music I would’ve liked to see was skipped in favor of ensuring the perfect spot for Jane’s Addiction (and a little detour to the air conditioned Museum of Contemporary Art), it was still a great day for music. I remember remarking to Jandy as we bathed in the soaring vocals of Neko Case that it’s not often I get goose bumbs when it’s 97 degrees! Then Joe Perry (Aerosmith) showed up. An evening I won’t ever forget.
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Jane’s Addiction
JOE PERRY INTRO – CROWD GOES NUTS
“JANE SAYS” w/ JOE PERRY
Jane’s Addiction set list:
1. Up the Beach (w/ helicopter entrance)
2. Mountain Song
3. Ain’t No Right
4. Three Days
5. Whores
6. Been Caught Stealing
7. Then She Did
8. Ocean Size
9. Ted, Just Admit It
10. Summertime Rolls
11. Stop!
(encore)
12. Jane Says (w/ Joe Perry)
pic credits:
jaimie nyc
brian leli
Andrew James
Oleh Stolarskyj
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This discussion currently has 10 responses.
August 12, 2009
I’ll always regret never making this. Damn you money. Damn the lack of you. Hopefully this time next year I’ll be a little more financially set.
This looks like you had a great time though. You definitely saw some awesome bands, although there is no way I could have missed Kings of Leon or Band of Horses (even if you got to see those guys in the pub – which pub by the way?). I’m yet to see either of those bands in concert.
August 12, 2009
[...] Aug 2009 As I briefly mentioned in my Lolla Recap post, the little shops and artists that set up in the “green zone” at Lollapalooza is a [...]
August 12, 2009
I saw Band of Horses in Minneapolis (twice actually) so I didn’t mind missing them too much. I saw Kings of Leon in the pub, but not playing music. They were just hanging out.
I thought about you though Jonathan during BoH. I could hear their music coming over the hill, but Lou Reed played for 20-25 minutes over his schedule and there was no way in hell BoH was gonna play longer than they were scheduled (and cut into Jane’s Addiction’s time) so they only got to play about a 35 minute set… which is bullshit and although I was glad Lou Reed was great, I thought it sucked to screw over another band like that and even worse screw over their fans. Ah well.
August 13, 2009
Wooooo. That was FUN! Thanks for sharing the stories and pictures. Some fabulous shots in there!
August 13, 2009
Seeing Lou Reed would be pretty awesome though. He’s not going to be around forever, after all.
Was it raining during White Lies? I can’t tell from that photo. I’m wondering how all of these bands were able to keep their equipment safe during all of this rain. I see Ben Folds’s tarp or trash bag over his piano, but that seems hardly effective!
Great photos though. Were you just using a regular digital camera?
August 13, 2009
It was indeed raining during White Lies, Ben Folds and Fleet Foxes shots. The artists are mostly covered it seems.
Regular point and shoot digital camera. A couple of the photos I stole from Flickr (the close-up of Fleet Foxes and Santigold).
August 13, 2009
You forgot to mention the pre-festival meal…steak dinner at Gibson’s Steakhouse.
August 13, 2009
You got some awesome shots. How close were you to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?! That’s fantastic.
And yeah, the stages were pretty well covered. It was just us out in the crowd that got soaked.
And it actually got much drier and nicer pretty much the time you left. But I can’t really blame you for choosing a nice relaxing wine-accompanied dinner, either.
August 14, 2009
And re: BoH and Lou Reed, apparently BoH continued to play past their set end time, too – Jane’s Addiction started on time, but BoH kept playing for like another twenty minutes or something. Pitchfork wrote up about it here: http://pitchfork.com/news/36162-lollapalooza-janes-addiction-band-of-horses-passion-pit-bat-for-lashes/.
August 14, 2009
saw YYY last week and they were pretty damn awesome live, very charismatic performers.
I wish Santigold was still Santogold. Weird name change, Santogold sounds/looks better to me.