day 1 - 7 AugWe thought we were making good time until we hit Grant Park and found the ridiculous line stretching blocks from the main entrance and then around the corner. We joined it at the base of the short side and started panicking a little when we were still so far from the front after gates supposedly opened at 11. We heard Manchester Orchestra soundchecking I Got Friends as we passed the north corner; they were pretty much the one band I really really did not want to miss and they were on at 12:15. But in a stroke of luck, we were so far back in the line that we were shunted into the north entrance ie. the one at the top of the block we were on. Phew!
As we slipped into a spot in front of the Budweiser Stage waiting for Manchester Orchestra it started to rain. We didn't have any rain ponchos or our umbrellas (turns out you can bring them into Lolla - something definitely worth knowing beforehand!) but we thought hey, whatever, we can buy 'em inside the grounds if we need 'em. So we were a tad cold and damp as we watched
Manchester Orchestra rock out, but damn, were they worth it. It was a short set and mostly of Mean Everything to Nothing songs, but so powerful and moody, everything I love about them. I only wished they'd played longer, and maybe thrown in more than one song from their older material. I missed their Australian tour while I was travelling! I hope they come back soon.
Shake It Out
Pride
In My Teeth
Now That You’re Home
My Friend Marcus
I’ve Got Friends
Everything to Nothing
The River
Andy Hull, of Manchester Orchestra
We managed to catch three songs of
The Gaslight Anthem set, but it was getting hard to enjoy any of the music when all I could think about was how I had the rest of the day to stand under this rain. So we left the festival grounds, blindly walking into various shops trying to find cheap ponchos. We finally walked into a 7/11, dripping, and the manager by the door just said in a knowing tone, "Ponchos?" They must've made a killing that day.
Once esconsed in our ginormous yellow sheets (I felt like a drowned duckling, and at one point I swear some guy walked past and
quacked at me) we booked it back to make it to see
Kevin Devine, missing only the first song. He was playing one of the smaller side stages, and what the crowd lacked in numbers they made up for it in enthusiasm. He played a great set, a mix of old and new, ending with the amazing Brother's Blood. It might have been the near-perfect combination of music and setting - he and his Goddamn Band and their slow-build intensity, surrounded by light rain, grey skies, and trees. This was probably the highlight of the day for me, and that's high praise considering how many of my favourite acts were to come.
Yr Husband
Carnival
Another Bag of Bones
No Time Flat
I Could Be With Anyone
Burning City Smoking
Just Stay
Cotton Crush
Brother’s Blood
Back at the main stages, we caught the tail end of
Bon Iver - well, I heard Creature Fear, at least - and then huddled under some shade and waited out
Ben Folds. I had been looking foward to seeing him solo, having somehow missed him the 400 or so times he toured our country in the past few years, but I was really put off by the bitter, women-hating charmlessness of the first few songs, particularly the supposedly jokey Bitch Went Nutz, one of the fake songs he "leaked" prior to his latest album. But I did enjoy hearing some of the older stuff late in the set, and I was singing along by the end.
Bitch Went Nutz
Effington
Landed
Bitches Aint Shit
Dr Yang
Hiroshima
Rockin’ The Suburbs
Kate
Narcolepsy
You Don’t Know Me
Army
There was a blessed respite from the rain during
Fleet Foxes which was great because we could venture closer to the stage to see them. My brief notes, written on site, read: "beautiful harmonies, very beard-y". I think this sums them up pretty well. They really sound amazing, from the acapella start with all those voices melding together on Sun Giant, to the last notes of my favourite, Blue Ridge Mountains.
Sun Giant
Sun It Rises
Drops In the River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
He Doesn't Know Why
Mykonos
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Decemberists started barely moments after Fleet Foxes finished, with a solid crowd camped around the stage way before, so we contented ourselves with a good view of a big screen, and clear sound. I know Colin Meloy had promised us the entirety of the Hazards of Love but then they really did it! Which I thought was a really ballsy set for a festival, but I totally appreciated it. It really is made to be heard in that form, and it a sight to behold live with Becky Sharp in a long white gown with dramatic sleeves, and Shara Worden looking fierce in a silver spangled, asymmetric black dress. Utterly crazy, in the very best of ways.
We were so so cold by that point, but I hung on to catch
Andrew Bird. He got a huge reception from his hometown, and he played a lovely set, singingly beautifully and letting loose on his violin, backed by a complement of odd looking instruments. He played Not a Robot But A Ghost, which I love, and he intro'd it as something they hadn't been playing live much. :D
Fiery Crash
Masterswarm
Opposite Day
Fitz and the Dizzyspells
Oh No
Effigy
Not A Robot But A Ghost
Anonanimal
Imitosis
Scythian Empires
Tables and Chairs
Fake Palindromes
day 2 - 8 AugWe made a concious effort to get to Lolla early, having learned our lessons about massive lines. We waited and wilted in the heat for the gates to open (weather whiplash - freezing wet one day, ridiculously hot and humid the next...) then dashed to see
Yuto Miyazawa on the Kidzapalooza stage. He played a guitar which was the same size as he was! He might only be nine years old, but he's a really adorable and consumate guitar shredder, and watching the few kids haunting the front of stage in awe was almost as fun as watching him play.
Yuto Miyazawa
We wandered around, listened briefly to
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, who weren't bad, then caught the
Delta Spirit set. I thought they were really fun, and musically really talented. The frontman had this great old school charm, and they played a great set of catchy rock n' roll.
Delta Spirit
By this time the heat was getting to us, so we had a quick rest back at the hotel, found some lunch and some awesome public art (Chicago just has a Picasso and a Miro lying around, no biggie), before we headed back to see
Coheed and Cambria. They played fast and furious, and threw in a great cover of Under the Milky Way.
No World for Tomorrow
Gravediggers and Gunslingers
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Ten Speed of God's Blood and Burial
A Favor House Atlantic
The Writing Writer
Blood Red Summer
Under the Milky Way (The Church cover)
Everything Evil
Welcome Home
And then we hit the lowlight of Lolla. A quarter of the way into the
Glasvegas set I just wasn't getting it - the songs, which sound simple in an almost endearing way on record, were bland and incredibly amateur live. Then lead singer James Allan revealed himself to be a giant dick, apropos of his obsession with them considering how many references he made to his own during a five minute rant; he then started harassing their female drummer about just needing a big dick. So we left. None of that was worth sitting through just to hear Daddy's Gone live.
The good thing was that we left early enough to make it to the other side of the park and catch the last third of
Santigold. She finished with Creator, after first hauling about fifteen excited fans on stage to show off their (negligible) dance moves alongside her. It was like a big squishy happy dance party over here, and it was so much fun, and the perfect thing to wash out the bad taste that was Glasvegas.
We caught three songs of the
TV on the Radio set, including Golden Age, a favourite. But I'd seen them live before and we wanted to see a bit of
Rise Against too, so we did the cross-park trek again. It was worth it - they played a fast, loud and tight set that had our tired selves moving along. They fitted in a last minute addition to the set, Dancing for Rain, and as that's one of my favourites I was really happy! Plus afterwards they very sweetly apologised to the sign-language lady for screwing her up, since she obviously wasn't prepared for a set change. Then they finished with Ready to Fall, which got the crowd going.
[saw the Fleet Foxes sideshow at The Metro that night, but after 3 nights and 2 solid days, I hit a wall at this point. I sat it out, which meant I didn't have to suffer through the interminable
Dungen set while tightly packed with a gazillion people in an incredibly stuffy theatre with no A/C on a very hot night, but it also meant that I saw very little of
Fleet Foxes. They sounded, once again, utterly delightful. But by this point it was all I could do stay cognisant and awake to hear the music.]
day 3 - 9 AugLuckily we were expecting a late start to this last day, so after a recuperating sleep and a lazy hour-and-a-half long breakfast (where we pored over the local street press and goggled at the large number of bands we'd love to see who would be playing in Chicago over the coming three months) we finally made our way back to Grant Park. We caught a bit of
Friendly Fires, who were decent if not particularly exciting or original, as we waited to see Portugal. The Man. I really enjoyed
Portugal. The Man - they were a great jam band, their music was layered and really interesting, and lead singer really knew how to use his voice as an instrument. I've been listening to them a bit since we got back.
Church Mouth
Lay Me Back Down
And I
The Sun
New Orleans
Bellies are Full
My Mind
Chicago
1989
AKA M80 The Wolf
Portugal. The Man
It was getting so so hot under the sun, we escaped under a handy bank of trees where we had a mostly unimpeded view of the big screens for both main northern stages, and caught all the afternoon acts from there.
Kaiser Chiefs were a lot of fun and great to sing along to with their bouncy pop-rock.
Never Miss A Beat
Everything is Average Nowadays
Everyday I love You Less and Less
Ruby
Can’t Say What I Mean
Love’s Not a Competition
Like It Too Much
Modern Way
You Want History
I Predict a Riot
The Angry Mob
Take My Temperature
Oh My God
During
The Raveonettes I chilled out with their soothing but not distinctive music in the background and write up some of my Chicago adventures.
Neko Case was just beautiful to listen to, her wonderful voice strong and clear even from a distance. She had a Middle Cyclone-heavy set, and particular highlights for me were slower songs like The Pharoahs where the music soars. She had lovely stage presence too, and a nice rapport with her band, as they wound down their tour, but also with the audience. It was perfect for a summer's afternoon, drowsy and heavy with sunshine and breeze.
Heading down to the southern end of the festival, we caught most of the
Cold War Kids set, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They were great live, solid and catchy, and a new song (Santa Ana Winds) gave an indication that the new material will be just as good. We took a dinner break on a bluff overlooking the swarms of people around the stage where
Snoop Dogg was peforming. Even from afar it looked like fun.
Then we found a contestable spot, slightly raised above the crowd, where we could watch
Silversun Pickups. They were really good, gravelly and punchy, with a good selection of songs from Swoon that blended in seamlessly with their older material.
Growing Old Is Getting Old
Well Thought Out Twinkles
No More Secrets This Year
The Royal We
Little Lovers So Polite
It's Nice to Know You Work Alone
Substitution
Kissing Families
Panic Switch
Lazy Eye
And on the last night, we finally caught one of the headliners.
The Killers started off bombastically, as expected, with Brandon Flowers flouncing along the front of the stage in flowers and big gestures. For every great song though, there was a dull one, and numerous rambling, earnest anecdotes to be heard. But by Mr Brightside they had tempted me down off my comfortable, very-far-away vantage point onto the field to dance, and I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed myself for those last few songs.
Human
This is Your Life
Somebody Told Me
For Reasons Unknown
Bones
Joy Ride
Bling
Shadowplay (Joy Division cover)
Smile Like You Mean It
Spaceman
A Dustland Fairytale
Read My Mind
Mr Brightside
All These Things That I’ve Done
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
When You Were Young
