white nøise

Like most people in the 80s I dug Men At Work. I wasn’t a big fan, but I’m pretty sure I had Business As Usual on cassette, and I certainly wouldn’t change the station when they were on. But thanks to Zach Braff placing former frontman, Colin Hay in a couple episodes of Scrubs, I grew a deeper appreciation for his songwriting. Colin keeps up a pretty regular touring schedule, playing acoustic sets in small clubs. Finally last night I had a chance to catch one.

His opening act, also solo on acoustic guitar was Chris Trapper. He was a solid opener – of a similar style and laid-back mood. He played an entertaining collection of songs from light to melancholy, with some nice banter along the way. His last song however, really hit us off guard. It was a funeral sendoff, as sung from the recently deceased, with a bit of the feel of an Irish drinking song. The line “Don’t waste time praying, cus I’m never coming back. Just throw a party in my name” got us. Nige would’ve loved that.

Well, on to Colin then. Watching his set feels about like spending an evening hanging out at his house. The years of traveling and performing, especially solo, have really given him an ease with it all. He treats you to stories – maybe about a lost friend (sigh), or about a Beatle doing his dishes (poorly), or even just about Thursday nights (solid, they are). And they aren’t just a couple clever sentences segueing songs, but real unrushed sit-back-with-a-beer stories. At times the songs seem like transitions between stories. But his songs were of course the star. His voice filled the room with his unique, part Australian / part Scottish accent, and we were instantly transported 30 (!) years with “Who could it be Now” and “Overkill”.

Another edition of the massive music festival has come and gone, but this one bearing the significance of being the 20th Anniversary of Lollapalooza. D and I saw the very first edition back in 1991 and it still stands as one of the best days of live music we’ve seen. Back then, Lolla was a single day, single stage, touring festival and the lineup consisted of (the brand new) Nine Inch Nails, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T, Living Color (in their hey’), Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Jane’s Addiction. For the past seven years, Lolla has been grounded in Chicago, initially as two days, then as three. We’ve been to 4 of those 7 now, and it just keeps getting bigger. Just how big? Lolla sold out this year, with 90,000 attendees per day.

We returned to this event with D’s brother, Mike, and nephew, Justin. After their first Lolla last year, they couldn’t wait to get back. We met up downtown before noon, got checked in, and had a pre-concert beverage (or two) before heading out.

The first day started with rushing in to catch the set by Young The Giant. It was a warm sunny afternoon and jumping around to “My Body” was a great start for the festival.

From there it was a brisk hustle down to the other end of the park to catch The Naked and Famous. With their shimmering, poppy synths they sound quite a lot like Passion Pit, only the lead singer is a woman, which gives them just a hint of Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs vibe. Their set at Lolla sounded great, even if it was a little low on stage energy.

Following Naked and Famous was one of our most anticipated acts of the day (or the whole weekend), Foster the People. We’ve been fans of Foster since last Fall, when D first heard “Pumped Up Kicks” and knew it’d make a great Halloween party song. Since then they’ve really blown up, hitting lots of festivals this year, even if they’re not necessary a mainstream name yet. Since we were already at this stage for Naked and Famous, we moved up even closer after their set ended and wound up just a few people back from the front. Lead singer, Mark Foster, came out in a long sleeve dress shirt and black trousers – way overdressed for the hot summer day. A couple songs in his entire shirt was drenched.

The band sounded great, they had great energy, and the crowd was phenomenal. There was more crowd surfing during this set than probably any other act we saw over the weekend, and definitely more than at any of the headliners. It reminded of Matt and Kim’s set from last year and Dan Deacon the year before. With Foster, Lolla 2011 had officially hit cruising altitude.

After Foster, we grabbed a bite to eat, more drinks, and chilled out (literally) in the Dell Lounge tent. A worker there snapped our pic on a tablet and emailed it to us.

After resting up a bit, it was time to hit the DJ stage. This year Perry’s was set up under a huge tent. It was a interesting setup – something I’ve seen from other festivals – as it allows for hanging light over the crowd and projecting things on the tent above them. I guess it was a little more immersive than the open outdoor stage they’ve used in the past, but mostly you were just more immersed in people. And heat.

We caught the last few minutes of The Bloody Beetroots’ set. The tent was completely packed. Too packed to dance, but it didn’t keep the mass of bodies from trying.

Next up, was who I most wanted to catch at Perry’s, Skrillex. Somehow, even more people pushed into the text. D had enough before the set even started and bailed to listen from outside the tent. Justin has left for other stages earlier, so it was just Mike and I. As the awesome waves of dub got under way, it seemed like an endurance challenge just to stay in there. The day was already warm enough, and with all these people stacked in the tent, the temps inside soared. Lights swirled, lasers wooshed. Exhausted fans would appear from somewhere deeper in the scrum and squirm their way out. Around 20 minutes into the set, a girl behind me vomited – missing me but got the guy next to me. Mike and I decided listening outside the tent would be fine indeed.

Before leaving Skrillex rocked us with a mix of the Ludacris hit “Move Bitch”. Oh yeah!

We decided we weren’t ready for another dance crowd, so instead of watching Crystal Castles (who were darn good in the rain a couple year’s ago), we grabbed a shady spot under a tree to watch OK Go. They did a decent set, but without their clever videos, they didn’t overwhelm me. One unique highlight was when they performed “Return” with only hand bells.

And of course, their biggest hit was fun to see live.

Digging on the mellower vibe for the rest of the night, we decided to skip the huge headliners, Muse and Coldplay, and instead finish the night with a much more intimate set by Ratatat. They are an electronic duo; one mostly plays synths part with a guitar, while the other switches from guitar to various synths and drum controllers. Their music is instrumental and downtempo, and I very much like gaming and coding to it. Their stage show features all kinds of visuals and very strange videos, and there are never spot lights on them. Incidentally, this makes recording their show quite difficult as they grove along in relative darkness.

It was a great end to our first day. We were tired, but not exhausted, and would be ready to hit Day 2.

I woke on Day 3 of Lolla still thinking of that impressive Green Day show. I knew it wouldn’t be topped today, but their were still some great acts in store. For the first time in this installment of Lolla we got some rain in the morning. Not too hard, but enough to decide to miss a couple early acts and have a couple drinks at the hotel instead. By about 2:00 it had cleared up and we headed in.

We took more time today to check out the pretty large section of vendors (a part of Lolla since the start). The guys picked up a couple tee-shirts and I found a cool guitar strap repurposed out of a seatbelt from a FedEx truck. We also hit the Adidas shoebox diner and got a couple silly photos taken.

For the day’s first act we returned to the DJ area, Perry’s, to catch some NERVO. The sisters from Australia were laying down some nice beats while the gray skies were clearing up. It wasn’t the frenzy of Steve Porter, but it was a good warmup for the day.

The next band we caught was Hockey , a new act from Portland with a couple catchy singles. They played on a small side stage and it was nice to walk up and be close, but not in a crush of people like so many of the other acts.

After just a few songs we made our way back to the other end of the park. As we passed Perry’s again, Perry himself was in the middle of a DJ set. After listening for a few a moving on, we made it just in time to catch the last couple songs from X Japan at a distance. I wish we’d caught a little more of their set, because they really threw down in their long awaited first performance in the States.

Next up, along with some lounging, was a chill set by Erykah Badu. After that I was tempted to fight the crowd to see some of MGMT’s set, but opted to grab dinner instead. I’d need the energy for the next act.

Just as evening approached, Cypress Hill took the stage. Their set reminded me a lot of Snoop’s show the year before: energetic, nostalgic, and well, smokey. A string of 90′s hits like “(Rock) Superstar”, “Dr. Greenthumb” and, of course, “Insane in the Brian” had the diverse crowd pulsing hard while band members took turns hitting their 7 foot bong.

Our closer for the festival was Arcade Fire. Even though I think opposing headliner, Soundgarden, drew a big crowd, there was an absolute sea of people already crushing in for them. We decided to sit this set out from a distance and enjoy a nice patch of grass. At times I wished I was up in the frenzy, but taking in the whole scene from a distance was an appropriate way to close out the awesome weekend. Arcade powered through hit after hit, and with the crowd singing throughout, I realized just how popular they had become in the past couple of years since their first Lolla appearance.

As their set finished and we walked under the inflatable, and real, stars overhead the crowd continued singing the chorus to “Wake Up”. A continued into the downtown streets.