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CHICAGO--While its mammoth music-festival brethren live on farms and death valleys in the middle on nowhere, Lollapalooza resides in one of the biggest urban parks in the world.
That means the tens of thousands of festival-goers always have a scenic backdrop of the expansive Chicago skyline, regardless of which of the event's eight stages--that's right, eight stages--they find themselves.
Lollapalooza, from the inside out/Photo: Jim Welte
The three-day festival's opening day kicked off yesterday under beautiful, clear skies and sweltering heat, with loads of choices to make about whom to see and whom to skip. It was both exhilarating and exhausting, all for the sake of some fantastic music.
Here's MP3.com Live's digest of Lollapalooza, Day One, in reverse order of appearance.
Copyright: C3 Presents/Front Row Center.
Rarely is the loud, drunk guy at a concert a source of wisdom and perspective. But 22 minutes into Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals' scorching set here last night, one rowdy chap eschewed "Free Bird" requests and instead spoke for the thousands of people around him.
"Now THAT's how you open up a show!" the man screamed.
And indeed it was.
As darkness settled upon Grant Park, Harper and company started with "Black Rain," his biting take on the federal government's failure to assist victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
But with a level of passion few can match, Harper turned the song on its head and worked in an extended cover of Marvin Gaye's spitfire "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" into the middle. When they segued back into "Black Rain," Harper continually repeated one particularly telling line, directed squarely at the Commander-in-Chief: "Don't you dare speak to us like we work for you / selling false hope like some dope we're addicted to."
It was a stunning start, and the sextet quickly leaped into "With My Own Two Hands," Harper's roots reggae ode to Gandhi's famous "Be the change you wish to see in the world" quote.
It was after those three tracks that the aforementioned drunkard provided his summary, but it wasn't all "power to the people" fare. One of Harper's most endearing traits is his ability to mix sweet, soulful numbers and his protest anthems into a cohesive stew.
Last night's set included several tracks from Harper's new record, Lifeline, which hits stores August 28, and was recorded over a weekend in Paris while touring in support of his 2006 album, Both Sides of the Gun.
Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys/Copyright: C3 Presents/Front Row Center.
Two of those new songs, "In the Colors" and "Say You Will," offered the perfect juxtaposition to the fire from the beginning of the set. There were plenty of older hits as well, from 1995's "Ground On Down" to 1999's "Please Bleed."
But Harper wasn't done rocking, as he finished off the night by bringing out Eddie Vedder of third-night headliner Pearl Jam for a rousing cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." It was the day's last and best set, and capped off an excellent first day of music in the Windy City.
Femi Kuti and his 13-piece band/Photo: Jim Welte
First-timers seeing this Nigerian superstar don't usually take long to get knocked back on their heels. Kuti, the son of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and much more than an heir in his own right, has a tendency to start swinging right out of the box. Less than halfway through the first song, "Truth Don Die," that look was written on a number of faces in the crowd.
Afrobeat is most easily characterized as a mix of West African highlife and the raw, loosey-goosey funk that the late James Brown made in the 70s. But where both Brown and the elder Kuti's music would find a groove, sit in it for a while, and leave plenty of empty space for them to flex their gift of gab, Femi Kuti's song's are taut and ferocious.
Whether it was exhortations to "Stop AIDS" or "Do You Best," the songs kept the message simple and emphasized the hallmarks of Kuti's sound: funky bass lines, wah-wah guitar, a flotilla of horns, and dancefloor-filling percussion.
Diehard fans are likely hoping that Kuti releases an album of new material soon, particularly in the wake of the much-hyped attention Africa has been getting from people like Bono and events like the Live 8 concerts. He's a gifted songwriter with a strong-willed African perspective that rarely gets heard in the US, but it's been several years since he's released any new work. Luckily for Lollapalooza-goers last night, his three studio albums offer up a potent, deep catalog, and many of their looks of astonishment turned into the nods of the converted by the end of the hour-long set.
Photo: Todd Frazier; Copyright: C3 Presents/Front Row Center.
In the home of the blues, the no-nonsense, swampy blues of this Akron, Ohio duo was impressive on several fronts. First, the sheer amount of sound being produced by two people, without any loops or effects, was incredible. But even more remarkable was their unbridled energy--no one played harder and poured more into their set yesterday.
Guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach played like he has four hands at times, laying down a thick layer of chords and licks. Drummer Patrick Carney, meanwhile, pounded the skins with both speed and fury.
The highlight of the set was "Girl Is On My Mind," from the band's 2004 album Rubber Factory and the live EP offered as a free download on the band's MySpace page last month. The track packs both explosive power and soulful crooning, with Auerbach pondering a love interest between furious guitar solos. This was raw, furious blues in the vein of the White Stripes but without the color-coordinated outfits and enigmatic relationship.
M.I.A. looks out on the crowd/Photo: Jason Squires; Copyright: C3 Presents/Front Row Center.
The most disappointing set of the day came under sizzling heat in the middle of the afternoon. M.I.A., the British-by-way-of-Sri-Lanka rapper, is one of the cult phenoms in music in the past few years, bursting onto the scene with frenetic Arular in 2005.
But while Arular was widely hailed by critics, her new album, Kala, has exposed her overall sound's lack of depth. M.I.A. has a knack for picking seemingly odd-yet-danceable beats over which to perform her sing-song rhyme skills.
The beats yesterday were again outstanding, inciting thousands to dance despite the extreme heat. But it was little more than a DJ set, as M.I.A.'s vocals were pretty uneven. Clad in glittery running shorts and a multi-colored leotard top, her charm was there, as she scaled the stage's scaffolding for the song "Paper Planes." But musically she wasn't able to take command of the songs the same way she would in a smaller venue or club environment.
Eric Krasno of Soulive/Photo: Jim Welte
The jazz-funk trio of Neal and Alan Evans and guitarist Eric Krasno has had a number of different configurations over the years, from adding horn sections to collaborations with singers like Reggie Watts and N'Dambi, and rappers like Talib Kweli.
The latest incarnation for the group features vocalist Toussaint, a move that might take some getting used to for its longtime fans. The band started its set yesterday as the throngs were still filing in, but the trio turned up the heat quickly with some sharp, funky instrumental tracks. Toussaint is a skilled but rather generic vocalist, and the vocals and music seemed a bit disconnected at times. But the grooves were solid, with Krasno and organist Neal Evans trading solos over Alan Evans' slack beats.
Elvis Perkins/Photo: Jim Welte
Elvis Perkins in Dearland was one of the day's first performances, and also one of its most riveting. Elvis Perkins, the son of actor Anthony Perkins and photographer Berry Berenson, and his band Dearland performed a set of lush, eclectic folk songs that were both beautiful and melancholic.
Perkins mixed his own songs like "The Night and the Liquor," which featured both a trumpet and a harmonium, with traditional ones like "Weeping Pilgrim," which he said was "a big hit in the 60s...the 1860s." The highlight of the set was "While You Were Sleeping," a stirring tune that began with Perkins solo and saw his backing quartet join in slowly, adding a cinematic air to the song.
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