Bad Idea Show Review: Lollapalooza 2010 at Grant Park

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It's 2010, everybody.  We as a nation need to examine proper crowdsurfing situations with a more discerning eye.  I'm not going to go so far as to say it's inappropriate in every situation, but there is no acceptable reason for why crowdsurfing is occurring during sets from Yeasayer or The Black Keys.  Let's all make better choices.  Go with yourself.

My Lollapalooza weekend started a night early, as I unexpectedly had the chance to see Soundgarden at the small Vic Theatre on Thursday night with a friend. It was a really fantastic show, consisting mostly of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown tracks. Cornell’s hair was at 1992 length, as was his voice which sounded great. Kim Thayil is now fat, with a gray beard and goofy hat that at first made me wonder, “When did Dr. John join Soundgarden?” Anyway, after getting the rock endorphins flowing, the weekend was off and running. And by running, I mean walking carefully. Nobody needs to run at festivals, kids!

BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #85: Time to Pretend by MGMT

MGMT does not allow their YouTube videos to be embedded on other sites.  This is a strategy I find baffling in every regard.  Why would you not want people to promote your product on other sites?  It still adds to the view counts regardless of where it's embedded, so I don't think it's a financial gain, is it?  I'm relatively sure that the artist doesn't control the decision, but I can't understand why a record label would make such a call either.  Perhaps the call is made by YouTube?  I believe that YouTube now pays royalties fees to the major labels to host videos on their site, so maybe they want people to have to view it directly from their site with their ads in place.  But this seems to go full circle with a complete lack of understanding marketing.  YouTube pays royalties, because if they don't, the record label would pull the video offline.  But doesn't it hurt the record label if viewers can't find their videos aren't on YouTube?  I mean I've been writing a post for down the road about a band who has made a half dozen of the best music videos this decade, but because of a dispute between said band's label and YouTube, I can't find ANY of their videos on the site.  This is ridiculous.

But where was I?  Ah yes, MGMT.  Their set a Lolla '08 amazed me in two respects.  First off, I couldn't believe how many people were at their stage considering it was 1pm Saturday.  The crowd was massive.  The second thing that amazed was how awful their live show was.  Their videos aren't much better.  It may be physically impossible to vomit from one's eyes, but the madness here puts that to the test.