Bad Idea Show Review: Lollapalooza 2010 at Grant Park

via

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!

Last Nite

photo via Kate Gardiner

Of the 37 Strokes songs on my iPod, roughly 2/3 of them have been listened to 4 times or fewer each.  Of course the first two Strokes albums were released before I had an iPod, so those numbers may seem a bit deflated in relation to my actual enjoyment, but the fact remains that as much as I still love hearing one of their songs, I haven't particularly had an urge to listen to them much in recent years.  With Lollapalooza serving as their U.S. reunion debut, I was looking forward to the set, but by the end of a long, action-packed, not-that-hot-but-still-pretty-hot Friday, I wasn't expecting a whole lot.  

Since Lady Gaga started 30 minutes before The Strokes, I watched the beginning of her set.  If it had been worthwhile, I was contemplating staying there, but it ended up being mediocre community theater, complete with terrible between-song "dialogue" and lots of screaming the words "Chicago!" and "Lollapalooza!" to force undeserved screams.   So to the North stage I moved, noticing when I got there that in all honesty, the crowd disparity was 75/25 for Gaga.  Huge gaps in the crowd allowed me to move within 100 feet or so from the stage.  And then we waited.  The 8:30p start time came and went.  After about 15 minutes (during which time I honestly thought to myself "Maybe they've broken up for good just now!")  At that moment, the stage went black, and Queen's "We Will Rock You" blared through the speakers.  And another thought took over.  This might be good.

What it ended up being, hyperbole aside, was one of the best shows I've ever seen.  As in, top 5 in my life.  Since the moment it ended, I've been trying to think about what made it so fantastic.  The band was as perfectly tight as ever.  Casablancas' voice was on point, bouncing from slurs to screams while still rocking a hooded sweatshirt AND leather jacket in decidedly non-chilly conditions.  But what put the night over the top was the crowd, and I don't think I've ever thought that at any point during a festival show.

I'm placing the credit firmly on the counter-scheduling of Gaga.  Throughout the day, it was shocking to me how many Gaga fans were in attendance, but it was also obvious that she was going to get all the casual Lolla-goers as well.  This of course is perfectly understandable.  If she had been playing opposite Phoenix or Green Day, I probably would have gone to her set as well out of sheer curiosity.  The Strokes, on the other hand, were not going to have anyone seeing them out of ambivalence.  Even people who hated Lady Gaga were going to opt for just going home as opposed to standing and watching a band they don't really care about sing songs that were never on the radio.  If you were going to see The Strokes, it was because you loved The Strokes, not because you wanted to stand and watch while chatting with friends.  Again, this a mindset that really never happens at festivals, but last night was a perfect storm, and from the moment the band opened with "New York City Cops," it became evident that this was something different. 

Festival shows can provide a lot of great performances, but they hardly ever result in transcendent moments.  When they do connect, it's a lightning strike of collective energy.  LCD Soundsystem at Pitchfork this year was a perfect example of an otherwise outstanding set, that contained within it a moment of something different during "All My Friends" wherein a  switch was flipped, and the collective power of the crowd went off the charts.  The Strokes' set last night was that moment, for about 70 minutes straight.  Every word to every song was screamed by every person, fists in the air and dumb grins on our faces.  (Okay, maybe not every word, but only because nobody can really sing the chorus of "Hard to Explain" without butchering the order of the lines.)  

Gaga had the majority of people on her side of the park, but there is no possible way they were louder or happier than we were.  Her stage set was the most expensive in Lollapalooza history, and from what I saw it was sterile and underwhelming.  The Strokes had an Atari version of Pac-Man being played on the screen behind them, and it was perfect.  From one song to the next, the collective energy just kept going, to the point where everyone had a look in their eyes wondering "Is this happening?" and the only answers you would get were the looks in other peoples eyes asking the same thing.  The set was a little short, but nobody cared.  We just filed out, hearing seemingly every person around mumbling "Oh my God," at what just happened.  Everyone was saying the same thing, but it wasn't quite as synchronized as our collective chorus of "Juicebox."

Your work is cut out for you on Sunday, Arcade Fire.  Act accordingly.


The Setlist:
New York City Cops
The Modern Age
Hard to Explain
What Ever Happened?
You Only Live Once
Soma
Is This It
Vision of Division
I Can’t Win
Reptila
Last Nite
-----
Juicebox
Someday
Under Control
Heart in a Cage
Take It or Leave It

BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #20: Someday by The Strokes

When I was in college, my outlet for finding about new bands releasing debut albums was CMJ, along with the albums that would get sent to the radio station.  It was obviously a bit of a subjective crapshoot, but for the most part my tastes agreed with the reviews in CMJ.  Also, the benefit of our music directors sustaining phone relationships with the same A&R reps over the course of a year or two meant that when those A&R reps called to hype certain albums, they would usually shoot straight about what new stuff was good, and what was garbage that they had to push regardless.

Since college, the internet and music blogs have obviously jumped into the forefront of exposure of new bands who've yet to release anything.  This volume of saturation can of course be problematic because very few blogs will simply tell you simply that a new band has a debut album being release.  They have to give an opinion along with it.  Before I had ever heard a note of Vampire Weekend last year, I seemingly read a novel's worth of posting and opinions concerning the fact that VW were A) The greatest band since the Beatles, or B) The worst band since Wings.  (Shockingly, the band actually fell into neither classification, but apparently there's no fun in writing "This band is perfectly OK!")

The Strokes are a rarity in my life in that I seemed to know a ridiculous amount about the band before hearing a song, yet it wasn't due to college or the internet.  I can't even remember how I started hearing about them, although I believe there may have been a huge story in Rolling Stone before Is This It was released, and people still read Rolling Stone in 2001.  The influences of Television/The Stooges/Lou Reed were obvious, but this was an album where the musical influences and lyrical content don't demand a whole lot of dissection.  It's just a great 35 minutes.  I listened to this album last night front to back for the first time in years, and when it was done, I simply thought, "That's pretty excellent."  As someone who tends to overanalyze most music I listen to, I don't think I've ever put forth much effort to "read into" The Strokes.  To try and do so seems to be missing out on a large part of the fun.

Also, can we all agree that "Family Feud" would be far more entertaining if each episode ended with a cross-family brawl?  The video does not lie.

BONUS:  While checking out The Strokes wikipedia page, I was shocked to find this Blondie-esque cover of "Last Nite" from graduation fanatic Vitamin C.  How did I never see this before?  It's amazing this was released to the public!

BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #23: This Tornado Loves You by Neko Case

Full Details of the BIBJ Millennial Playlist Hullabaloo are available here. Today's entry is #23: This Tornado Loves You by Neko Case(2009)




In one of the deleted scenes from Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman states, Nobody likes both Elvis and The Beatles equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice." I prefer this comparison much more the more tired Beatles vs Stones debate, because I can understand someone being an "Elvis person" as opposed to a "Beatles person," but can't fathom how anyone would honestly think the Stones superior.

But to branch from that template, I can't help but wonder if a similar comparison exists within the realm of Canadian female song-writers who moonlight with indie supergroups. Is it possible that you're either a Neko Case person or a Feist person? Or can one truly like them both the same?

If forced to choose, I'm reserving my spot on Team Neko. She may not sell as many iPods as her Calgary-an (?) counterpart, but who else could sing so effortlessly while personifying an unrelentingly destructive force of nature?

Also, this:

Greatest album cover of the decade? I think so. Although there are a few worthy competitors...

Any other nominees for best packaging art the last 10 years? Or does such a title even apply in the era of by-passing tangible media?

The End Has No End

Well, my friends, Bravo sure knows how to frame an engaging season finale, even though it is abundantly clear what the outcome will be.

My conservative estimate is that 90% of the faithful Runway watchers went into the season finale with the assumption that Christian was the foregone winner. And then, within the first 5 minutes, they brought Christian's arrogance waaaaay down with his whining and worrying.

And then two events make it abundantly clear that a) Jillian would be the first to go and b) Rami would give Christian a run for his money.

Event #1: Jillian goes against Tim's advice in reference to the Raggady Anned-shouldered sweater. Old girl doesn't seem to understand that to defy Tim is to defy fashion doctrine.

Event #2: Rami shows Tim that weird woven lace from the 1930's. Lace from the 1930's?! Who does that?!

During the model casting, I was bored out of my mind, until Christian declared he wanted dark-skinned models. What a racist! Then we had extra long make-up planning techno montages!!

side note: I'm currently multi-tasking, writing this during the commercial breaks of LOST...damn that's a good show.

Alright. Enough dilly-dally. Let's get to the final collections:

Jillian - First of all, don't curtsy. All my friends may think you're cute as a button, but I don't. Your collection was an odd collection of green armor and jockey outfits, business suits and yarn balls, goddess dresses and reverse elbow cut-outs. Posh Spice is not feeling any of that!





Rami - Your color selection is weird. It looks like you chose your color scheme from this kid's Trapper Keeper. But you got back on track with the M.C. Escher-inspired cocktail dress. That was cool. Then, you went all Christmas Eve dress on us for a while, before ending with the two best dresses of the night.






Christian - Hats. Black. Hats. Black. And then you break out the Santa Claus! And marshmallow fluff dresses! It's like we're back to the Hershey's challenge! And then, then, you bring out the cowardly lion dress. We saw the pants last week, and now it's an entire dress.





Now, truth be told, I made terrible predictions from the start of this season (unlike one friend who guessed two of the final three and the eventual winner after the 1st episode). But, after the final four was called, I was confident that Chris March would not make it to Bryant Park, and Jillian would lose to Rami who would lose to Christian. So I'm gonna pat myself on the back for that. Pat. Pat. Pat.

But you know, I've come to realize that if I could accurately predict the outcomes of these shows, it would sort of defeat the purpose of this blog. And I can't disappoint my reader(s).

So the search begins for a new show that covers a topic I know nothing about. I am open to suggestions. Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant? Redneck Wedding? Drake and Josh? I'm up for anything!

Because my friends, this may be the end of Project Runway Season 4, but the end has no end: