I couldn’t swing the day off from work and family on Friday so my annual trip to Grant Park started a day late. It was a nice day. Cool and partially overcast. Perfect weather for cruising around Grant Park. I arrived at 1:30, just in time to catch the first of my desired acts of the day.
Tapes n’ Tapes
I had seen Tapes n’ Tapes once before and I had come away less than impressed. They were very wooden and just seemed to be going through the motions. I wasn’t holding my breath for a vast improvement at a festival but since I still really enjoy The Loon, I made my way to the MySpace stage for their set. The Minnesota natives were much improved, more at ease on the stage and seemed to be more in synch with each other. Most of the first half of their set included new songs and the latter portion revolved around The Loon. Standouts included “10 Gallon Ascots” and “In Manitoba.”
Cold War Kids
After an hour burger break, I headed over to the Citi stage to catch the Cold War Kids. This was one set I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately, they were stuck on a side stage that wasn’t ready for the crowd that amassed and for the first 15-20 minutes of the set, the sound really lacked. Unlike The Shins who suffered a similar fate last year, the Cold War Kids fought through and the sound eventually improved. Kudos for them for not mailing it in and still playing with tons of energy with less than desirable surroundings. A great version of “Saint John” highlighted the resurgent 2nd half of the set. Note to Perry: They deserved a bigger stage and a better time slot.
See The Cold War Kids perform “Quiet Please” at Lollapalooza 2007
The Roots
From there I made my only foray over to the North side of the park to catch The Roots. I am by no means an expert of the hip-hop genre but I do love The Roots and everything they bring to hip-hop. Their organic blend of a top-notch MC in Black Thought, phenomenal beats laid down by ?uestlove and crew and just enough unique elements (tuba) to put forth a great hour of music. I could have lived without the bass solo but “Mellow My Man” more than made up for it. The sound was impeccable.
See the Roots perform “The Seed” at Lollapalooza 2007
The Hold Steady
I left The Roots a tad early to get in prime position for The Hold Steady. They were amazing. Craig Finn, decked out in his beloved Twins jersey, and the rest of the crew hit the stage on fire. Finn is tremendous at connecting with the crowd for a couple of reasons. First he has a motor that won’t quit and second I think he is genuinely shocked and psyched that people show up to listen to his music. He goes balls to the wall every time he sets foot on stage and the crowd ate it up at Lolla. Everybody was singing along, jumping around. What a great scene. If Perry was checking it out, I am sure he had a huge smile on his face because this has to be what he envisioned. It’s tough to pick out the highlight tracks but I always love “Cattle & The Creeping Things” and “The Swish.” “Southtown Girls” was also tremendous.
See the Hold Steady Peform “Killer Parties” at Lollapalooza 2007
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
From there I went over and caught a leather/latex clad Karen O and company. I’ve never been a huge fan of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs but I do enjoy the unique sound and have both of their releases. Having never seen them before, I was looking forward to seeing her much-hyped stage presence. While I thought the sound lacked, mostly due to my locale, they were full of energy and put forth a solid effort for the time I was there.
See the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform “Phenomena” at Lollapalooza 2007
Spoon
Finally, I headed over to catch Spoon. The Austin based indie stars strode on stage at 7:30 in the midst of a steady rain and I was standing by the biggest Spoon fan on Earth. He knew every drum fill and every word and his drunk, body bouncing had nearly everyone around him dancing their asses off. The rain was getting a little more steady but that did nothing to slow down anyone. Spoon fired through their hour set including new tunes such “Don’t You Evah”, “Rhthm & Soul” as well as older classics like “Fitted Shirt”, “Small Stakes” and “I Turn My Camera On.” Britt Daniel and the gang delivered a crowd-pleasing hour of tunes.
See Spoon Perform “I Turn My Camera On” at Lollapalooza 2007
I’m an Old Man
Since I’m only a casual fan of Interpol and don’t really like Muse at all, I then made my way out of Grant Park, figuring my time would be better spend recharging this 37 year old body. Overall, another great day at a well-run festival.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I heard the Cold War Kids were amazing live, their show in boston sold out before i could get tickets, and i’ve been regretting it ever since.
So, is there a mp3 of this new version of st. john kicking around?
Cold War were great at SXSW. That Roots performance looked incredible. “The Seed” is a serious guilty pleasure of mine.
Good info. thanks for the insight, but you don’t like MUSE? Thats too bad, they are insanely good live and I can NOT wait to see them at ACL.
I think I was your drunk friend who knew every drum fill and line to every Spoon song … however, I definitely wasn’t “drunk” in the sense of the word … just drunk over Spoon …. I guess
That, my friend, was an awesome show however (despite the set list which left a little to be desired but, meh.)
Kyle – I recorded a few songs from their set at Lolla. I’ll check and see if I got St. John… I remember that stage sounding like dog shit. Pretty much underpowered and cranked so everything, I mean everything, was overdriven. That was my biggest disappointment of the whole festival – the Citi stage just sounded bad. Sunday afternoon it finally crapped out 3 or 4 songs into Peter Bjorn and John’s set. They never got to finish as far as I know. It’s too bad because many of my favorite acts played that stage. (The Black Angels, Silversun Pickups, Cold War Kids…) They all rocked it but the sound support wasn’t there.
With regards to the Muse set at the end of Saturday night… They KILLED it! I was blown away. Having never seen them live and having listened to their last few records quite a bit…I wasn’t sure how it would come off in a live setting. I was really impressed…lost of tunes from Absolution I think. Now that stage had some serious support…crystal clear and loud as hell. I was contemplating heading out after spoon, but ran into an old friend who kept me. Smart decision.