Lollapalooza 2007: Day 1 Friday, or Robots from Space Invade Chicago

This past weekend I shelled out the $195 to get a 3 day pass to Lollapalooza in Grant Park in Chicago. I couldn't resist for a number of reason, mostly because of the ridiculous lineup and how it was spread so evenly over the 3 days that I couldn't decide which day to get a single ticket for so what the hell, let's bring the Havok all 3 days.

I had such an amazing freaking time that I decided that I'm gonna try to write a blog post about each day as I get the time. First up is friday.

Friday was the day I was most excited for. Out of the extremely strong schedule, this was the one day where I had a lot of favorites going and some high expectations. I'm gonna go through the day band by band giving my sarcastic reactions to the acts that sucked or were lame or deserved making fun of even if they were good or give my utmost praise and hyperbolic overreaction to the bands that I loved.

The Helicopters - This was my friend Scott's coworker's band. I saw them play one song. It was OK. This is the band I have the least to say about.

At 11:45 AM on the myspace stage were everyone's favorite iPod commercial, the Fratellis. These guys were definitely from over the pond but were a lot of fun. They get major props from my neanderthal sex drive for having random chicks in lingerie and stockings passing out free flyers.

At 12:30 AM I went to go eat my only meal of the day. This would become a recurring theme throughout the weekend. Everyone was saying, "Oh lolla was great because it had low food prices." Sure, the prices seemed low but an empanada the size of my cell phone isn't gonna fill me and ain't worth the $5. So What did I do each day? Ate before I got there and didn't eat again for the rest of the day. Hooray healthy living!

While eating I listened to Ghostland Observatory. This band was a complete abomination of sound that I hated. It was some dude/chick with pigtails wailing like a sea otter while some idiot wearing a teal popped collar wizard cape played a keyboard or something. That shit is not entertainment, its tomfoolery. I hated this group, they were the worst band of the weekend.


Only thing worse than popped collars? Popped Wizard Cape Collars

Next was Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Within one song Ted had fallen down and cut himself which was utterly hilarious. Dude and his band were OK but seriously Teddy, you need a guitar chord longer than 3 feet so that when you jump around and pretend you're at Warped Tour, you don't trip like a clumsy nerd. However, this band had by far the awesomest looking bassist of the tour. Captain 1974 Time Warp was his name.


Captain 1974 Time Warp

After Ted Leo we stopped by a small stage when we heard a gnarly harmonica belting out some classic blues. It was Charlie Musselwhite of course! (who?) we left after 2 songs because they played a boring one next.

We went over to one of the main stages to see the Polyphonic Spree. This band had something like 40 fucking people on stage. There were 9 backup singers, trumpets, harps, oboes, tubas, guitars, floutists, and the Chicago Tap Dance Extravanganza or something like that (not to be confused with the Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza). This performance needed to be nicknamed the Happiest God Awful Clusterfuck on Earth. They had good energy and all, but no joke, they had BY FAR the LOUDEST performance of the weekend. This swedish crap made me deaf immediately when I still had 2 and a half days to go. Assholes. Sweet Lithium by Nirvana cover though.


Quiet down loudypants mcgee.

Next I saw Electric 6. This band was hilariously awesome. They played at the playstation stage. As the drunk ass lead singer put it: "This is the playstation stage...and these are playstation times." They had songs about drugs, giving girls STD's, electric demons, and George Bush having a conversation with Tony Blair in a Gay Bar. Good times, great live show!


Hilariouser than me.

Oooooooo. My girlfriend was next. Miss Maya Arulpragasm aka M.I.A. Ohhhhhhh man I need to find out where this woman shops and need to dress my next girlfriend like that. Sparkley short shorts are HOT. Anyway, I'm fully convinced that her album, Kala, which comes out on August 21st is going to be the album of the year. She's SO original, has SO much to say, and has new stage presence missing the last two times I saw her. I love her. Remember I called Dibs 2 years ago. Also, favorite lyrics of Lollapalooza from the upcoming Paper Planes: "All I wanna do is *BANG BANG BANG BANG!* And *KKKAAAA CHING!* And take your money" Yessss.


Look at this top. So awesome.


Love the shorts and the legs




Sooooo hot

After MIA we ran over to see the Rapture and holy shit am I glad I did. Their albums are always kind of hit and miss for songs, but when they play all the hits rather than the misses live, this band ROCKS. Also, NO one uses more cowbell than these guys. Anyone who sits there and yells or says or wears tshirts that say MORE COWBELL can suck it if they don't own a Rapture album. See: House of Jealous Lovers or WHOO YEAH UH HUH ALRIGHT for proof.

The Black Keys were next and this band is something you kind of have to "get". It's straight up old school blues but done HEAVY. It's not the White Stripes, these guys are way cooler and less weird. I LOVE the sound this dude rolls with on his chicken plucker. And he was sporting a kick ass homeless man beard to boot.



The great LCD Soundsystem was next. I love love love love LCD but we didn't wanna get close so that we could get close for Daft Punk later. We chilled out in the back and I came across some chubby douche in a blue shirt dancing like nuts during Us V Them. Since this is my favorite LCD Soundsystem song, I challenged the freak to dance off and beat his punk ass. I'll put up a video of his performance when I get it.

Here is the jack ass I defeated in a dance off:

What a Tool.

Anyway, to answer your question of HEY DIDNT THEY GO ON RIGHT BEFORE DAFT PUNK LOLZ SO THEY MUST HAVE PLAYED DAFT PUNK IS PLAYING AT MY HOUSE RIGHT? Yeah, they played it second, but didn't really seem to care that they were opening for Daft Punk. Whatever.

Which brings me to Daft Punk. I honestly knew absolutely nothing about Daft Punk live shows going into this performance. My friends, who's names I'll change to Rocky and Jenny were "so excited they could pee their pantses" to see them. But really, how good can two DJ's be right? They could put on a CD and I wouldn't know the difference right?

False. They. Kicked. Ass. I mean jaw dropping ass kicking amounts of SPAM eating kick ass. What a fucking performance. They DJ from a digital LED light pyramid spaceship with massive light setup. They also completely mash their songs with all sorts of crazy stuff to give a unique concert feel. The entire crowd was dancing and completely into the performance. Proof of how bad ass it was; Kanye West watched from 10 feet BEHIND me.

Yes, that is Kanye West to the left of the dude in the black and green shirt

As I get them I'll put up the pictures and youtubes of these guys, but if you ever get the chance, for the love of Nikki Sixx you have to see them. No, I'll change that this one time, for the love of Daft Punk you have to see them. I won't say TOO much because there are some amazing surprises in this show but you have to have to have to have to see these guys.


The space pyramid

Daft Punk from our view

More Daft from our view (Zoomed)

Daft Encore

As of now there are a TON of youtubes up of the lollapalooza performance by Daft Punk. It's impossible for them to do it any justice but at least there are some cool visuals of the pyramid.

Like #1 One More Time:


And #2 Face to Face:


That's it for day 1. As I get more pics and more youtubes I'll constantly update this in the next two weeks.

Monster thanks to Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and ESPECIALLY Jenny for the pictures.