SATURDAY

In passing-

The Saturday line up was a bit thin, but caught the end of the set by The Go! Team from Brighton, they were playing the song from Soccer AM, and that Beatle Bob guy was dancing with the singer, clearly a party/good time sort of band, but I can’t imagine actually wanting to listen to them. Pleasantly cloudy today, so no need to hide in the shade.

http://www.thegoteam.co.uk

Built To Spill – Bud Light Stage

Arguably the most off-putting thing about seeing Built To Spill live is that leader Doug Martsch’s falsetto singing voice is exactly like Neil Young’s, not ‘a bit like’, but exactly like, so that takes a bit of adjusting to. While not quite being off-putting, another thing is that, considering the band has a reputation as a good live act, is there is not much going on visually, unless you’re a fan of facial hair, so that leaves you with the music as the thing to concentrate on.  After a while of acclimatising to the less than obvious intricate guitar patterns of this band, the show really did start to draw you in.  In amongst the subtle constructions, every now and then, cropped up a few poppy power chords to add a bit of variety. Like the beards, they slowly grow on you, a fine performance.

http://www.builttospill.com/

In passing-

Checked out Wolfmother while eating an Italian Beef sandwich.  This band has the reputation of having reinvented 70s metal for the 00s.  But they haven’t, they just play it very very badly, like a Uriah Heep tribute band.  Nice sandwich though.

http://www.wolfmother.com/

Calexico – Adidas Champs Stage

Arrived at Calexico during their cover of Love’s ‘Alone Again Or’, what a wonderful thing to hear on a sunny afternoon!  Though the last record was of more introspective and thoughtful songs, this set was full of mariachi spirit with two trumpets blasting away, guests wandering in and out, vocals switching between English and Spanish, very pleasant.  Leader Joey Burns was in cheerful spirits which added to the feel good factor the music encouraged.  Though many of the crowd were getting into the Latin rhythms and clearly enjoying themselves, this wasn’t all that well attended, it was easy to get very near the front even after a late arrival.  The set finished a few minutes early with mumblings of equipment failure. Footnote – Calexico drummer John Convertino was last seen on this stage watching the Sleater-Kinney show from the wings.

http://www.casadecalexico.com/

Sonic Youth – Bud Light Stage (and The Double Door)

The plan next was to watch Sonic Youth, but a friend got us on the guest list for a club show that night at the Double Door (best known to non Chicagoans as the club in High Fidelity where John Cusack does his DJ comeback at the end with Jack Black’s band, Sonic Death Monkey), so I only saw snippets of the festival show from a distance.  Now I have to own up that Sonic Youth, one of those seminal bands often cited as an influence, have managed to pass me by. I know roughly what they sound like and I know they made important records, but I’ve never consciously listened to them.  That’s going to have to be sorted out because they really are rather good.  For a band with a reputation for ‘no wave’ noise and experimentation their current sound is more conventional than you might expect, this is no doubt partly due to the fact that what was once ‘out there’ has been diluted by time and imitation to become the norm, and that their recent work, including this years ‘Rather Ripped’, is considered as relatively mainstream sounding as a band like this can get.  The Double Door, capacity about 500, was packed, tickets had been not sold, but given to competition winners from a local radio station. Sonic Youth came on stage well after midnight, to an understandably enthusiastic reception.  The band are good to watch and considering both Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon must be around 50, they both put a lot of energy into the performance, a projected backdrop adding to the visual interest.  Some songs verged on almost poppy, others showed their New York roots with hints of the Velvet Underground and Television. There were sections of noise and feedback jamming, with Thurston hunched over his guitar dragging out din while Kim Gordon’s arms were swaying above her head interrupting the light projected images, but proceedings never lost focus.  The late hour however did affect my enjoyment, this stuff can be hard work!

http://www.sonicyouth.com/

Flaming Lips – Bud Light Stage

A popular choice, I don’t know how many people could fit into this field, but you’d have to guess at least 25 of the 60 odd thousand capacity showed up for this.  There were giant aliens and spacemen, confetti streamers, dancing Father Christmases, dancing alien women, and loads of big blue beach ball sized balloons that bounced around the crowd for the whole show. Then at the start main Lip, Wayne Coyne, did some crowd surfing in a big plastic bubble.  As well as all that there was some music.  Wayne Coyne was one of the few performers to directly mention political issues, with a couple of anti Bush comments, and the suggestion that if everyone sings along to the song ‘Free Radicals’ it will not only stop the traffic on Lakeshore Drive, but will stop Israel destroying Lebanon, the crowd reaction was fairly indifferent to this sort of statement, but it may at least have raised the awareness level of some.  Large portions of the audience were clearly present for the circus element of the show and lost interest during the pesky musical interludes.  As you might expect there were songs from the newest record ‘At War With The Mystics’ of which, in particular, the hooks of ‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’ certainly got through. Wayne dedicated a song to Sleater-Kinney so got some points for that. A visually spectacular but musically OK performance.  I was never one for the circus.

http://www.flaminglips.com/main.php

SUNDAY

The Redwalls – Bud Light Stage

The Redwalls are a local band and though allotted one of the big stages they clearly don’t have a huge following as for once there was plenty of room.  They are a band of two halves, one half is pure Beatles the other half is filtered Beatles via Oasis.  One of the singer/guitarists had even adopted the Gallagher swagger, which was quite funny to watch.  They have played with Oasis apparently so had a first hand chance to pick up some tricks.  There were hints of other Britpop bands in some songs, notably the Verve, while others were pure 60s British Invasion.

http://www.theredwalls.com/

Catfish Haven – BMI Stage

Another local band who for this performance were expanded from their normal three piece with backing singers, brass, and all sorts.  They play a highly listenable soul-rock mix.  Singer George Hunter has a terrific gravelly soul voice, capable of conveying much emotion, Joe Cocker being the obvious reference.  Slight garage rock hints came though the pure soul from time to time, and the band were tight as hell.  It may be that the sound is too derivative to make records exciting, that’s something they’ll have to work on, but as a live act they’ve got it. Great to watch.

http://www.catfishhaven.com/

The Hold Steady – Q101 Stage

The surprise hit of the weekend.  I have the last record ‘Separation Sunday’ but I hadn’t really got into it, the vocal style of front man Craig Finn being the sticking point.  He doesn’t so much sing, as rant stream of consciousness short stories that have more than a suggestion of Springsteen about them, also less obviously a bit of Shane MacGowan. Craig is much easier to like on stage than on record, as ordinary looking as a B&Q shelf stacker, he’s a ball of energy firing out his crazed beat poet lyrics with a big grin and accompanying frantic actions, in fact it would be a challenge for even the grumpiest curmudgeon not to enjoy this band live.  As well as Craig Finn’s antics, guitar player Tad Kubler is also a star performer, slinging out riffs and zippy solos, all very sharp and economic, he has a neat trick too where he flings his Les Paul round his body and it lands back in his hands at exactly the right time to thump out the next chord. At times I was reminded of both Marah and Slobberbone, one song sounded like Slobberbone’s 'Bright Eyes Darkened', so that’s a good start. The band, now New York based, have Minneapolis connections and have drawn some Westerberg/Replacements influences in too.  Craig Finn’s lyrics are littered with place names and tales of the broke down and busted, from ‘Stevie Nix’ ‘You came into the ER drinking gin from a jam jar, the nurses making jokes about ER being like an after bar’, and the ending of  'Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night' has the line 'They had cigarettes where their eyes should’ve been' Craig doing this little dance where he makes a smoking gesture and then points at his eyes, he did it for quite a while doing a jig and chuckling to himself, you couldn’t help laughing. An outstanding show, somebody get this band over here!

http://www.theholdsteady.com/

In passing-

So during The Hold Steady set the sun reappeared in full force, so I had to skip Ben Kweller so go get some clothes to cover up!  Caught a couple of songs of the Shins in passing.  I saw this band in London a couple of years ago, after ‘Chutes Too Narrow’ came out, didn’t like their prog-pop then and this brief encounter did nothing to change that.  One band member was attempting to kick beach balls into the crowd, he was clearly not a student of the beautiful game, geeks to the core!

http://www.theshins.com/

Reverend Horton Heat - Playstation Stage

I dumped the Shins to see the Rev., definitely a good move. It’d be interesting to see the sales figures from the neighbouring bar tents while the Rev. played since this was top-notch beer drinking music! Now the Rev. knows how to put a show together and blasted out his brand of psychobilly rock’n’roll like Motorhead playing Chuck Berry, it was impossible not to have all your extremities twitching along. Some songs were covers, a fine ‘Fulsom Prison Blues’ for example, others originals, like the frantic ‘Indigo Friends’ and the thunderous hangover anthem ‘Callin’ In Twisted’.  For the last third of the set it was audience requests only and there was plenty of suggestions, stand out of these was ‘Bales Of Cocaine’. The Revs guitar playing was faultless, razor edged classic rock’n’roll, coloured with twang, blues and old school metal, backed by a top notch rhythm section too.  A great live performer.

http://www.reverendhortonheat.com/

Wilco – Bud Light Stage

After the Rev. it was time to take up position for Wilco, being local heroes space was going to be at a premium. It was a great setting to see the band, the late afternoon sun gleaming between the towering skyscrapers to the left of the stage, the current picture on the opening page of Wilco’s website (link below) illustrates this.  Here’s the setlist -

Shot in the Arm

Impossible Germany (new)

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

What Light (new)

The Late Greats

Handshake Drugs

Via Chicago

Let's Fight (new)

War on War

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer

Walken (new)

I'm the Man Who Loves You

Hummingbird

So a few new songs in there, but they didn’t jar against the rest of the set particularly, so maybe the band feel they have found a level.  Starting with a favourite like ‘Shot In The Arm’ was a good move as the big crowd were straight into the mood, punching the air and shouting along with the ‘Bloodier than blood!’ line.  Jeff Tweedy in straw hat and bright green jacket, seemed in a good mood and later in the set revealed it was his wedding anniversary, as a rather embarrassed looking Mrs Tweedy was shown on the big video screen! The band then played ‘I’m The Man Who Loves You’ which was clearly appropriate!  The setting did have an effect on the perception of the performance as certain lines leapt out of the songs like ‘Im hiding out in the big city blinking’ from ‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’ and particularly a couple of lines from ‘Jesus, etc.’ ‘Tall buildings shake, voices escape singing sad sad songs’ and ‘Skyscrapers are scraping together’, you couldn’t help but look around you at those points. After the good start the set dawdled a little, it picked up with ‘The Late Greats’, a very fine ‘Handshake Drugs’ and the clearly popular ‘Via Chicago’.  The ‘A Ghost Is Born’ show I saw in London, and even the ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ show before it, both suffered from firstly a miserable Tweedy, and secondly from a band intent on discordant jamming which for me was to the detriment of the songs, this didn’t happen here.  The Tweedy was more like the one that played solo in London last November, and though there were bursts of jarring noise it was both brief and appropriate in adding rough textures to the generally smooth sound. Some in the audience were vocal in their disappointment that nothing from ‘Being There’ or ‘AM’ showed up, but with the band clearly keen to try new numbers and only an hour time slot I don’t see they had too much to complain about.  From a personal point of view, after this positive showing I’m back on board with live Wilco.

http://www.wilcoworld.net/

It took a while to escape from the big Wilco crowd, and Broken Social Scene finished just as I arrived at the other end of the park, but I must say what great fans! Like the crowd after the Sleater-Kinney show, they clapped, shouted and chanted for more even though the stage was being emptied.  They continued to do this right up and till the moment the Red Hot Chili Peppers were announced at the other end of the field, at which point they left en masse. Respect!  I followed them. I’m not sure Id do a repeat Lollapalooza visit, but overall a good bash.