Lollapalooza - Day Two

I don't know if irony or serendipity is behind this, but there was quite a battle of the blue-eyed boys at the south end of the park today. In the afternoon we had Fitz and the Tantrums followed by Mayer Hawthorne and the County. Then at night, Atmosphere preceded Eminem. I have to say the Wolverine State acquitted itself very well indeed!

Disappears

I heard their last song. They sound like Public Image Limited in case you're interested.

Chico Trujillo

If you read up on this extremely popular Chilean band, you will learn a lot of stuff about how they exemplify the liberated mood of Chile after the fall of the Pinochet dictatorship. That may be true, but the vibe is: dance, laugh, sing, enjoy each other. Although this band came on at 1:30 PM, the crowd was exuberant: dancing, waving Chilean flags, and having big fun. The musicians are great, and the front man is one of the zaniest and most captivating performers I have ever seen. Nate and Nina and I all agreed that Chico Trujillo was a highlight of the day. I sure wish I had a dance partner I could pull out of my pocket. I was dying to dance cumbia and merengue to this band.

Fitz and the Tantrums

This is a soul band fronted by Fitz, and featuring a very good singer, Noelle Scaggs. That said, I've always been irritated  by bands that endlessly exhort and berate the crowd to clap their hands, show the love, or get down, etc., etc. This band was shameless, and Mr. Fitz even employed the French language in his harangues. I think it's kind of patronizing.

Mayer Hawthorne and the County

This is another soul band. From the helpful information on the Lolla website, I learned that the County is basically studio musicians that Mr. Hawthorne puts together whenever he needs to perform in public.   I take my hat off to his good taste because the County was hotter than the grill on the barbecue, and twice as spicy. They led off the set, and Mr. Hawthorne (born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan) sauntered onto the stage, an extremely dorky looking young man dressed like he planned to have cocktails at the yacht club after the show. He was smart, funny, sweet, and wry, and a song or two sharply reminded me of the swoon inducing powers of the male falsetto voice. Caveat: if you read his press, let me inform you that Ann Arbor is not "just outside" of Detroit. Melvindale is "just outside" of Detroit. Ann Arbor is the Athens of the Midwest. With that out of the way, I think I'm in love, LUV.

Patrick Stump

Nate and Nina and I made a valiant effort to see the Deftones, but it was too damn crowded, so we went to our default setting, Patrick Stump who is a member of the band Fall Out Boy. My immediate reaction: if my name was Patrick Stump, I would not put it front and center to promote my career. Whatever, he was definitely making the girls scream!

The Pretty Reckless

Nina informed me that the singer in this band, who is famous for wearing lingerie outside her clothes, is an actor on the TV show Gossip Girls. Nina said she is pretty good on the show. Unusual for Lollapalooza, the tech people for this band diddled around endlessly, noodling on guitars, going, "Check, check," until I was ready to rip someone's throat out. Finally, the band came out, with no discernible improvement in the level of the entertainment, so I took off.

Ween

A while back, there was Ween, Weezer, and Wilco, and all I could make of the situation was that I wasn't real interested in any of them. I was glad that I had a chance to sit down and listen to Ween as I found them quirky, idiosyncratic, and very entertaining. For sure I like them better than Wilco. The jury is still out on Weezer.

Beats Antique

This is a band consisting of a bunch of guys who look like they met up in grad school, playing trancey, middle eastern flavored stuff. They have their own belly dancer, who in my opinion could stand to put on a few pounds as shown below.

Beats Antique belly dancer.

                                                                          Regular belly dancers.



Atmosphere

I've seen Atmosphere before, and really enjoyed them. Slug, their front man, seemed rather weary to me, I assumed because of the burden of carrying the weight of the world around on his shoulders all the time. However, Nate informed me that he had announced earlier in the show that he was just hung over.



Eminem

Met and exceeded expectations. I hope the digression about white trash culture in Warren, Michigan will discourage girls from getting their boyfriends' names tattooed on their butts. And I want you to know that like Em, I have been in "A Dark and Fucked Up"  place. More than once, as a matter of fact.

New Trends

Thrilled to find young people solicitously inquiring about whether or not I am enjoying myself. Hopefully they will soon be helping me up off the ground, carrying my backpack, and buying me lobster corn dogs.

Amen


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