Lollapalooza Triumphs

I must say that I'm a bit surprised, given last year's complete cancellation and the somewhat shaky start this year in prematurely announcing the festival before all the necessary arrangements had been made with the city, but by all accounts, Lollapalooza was rousing success.

Attendance was estimated at about 33,000 on each day, which is not bad when you consider that on Sunday the temperature rose to over 100 degrees, making it the hottest day here in more than a decade. The Arcade Fire seems to have been a hit, receiving praise pretty much across the board, and various reviewers singled out . . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Death Cab for Cutie, Pixies, Spoon, Kaiser Chiefs, and Dinosaur, Jr. Jon Pareles of The New York Times kept an online journal (yeah, I know, there's another word for that these days, but let's humor the mainstream media anyway) and offered a wrap up this morning. Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune was extremely happy with the festival, and Billboard also weighed in with positive notices. Jim DeRogatis offered his thoughts and provided the following list in the Sun-Times:

LOLLAPALICIOUS
1. Ork-popsters the Arcade Fire.
2. Texas prog-rock punks ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
3. English glam-popsters the Kaiser Chiefs.
4. The incendiary rapper Saul Williams.
5. Sex-crazed glam-popsters Louis XIV.

LOLLAPALOSERS
1. Jammers Widespread Panic.
2. Widespread Panic (they performed twice).
3. Living relic Billy Idol.
4. The now sadly soulless Liz Phair.
5. The Changes (I should correct Monday's report: These Chicago popsters did not win the battle of the bands; they were inexplicably booked on their own merits, which completely escaped me).

Unfortunately, the Sun-Times also provided an almost unbearably sentimental column by a self-described 51-year-old there to chaperone his daughter who made fun of a bald 45-year-old, apparently there by choice rather than with a daughter as an excuse, playing Frisbee. "The bald guy looks pathetic, like he's never moved on." Before too long, though, the columnist (who refers to himself in the third person--I'd mock him for it, but I've been known to slip into the first-person plural from time to time myself, so I'll let it slide) began to get the hang of the festival idea. "[T]his Lollapalooza thing is looking pretty good. He can watch one band for a while, then walk across the field and watch a different one." Ah, the magic of discovery.

There's even talk of making Lollapalooza into a permanent Chicago-based festival. We'll (see--there I go again) have to watch how it develops.