Maybe Hip – Blogs Internet Television

My Indie Life: Lollapalooza 2009

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Perry Farrell’s masterpiece that is LOLLAPALOOZA in Grant Park, Chicago. The weather was miserable (one day it rained and the other two it was hot as balls) but everyone continued to rock out with their junk out. My sister and I went to the festival all three days and saw 11 bands in total. Here is my initial ranking of all the bands I saw.

#1: Snoop Dogg. This was my first experience at a Snoop-a-loop concert, and I must say, even despite the heat, the show was amazing.  He has so much crowd involvement and literally everyone knows the words to his songs.  He really wants everyone to just get f***ed up, smoke weed and enjoy themselves.

#2: Vampire Weekend: Lots of energy on the stage and awesome basketball shorts. Ezra was wearing pants (I’m sure) with a flannel button-down, but I’m sure he changed last second because the heat was so god awful. This group made me wish I were a pothead if only for a brief moment in time.

#3: Kings of Leon. Love love love Kings of Leon. Wish I could say I knew them well before they were famous rock stars, but sadly I jumped on the bandwagon just after the album ‘Only by the Night’ was released. Even with this knowledge, I was very excited to see them perform live with my sister who has been a fan way longer than I have. And I am pleased to say, despite the terrible weather on Friday (the rain and gloom), my expectations were exceeded and I had a great time singing along and dancing around in my bright yellow poncho. They really are Kings for a reason.

#4: Andrew Bird. How the f*** does he whistle like that? I thought I was gonna have a seizure watching him go back and forth between whistling, guitar, and playing the violin, but it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.  Touche, Mr. Bird, touche.

#5: RaRaRiot. One of my favorite bands of 2009. I loved their performance because I have listened to ‘The Rhumb Line’ CD on repeat for the past couple months. I love the instrumentation in the songs and their use of strings to make their sound very rock-orchestral.  I just love everything about them.

#6: Kaiser Chiefs. The song ‘Ruby.’ ‘Nuff said. I didn’t stop dancing the entire time they performed.  Love it!

#7: Peter Bjorn and John. ‘Nothing to worry about’ is one of my favorite songs of 2009 so far, and who doesn’t like the Swedes?  They don’t make the tops because they just weren’t that great of live performers, although I was entertained by their accents and Peter’s wild jumping around the stage in a white blazer.

#8: The Killers. I’m just not impressed. Yes Brandon Flowers is hot, but their performance was a bit too reminiscent of Kanye last year–Too much rambling/story-telling and not enough music I could dance to.  In addition, I am not a big fan of the Killers’ slow jams, and they did a few of those. Not enough ‘Hot Fuss’ for me.

#9:Ben Folds. Sorry Ben, but I only got to hear one song this year, and it was ‘You don’t know me.’ Love new CD, but now that I’ve seen you perform three times, I think I’m a little over you.

#10: Asher Roth. He came out in a t-shirt and basketball shorts, which is cool. Did some kick-ass dance moves.  The rapping was probably the worst part about his performance, cuz he really only has that one song about college. He did scream boobies about 15 times–pretty sure there was a section of girls consistently flashing him during his show. BOOBIES!

#11: Yeah Yeah Yeahs. First of all, they took the place of The Beastie Boys, who I was really very excited to see. Second of all, Karen O forgot the lyrics to ‘Maps,’ which is their most famous song to date, and needed a moment to regroup. Wow. I could see how some people love to watch a performer who constantly looks like their tripping on acid–it’s just not for me, especially when they are wearing a blanket and jumping for what looks like a straight hour. I like their records, I would just rather stay at home and listen than ever see them live again.

There you have it!  My initial reaction to Lollapalooza 2009.  I will have more on the subject once I’ve had a few days to recover and figure out what just happened with my life.

Lexi Scherr