Three Days in the Park

Lollapalooza is too vast to encompass in any column, so let’s hit on two highlights and low-lights from the weekend that was from Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois....



Vampire Weekend

The former Columbia students have come a long way in just over three years. The indie rock band has been the darling of Rolling Stone (who rated the band’s 2008 self-titled debut as the tenth best album of last year), and rode their word-of-mouth popularity to the one of the main stages over the weekend..The boys from the Big Apple will probably become the darlings of Chicago after Sunday’s performance, which included rousing versions of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and “Oxford Comma.”

The group may only have a small catalog consisting of one release to date, but the crowd at Vampire Weekend had as much energy as any performance all weekend.

The Raveonettes

The simplistic duo from Denmark were easily the most welcome surprise of the weekend. With catchy guitar rifts, steady beats, and vocals seemingly dropped out of the 1950s, the Raveonettes were able to make the Chicago crowd forget about the heat during their set. Songs like “Love in a Trash Can” and “Heartbreak Stroll” showed off not only the band’s talent, but also their ability to get a feel for the crowd and play to it as opposed to rolling through song after song.


The Decemberists

The energy surrounding the band’s Saturday performance was palpable, at least until the show actually started. It goes without saying that a band is allowed to shy away from playing their hits, but not entirely. One of the country’s largest and well-organized music festivals isn’t the time to tinker and get away from the enticing vocals and intent bass lines (i.e. “O Valencia!”) that have characterized the band in recent years. No one is disputing that “The Rake’s Song” and “The Hazards of Love” were neat to see in a live setting, but they didn’t exactly rock the house.


Jane’s Addiction

It’s hard to show fault with a re-united lineup complete with Lolla founder Perry Ferrell and pop cliche Dave Navarro, but they simply looked old during Sunday’s festival closing performance. The two-hour set would’ve been somewhat forgettable if not for a lively version of “Jane Says,” which featured a collaboration with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.