Chicago – This past weekend, Lollapalooza took place in Chicago’s Grant Park.  I was there (along with roughly 240 000 other people) and it was not only my first Lollapalooza, but my first big American music fest.  before I get to the music, I’d like to comment on the festival in general.  They got a lot of things right.  Firstly, the free water refills.  I’ve seen this at other smaller fests, but it was nice to see that they care enough not to gouge you for a bottle of water at an event of this size.  Even if you did choose to buy your water, it was all fairly cheap.  Secondly, the beer.  You could buy beer at several locations on the festival grounds with little or no lineup (In fact, the lineups for water refills were often longer than for beer).  And you could could drink it anywhere in the park.  Festivals here in Canada should take note of this.  Being able to drink an alcoholic beverage outside the confines of the fenced in, chicken coop-esque beer tents while not misssing out on a band’s set during an interminable wait in line is a refreshing and welcome change.  And the beer was reasonably priced too … even if it was mostly Budweiser.

While the festival site was pretty crowded, I found the crowds pretty easy to navigate and for the most part they were not as bad as I thought they might be.  This could be partly due to the fact that I often caught the less popular acts during certain time slots – knowing that Matt & Kim would be packed, I decided on Fuck Buttons instead.  I enjoyed their set but quickly decided to fashion some makeshift earplugs out of a napkin i had in my pocket.  These guys get loud.  The Dirty Projectors were also playing at this time, but since I only really wanted to hear “Stillness Is The Move,” I just caught the very end of their set.

The first band playing on one of the big stages ( the Budweiser stage)on the first day was also my first big disappointment – Wavves.  Their noisy/poppy tunes were just fine.  I have no fault with that.  What I had a problem with was the guys in the band – they just seemed kind of annoying.  Attempts at humour fell flat and their  onstage behaviour was kind of weird – singer Nathan Williams ended songs with a whispered “thanks, guys” in response to applause and drummer Billy Hayes seemed like a less funny more annoying Jack Black.  “Hey, look.  It’s Ben Stein from Win Ben Stein’s Money!” is just not that funny.  Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for those kind of shenanigans.

Mavis Staples on the other hand did everything right during her set of bluesy gospel tunes.  She had that classy, professional sort of vibe that comes with decades of performance.  She had a great band backing her up, paid tribute to The Band with a version of “The Weight” (which she and the Staples Singers famously covered in The Last Waltz) and she brought out special guest Jeff Tweedy (who she introduced as being “from the Wilco band”) for a couple songs.  She also found the time to shill for her upcoming Tweedy produced album, You Are Not Alone.  “September 14th.  Remember that date.  It’s pretty close to December 25th.  You can buy 6 of these – that’s 6 Christmas presents.  Great self-promotion … although I don’t really want to be thinking about December in the middle of the summer.

Immediately after Mavis Staples, I caught the first couple songs by The Drive By Truckers before realizing I”ve seen them like five times.  Festivals like this are perfect for checking out new stuff, so I made my way all the way to the other end of the park (quite the trek) to catch the end of The Big Pink’s set before heading all the way back to the same spot where I just was to see The New Pornographers for the first time.  Why have I waited so long to see them when I’ve been listening to and enjoying this band for years?  I have no clue, but it seems I was missing out.  As I supected, the whole band was there for the occasion, even though Dan Bejar seemed to be walking on and offstage as he pleased throughout the set.  They played a great show, full of all the hits and lots of onstage banter that actually seemed natural and funny (unlike Wavves earlier in the day).  When a reference to Lady Gaga made by Carl Newman elicited boos form the crowd, keyboardist Kathryn Calder responded, “What are you, Catholics?

Speaking of Gaga, she was definitely the main attraction for most of the attendees.  I saw several young ladies and men tragically decked out in their best approximations of a Lady Gaga costume walking around the grounds all day waiting for the main event.  And I’ll admit, I was pretty intriged too.  So after checking out Hot Chip, The Black Keys, Jimmy Cliff, and the always entertaining Chromeo, we found a spot not at all close to the stage for the beginning of her set. 

And what a set it was.  Coming across like a cross between Madonna. a motivational speaker, and a cult leader, Gaga addressed the crowd at several points throughout the show, which I think was supposed to be thematically based on a trip to The Monsters Ball or something like that.  Addressing the crowd as “my little monsters” and telling us to “be brave,” she gave us several interesting and totally made up bits of information – “Festivals were created as a political movement to have fun and get drunk,” “You may have heard I have a big dick,” and my personal favourite, “I don’t care about money” (said by way of introduction to a song which ended with the lyrics “M.O.N.E.Y so sexy.”  Bit of a mixed message there.)

It was an outrageous, bizarre spectacle, one which saw many people leaving to check out The Strokes at the other end of the park, but for those who stuck around, we got some insight into what makes Lady Gaga tick.  Probably not what makes Stefani Germanotta tick, (although there’s probably some of her bleeding over into her stage persona) but definitely a look at Lady Gaga the fictional character.  Several references were made to her past as a misfit and there was definitely a bit of a “girl done good/I told you so” vibe to her comments about playing to a sparse crowd of baffled onlookers during her 2007 slot on the smallest stage at Lollapalooza.  “Do you think I’m sexy?” she asked the crowd.  After a loud cheer, she repeated the question – “I got made fun of a lot in high school, so I abuse this part of the show.  Do you think I’m sexy?”   It felt a bit like we were part of a gigantic group therapy session. The show only got crazier from there, with a heavy metal dance break interlude with her former DJ Lady Starlight, and of course, Lady Gaga covering herself in fake blood while making comments about how she was bleeding for Jesus … or something like that.   She debuted a new song, “You and I” which was a somewhat unremarkable ‘rock chick’ sort of ballad, the sort of thing Linda “4 Non Blondes” Perry might have written.   Despite this, she put on a bizarre yet entertaining show (although I would have liked the hits to come earlier in her set so I could have caught a couple more songs by The Strokes) and I was left wondering when the inevitable Lady Gaga feature film would come out.  It should be a cross between Pump Up The Volume and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.  I’m working on the script as we speak.