Lollapalooza 2007: Day One
[Above: LCD Soundsystem]
With 130 bands spread across nine stages, Lollapalooza 2007 transformed Chicago’s Grant Park into a musical playground. Amid the sounds, there were also the sights of odd traveling performers and inescapable corporate branding seemingly at every turn. But despite the commercialization, it was an idyllic setting, with the Chicago skyline as a backdrop and Lake Michigan flanking the fest to the east. The three-day festival offered a wide range of music, from jam bands to hip-hop and unsigned to well-established, assuring that the reported 160,000 concertgoers could see familiar and favorite bands, along with the possibility of discovering something new while wandering the sprawling festival. Along with the heat, rain and humidity, there were a few mishaps, a handful of intriguing collaborations, and choice performances, the best of which centered on booty-shaking dance music and good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.
Day one began with an unsigned act. Chicagoan Tom Schraeder performed folk-tinged tunes backed by a seven-piece band, which included a saw player. Afterwards, on the main stage, another unsigned act, Austin, Texas’ Ghostland Observatory – a duo comprising a cape-wearing synth/drum player and a tall, braided singer and danceaholic – was getting its groove on. Frontman Aaron Behrens danced about the stage in a tribal fashion as if he was hoping to conjure rain, and the crowd bounced right along with him.
Dancing gave way to pure songwriting craft when Ted Leo and the Pharmacists took the stage. Leo, whose passionate performances often lead to unintentional self-inflicted wounds, tripped and fell his way onto the stage. Turns out it was no matter though, as he managed to pogo through a rousing set that included the urgently punked-up “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb,” and the reggae-tinged “The Unwanted Things,” both from one of the best albums this year, Living with the Living.
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