LOLLAPALOOZA DAY 3
Sunday August 5th, 2007 – Grant Park – Chicago, IL

The day the earth stood still…

THIS IS THE REASON MUSIC FESTIVALS EXIST! What sucks about music festivals is that there are so many bands and so little time that you wind up missing a lot of what you wanted to see. The only problem I had with Lolla this year is that practically every band I wanted to check out was on Sunday! Juliette & The Licks, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Heartless Bastards, Lupe Fiasco, Amy Winehouse, The Black Angels, Paolo Nutini, Kings of Leon, Iggy and the Stooges, !!!, Peter, Bjorn and John, My Morning Jacket, Modest Mouse, Café Tacuba, TV on the Radio and Pearl Jam all in the same day!? WTF! I stopped crying, picked up a highlighter and marked which bands I 100% had to see and I just went for it. Here’s what I saw…

Rodrigo y Gabriela – The Mexican guitar duo who moved to Ireland (that makes no sense but it’s true) were AMAZING. One guy, one girl, two guitars, INSANE!

Amy Winehouse – I, like the rest of the crowd, was afraid she wasn’t going to show up. Let me tell you something, this bitch is the best thing since sliced bread. I swear to god that if Amy Winehouse is able to keep her sobriety in check, she could be the next Barbara Streisand or Celine Dion or some other female singer who plays in front of millions and makes billions of dollars. The only difference would be that Amy is totally cool and those other chicks are not. Her voice is off the chain and her little shimmy, shimmy, shake dance moves are super cute. She’ll need to work on her crowd interaction but that comes with time. The only question is whether or not this girl wants to be a superstar because she’s got all the tools.

Paolo Nutini – This kid just brings it! At only 19 years of age, this kid from Scotland writes the most perfect pop rock songs. The crowd was packed with women swooning over his good looks and dudes actually singing along (most likely to impress the chicks but singing, nonetheless.) He’s going out on tour with Ms. Winehouse and together the two might just take over the world.

Kings of Leon – There are a lot of reasons that I want to hate these guys. They’re young, cocky, good looking, talented… DAMN THEM! Additionally, I will go on record as saying that their skinny jeans are the single worse accessory I have ever seen on a band. Having said all that, they couldn’t rock any harder. They just write great rock and roll songs and when they perform live they just go all out every single time. A sponsorship from True Religion or Rock & Republic could make these guys the biggest band on the planet.

My Morning Jacket – So good it hurts. Talent just oozes out of every pore of this band. I want to be in MMJ. I’m not sure what I bring to the table because I have no musical ability whatsoever but maybe I could learn to play the triangle.

Pearl Jam – I would be lying if I told you I could write a fair review about PJ because they are my favorite band of all-time. I don’t really care for the fact that one of my heroes has turned into Sean Penn and uses concerts as his forum to speak on political matters (long gone are the days of climbing rafters and diving into the crowd) but that is his prerogative and based on crowd reaction, people obviously want to listen. To show my respect for Mr. Vedder I will not purchase gasoline from BP or Amoco (I can’t remember why but he told me not to, so I won’t.) Regardless, musically, they can do no wrong. Every show, in every city, in every country these guys give it their all, 100% of the time. They play hits, they play b-sides, they play covers and they all sound fabulous. I love this band and hope they continue playing for 30 more years because practically every other band I grew up with is gone.

I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Vitamin Water for sponsoring my trip to Lollapalooza. They didn’t actually pay me anything and they won’t acknowledge the connnection but without them I wouldn’t have made it through the weekend. I wanted to thank Camel and their fabulous product Camel Lights but I woke up Saturday and Sunday and couldn’t breathe so I’m pretty sure that’s not good.