Posted on February 21, 2010 by Greg

I have a rehearsal from 10am to 4pm, and it actually goes that long to my dismay. I know I will miss Chromeo, who I missed most of a couple of years ago when I got there late for their set at Intonation Fest. Bands I am sad about missing: Weakerthans (though I heard they got canceled or something), The Whigs (heard they are great). I get to the park at around 4:45 and make my way over to Saul Williams.

5pm–6:00 Saul Williams

I meet up with Margaret right at the extreme right front of the stage. We are right up among a bunch of kids wearing giant feathers that the roadies handed out. Saul comes out with no shirt and aqua pants, sporting warpaint and feathers. Not sure what he’s going for, but he seems to believe in it, and so does the rest of his band, who are similarly attired. He belts out a few well-received tunes and then the sound gets inexplicably quiet. Again. This festival had too many sound problems. Sound gets louder a few tunes later, but the bad sound stripped that section of the show of its urgency. He gives his 13-year daughter some stage time, she seems totally comfortable onstage. The only bad note: he introduces a friend he’s known since college who does freestyle rap. Saul gives him this huge buildup, and then a guy charges onstage with a potato sack over his head. He screams a bunch of shit, but through the bag you can not tell a thing he’s saying. Because, you know, he has a BAG over his head. It didn’t seem like he could see that well either, he was kind of stumbling around. It was supposed to be this big hardcore moment, but it was so stupid I was laughing. It was a great set overall, though…Gunshots By Computer, Convict Colony, List of Demands and Sunday Bloody Sunday had the whole crowd rocking.

6:30–7:30 Girl Talk
Margaret and I stay at the Saul Williams set to get way up close for GT. About 5,000 kids age 12–23 push their way up to the front, squashing the people who are already there. They are mostly total turds. Favorite bit of overheard dialogue before show starts, though:

Kid with no shirt: Dude, I’m so psyched. I’ve never even SEEN this guy before.
Kid with shirt: Oh yeah?
KWNS: Yeah. Is he a black dude?
KWS: Naw, he’s a white dude.
KWNS: He’s a white dude? I thought he was a black dude.
KWS: Naw, he’s a white dude.
KWNS: Weird. What does he look like?
KWS: (Pauses to think) He looks like Ben Stiller when he has to wear a wig in the movies.

Moments later, Gregg Gillis comes onstage, and he TOTALLY looks like Ben Stiller when he has to wear a wig in the movies!!! I laugh a lot. I also immediately start getting crushed by the crowd. But they are tiny and meek and I crush them back. They are easy to move and crush, and elbows pointed sideways keep them away. I am right up front and center for the whole show. As it goes on, kid after kid has to be pulled from the crowd because they can’t breathe/are overheated/got crushed. Gillis has allowed a bunch of kids (mostly girls of course) to dance all over the stage while he does his laptop magic. There are so many people onstage that it begins to visibly bow toward the end of the set. There was tons of crowd-surfing, including Spider Man rolling over my head and Gillis himself rode the crowd in an inflatable raft at the end. In between there were people onstage blowing toilet paper, glitter and silly string on the crowd.

At one point, one of those idiot kids (a guy, of course) decides it would be a good idea to do a stage dive. Without warning, he leaps off the stage, travels 8 or 9 feet in the air, and lands directly on the heads of about 20 unprepared people just behind me. The crowd buckles and THIS BRUISER (Margaret caught a photo)

yanks the kid out of the crowd. The kid has blood all over his face and arms, and the huge bouncer shakes him by the shoulders and screams, “You stupid fuck! YOU STUPID FUCK! Get the fuck out of here!” and shoves him to another bouncer who kicks him out. Stagediver dickhead hurt a lot of people. Moments later, a guy he landed on asks to be pulled out, and he looks dazed and has blood on his forearm. The huge bouncer guy was awesome. He probably saved about 40 kids (mostly tiny girls) from having to go to the hospital over the course of the show. When the show was over, I looked at myself: soaked in sweat, covered in glitter and string and feeling slightly exhilarated. It was a great show, high-energy, but was definitely a little overshadowed by jackassery.

8:15—10:15 Nine Inch Nails
Never ever saw ‘em in the 90s (although Margaret was a definite NIN follower), despite having four or their (his) albums, saw Kanye (the opposing act) two years ago, so this was not a very tough decision. Walk all the way to the North field. There is an enormous crowd. From past experience, I cut to the right of the field and walk right up to about 30 feet from the extreme right side of the stage, no shoving or anything. Weird. Every year, that side of the field is really light and everywhere else is a zoo. The stage has these curtains of light that raise and lower and can convey images or patterns, or simulate pouring rain, whatever. The screens seem to be motion and touch-sensitive, as the curtain of rain opens a hole when Reznor gets close to it, then turns back into rain when he backs away. Really cool. Reznor himself looks a lot, well, sturdier than his old self. In fact, he looks like a Miami club bouncer. Short slicked-back hair, black outfit, weightlifter frame. I think when he finally kicked the habit he went straight from the horse to the gym.

The beginning of the set is a mix of new and old stuff, then there is a largely instrumental middle section which made great use of the light curtains, then the last third, he brings back the rock and plays the big hits, including “Head Like a Hole” and “Terrible Lie”. He said nothing the whole time, just played his heart out. Then, during the encore, he very quietly came to the mic and said,

“I want to thank all of you for coming. 17 years ago, Perry Farrell asked us to play Lollapalooza, back when we were just some kids from Cleveland. I never would have imagined that 17 years later…I’d be alive…<<huge cheer from crowd>>…or that I’d be back here, playing for a full house on the last day of the festival. It’s very gratifying for me to be here with all of you, and with the best band in the world. <<huge cheer>> Here’s a song I wrote when I was in a very dark place. And then I gave it to a friend.”

Then they launch into “Hurt”. Thousands of lighters (yes, actual lighters, not glowing cell phones!) light up the crowdscape and everyone sings along, the city skyline glowing in the background. Wow. Fantastic. What a moment. No violence, no crowd-surfing, no sarcasm, just real honest unity. They finish with “In This Twilight” and take a well-deserved bow. So glad I ended the fest with this show.

As the crowd filters out, I hear people calling to a roadie to give them the set list. He seems about to give it to one girl who is screaming that she is the band’s biggest fan ever, but then she says, “Come on, don’t be an asshole! Give it to ME!” He changes his mind, folds the list into a paper airplane and throws it out over the crowd. It starts left and then bends in the wind and heads right to me. I jump 4 feet in the air and snatch it away from a dozen other hands and shove it in my pocket before anyone knows what happened. Great way to end the festival.

Peace.

–Greg

The UnEnclosed | Festival Review: Lollapalooza 2008, Day 310.0101