Sit back and wave through the daylight

For three days every August, Lollapalooza showcases a wide array of talented performers. From up and coming artists (Frightened Rabbit and Neon Hitch) to old souls (Jimmy Cliff and Mavis Staples), to major stars (Lady Gaga and Green Day), Lollapalooza exposes, popularizes and celebrates music. Created in 1991 by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for the band, Lollapalooza ran annually until 1997. In 2005 the tour made its way to Chicago's Grant Park where it will remain until 2018. I have attended the last three years and 2010 highly exceeded any and all expectations. Lollapalooza was truly bigger and better, with more port-a-potties, foodie love and refillable water bottle stations. The tunes weren't too shabby either.

B.O.B is to Lollapalooza what a crystal chandelier is to an entrance foyer. Grand. Starting the weekend off on the right foot, B.o.b literally knocked socks and shoes off, singing about beautiful girls, airplanes and magic. B.o.b's morning slot (11:30-12:15) had me quite baffled at first. I mean c'mon, the guy has two hit songs with one on the way and he gets the breakfast crowd. Well color me wrong, B.o.b drew fans. Awake, excited, and screaming, fans ran, sorry, sprinted to his stage as the first few chords echoed from the South lawn of Grant Park. Free-styling one minute, swooning the ladies with soft ballads and an acoustic guitar the next, then throwing his shoes into the hungry sea of people, B.o.b's swagger, humor and lyrics left everyone wanting encore B.o.b performances for lunch and dinner.

Insert The Walkmen, Ana Sia, Peanut Butter Wolf and weird Devo hats and hazmat jumpsuits here.

Personally, I wasn't blown away again until 5pm. Enter Matt and Kim; to 'Where Brooklyn At' at that! Seriously, please check out this entrance courtesy of Rolling Stone. Can you even imagine!? So freakin' cool. Kim's unwavering smile lit up Chicago and Matt pumped the jams out of that keyboard with mega intensity. For a skinny dude that plays the keyboard and wears glasses, that boy can jam. Matt and Kim vs. the energizer bunny...Matt and Kim win. Prediction, they will headline in 2013. I didn't see anyone else give a shout out to Green Man or use the crowd to booty dance. We're talking (insert Kim Schifino's voice directing the crowd here) "you hold my right leg, you hold my left leg, hold me up/make sure I don't fall, and I'm going to show you guys the booty dance I've been working on." It rocked. So did their set list: I Wanna, Better Off Alone (Alice DeeJay cover), Lessons Learned, Lightspeed, Yea Yeah, Good ol' fashioned Nightmare, and Daylight. Sit back and wave through the daylight....

Matt and Kim kicking ass at the Adidas stage Friday afternoon

Jamie Lidell, who I saw more than once this weekend, since we were conveniently staying at the same hotel, was an artist to not be missed. That is, if you like funk, soul, electronica and British accents. I am not familiar with Jamie's new cd, so a lot of the songs were foreign to me, but that didn't stop the enjoyment of the smooth, genuine notes. 'A little bit more,' a killer song from his second album is performed with only the beats from his mouth, mic and a looping machine, and "Little bit of feel good" were all I needed to hear to feel good about this show. The crowd was feeling it too, boppin' along to the rhythm, as Jamie Lidell and the Sony Bloggie stage produced one groovin' performance.





Then utter disaster and disappointment struck. In the form of a bloody fame monster. And, no, that isn't my wannabe British accent carrying over. Not even mid-way through the performance, this little monster came on stage covered in blood, or faux blood, either way, shut the front door Lady Gaga.

Seriously, the best thing about Gaga's set was the cute little boy next to us unconditionally loving Lady Gaga and unknowingly singing along. I don't know, was I expecting too much? Lady Gaga basically has that 'everything I touch turns to gold' thing down so I guess I figured she would own Friday night. She capsized like Bennifer after Affleck proposed to J-Lo with a pink diamond. Here's why: instead of singing her hits (I admit to increasing the volume to unreasonable decibel levels when hearing 'Just dance' come on the radio) the "Lady" theatrically and angrily preached, shouted, and praised her own awesomeness all while repeatedly panting into the microphone. I'm all about self confidence, but when screamed rashly it teeters on still needing therapy. Who cares that people were mean to you in high school? People were mean to me in high school too, but I'm not going to repeatedly reference my awkward high school career in relation to my global superstardom (when I obtain it, ha!). Lollapalooza is not the venue for raving ridiculous antics; it's a music show. “No one fucking believed in me, but we did it. And look at all of us nowwwwwwww.” Pant, scream, pant, rave, rant, pant. Shrieking positive messages is an oxy-moron, no? I think the blog Time Out Chicago said it best, "It's hard to look past a woman screaming at a mechanical octopus’ “monster” tentacles, “Don’t rape me, monster!”

We found solace at Perry's stage where the Dewaele brothers aka Soulmax aka 2ManyDJ's were electro-fying the crowd with heavy mash ups. Expensive sunglasses might have been lost but we danced in front of the jumbo-tron thing, and could still see Gaga's lavish fireworks display.

jumbo tron thing--that's Matt waving and I'm to the left taking a pic

Epic Burger ended the evening on a high note. An epic high note. Perhaps as high as Gaga was during her bloody rendition of Beautiful, dirty rich (or whatever it was she was "singing" during that escapade). A more mindful burger, you say? I will always say yes when the word epic is involved or after a night at Lollapalooza. Can you spot the burger with the egg?

-B.o.b...Matt and Kim...Epic burgers = Epic.
-Lady Gaga = Fail.