Pitchfork

Photos by Kirstie Shanley

Welcome to our coverage of Lollapalooza 2008, which will continue through the weekend and conclude Monday. Check back for daily reports from Joshua Klein, Amy Phillips, Matthew Solarski, and Scott Plagenhoef.

For Joshua Klein's coverage, click here: Friday
For Amy Phillips' coverage, click here: Friday
For Matthew Solarski's coverage, click here: Friday

Radiohead [8 p.m.]


Last year, watching Interpol gamely attempt to convince people they were up to the task of headlining a huge outdoor festival, I grew concerned at the prospect of Lollapalooza attracting enough top-level talent to fill Chicago's Grant Park. Noting that this was a rock-oriented festival-- in case you hadn't noticed, we've somehow stopped birthing festival-headlining rock bands-- I suggested that Lollapalooza "perhaps is going to struggle to find new and thrilling headliners each year without soon repeating itself or going the reunion/Baby Boomer route."

OK, well, they showed me this year. With a headlining quintet of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, and locals Kanye West and Wilco, this is a top-loaded event that, in all likelihood, should far outsell the previous years. Even with that collection of big names, the decision to highlight Radiohead, to pocket some cash and not schedule a sixth headliner across from them, was justified today almost as soon as the park opened. By all reports from colleagues who ditched the office to show up early, there were not only lines to get into the park, but they stretched roughly a half-mile long. Either Gogol Bordello are way more popular than I suspect, or a good portion of that crowd promptly parked itself in front of the AT&T stage to await the night's headliners.

It turned out to be a hell of a good decision, too-- those in and around the stage seemed to have a far richer experience than the rest of us. In short, through no fault of either party of course, Radiohead and Lollapalooza was a weird mix: A blend of too many people who loved Radiohead-- people who camped out all day to have a great experience-- with tens of thousands more who were into the event itself rather than the show. Despite being almost a decade from their commercial peak, Radiohead's reputation-- the relative scarcity of their Chicago performances, their ability to shift one-day festival tickets to fans who won't see another Lolla act all weekend-- and the fact that there were no other bands on at the same time made this by far the most-attended set I've seen at this event. And that made for a ridiculously crowded field full of a lot of inattentive ticketholders. (And with pricy cabanas and lounges taking the best elevated sight lines as well as space that should have been used for additional entrances and exits to this part of the park-- there were two gates for tens of thousands of people, and those were clogged with attendees perched on steps to get a better view of the stage-- had anyone needed immediate medical attention, this would have been a disaster.)



Oddly, too, the set limped at first, kicking off right on time and opening with a tentative stretch of fairly mid-tempo songs (see setlist at bottom). Of those, "The Gloaming" shone brightest-- it's always sounded better live than on record, and tonight was no exception. It was its follow-up, a sample-aided version of "The National Anthem", that really kicked the set up a few notches. By this time the crowd had settled, the sun had set, the group's frankly amazing light setup helped-- particularly because the band's video rig, a pair of 3x3 squares that never actually showed a solid view of what was on stage, wasn't the best fit for a crowd this size. (In other stage news, the group did cover the corporate banners on either side of them, but AT&T's name was still emblazoned on top of the structure.)

From here out, the band lived up to expectations, delivering a diverse, well-paced set that weirdly slipped most when it aimed to create a sense of event: Fireworks went off at the close of "The Bends", a nice gesture, but they continued through "Everything in Its Right Place" and "Fake Plastic Trees", two relatively soft songs, making them an aural surprise rather than just a visual one. While the fireworks finale paired well with and led some gravitas to the close of "Trees", the rest of the explosives display distractingly competed with the music.

Those quibbles aside, this was a dynamic set from any technical or even musical way you want to look at it: Songs like "Lucky", "The Bends", and "No Surprises" were the highlights one would expect them to be; newer tracks "House of Cards", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", and "Videotape" hold their own alongside more established classics; and "Dollars and Cents" was a very welcome surprise.



And yet...out of the roughly 10 Radiohead shows I've attended, this was probably the least-engaging experience I've ever had seeing them live. The band is always dependably great, but the weirdly disinterested crowd and somewhat awkward setting made this something a bit less than it should have been. (Granted, the set had lot to live up to. Radiohead's 2001 show at the other end of Hutchinson Field, this same part of Grant Park, has gained almost legendary status around here. So, too, has a Chicago show that took place soon after the 1997 U.S. release of OK Computer-- it was one of those nights when people left a concert feeling that something very special was happening.)

Tonight-- despite the music, the songs, the performances-- felt like a wildly engaging art-pop band performing to a throng of devotees while many, many more people lined the show, tuned in when they felt like it, and talked, loudly, the rest of the time. That's a risk at any large event, particularly when a group's last two records are either not fest-friendly (In Rainbows) or up to par with most of its work (Hail to the Thief), but since this is likely Radiohead's only Chicago appearance this year, there was something disappointing about it.

Being fairly familiar with the rhythms and structures of Radiohead's sets, I decided to pop out just before the second encore to see what sort of crowd had gathered outside the venue-- I wanted to check that out while I still had time to re-enter the park if needed. Sure enough, up and down the west side of Columbus Drive were devoted Radiohead fans-- on blankets, on the roadside curb, on the grass. Some were with a group of friends, but most were in pairs or alone. Many had ridden their bikes, some had brought books, suggesting that they had camped out from a decent hour to get their spots. With traffic restricted from moving up and down Columbus, and with the buffer of parkspace between the fest and the busier arteries of downtown Chicago, the sound here was arguably better than it was inside the fest-- and nobody talked. What you heard, all you heard, was the music.

I wound my way through dozens of focused fans, some with their arms around each other, some hands intertwined, and guessed that they thought they were settling-- making due with what they could. Sure, they missed the light rigging, but seeing the band, feeling a part of something bigger than you are, basic comfort-- these things were difficult to come by inside the park. Besides, straining to hear "All I Need" over drunken shouts isn't a recipe for a warm memory, but lying in the grass with someone special and listening to a live performance of "House of Cards" just might be.

One of the marvelous things about the festivals I've attended recently is that they've provided a sense of togetherness and human connection that can seem to otherwise be slipping away from music in the internet era. I expected to feel that inside the show tonight, as I had in 1997 and 2001 and plenty of other Radiohead shows, and it didn't materialize for me. (It did, I'm happy to report, for some of our other staffers, so ideally far more people shared their reactions than mine.) But, across the way, this makeshift audience-- kids who decided to spend a Friday night listening to the sounds of their favorite band a quarter-mile from the stage-- somehow willed themselves to be connected to a moment from which they were so removed. And after every song, they applauded.

Radiohead; August 1, 2008; Grant Park, Chicago [Lollapalooza]

01. 15 Step
02. Airbag
03. There There
04. All I Need
05. Nude
06. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
07. The Gloaming
08. The National Anthem
09. Faust Arp
10. No Surprises
11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12. Reckoner
13. Lucky
14. The Bends
15. Everything in Its Right Place
16. Fake Plastic Trees
17. Bodysnatchers

///

18. Videotape
19. Paranoid Android
20. Dollars and Cents
21. House of Cards
22. Optimistic

///

23. 2+2=5
24. Idioteque