Pitchfork

Photos by Joseph Mohan and Kirstie Shanley; Above: Gogol Bordello by Joseph Mohan

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, Scott Plagenhoef, and Matthew Solarski.

For Amy Phillips' coverage, click here: Friday
For Scott Plagenhoef's coverage, click here: Friday
For Matthew Solarski's coverage, click here: Friday

Yeasayer [2:15 p.m]

Photo by Joseph Mohan

There was not yet a Hacky Sack to be seen at the start of Yeasayer’s set, neither on stage nor in the crowd, but the sack was there in spirit as the Brooklyn band presented its 21st century take on the drum circle. Despite the oppressive afternoon sun, a sizable crowd turned up for the relatively early entry in the Lolla line-up. While the group lucked into a bit of shade while it sang the festival-built "Sunrise" or the haunting "2080", fans and curious onlookers were left sweating it out as the band pieced together grooves out of percussion, samples, guitars, rubbery bass and massed vocals.

Granted, the prog underpinnings of the music were slightly less impressive coming not long after the talented teens in Paul Green's School of Rock Music All-Stars, who over at the Kidz tent covered Yes' "Long Distance Runaround" note for note-- complete with "The Fish" outro-- but Yeasayer are on their merry way there.

The Kills [3:15 p.m.]

Photo by Joseph Mohan

The Kills' Alison "VV" Mosshart and Jamie "Hotel" Hince gave each other quick kisses on the cheek before hitting the stage, as if for luck, and they needed every bit of it to endure the elements. Mosshart and Hince are creatures of the night, their brand of electro skronk vampire guitar rock designed for the darkness. Instead, the Kills got stuck in the direct sun, dressed not for the weather but for some dingy club. Lou Reed used to say the Velvet Underground wore sunglasses because they couldn’t stand the sight of their audience. The Kills wore them because they prized their retinas.

No surprise, the Kills didn't quite make it through their allotted hour, pulling the plug early if not by design then by necessity. Between songs, Mosshart flashed "What the fuck?" glares at her crew, pacing extra-nervously with a cool towel draped around her neck like a scarf, later plopped over her head (maybe taking off the leopard print jacket might have helped?). Yet songs from the band’s latest Midnight Boom went over remarkably well, with Spank Rock producer Alex Epton’s boxed beats on "Sour Cherry" and "U.R.A. Fever" coming off less funky and more sleazy industrial despite the cognitive dissonance of the daylight context.

Gogol Bordello [4:15 p.m.]
Photo by Joseph Mohan

The Hacky Sack has made an appearance at stage left as fans mill about waiting for Gogol Bordello to begin. Backstage, the band, in full costume, huddles together for a pre-show scrum ritual of chants, playfully pointing as singer Eugene Hutz struggles to get the cork out of a wine bottle. Fiddler Sergey Ryabtsev warms up, showing off his 1983 Slayer tour t-shirt. Percussionist Pedro Erazu dons a fanciful lion's mane (and checks out Jonny Greenwood’s waiting Ondes Martenot synth). They're hyped.

If you've seen one Gogol Bordello show you've seen them all, but there's no reason familiarity should get in the way of a good time, especially when you're dealing with a group that gives 100% no matter the hour, place, or temperature. Admittedly, the circus-like spectacle loses some of its crazed power in a festival setting, where the sightlines are always less than ideal, but GB's pan-everything-but-the-pizza gypsy-punk translates pretty well on a large scale. If seeing the band in the club is like being dropped into the center of a maelstrom, seeing them incite a mass of sweaty bodies outdoors into motion is a little like watching a barely-controlled tornado spin in place.

Mates of State [5:15 p.m.]
Photo by Joseph Mohan

At last, a band that fits the description of "sunny." Or more accurately, "Sunny!", as Mates of State's brand of peppy pop is about as far from a lot of the downer, dour indie-pop du jour as it gets. The husband and wife team of Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner clearly get off on the respectable crowd (bits of their extended family cheering on behind the stage) with some supplementary guitar, strings, trombone and glockenspiel beefing up their already beefy drums and keyboards arrangements.

There are times when the band's music can come off a little too sugary to take in large doses, but this isn't one of them. Songs such as "Like U Crazy" and "Get Better" go over more than well, with the latter's chorus of "Forget your politics for a while/ Let the color schemes arrive" the perfect maxim in the midst of the fest’s over-branded corporate presence and a (metaphorically) warm respite from the heat-induced numbness of Lollapalooza's first long day. Many in the crowd are singing along enthusiastically, even as behind them people start streaming by en masse on their way to staking out a spot for Radiohead.

CSS [7 p.m.]




Photos by Kirstie Shanley

CSS was supposed to play Lollapalooza last year, but a flight snafu forced the group to cancel. The band seemed psyched to have a second shot, its array of balloons and jumpsuits props there to help get the party started. Not that CSS needed much help on that front-- watching the band have a good time is a whole lot more interesting to me than the herky-jerk new wave of their music. Like the B-52s before them, a little goes a long way, but it's still worth noting the importance of perspective at festivals like Lollapalooza.

Even as CSS flashed huge smiles and singer Lovefoxxx shed various multi-hewed (and flower adorned) outfits, hundreds of people were making a beeline south, past Stephen Malkmus' nearby stage, for the imminent 800 lb. gorilla headliner, scheduled sans north stage competition and thus cornering the end-of-the-day market. And yet CSS was likely playing to a much bigger crowd than they would normally attract in Chicago or any other American city, which shows how even an overstuffed fest like this one still leaves room to discover new acts, or at the very least finally catch up with the buzz and hype to see what the fuss is all about.