Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Post-Lolla

Apres a storm, my internet was down and I feel slightly guilty doing this at work.
Comparing my desires before going to Lollapalooza versus the shows I actually saw, there was some severe discrepancy (mostly due to laziness and a guy).

Friday
The Kills - I'm sure the comparison can be made to the White Stripes, but beyond the guy-girl hard(er) rock duo similarity, I prefer the WS. I thought these guys were ok, and I think that the lady's hotness makes up a lot of that. I think the fact that they used a drum machine soured the show for me. I could probably stand them being the opener for someone else like...
Mates of State - who were excellent. Perhaps familiarity with these guys got the best of me, but they are talented for sure. The backing strings only helped their cause of aural excitation.
Bloc Party - I don't know why this show wasn't that memorable. Was it my general lack of recollection skills? Was it the audience around me's apathetic attitude? To their credit, the didn't play Banquet (man, I used to love that song!) (Tim says they did) but they did play Helicopter which seems to always be a winner for me. Honestly, I can't get excited about a band if the folks around me aren't going nuts for them. Maybe I should just close my eyes the next time. You know what's terrible? Every time I see Kele Okekere's face
I can't help but remember that he's gay. I wish I was more accepting of the fact or with that I never knew, but I remember a time where I was listening to his music and that's all I would think about. I wish my innate homophobism would just vaporize. The guy is so cool!
Radiohead - From Innerview "...At this point, what more can be said about Radiohead that hasn't already been said? They suck?" That was an excellent show. I only wish that they didn't split up the screens so the folks in the back could see what was going on.

Saturday
Spank Rock - Dirty! I wished he MC'd more. I wish the crowd loved that ghetto shit more. Amanda Blank's hotness was just right, although I always imagined her to be black. I was jumping up and down for sure. I need to go find more of his stuff because I just have YoYoYoYoYo and Amanda on the Diplo Dub mix.
Broken Social Scene - Worth napping to.
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Worth dancing to. She is really entertaining. I find it very impressive how tight the band is with her. I don't know how much they practice or what hidden cues they use to do certain things, but it was flawless. After inviting a guy to come on stage after saving him from security, this random dude came up to dance and she said something to the effect of "You can't just walk into my house without being invited!" and the band didn't miss a beat.
DJ Momjeans - You know, something about celebrity DJ's just doesn't work. Maybe it's the fact that they aren't actually DJ's. After a poor transition one time and hitting the volume knob accidentally another (within 3min) I walked away.
Wilco & Rage - I don't like Wilco and I don't like RATM, but here I am saying that I saw them.

Sunday
What Made Milwaukee Famous - I stayed only halfway to see what it was all about. Not very memorable, but maybe I'll hear them some more on the myspace. I really wanted to see Octopus Project but I got there too late.
The Office - I was actually expecting to see the Weakerthans, whom Innerview had some good things to say about, but these guys showed. I think their cd is alright, but their show is lacking.
Tally Hall - Best new band I saw. They are young and have a young following (oh man i'm old). They can wail on guitar, they have sweet hair, they can sing, and they have a gimmick (different colored skinny ties). They reminded me of Weezer but without the 90's feel. I heard a riff they nicked from the Beatles, but the crowd loved every minute of it. I don't know if they have a suburban following, but I could be persuaded to get in line.
Chromeo - Yeah, while seeing them I remembered why I liked their Coachella show so much: I got there at the end when they played their two hits. I think it's safe to say that if I had to choose between seeing chromeo and playing Uno...
(nap)
Franki Chan - This guy knew what he was doing for sure. If you see the founder of iheartcomix ever in town, go see him. He's got a mix cd through Scion right now that is pretty good.
Girl Talk - I think I saw this guy at Coachella. He kills. I noticed that he's a little cheap on the effects (TP and leaf blowers, and glitter) and equipment (a laptop and a midi interface), but he can work the crowd. Someone give this guy some more money! He deserves it! He got like 40-50 people on stage going at it, crowd surfed, danced, glitterized; yup, it was a good show.
(That's it.)

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