In 2005, a couple years after Lollapalooza’s ill-fated attempt to revive itself as a package tour, like it was the 90s, the festival moved into Grant Park and gave up its roaming ways. Settling down has served it well. For the past two years it’s sold out, bringing in about 75,000 fans per day. The 2010 installment hosts the largest number of acts yet (between 125 and 130, depending on some last-minute schedule shuffling), and the festival’s grounds have expanded west past Columbus to cover about 35 more acres than last year.
The festival’s eight stages include Perry’s, which focuses on dance and hip-hop, and the family-friendly Kidzapalooza. Among the nonmusical attractions are a farmers’ market, an autograph tent, food courts, a video-game arcade, a booth where you can borrow a Sony Bloggie HD camera for free, an air-conditioned lounge equipped with phone chargers, and the always popular Q101 Hammock Haven. A recycling program offers the opportunity to trade certain recyclables for merchandise.
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The profusion of Lollapalooza-sponsored shows elsewhere in Chicago (some of which are noted in the writeups below) includes several on Thursday, before the festival begins: Soundgarden at the Vic, Devo and Dirty Projectors at the Congress Theater, the Big Pink at Lincoln Hall with locals White Car and Night Gallery (see the List), Cymbals Eat Guitars at Schubas, Gaga’s tour DJ Lady Starlight at Berlin, and more.
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6 PM Black Keys When the Black Keys started out almost ten years ago, their grimy blues-rock was frankly pretty undistinguished. But the Akron-bred duo have always been looking forward, not back, and with 2008’s Attack & Release, produced by Danger Mouse, they made a quantum leap. Its follow-up, the terrific new Brothers (Nonesuch), is likewise much more sophisticated than the group’s early albums, both in songwriting and production, with a wealth of soul feeling and some deft multitracking that adds extra guitar and the occasional organ part (reproduced live with extra musicians). The biggest change, though, is to the grooves. It used to be that the guitar was out front, but now the music’s all about Patrick Carney’s booming, rock-solid breakbeats, which leaves front man Dan Auerbach plenty of room to express his growing affection for 60s R & B—though his singing is merely serviceable, a bunch of the new songs seem tailor-made for Bobby “Blue” Bland during his Duke Records days. Auerbach’s guitar playing is mostly rhythmic, but the sharp production—raw, deep, and full—turns his economical framework of overdubbed riffs into an irresistible wave of gutbucket funk. Also at Metro on Sat 8/7 with openers the Morning Benders, 18+, sold out. Budweiser —PM
1:15 PM Wild Beasts It’s easy to dismiss Wild Beasts as overdramatic Morrissey enthusiasts, trying and failing to wed theatrical vocals to minimalist indie pop the way Antony & the Johnsons can. Last year’s Two Dancers (Domino) gathered dust on my desk for months before I felt prepared to brave the falsetto of singer Hayden Thorpe, who handles a bit more than half of the lead vocals. The band’s debonair English swagger eventually won me over—maybe Thorpe’s fascinating, meandering singing somehow burrowed into my subconscious and flipped a switch. Brooding and dark, Two Dancers creates a strangely seductive pull: the most dynamic song, “All the King’s Men,” juxtaposes ominous chants with shrill yelps, and the tenor vocals of Tom Fleming have an undercurrent of hothouse salaciousness a la Nick Cave. Also at the Empty Bottle on Fri 8/6 with openers the Kissaway Trail and Lone Wolf, 21+. Playstation —KW
2 PM Blitzen Trapper The title track and opening cut of this Portland outfit’s new Destroyer of the Void (Sub Pop) is a multipart six-minute opus that cradles rich vocal harmonies with spacey synth lines, twinned guitar leads, ballad-style piano, and tempo-shifting grooves—elaborate and proggy, it’s as worthy of Queen as it is of the Band, the most obvious previous influence on Blitzen Trapper‘s rustic but cleanly executed folk rock. Nothing else on the record matches its ambition, but all the songs (written almost entirely by front man Eric Earley) tend toward the episodic and cover a wide dynamic range; the group is pushing itself throughout, though occasionally at the expense of the lean, tight focus of its previous releases. Also at Lincoln Hall on Sat 8/7 with openers Avi Buffalo, 18+. Budweiser —PM
