Well, Live Exhausters, it’s over and I’m a bit exhausted…in a good way, though. Lolla ‘08 was by far the most crowded Lollapalooza since the festival came to Chicago and the increase in attendance numbers from around 65,000 in 2006 to a sellout 75,000 each day this year was very much felt as I fought for position at nearly every headliner and several side stage sets.
To create more breathing room and if he plans on expanding the Lolla empire( and putting Girl Talk on a side stage, again) Perry Ferrell might have to start talking with Mayor Daily about renting Solider Field or a portion of Lake Shore Drive or creating a floating venue over Lake Michigan for next year. But the music or the overall experience didn’t suffer because of the larger crowd; it was a year packed with outstanding performances on all six stages; and all the rumors about Senator Obama making a visit was just that, all talk, fitting for the Windy City, right?
The best moments came from biochemist turned pop-collagist Girl Talk who bounced an overflowing crowd into a silly frenzy on the Citi stage, just after Saul Williams christened hundreds with his volcanic hybrid of hip hop funk and punk rock onslaught. Kayne West picked up the Chi-town torch from Lupe Fiasco and carried thousands into his fully accredited maximum force display of emotion, lyric and eye-dazzling showmanship.
Look for The Radiohead Experiment Final Notes to follow later this week. And if you were at Lolla this year, I’d like to know what you thought.