Lollapalooza2011: Day 1

Venue: Grant Park (4/6)
I only hit one band this particular day, they were the reason I bought the ticket to Lollapalooza. Normally 200$ for three days is a bit rich for me and I was not aware of the secret pre-sale that makes it a lot cheeper. (downside being that it’s before you know who you’re seeing.) My bar for festival grounds is very high as I’ve been going to Summerfest since i was a teenager. The grounds were gorgeous.” The view of the skyline from grant park is utterly spectacular and the festival surrounds chicago’s Buckingham Fountain. There are no permeant faculties for this show so the bathrooms are exclusively port-a-potties, par for the course at festivals, but still not the best. There are eight stages spread out over a large enough space that there isn’t a lot of sound overlap. They also stagger the sets on stages that are close to each other. They do let you bring some food and empty bottles in and even have a refilling station. This festival seems more focused on taking care of its patrons than most. The drinks are cheeper for concert fair and they have a few vendors with local food and local merchandise. The food/ drink locations are spread out over the entire festival grounds so that its easy to access them.
I have to say its lovely. I adore chicago.

Crowd: (1/6) Wow. Yes, I know I was not there for the headliner, so the majority of the crowd was there for Muse. Yes, A Perfect Circle has odd energy and is generally very subdued. But come on people. This band has not toured since 2005. Show some love, or get the hell off the floor so that those of us who are there for APC can see.


The Show: A Perfect Circle (4/6): An odd band with an equally odd sound. The majority of the band members come from other bands including Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Puicfier and others. They have a heavy, dark sound that is not like many others. The lyrics are articulate and introspective, with an often vicious streak. I am personally quite fond of “Passive” and “Outsider” along with the creepy, if romantic “Pet.”
With this collaborative effort you get a lot of influences, but all of them are in the same vein. The closest I can label them is industrial, but with a more aggressive edge.

This band is also known for their covers. They have a positively haunting cover of imagine. Yes, the John Lennon son.

Live they were a little slow to get moving but when they did there was an energy to that was feral, dark and dug into something deep under the skin. There was some distance between front man Maynard James Keenan and the audience and not a lot of interaction between the artists. Each seemed to be doing their own thing emotionally, while somehow collaborating on a musical level. I think that is what contributed to the crowd’s subdued nature. When they finally hit their stride, even the distance couldn’t keep the crowd down. However, it took the majority of their set to get there.

Overall, I wish they would release more music, I doubt they will however.