Erica and I went to all three days of Lollapalooza this last weekend. Erica is doing some detailed breakdowns, but I just have a few impressions. I had been to the original Lollapalooza tour in 1991 in Indianapolis (Erica saw the 1994 tour in New Orleans) but that was back when it was just a long, eclectic concert on a single stage. It's now a three day festival with eight stages. I'd never been to any of these big festivals before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

The biggest thing that stood out right from the start, and held up all through the weekend, was how well-run the whole thing was. Shows started and stopped pretty much on time (and having run a venue, I know how hard it is to get musicians to stick to a schedule), the place was kept incredibly clean, and we rarely had to wait in a food, water, or beer line for more than 2 or 3 minutes.

Given that whole thing was so overall well run, the few bobbles stood out. Like terrible sightlines, and worse, terrible sound at the "Budweiser" stage (the second main stage) had all weekend. Boo.

One of the best parts for me was just hanging out at Perry's stage, which was constant DJs. I love dance music/techno/etc, but it's really hard to get out for a 10 pm show*, let alone a 1 am DJ set. If there wasn't so many other great bands to see, I could have stayed there all day.

Photographic evidence of the weekend.

Erica's posts:
Lollapalooza Post #1
Lollapalooza Day 1
Lollapalooza Day 2
Lollapalooza Day 3
Lollapalooza Final Thoughts

* We actually missed an Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes show earlier this year because we just couldn't get out of the house, which we were kicking ourselves for doubly after their great show at Lolla.