Sony Bloggie
1-1:45 pm
The term "garage rock" tends to bring about negative connotations, especially in the context of song writing. Amateurish, poorly constructed, raucous, sloppy, whichever adjective you choose, Harlem manages to shirk each and every one of them, while somehow still sounding like they recorded next to their mom's minivan. Harlem's success began with their Free Drugs :-) EP which garnered them a stint at South By Southwest and lead to the release of their debut LP Hippies earlier this year. Harlem's sound is much cleaner than their fuzz enthusiast counterparts, and thankfully their songwriting stands up to the more stripped down style. The songs are clever, fun, and brilliantly hooky, paying homage to the likes of The Pixies and Nirvana (they even reference Nirvana on "Torture Me") and with lyrics about setting people on fire, this band is pretty hard to resist. I was really looking forward to Harlem's set at Lollapalooza and luckily they didn't disappoint me. These guys are exactly what a young band should be, a little bit goofy, a little bit hungover and a little bit disorganized. None of those things were negatives here though, it was all very charming and necessary. The members of Harlem, particularly co-founder's Michael Coomer and Curtis O'Mara share vocalist and drummer duties, which means quite a bit of band shuffling. This was far from excruciating though, in fact, knowing Hippies pretty well, it was quite interesting seeing which vocalist/drummer played on which songs. Overall Harlem's Lollapalooza performance was exactly what I expected: just a plain good time.
Grizzly Bear:Budweiser Stage
4:15-5:15 pm
Needless to say Grizzly Bear's set was the highlight of my weekend. I count them among my favorite bands, and I had yet to see them at this point. My history with Grizzly Bear is not a love-at-first-listen story, in fact, the first time I heard Yellow House, I didn't like it at all. It was too abstract, sonic, even precious at times. About a year or so later, I gave them another shot, my music taste had expanded quite a bit and apparently time was all I needed. The band's Friend EP was a big part of my new-found love. The fact that both Band of Horses and Atlas Sound provided covers of the band's material made it more accessible, but the electric version of Yellow House's "Little Brother" was what really pushed me over the edge. Back-story aside, Grizzly Bear's 3 full-lengths and one EP show quite the progression. 2004's Horn of Plenty is ambiance focused and the least constructed, on Yellow House the songs start to gain some semblance of structure and form, the Friend EP provided altered versions of Yellow House material done by both the band itself as well as other groups, and their newest effort Veckatimest is easily their most accessible. Grizzly Bear's members are all multi-talented, multi-instrumentalists with a penchant for harmonizing and laborious song-craft. Grizzly Bear isn't about melody or structure, it's about sounds and they way in which they come into contact with one-another. The band's members are relevant outside of Grizzly Bear as well, Daniel Rossen has re-established his earlier band Department of Eagles and Chris Taylor has had hands in the production of both Dirty Projectors, and The Morning Benders. Grizzly Bear's songs are meticulous and dense, which can be difficult to re-create in a live setting, luckily, Grizzly Bear is just as conscious of their live show as their recorded material. Their set here was simply incredible. In an atmosphere like Lollapalooza, where big and loud tends to garner the most attention, Grizzly Bear really held their own. The band seems to have shifted a bit in the sense that the songs sounded fuller, and less sprawling, but the elaborateness and quality of sound remained. The harmonies were flawless of course, and there didn't seem to be a single fidgety audience member. The band is still touring around their newest release Veckatimest, so there was plenty from that album as well as Yellow House favorites such as Little Brother and Knife. Totally worth painting "Grizzly Bear" on my arm for (Picture to follow.)
Spoon:
Budweiser Stage
6:15-7:30
Spoon's career has spanned 17 years and 7 studio albums, to say that they are an institution of sorts would be an understatement. These guys are "indie-rock" in the truest sense of the words, what they play is rock, and they play it well. Spoon has never made a bad album, and I'm almost convinced they aren't able to. They released their newest album Transference earlier this year, and though perhaps not as good as it's predecessor, 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Transference is a solid album from an incredibly consistent band. Consistency, not to in the sense that Spoon's albums are redundant, but rather that there is a quality of song and style that is always there. But what makes Spoon great is that they have expanded and experimented while withstanding not only a dedicated fan base, but also a great presence in the musical world. Earlier this year I saw Spoon play in Toronto with Deerhunter so I sort of knew what to expect from them here. Although the band is touring behind their latest effort, their rather large catalog of material guarantees the peppering of fan-favorites throughout the set-list. The band's Lolla set began with a Britt Daniel only acoustic version of Girls Can Tell's "Me and the Bean" and continued to include The Underdog, Don't you Evah, Stay Don't Go, I Summon You, Black Like Me, and a truly incredible cover of Wolf Parade's Modern World. Every song was played flawlessly, and Britt Daniel's signature yelp never faltered, as a Spoon die-hard, I may be biased, but this band really is something to behold.
Phoenix:
Budweiser Stage
8:30-10 pm
I stuck around after Spoon to ensure a good spot for Phoenix's Saturday night headlining set. The result of which was assault by numerous dancers and crowd surfers, as well as a lot of blurry pictures. No other band has blown up the way that Phoenix did this year. The French-pop group has been around for 10 years but 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix put Phoenix on everyone's year-end best-of lists. Phoenix's sound is crisp and clean, their production is meticulous and their songs undeniable. Keyboards, more than a few 'poppy' moments and singer Thomas Mars' vocals reign supreme. For their Lolla set, the band played mostly Wolfgang material, as well as some gems from 2006's It's Never Been Like That. The show itself was quite the sight, a manic light show and a hugely impressive crowd, was it worth getting kicked in the head for? I'd say yes.
(Not my photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment