As I said in my previous post, all of the videos I took at Lollapalooza were pretty terrible.  I didn’t have my Flip or anything too fancy, so I was just taking them with my digital camera, which doesn’t allow me to zoom in or out once I start filming, and also doesn’t have the highest video quality.  Plus, I’m pretty unwilling to stand with my camera in the air for the entirety of what were, in most cases, my favorite songs by whichever band I was watching.  I’d get one chorus recorded for posterity and then turn the camera off and enjoy the rest of the song in the moment.

Some people, however, are much more prepared/professional/devoted than I am.  YouTube is awash in Lollapalooza videos far, far superior to my own.  For the entry that had all of my personal thoughts on the shows, I wanted to only use my own photos and videos.  But as a follow-up, I thought it would be nice to pick out some better representations of the artists I saw.

The New Pornographers – “Challengers”

Dirty Projectors – “Cannibal Resource”

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For the third year in a row Johanna and I attended Lollapalooza in Chicago.  It’s become a tradition and a great excuse to return to a city we love.  (As I type this, I’m watching My Boys on TBS.  Yes, I love Chicago so much that I’ll even watch My Boys.)

I thought I would share my belated thoughts on the festival, along with some photos I took and a few terrible, shaky, fraction-of-the-full-song videos that I took.  Because who doesn’t love terrible videos?

Friday, August 6^th

4:00 – 5:00 The New Pornographers

During the first act of a music festival I’m always relatively distracted trying to get my bearings and people-watch, so it’s a shame that we started things off on Friday with The New Pornographers, a band that I actually like quite a bit.  I don’t remember much from their set.  I know Neko Case was wearing a big floppy hat, and I know that they played a nice version of “Challengers.”  That’s about it.

5:00 – 5:50 Dirty Projectors

Reviews of this performance were pretty mixed, and seemed to be less about the performance and more about how much the individual reviewer actually likes Dirty Projectors.  Well, I like Dirty Projectors and loved Bitte Orca, and I thought they were great.  The tempo of the songs was even less stable live, and several seemed just about to collapse before Dave Longstreth pulled everything back together.  The erratic nature added a nice bit of tension and seemed to snap me to attention, which was good since I’d been sleepwalking during the New Pornographers.

Johanna and I really enjoy this stage because it’s usually easy to get pretty close to the action, and also because we’ve seen some of our best afternoon/early evening shows here (Sharon Jones, Santigold, Band of Horses).

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