Lollapalooza, day 1

Today was the first day of the 3 day Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park. As it started on a Friday, I would say that it started kind of slow but there were some bands that played relatively early in the day that were pretty popular. I didn't arrive until about 1 PM because there wasn't anything that started early that interested me. My volunteer shift didn't start until 2 PM so I had some time to bop around and check out a few of the bands that I had never heard of. Anathallo and Husky Rescue started at 1 PM on the small stages and Aqualung and Cursive started on the 2nd stages at 1:30 PM. I walked by the small stages and waited to see Aqualung and wasn't terribly impressed, I started walking back and happened to notice Anathallo and thought they were really good. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch the end of their set. Maybe I will catch them at a later date when they are in Chicago again. I am really interested in them now that I have found they are from Mt. Pleasant, MI (just west of Midland). I was interested in seeing both bands that were starting their sets at 2 PM, eels and Panic! At the Disco. I was really more interested in seeing eels, but my volunteer job put me on the south side of the park where Panic! was playing. My partner moved slowly so I missed much of their set but what I ddi see was pretty good. It was pretty funny that they did Crazy (the Gnarls Barkley song). It was pretty good and I didn't know it at the time but I would see that song three times. After Panic! I wasn't really interested in anything until 5 PM when Mates of State started. I did see some of Stars and Umphrey's McGee's sets. I liked Stars, I had forgotten but they are part of the Canadian collective that also includes Metric, Feist, and Broken Social Scene who I will see tomorrow (actually, I will see Feist tomorrow and Broken Social Scene on Sunday). Mates of State was the band that did the second version of Crazy. After I finished my shift at 5:30 PM, I grabbed something to eat and listened to The Secret Machines while I tried to get a good place to see The Raconteurs (Jack White's other band). As might be expected, they put on a great set (including the 3rd version of Crazy). After their set, I had to rush to the other side of the park to catch Sleater-Kinney. They had announced their "indefinite hiatus" and this would be their last show outside their hometown of Portland, OR. Their set was probably the best of the night and I really felt sorry for Death Cab for Cutie who was the nights headliner on that side of the park. While I really like Death Cab, I think that it was a really bad idea to put anyone after Sleater-Kinney and after their set, I just could not get into Death Cab, so I left early.

Tomorrow, I will try to get to the park by noon so I can see Rainer Maria.