Lollapalooza 08/01-03/08
Behind the cut is my report from attending Lollapalooza last month. Next up on my overdue reports will be a review of the She & Him concert I went to, also in August.
Lollapalooza
At Grant Park
08/01-03/2008
I arrived at Grant Park, where Lollapalooza is held a bit early so I could try to get a good spot to see Radiohead. There were already a lot of people standing, or sitting/laying on blankets in the area around the stage that Radiohead was going to play at. I followed a line of people that were also making their way up front, and I wound up with a spot maybe 6 or so people back from the far right of the stage. I couldn’t really see too well from there, but there were also big screens. There were a lot of really drunk people at the show, and a lot of smokers, some smoking going on that was not cigarettes. I drank a bottle of water as I waited, and I thought about how this stage was the same one that I saw Silverchair play at last summer.
Some intro music began playing, and then the band walked on stage. I could only really see part of Thom Yorke’s head and neck, sometimes a little more than that. Sometimes I could see one of the other guys, I’m not sure who it was though. The screens, instead of showing exactly what was going on stage had several cameras angles divided up so you could see each of the guys, and maybe some of their instruments at a closer up angle, but all at once, and with a tint of a strange color like purple or something. They opened with 15 Step, and then went into Airbag.
Thom didn’t really talk much during the show. Before one of the songs he said something about how they’re from England, but he pronounced England in a very amusing way. I don’t really remember him saying much of anything else.
There was a guy behind me who passed out during one of the earlier songs, which was scary. A guy next to him (his friend?) had to drag him out of there, though I did see he regained consciousness, so that was good.
I decided to get some of the songs on video using my cell phone. For example, when I noticed that Weird Fish was playing, I immediately thought of my friend Amanda because that is one of her very favorite Radiohead songs. So I was sure to get that one for her. I still have to upload my videos though.
Sometime after No Surprises played, I decided that I wanted to get out of the pit area as I would like to be able to see the entire band on the stage, and I was sick of the really drunk people and the smoke, and I needed some air. I walked around to try to find a good spot, tried a few places out, one where two guys were actually fighting each other (or maybe they were doing some moshing?) and each of them bumped into me - I left there. I was feeling kind of lonely and sad, and then Everything in its Right Place started up - and so did some fireworks. I don’t know if that was actually part of the show, or if that was something else, but it was really cool and they went nicely together.
The feelings of loneliness though started back up again. It’s strange because usually when I’m in a crowd of people at a concert, I’m not sure what it was about this one. Anyhow, I had moved quite a ways back at this point and could not see the entire stage, but it was too far away for me to really be able to see the band. Though it was good to be away from all the people, or rather to have more space around me.
I had really been wanting to hear the song Optimistic as it is one that I like quite a lot, and it’s one that was stuck in my head leading up to the concert. I was kind of thinking I wasn’t going to get to hear it - and then it started playing and I was really happy that it did.
The entire set list was as follows:
15 Step
Airbag
There There
All I Need, Nude
Weird Fish
The Gloaming
The National Anthem
Faust Arp
No Surprises
Jigsaw Falling into Place
Reckoner, Lucky
The Bends
Everything in Its Right Place
Fake Plastic Trees
Bodysnatchers
Videotape
Paranoid Android
Dollars and Cents
House of Cards
Optamistic
2+2=5
Idioteque
I believe that the encore was just Idioteque, but I’m not entirely sure.
After the show was over I made my way over to the merchandise stand and got a Radiohead t-shirt, which I discovered is made with something like 50% Cotton and 50% Recycled Plastic Bottles. Apparently, Recycled Plastic bottles can be turned into polyester type fabric, which is actually really soft. I think that’s awesome, it’s great there’s another good use for recycled plastic bottles, and it’s cool that Radiohead are doing something about the environment like that.
The next day I got there are a little bit earlier as I wanted to see The Toadies play and they weren’t the headliner of that day, they were playing at a smaller stage a ways back and somewhat off to the side of the stage where I had seen Radiohead the night before.
Way back in 1995 (or was it 1996?) I first found out about The Toadies in an advertisement for a concert they were doing here that was said in a creepy voice and went, “The Toadies are coming… are coming… from Texas… The Toadies are coming… are coming… this Friday.” Anyway, after that and hearing Possum Kingdom, I was amused by them, and I got their album, “Rubberneck” and I became a fan. I liked their second album “Hell Below/Stars Above” as well, and was happily surprised after the Lollapalooza line up info came out, to find that they had gotten back together (minus their bassist Lisa Umbarger). I had never been to one of their concerts before, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
I first got a spot in about the second row, then this girl near me turned to me and said something like “I can’t see,let’s move”, and so she led the way further toward the center. After a little while we got separated as she kept going more center, but I stayed in a very nice spot, and after a while the person in front of me left, so I wound up with a spot front row, a bit to the left.
The Toadies opened with “Backslider” and it was pretty incredible that all these fans were singing along to a song that came out 12 or 13 years ago and hadn’t gotten airplay (it wasn’t a single). I felt happy, singing along with the parts I remembered - I hadn’t listened to the album in quite some time. They played a lot of songs off of “Rubberneck”, half the set actually. They also played at least one song off of their forthcoming album, “No Deliverance”, I thought that it sounded good and am looking forward to hearing the new album when it comes out.
I thought that Possum Kingdom would probably be saved for the encore, but to my surprise it wasn’t. Before that song Todd Lewis (the guitarist/singer) asked the audience how many of us were seeing them for the first time. A lot of people raised their hands. Then Todd said, “well, we’re that band who played that song,” and then they started into Possum Kingdom, which I think is most likely their best known song.
At one point a guy near me started shouting something that I initially heard as “Sylar! Sylar!” This really confused me until I realized he must have been yelling for them to play their song called Tyler, which made a lot more sense.
Someone held up a Texas flag in the audience, and at the end they threw that on stage.
The complete set list is as follows:
Backslider
Quitter
Hell Below Stars Above
So Long Lovely Eyes
Away
I am a Man of Stone
Push
The Hand
Possum Kingdom
No Deliverence
Mr. Love
I Burn
Plane Crash
I Come From The Water
Little Sin
Tyler
This is the order that they texted me, thanks to the cool feature Lollapalooza offered where you let them know what band’s set you want, and then they text you what it was, after that band plays. I tried to do that for the other bands that I went to see, but for some reason it only worked with Radiohead and The Toadies. Anyway, I think that the encore here (as it is not marked in the text) started with “I Come From The Water”, but I’m not sure.
The Toadies were really a lot of fun to see live, and it made me want to go and listen to their albums again.
During their set, I tried to film a couple of the songs with my cell phone camera - and I did, only in the middle of saving one of the files, my phone stopped working. I kind of freaked out a little about this, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I’m not sure if it overheated or what, but there was some liquid on the battery when I got home, so maybe that was the cause. In any case, the files from the Toadies set didn’t work. Oh well.
After the Toadies, I tried to go to the AT&T air conditioned area to see if maybe someone in there would know what was wrong with my phone, but no luck. They were closed. So I found a place to stand for Rage Against the Machine on the main stage - the same one that Radiohead played at the night before.
Rage Against the Machine opened with “Testify” and then they went into “Bulls on Parade”, followed by “People of the Sun”. In the middle of “People of the Sun” Zach de la Rocha stopped singing, and the rest of the group stopped playing, and Zach told the audience that there were some people up front getting crushed, and he wanted everyone to take five or six steps back before they would start playing. He told us, “we have to take care of one another” or something like that, and that they wouldn’t cut their set short, but they were going to wait until the people took some steps back before they would continue. I thought that was really nice of the band, keeping an eye on their fans and wanting them to be safe like that. There was a while where I guess people were either trying to move back or nothing was happening, but then the band started up again so I guess things got taken care of.
It was sort of a weird experience seeing Rage Against the Machine because they were one of my mom’s favorite bands. I mostly listened to them when she would play their music, and I wanted to see them primarily because they meant so much to her - I do like them though. So it was kind of emotional for me to be there, listening to them, thinking about my mom. They were a really great band to see/hear live. I don’t know a whole lot of RATM songs by name, and the album I am most familiar with is “The Battle of Los Angeles”. The other songs that I remember them playing were: “Guerilla Radio” (I thought that this was especially powerful with the crowd singing along), “Calm Like a Bomb”, “Son of a Broken Man”, “Sleep Now in the Fire”, and “Killing in the Name of”.
At a later part in their set, there once again was a problem with some people - this time particularly girls - being crushed up in the front, and so they stopped playing and Zach again told the audience to look out for one another. Again they waited for the people to move back some before they started playing again.
Zach talked about the elections and how if the candidates don’t keep their promises they will have a legion of young black and Latino brothers and sisters to answer to. He said some other interesting things about politics, but I can’t remember the quotes, something about waking up was part of it.
My spot was pretty far back, though I could see the stage, and the video footage was very helpful. Interestingly, there were bunches of mini-mosh pits around the crowd with just a couple of people sort of running at each other and jumping around.
As the set progressed, more and more people left. I took this opportunity to move up a ways closer to the stage - though still pretty far away. I was glad that I had chosen not to go up near the front of the stage for this one, given how Zach described the crowd situation up there.
“Killing in the Name of” was their encore song, and after it finished, the band gathered in a group hug. I thought that was nice. They all looked really happy too. It’s good that they’re finally back together.
After their set I made my way over to the merchandise area only to find that mounted police out front. I started to approach the tent anyway, and this lady who worked there goes, “we’re closed!” and I started to turn away to leave as this guy says to the lady working there, “oh I envy your job, disappointing people.” It was kind of funny.
It was an impressive sight to see the streets near by closed off and all these people walking onto Michigan avenue en mass. At random intervals some people in the crowd started screaming and then a lot of other people would join in. At first, I kind of wondered if maybe something was going on, but there wasn’t anything that I could tell.
The next day I got to Grant Park early on account of wanting to be sure to 1. Get the t-shirts I wanted before the merchandise area closed, and 2. Get a good spot to see Nine Inch Nails.
First, I stopped and got the t-shirts: One Nine Inch Nails, one Toadies, one Rage Against the Machine, and two Radiohead shirts (one to give to my friend Amanda). As I walked away from the merchandise area, I noticed someone wearing what I thought was a cool homemade Rage Against the Machine shirt that had the design from the cover of “The Battle of Los Angeles” but said, “The Battle of Chicago” on it. Later though, I discovered that this was actually a t-shirt that was on sale at the merchandise stand -I came to this conculusion by seeing a bunch more people wearing the shirt.
I found a pretty good spot for Nine Inch Nails and waited there for a while, but then decided to move. I wound up further back, but with a better view of the big screens.
The Nine Inch Nails concert was amazing. They had a cool lighting design to go with their set, and they played and sang very well. I saw them once before, seven years ago, so it was cool to get to hear some of their newer songs live, as well as their older stuff too.
As I said earlier, I wasn’t able to get their set texted to me, though I still don’t know why. However, I just looked their set list up on google and found the following:
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
Vessel
Ghosts 5
Ghosts 25
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Echoplex
Hurt
In this Twilight
(from http://thespaghettiincident.blogspot.com/2008/08/nine-inch-nails-concert-set-list-from.html)
I still haven’t listened to their latest album, but the songs from it sounded good to me. The crowd was very into the set and sang along to all the songs that had lyrics. It felt powerful to be part of such a big crowd of people who were obviously fans and to sing along like that.
While watching the show, I was able to move up a bit closer to the stage - still far from it, but it was nice to get closer.
I was expecting them to start playing “The Wretched” after they played “The Frail” as that’s how it goes on the album, and I was so used to hearing those two songs next to each other. So it was quite a surprise when they started playing “Closer” instead.
At some point, the screens featured some people in the audience who were holding up a big Canadian flag and people started cheering. Someone near me yelled, “free health care!”
Trent hadn’t said much during the concert other than a couple of “Thank you”s or “Thanks”, so when the band came back for the encore, it was nice to hear him give a little speech to us. He told us that he was sorry about his voice - apparently, he had some kind of cold/virus, and you could hear the hoarseness in his voice when he spoke, but you could not tell that he was sick when he was singing. He told us that seventeen summers ago he received a phone call from Perry Farrell asking if they would like to be part of the first ever Lollapalooza. Trent was surprised that Perry wanted to take a chance on “a bunch of kids from Cleveland”, but he said yes and that he was amazed that 1. he is still alive (this caused some laughter from the crowd) and 2, that here they are again at Lollapalooza, playing to a sold out crowd of appreciative fans. Then he said, “this is a song I wrote for myself when I was in a very dark place, and then I gave it to a friend,” and then they started to play “Hurt.” Somebody in the audience goes, “oh it’s that Johnny Cash song”, though I think they were joking - though he did do a cover of it. Lighters were held in the air as the crowd whispered along with the lyrics. It was moving. The second song of the encore was “In This Twilight”, which made me the most emotional of any of the songs that night. This is in a big part because the song makes me think of Nathan singing to Peter in the end of the episode of Heroes “How to Stop an Exploding Man”, and so hearing it live, outside with a big city skyline in back of the stage, stirred up all this sadness in me.
Nine Inch Nails were definitely the highlight of Lollapalooza for me this year.
After their show was over, I took a picture of the skyline because it was a really beautiful night. Then I headed out through the very packed crowd and out onto the mass of people covering Michigan Avenue. Some people took photos of themselves standing out front of the Lollapalooza area, and once again, people randomly began screaming for no apparent reason.
Lollapalooza
At Grant Park
08/01-03/2008
I arrived at Grant Park, where Lollapalooza is held a bit early so I could try to get a good spot to see Radiohead. There were already a lot of people standing, or sitting/laying on blankets in the area around the stage that Radiohead was going to play at. I followed a line of people that were also making their way up front, and I wound up with a spot maybe 6 or so people back from the far right of the stage. I couldn’t really see too well from there, but there were also big screens. There were a lot of really drunk people at the show, and a lot of smokers, some smoking going on that was not cigarettes. I drank a bottle of water as I waited, and I thought about how this stage was the same one that I saw Silverchair play at last summer.
Some intro music began playing, and then the band walked on stage. I could only really see part of Thom Yorke’s head and neck, sometimes a little more than that. Sometimes I could see one of the other guys, I’m not sure who it was though. The screens, instead of showing exactly what was going on stage had several cameras angles divided up so you could see each of the guys, and maybe some of their instruments at a closer up angle, but all at once, and with a tint of a strange color like purple or something. They opened with 15 Step, and then went into Airbag.
Thom didn’t really talk much during the show. Before one of the songs he said something about how they’re from England, but he pronounced England in a very amusing way. I don’t really remember him saying much of anything else.
There was a guy behind me who passed out during one of the earlier songs, which was scary. A guy next to him (his friend?) had to drag him out of there, though I did see he regained consciousness, so that was good.
I decided to get some of the songs on video using my cell phone. For example, when I noticed that Weird Fish was playing, I immediately thought of my friend Amanda because that is one of her very favorite Radiohead songs. So I was sure to get that one for her. I still have to upload my videos though.
Sometime after No Surprises played, I decided that I wanted to get out of the pit area as I would like to be able to see the entire band on the stage, and I was sick of the really drunk people and the smoke, and I needed some air. I walked around to try to find a good spot, tried a few places out, one where two guys were actually fighting each other (or maybe they were doing some moshing?) and each of them bumped into me - I left there. I was feeling kind of lonely and sad, and then Everything in its Right Place started up - and so did some fireworks. I don’t know if that was actually part of the show, or if that was something else, but it was really cool and they went nicely together.
The feelings of loneliness though started back up again. It’s strange because usually when I’m in a crowd of people at a concert, I’m not sure what it was about this one. Anyhow, I had moved quite a ways back at this point and could not see the entire stage, but it was too far away for me to really be able to see the band. Though it was good to be away from all the people, or rather to have more space around me.
I had really been wanting to hear the song Optimistic as it is one that I like quite a lot, and it’s one that was stuck in my head leading up to the concert. I was kind of thinking I wasn’t going to get to hear it - and then it started playing and I was really happy that it did.
The entire set list was as follows:
15 Step
Airbag
There There
All I Need, Nude
Weird Fish
The Gloaming
The National Anthem
Faust Arp
No Surprises
Jigsaw Falling into Place
Reckoner, Lucky
The Bends
Everything in Its Right Place
Fake Plastic Trees
Bodysnatchers
Videotape
Paranoid Android
Dollars and Cents
House of Cards
Optamistic
2+2=5
Idioteque
I believe that the encore was just Idioteque, but I’m not entirely sure.
After the show was over I made my way over to the merchandise stand and got a Radiohead t-shirt, which I discovered is made with something like 50% Cotton and 50% Recycled Plastic Bottles. Apparently, Recycled Plastic bottles can be turned into polyester type fabric, which is actually really soft. I think that’s awesome, it’s great there’s another good use for recycled plastic bottles, and it’s cool that Radiohead are doing something about the environment like that.
The next day I got there are a little bit earlier as I wanted to see The Toadies play and they weren’t the headliner of that day, they were playing at a smaller stage a ways back and somewhat off to the side of the stage where I had seen Radiohead the night before.
Way back in 1995 (or was it 1996?) I first found out about The Toadies in an advertisement for a concert they were doing here that was said in a creepy voice and went, “The Toadies are coming… are coming… from Texas… The Toadies are coming… are coming… this Friday.” Anyway, after that and hearing Possum Kingdom, I was amused by them, and I got their album, “Rubberneck” and I became a fan. I liked their second album “Hell Below/Stars Above” as well, and was happily surprised after the Lollapalooza line up info came out, to find that they had gotten back together (minus their bassist Lisa Umbarger). I had never been to one of their concerts before, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
I first got a spot in about the second row, then this girl near me turned to me and said something like “I can’t see,let’s move”, and so she led the way further toward the center. After a little while we got separated as she kept going more center, but I stayed in a very nice spot, and after a while the person in front of me left, so I wound up with a spot front row, a bit to the left.
The Toadies opened with “Backslider” and it was pretty incredible that all these fans were singing along to a song that came out 12 or 13 years ago and hadn’t gotten airplay (it wasn’t a single). I felt happy, singing along with the parts I remembered - I hadn’t listened to the album in quite some time. They played a lot of songs off of “Rubberneck”, half the set actually. They also played at least one song off of their forthcoming album, “No Deliverance”, I thought that it sounded good and am looking forward to hearing the new album when it comes out.
I thought that Possum Kingdom would probably be saved for the encore, but to my surprise it wasn’t. Before that song Todd Lewis (the guitarist/singer) asked the audience how many of us were seeing them for the first time. A lot of people raised their hands. Then Todd said, “well, we’re that band who played that song,” and then they started into Possum Kingdom, which I think is most likely their best known song.
At one point a guy near me started shouting something that I initially heard as “Sylar! Sylar!” This really confused me until I realized he must have been yelling for them to play their song called Tyler, which made a lot more sense.
Someone held up a Texas flag in the audience, and at the end they threw that on stage.
The complete set list is as follows:
Backslider
Quitter
Hell Below Stars Above
So Long Lovely Eyes
Away
I am a Man of Stone
Push
The Hand
Possum Kingdom
No Deliverence
Mr. Love
I Burn
Plane Crash
I Come From The Water
Little Sin
Tyler
This is the order that they texted me, thanks to the cool feature Lollapalooza offered where you let them know what band’s set you want, and then they text you what it was, after that band plays. I tried to do that for the other bands that I went to see, but for some reason it only worked with Radiohead and The Toadies. Anyway, I think that the encore here (as it is not marked in the text) started with “I Come From The Water”, but I’m not sure.
The Toadies were really a lot of fun to see live, and it made me want to go and listen to their albums again.
During their set, I tried to film a couple of the songs with my cell phone camera - and I did, only in the middle of saving one of the files, my phone stopped working. I kind of freaked out a little about this, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I’m not sure if it overheated or what, but there was some liquid on the battery when I got home, so maybe that was the cause. In any case, the files from the Toadies set didn’t work. Oh well.
After the Toadies, I tried to go to the AT&T air conditioned area to see if maybe someone in there would know what was wrong with my phone, but no luck. They were closed. So I found a place to stand for Rage Against the Machine on the main stage - the same one that Radiohead played at the night before.
Rage Against the Machine opened with “Testify” and then they went into “Bulls on Parade”, followed by “People of the Sun”. In the middle of “People of the Sun” Zach de la Rocha stopped singing, and the rest of the group stopped playing, and Zach told the audience that there were some people up front getting crushed, and he wanted everyone to take five or six steps back before they would start playing. He told us, “we have to take care of one another” or something like that, and that they wouldn’t cut their set short, but they were going to wait until the people took some steps back before they would continue. I thought that was really nice of the band, keeping an eye on their fans and wanting them to be safe like that. There was a while where I guess people were either trying to move back or nothing was happening, but then the band started up again so I guess things got taken care of.
It was sort of a weird experience seeing Rage Against the Machine because they were one of my mom’s favorite bands. I mostly listened to them when she would play their music, and I wanted to see them primarily because they meant so much to her - I do like them though. So it was kind of emotional for me to be there, listening to them, thinking about my mom. They were a really great band to see/hear live. I don’t know a whole lot of RATM songs by name, and the album I am most familiar with is “The Battle of Los Angeles”. The other songs that I remember them playing were: “Guerilla Radio” (I thought that this was especially powerful with the crowd singing along), “Calm Like a Bomb”, “Son of a Broken Man”, “Sleep Now in the Fire”, and “Killing in the Name of”.
At a later part in their set, there once again was a problem with some people - this time particularly girls - being crushed up in the front, and so they stopped playing and Zach again told the audience to look out for one another. Again they waited for the people to move back some before they started playing again.
Zach talked about the elections and how if the candidates don’t keep their promises they will have a legion of young black and Latino brothers and sisters to answer to. He said some other interesting things about politics, but I can’t remember the quotes, something about waking up was part of it.
My spot was pretty far back, though I could see the stage, and the video footage was very helpful. Interestingly, there were bunches of mini-mosh pits around the crowd with just a couple of people sort of running at each other and jumping around.
As the set progressed, more and more people left. I took this opportunity to move up a ways closer to the stage - though still pretty far away. I was glad that I had chosen not to go up near the front of the stage for this one, given how Zach described the crowd situation up there.
“Killing in the Name of” was their encore song, and after it finished, the band gathered in a group hug. I thought that was nice. They all looked really happy too. It’s good that they’re finally back together.
After their set I made my way over to the merchandise area only to find that mounted police out front. I started to approach the tent anyway, and this lady who worked there goes, “we’re closed!” and I started to turn away to leave as this guy says to the lady working there, “oh I envy your job, disappointing people.” It was kind of funny.
It was an impressive sight to see the streets near by closed off and all these people walking onto Michigan avenue en mass. At random intervals some people in the crowd started screaming and then a lot of other people would join in. At first, I kind of wondered if maybe something was going on, but there wasn’t anything that I could tell.
The next day I got to Grant Park early on account of wanting to be sure to 1. Get the t-shirts I wanted before the merchandise area closed, and 2. Get a good spot to see Nine Inch Nails.
First, I stopped and got the t-shirts: One Nine Inch Nails, one Toadies, one Rage Against the Machine, and two Radiohead shirts (one to give to my friend Amanda). As I walked away from the merchandise area, I noticed someone wearing what I thought was a cool homemade Rage Against the Machine shirt that had the design from the cover of “The Battle of Los Angeles” but said, “The Battle of Chicago” on it. Later though, I discovered that this was actually a t-shirt that was on sale at the merchandise stand -I came to this conculusion by seeing a bunch more people wearing the shirt.
I found a pretty good spot for Nine Inch Nails and waited there for a while, but then decided to move. I wound up further back, but with a better view of the big screens.
The Nine Inch Nails concert was amazing. They had a cool lighting design to go with their set, and they played and sang very well. I saw them once before, seven years ago, so it was cool to get to hear some of their newer songs live, as well as their older stuff too.
As I said earlier, I wasn’t able to get their set texted to me, though I still don’t know why. However, I just looked their set list up on google and found the following:
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
Vessel
Ghosts 5
Ghosts 25
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Echoplex
Hurt
In this Twilight
(from http://thespaghettiincident.blogspot.com/2008/08/nine-inch-nails-concert-set-list-from.html)
I still haven’t listened to their latest album, but the songs from it sounded good to me. The crowd was very into the set and sang along to all the songs that had lyrics. It felt powerful to be part of such a big crowd of people who were obviously fans and to sing along like that.
While watching the show, I was able to move up a bit closer to the stage - still far from it, but it was nice to get closer.
I was expecting them to start playing “The Wretched” after they played “The Frail” as that’s how it goes on the album, and I was so used to hearing those two songs next to each other. So it was quite a surprise when they started playing “Closer” instead.
At some point, the screens featured some people in the audience who were holding up a big Canadian flag and people started cheering. Someone near me yelled, “free health care!”
Trent hadn’t said much during the concert other than a couple of “Thank you”s or “Thanks”, so when the band came back for the encore, it was nice to hear him give a little speech to us. He told us that he was sorry about his voice - apparently, he had some kind of cold/virus, and you could hear the hoarseness in his voice when he spoke, but you could not tell that he was sick when he was singing. He told us that seventeen summers ago he received a phone call from Perry Farrell asking if they would like to be part of the first ever Lollapalooza. Trent was surprised that Perry wanted to take a chance on “a bunch of kids from Cleveland”, but he said yes and that he was amazed that 1. he is still alive (this caused some laughter from the crowd) and 2, that here they are again at Lollapalooza, playing to a sold out crowd of appreciative fans. Then he said, “this is a song I wrote for myself when I was in a very dark place, and then I gave it to a friend,” and then they started to play “Hurt.” Somebody in the audience goes, “oh it’s that Johnny Cash song”, though I think they were joking - though he did do a cover of it. Lighters were held in the air as the crowd whispered along with the lyrics. It was moving. The second song of the encore was “In This Twilight”, which made me the most emotional of any of the songs that night. This is in a big part because the song makes me think of Nathan singing to Peter in the end of the episode of Heroes “How to Stop an Exploding Man”, and so hearing it live, outside with a big city skyline in back of the stage, stirred up all this sadness in me.
Nine Inch Nails were definitely the highlight of Lollapalooza for me this year.
After their show was over, I took a picture of the skyline because it was a really beautiful night. Then I headed out through the very packed crowd and out onto the mass of people covering Michigan Avenue. Some people took photos of themselves standing out front of the Lollapalooza area, and once again, people randomly began screaming for no apparent reason.