SiS At Lollapalooza - Day Three

For the final day of Lollapalooza, it was obvious who the Snatch and I were there to see.

For my fifth Pearl Jam show, I wanted to be as close as humanly possible to Eddie Vedder and the rest of the grunge pioneers. Where we ended up was with a nice spot along the "T-Rail" with no obstructions in the way, about just as far back as I was when I saw them in Hershey back in 2003.

We took the morning off; there was no one that just jumped out on the schedule that I really wanted to see first thing in the morning (Julliette and The Licks? Pass. Plus, I had injured myself the night before on an escalator. No, Mom, I wasn't drunk.) So after soaking in the pool, we headed down to the park for our final day to see the South End of the park already flowing with avid PJ fans sitting on blankets, drinking beer, wearing their tired and true shirts from tours they did back in the early 1990s. We had just missed Lupe Fiasco's set, but staked out our spot and got a chance to listen to Tapes 'n Tapes on the MySpace stage. Nothing new there; I like them, yes, but I guess I am just growing tired of always hearing them play the same songs. Even the new ones they played (which I heard them test out at a headlining gig in May) weren't stellar. They finished up and Kings Of Leon came on stage. I've always liked this family collective from the south, but their newest album Because Of The Times never set in with me. They totally tore it up, and the crowd was stoked for their performance. The new songs finally made sense: "On Call" and "Knocked Up" were two of the four songs I acutally enjoyed from the record, and seeing them live made me want to dig out my copy of the album. Older fare like "Molly's Chambers" and "The Bucket" were sweaty smashes, and the set closing "So Night, So Long" found Eddie Vedder coming out to belt out some words and smash some tambourines. Great times were had by all.

We then sat as My Morning Jacket set up and !!! played in the background. I couldn't tell much of what they were playing, but from the faint sounds I heard coming our way, I did notice they played "Dear Can." MMJ's set, meanwhile, kind of made me feel like we were lead on to see one thing, and only got half of what was advertised. Billed as a set with Chicago's Youth Symphony, they didn't not step on stage until the band was almost done their third song of the evening. Once the dozen or so kids were set up stage right, they only contributed to every other song. There were definitely some songs I thought they should have played on, though their set closing rendition of "Movin' On Up" made up for everything.

As the sun was set, and the air was cool, Perry Ferrell walked on stage for a very brief introduction to the event's final act. Opening with a monster rendition of "Why Go," Pearl Jam barreled through a tight set of the hits ("Better Man," "Even Flow," "Do The Evolution,") a song or two I had yet to see them play live ("Not For You,") and closing with their other standard show ender, that my cousin and I now always refer to as a Pearl Jam song ("Rockin' In The Free World," as once brought in to this world 20 years ago by Neil Young.) Next to Guided By Voices and Robert Pollard, PJ is easily my other favorite band to see live, but this definitely wasn't their best set. The band was electrified and full of energy, but the song selection I thought was poor. I know, in a festival setting you can't just play whatever you have to appeal to the masses, but more of a variety would've been a warm welcome. Either way, Vedder shouldn't of been edited by AT&T for speaking his mind if the #1 song in the country finds a 17 year old proclaiming that girls make him suicidal.

All in all, it was a great weekend, time of my life, bruised knee that still hurts withstanding. Either way, I'll be there again next year, G Snatch in tow, and other people I am sure.