The Food Of Lolla
“If music be the food of love, play on;/ Give me excess of it”
[Shakespeare, Twelfth Night]
Musical “taste” and actual sensory taste are two quite different beasts. Taste and smell are, literally and figuratively, acquired tastes. Think about it: when you are young, you have not tasted much, you do not want to taste very much, and learning to taste can be quite unpleasant. I, for one, never really got the hang of eating cheese (although I am lactose indifferent, not intolerant). Musical taste, however, is something we seem to lose over time: we like what we know, and we leave it to the younger folks to listen to new music. When I reach for music, it’s usually something I am familiar with, not something new, and I consider myself to be in the music business (at least, peripherally).
We literally acquire taste: and good tastes usually don’t come cheap. Expensive restaurant, fresh ingredients, fine wine, all need to be acquired. And if interested, we find ways to expose ourselves to new taste sensations. We literally learn new tastes.
Younger folks, they want to discover new music. They live to discover what is new, and to be on the edge. And one place where it’s easy to discover a whole lot of new music at once is at one of the several mega-music festivals like Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, and Coachella, all of which offer fans the opportunity to hear literally dozens of (new) bands over the course of several days. Here’s an analogy: music festivals are to single-venue concerts as buffets are to sit-down dinners. At a festival, you get “excess of it” (if you want it), and that allows you to learn and experience the thrill of bands and artists on the rise. Cutting edge music is a young person’s birthright in the US. And, when you go to one of the big festivals, you either feel young again, or very, very old.
All those new, up-and-coming bands don’t really draw the ticket-buyers, so festivals have learned how to mix the ingredients of old and new. And the bands that draw, they know what they are worth, and they don’t really “need” the festival (though I think they often genuinely love the exposure), so, they cost real guaranteed money to play. In a way, the less-known bands (who get paid less) get to ride on the coat tails of their more established peers. But in some ways, of course, it’s the other way around: the more famous acts drawing some modicum of cache from all the hips bands, and the fans who are there for them.
The most costly music festival for the promoters (but certainly NOT for the ticket-buying patrons) in the US these days may well be Chicago’s Lollapalooza. Note the possessive. Chicago’s. While Lollapalooza, the brain-love-heart child of Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction, Satellite Party), was once a touring concert, with a handful of acts on the bill, it is now more-or-less permanently ensconced in Chicago’s Grant Park. Grant Park is Chicago’s “front lawn”, right on the lake front, with Windy City’s diverse and impressive skyline pressing up against it.
I say “more-or-less permanently” to describe Lollapalooza’s “Chicago-ness” only because a large part of the appeal of rock music lies in the perpetual impression it seeks to cultivate of impermanence. While lasting can be a positive for rock and independent bands, in general, the younger crowd wants it meat fresh. And while “Lolla” bridges and harbors many kinds of music (and musical tastes), it is, and will likely continue to be, first and foremost about rock, especially the independent, buck-the-system kind. Nabokov would’ve been proud.
Lately it seems there is a major music festival happening somewhere in the States almost every weekend during the summer (and I am talking here only about contemporary music festivals like rock, punk, folk and “indie”, as opposed to classical music, or even, at this point, jazz, which while vibrant as an art form, now has a whiff of the historical about it).
Some fans may be getting “festivaled out.” But Lollapalooza, despite having relinquished its itinerant past, continues to be about what’s hip and happening now in music. It’s the epitome of the au courant, as those chic French might say. Even Bonnaroo, founded as the leading festival for so-called “jam” bands, with anchor tenants like Widespread Panic, Phil Lesh and the Dead, and Trey Anastasio in whatever water-out-of-Phish incarnation he finds himself flowing through, has become fringier and far less jam-band oriented. It has been “forced” to update its line-up by becoming more progressive and less “classic”.
Indeed, most music festivals have recognized that their current and future success (and these are franchises that are being built, make no mistake) is and must be built on the hard foundation of the “kids”, which means featuring music that is most of the now…
And “now” ain’t cheap. And it ain’t easy to program (kids being fickle, and their tastes changing as fast and as furiously as they are wont to). And then, of course, it’s one thing to do a festival on a farm or desert in the middle of nowhere (or in your own backyard): Chicago, being a big union city, can be, ahem, somewhat spendy. Pleasing the kids ain’t easy.
While Bonnaroo may have the highest attendance (reportedly topping off at about 85,000 or so in 2006) of any music festival in the US, it can’t cost nearly as much as Lolla does to put on. And Bonnaroo, you’ve got the camping, which winds up being profitable, with that captive audience there day and night, needing beer and pizza and whatever else the kids consume. Lolla has curfews, it has hotels, it has convenience stores up the street. It lost big money in its inaugural Chicago try last year. But this year, well: Lolla did well.
Let’s begin at the end. As host Perry Farrell (the founder of the whole Lollapalooza concept) said in his introduction, the closing act on the main (ATT&T) stage, Red Hot Chili Peppers, are America’s biggest rock band right now. And they were on the bill many years ago at the second Lollapalooza, back in 1992. The first Lolla, somewhat ironically, but fittingly, had been conceived of as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction; Perry would probably confirm he thought that that band of his was getting rather old, a smidge long in the tooth, even then. So them Peppers were solid ‘06 headliners, regardless of whether you like their music or not. They bring the cache. Look for other bands from that year’s line-up to headline Lolla in the coming years….
The Chili Peppers set was smattered with covers, including snippets of Neil Young’s The Needle and the Damage Done and London Calling by The Clash. They looked like major rock stars, Flea with his tattoos, Anthony Kiedis with his needy, needly voice, and they have taken enough time off that you don’t realize they’re halfway through their third decade. And a highlight for me was hearing John Frusciante, one of the best living rock guitarists, play a spot-on cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her. He may be the most important member of the band (not that Dave Navarro wasn’t great during JF’s six-year hiatus, but Frusciante adds a certain frisson). And I don’t want to say I was disappointed, because I didn’t really have any expectations. But, I highly doubt they will be headlining too many festivals for the CSE/Cap guys again, based on the uniformity of luke-warm reaction they received. The Chili Peppers, to my ears, were totally eclipsed (& out-hotted) by two decidedly smaller acts immediately preceding.
On the Q101 stage immediately across from where the Chili Peppers did their triumphal closing (and to be fair, the Peppers’ve come a long way since 1983, baby), Canada’s own super-group, Broken Social Scene, absolutely shredded during their 45-minute set (short, but they were literally right before RHCP). It’s hard to describe the Social Scene’s sound (although I would liken it to a darker and more complex Polyphonic Spree, without, of course, the “Spree”…). BSS has a deeply loyal Canadian following, and anyone who was lucky enough to catch those 45 minutes was likely to have been blown away by their sound (and by them””they are some catchy folks, with like 20 people on the stage at one point making their music). And while it was over all-too-quickly, it felt like the sound of the present effortlessly blended with both the past and the future. And Jeffrey Remedios, co-owner of Ontario’s Arts and Crafts Records, which houses BSS, Feist, Stars, Jason Collett and the Apostle of Hustle, has definitely got to be a leading contender to inherit the 21st-century David Geffen mantle. The crowd seemed almost ready to riot (in a Canadian kind of way) when the BSS were denied a brief, 5-minute encore. Harsh.
Definitely read this compelling article about Broken Social Scene and the new Canadian sound from the Sunday Times Magazine by a former “student” of mine at Brown, Alissa Quart (I was her TA in a literature course). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/magazine/26toronto.html
Across Grant Park, on the other end, far, far away (almost a mile) from the field where BSS and Chili Peppers closed the festival, were local heroes Wilco, on from 6.30-7.30. On the day of lead singer Jeff Tweedy’s 11th wedding anniversary, it was a full-on family affair: a celebration of Chicago’s modern sound. The Chili Peppers have California (and the hit, Dani California), and Broken Social Scene’s got Canada covered. But Wilco is all about the country that might be called the Great Midwest””of which, of course, Chicago is the capital, and Lake Michigan provides the “Coast”. Wilco is Chicago, and the Chicago faithful greeted them as their very own headliners: hail conquering heroes.
Sunday had a whole lot of good music. I enjoyed Chicago’s up-and-coming The Redwalls with my first cup of coffee, and both Ben Kweller and Nickel Creek did arresting sets (at opposite ends of the venue, meaning I only got to hear a few minutes of each). These are both fresh young bands, just making it, and about to make it even bigger. On a small side-stage (the AMD, and I don’t even know what company that is), the eclectic Benevento-Russo Duo, who’ve been around for a while, soared with their jazz-ish, improvised sound; they are together and individually gaining quite a bit of notoriety based on their numerous “side projects” (with members of Phish, and Ween, and Umphrey’s McGee, etc.). To the extent that in some ways, one could argue that the Duo itself has become their “side project”. I also got to hear a few moments of alt-alt legends Poi Dog Pondering (whose lead singer, Frank Orral, has been moonlighting, leading Thievery Corporation’s band on its current tour). And Perry Farrell’s latest Satellite Party song, Celebration (does everyone have a song with that name these days?). I am not sure if I caught any cover’s of Gnarls Barkley’s summer blockbuster Crazy, but I know I heard at least 3 different versions of it over the course of the weekend, not including Gnarls Barkley’s own version, with its band and dancers in full tennis whites.
Bands I would have like to have seen but didn’t: deadboy & the Elephantmen, who opened the festival at quarter to noon on Friday. The Subways, who killed at SXSW. The afore-mentioned Stars, of Quebec. And the up-and-coming Editors (who played opposite them). Umphrey’s McGee, Secret Machines and Jack White’s new side gig, the Raconteurs. Sleater-Kinney, on what may be their last tour ever, as they go on indefinite hiatus this month. Odies the Violent Femmes (opposite them). And, of course, the post post-modern Ween. One thing about Ween: you can never tell how much of their music is parody, and how much is just appreciation. But, they always seem fucking sincere to me.
Saturday I got to the Park too late for Feist, and barely caught hard rock fury that is Wolf Mother (for which I missed the newly re-vamped Partcile and Lyrics Born). I was awed by the loyalty of the Dresden Dolls fans (from my hometown of Boston””the duo reminds me of Morphine on steroids, but without, as yet, the finesse); we got a treat when Amanda’s shirt came off, and we got to see her breasts, which are real, and like Sidra’s on Seinfeld, quite spectacular). She took it in stride and simply quipped, “wardrobe malfunction.” And the ubiquitous Flaming Lips did their colorful show (sans strip-tease, but then, you can’t fake that). But the highlight of the night for me was watching Manu Chao blow Kanye West all the way back to Soldier Field. Kanye’s sound sucked ass, and it was pretty clear he knew it. And I know, Kanye is another hometown hero, and he probably brought in a lot of “day traffic” to the event to see his show (including some of the club kids fresh off their Chicago Scene party on boats on Lake Michigan’s Playpen). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/fashion/13BOAT.html. But my man Manu Chao is an international star who’s not played the US in several years, and his hip world music and utterly danceable, hip-shake-able tunes were an absolute revelation.
Manu Chao v. Kanye West in many ways embodies the glory of the current Lollapalooza. You have your hometown hip-hop hero doing his thing down at one end of the Park, and almost a mile away, a far-less familiar world star who, for most Midwesterners would be, well, a discovery. While the discovery may have been missed by many in Chicago that nice Saturday night, it’s one they just might make eventually, just because he was on the bill. That’s what a great music festival is all about: discovering music. Having the luxury and time to hear a tune or two by bands you’d probably never go near, otherwise.
So if you make it to one of these summer extravaganzas (Austin City Limits Fest, put on by the same CSE/CAP team, is coming up on September 15-17th in Austin, Texas), my advice would be this””make time for the bands you’ve never even heard of. You never know which of those unknowns may wind up being the next Wilco, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And if you love music, discovering the new shit is, quite often, its own reward.
You don’t have to be a kid to acquire taste in new music. Indeed, at least 80% of your “success” in discovering new things you like is “just showing up”, to quote Woody Allen.