Lollapalooza: Saturday

Having learned the lessons and the tricks of maneuvering and surviving Lolla, we set out for day two of the weekend of music.

Coming in the north entrance, we were going to head all the way south, but while walking by the Playstation stage we enjoyed what we heard from Chico Trujillo. A band that was not our initial schedule, they were a latin jam band. I believe we used the term "Latin Polka Boy" to describe them. Quite an unexpected treat and I'll be looking up some of their stuff now that I know they are good live.

We headed down to the Music Unlimited stage to catch a day set from Fitz & The Tantrums. A fairly new band that so far has just released an EP and a single album, they have a wonderful classic motown sound led by French lead singer Fitz. They proudly say they feature no guitars in their band, but the sound is no worse for wear as they have some wonderful organ, saxophone and everything else in the kitchen sink going. I was disappointed they didn't play my favorite "We Don't Need No Love Songs", but they closed out with "Money Grabber" which I've heard playing quite a bit lately on XM Alt Nation. A tremendously catchy song, I really hope this band catches on. The live performance was good but not transcendent, but a scorching hot sunny day in mid-afternoon isn't exactly prime set time.

Again a mid-afternoon lull without any bands we are dying to see. We are dying to get out of the heat though so we seek out a pub to get some dinner and drinks before coming back later in the evening and stop by the Deftones on our way back down south to camp out for the rest of the night. Luckily they played "House of Change" the one song of theirs I actually liked when I was in college. The other couple songs we heard were pretty boring, generic and bad, much like everything else besides that one song. Meh.

We camped out as close as possible on dry land to catch Cee Lo and stake out our good position for Eminem at the same stage later. Cee Lo was ummm...interesting. Beyond the wonderful "Fuck You", a few Gnarls Barkley songs and a couple other listens, I was expected a soul/funk brigade and really didn't know what it was going to be like. Ceel Lo came out dressed in something out of a heavy metal cliche with big spiked shoulder pads and a leather clad all female band. They then ripped into a searing cover of Danzig's "Mother" wtf? Alright that was cool and unexpected, but the show went downhill from there. The whole show seemed very out of sync with lots of misstarts and confusion. Cee Lo tried to play to the crowd which I'm assuming was there mostly to see Eminem later and got very irritated when they didn't respond as expected. He pretty much threw a hissy fit and was very bizarre. In addition to Danzig he did covers of Violent Femmes and Billy Idol and many keyboard/tape loops of other popular classic rock songs without delivering. It really seemed like the work of a not talented artist which I now have to wonder if Cee Lo really is after seeing such a horrid performance. He played a mediocre rendition of "Fuck You" which was probably dedicated to the fans at that point then left the stage 15 shy of his set time, the only act we saw that didn't use the fully allotted time.

Finally after a mad scramble to the bathroom and to bring some more water back for the group, we settled in for Eminem. It looked like everyone else had the same idea. I love My Morning Jacket and would still like to see them, but Eminem was our obvious choice for the Saturday headliner. The crowd was pumped up and I'm pretty sure we were some of the only few in the whole crowd, or at least the only ones who staked a claim to a good seat that weren't smoking during the show. Apparently Eminem is clean now, but his major fans are anything but.

I have to admit I am not familiar with his whole discography as my taste lean more toward the rock than rap, but Eminem does transcend that. He's a amazing song writer regardless of genre and I was very eager to see him perform as I've heard he's even better live. The first half or so of the show was mostly newer stuff that I wasn't familiar with, but it was all pretty good so I'll probably get on Rhapsody sometime this week and catch up with his new album. He then launched into Stan and did a medly of his older hits from his days before recovery. As 10 o'clock neared there were still two songs left that it was pretty obvious he was going to play. He launched into "Not Afraid" which is incredibly powerful live with the whole crowd singing along with the chorus. After massive cheers he came back for an encore of what else but "Lose Yourself". I've written about this song before and it is still amazing every time I listen to it. This isn't just my favorite rap song, it's one of my favorite anything songs ever. I love the way it starts out slow with the steady drum and guitar beat throughout. As the song intensifies, so does Eminem's voice along with the pace of his wording. The frantic last verse races to get back to the final chorus as 50,000 fans sing along. Yeah it doesn't get much better than this. I expected big things and Eminem surpassed even those heightened expectations.

Weary, dirty and stinky we head back to the apartment to catch some much needed sleep before the final day.