In this year of crossing items off my Life List (Mardi Gras, meeting Tim Burton, seeing the True Blood cast in person) I ticked off another goal Saturday night when I saw Eminem in concert.

This last weekend I attended my fourth Lollapalooza in eight years. When I learned last spring that Eminem was making a rare live appearance as a headliner at the three day festival, I knew I had to be there. I bought my tickets before the rest of the lineup was even announced and I was dismayed when it finally came out and featured very few bands I wanted to see. Previous years have showcased four or five bands a day that I couldn’t wait to watch. This year I was only looking forward to one or two.

Friday it took almost an hour to get through the entrance gates when the computer scanner didn’t recognize my printed 3-day pass and I had to wait in line for Customer Service with a ton of other people dealing with the same hassle. I caught the end of New Zealand band the Naked and Famous set (boring) and settled on the grass to wait an hour for Foster the People.

At that point I was hot, cranky, and rethinking the whole music festivals are fun idea. Luckily Los Angeles band Foster the People delivered an electric set that lifted my spirits. I agree with other’s assessment that this band has the potential to be the next big thing. The music sounds upbeat, and danceable, but sometimes the lyrics are quite dark. For instance, their breakout song, Pumped Up Kicks tells the story of a school shooting perpetrated by a twisted loner. Yet the crowd, me included but we already knew that I was a sicko, pumps their fists and gyrates to the beat as though it’s a party song. It’s an interesting phenomenon.

Friday culminated in a rousing show by headliner Muse.  Muse is one of my favorite bands and on stage, they’re impeccable rock gods.  Dynamic, forceful and epic, Muse played a ninety minute set enhanced by images on hexagon screens, laser lights and fortuitous fireworks behind the stage from the Bears’ Family Day at Soldier Field.  The fireworks were breathtaking, but just as impressive were close-up shots on the big stage screens of Matthew Bellamy’s deft hands dancing across the piano keys.

Here is a video of Muse playing Supermassive Black Hole:

I have nothing negative to say about Muse. But the show lacked the energy of the previous packed arena concert I attended, partly because of the limited staging, but mostly because of the thinned out crowd. At the beginning of the show, I’d estimate an audience of between thirty and forty thousand people, but by about halfway through the set, half of those people had filed out of the field, leaving maybe twenty thousand. Considering they usually play sold-out stadiums, twenty thousand is a pretty paltry showing for them. And where I was on the hill, the audience seemed especially skimpy. I don’t know if people were leaving the show to catch some of Coldplay (blech) or dance to electronica mixed in the dj tent (which was built to hold fifteen thousand and was overflowing when I passed it after Muse ended) but I was shocked that people would forego Muse. Even Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy quipped, “We know you had options [tonight] … and you picked the right one.”

And here is a video of Muse playing Helsinki Jam:

To see videos of Muse performing Citizen Erased and Time is Running Out, visit my YouTube Channel, Dreary Vision.

Muse’s set included: Uprising, Supermassive Black Hole, Hysteria, Map of the Problematique, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Guiding Light, Citizen Erased, Nishe, United States of Eurasia, Helsinki Jam, Undisclosed Desires, Resistance, Time is Running Out, Starlight, Stockholm Syndrome with Plug in Baby and Knights of Cydonia for the encore.

I returned Saturday afternoon for a torturous six hours of music that ranged from boring to atrocious before Eminem’s performance. The low point was Cee Lo Green’s sorry excuse for a set. Sporting over-the-top spiky shoulder pads and backed by S&M style clad females, the show was all flash and no substance. It featured a glitchy Crazy, his single F*ck You and several butchered covers and inexplicable samples. Mercifully, the set ended more than ten minutes early. But it left me beyond baffled about his popularity.

Unlike Friday night, Saturday night the southern field was more crowded than I’d ever seen it. Chicago must love comebacks. The last time I saw the field anywhere near that packed was when Rage Against the Machine rose from the dead in 2008. For Eminem’s Chicago return, more than sixty thousand people crammed together in a show of respect.

As the ultimate tormented soul, the Detroit artist with undeniable bad boy sex appeal is my favorite rapper.  Eminem is a genius with words and I’ll punch anyone who says otherwise in the face.

Here is a video of one of my favorite songs (because it’s all about murder and blood), 3 a.m.:

The show was everything I hoped for. Eminem was on fire.  He stormed the stage with his aggressive, take no prisoner delivery and bounded through abridged versions of more than twenty songs from his unrivalled catalogue.  Highlights included Kill You which ended with a jarring shotgun blast, Lighters where a sea of people lifted little flames to dazzling effect, and Love the Way You Lie.

Eminem performed some or all of: Won’t Back Down, 3 a.m., Square Dance, WTP, Kill You, No Love, So Bad, Cleanin’ Out My Closet, The Way I Am, Fast Lane with Royce da 5’9”, Lighters with Bruno Mars, Airplanes Pt. II, Stan, Sing for the Moment, Like Toy Soldiers, Forever, Cinderella Man, ‘Till I Collapse, Love the Way You Lie, I Need a Doctor with Skylar Grey, My Name Is, The Real Slim Shady, Without Me, Not Afraid and Lose Yourself as the Encore.

My only criticism of Eminem’s show concerns the unpolished transitions.  I expect Eminem to need to take some breaks during the ninety minute set.  But whenever he moved off stage the show ground to a halt.  The music stopped and it was left to hype man Mr. Porter to occupy the crowd.  He repeatedly called for us to make some noise, without giving us anything to make noise about. 

The highlight of Sunday afternoon was a set by Cage the Elephant.  I have to admit that while I have their most recent album, my favorite Cage the Elephant songs are their two singles: Aint No Rest for the Wicked and Shake Me Down.  The band has potential, but a lot of their songs are derivative of past bands, like the Pixies, and they haven’t found their own sound yet.  At the beginning of the set a dark line of clouds lingered ominously behind me.  But the rains were a refreshing relief from the still, humid air.  Here’s a video of people enjoying the rain while Cage the Elephant plays Aint No Rest for the Wicked:

Lead singer Matthew Shultz repeatedly flung himself into the crowd to crowd surf, even after it started raining.  But his most dramatic jump came right after the band wrapped up their set.  He climbed the side of the stage and stood on a wall above fans for several moments before plunging once again into the audience.

The next few hours were spent waiting for the Cold War Kids by the Google Plus Stage.  Just minutes before the show was set to start, I could see another wall of rain approaching and had time to stand under a tree.  Even so, I was unprepared for the torrential downpour.  The sky opened and for a couple of minutes, it was like standing under a waterfall.  People were screaming and cursing as the water blinded us.  I’ve never been so drenched in my life and I was shivering. 

After the rains the field was flooded with puddles that had to be waded through.  When I wasn’t walking through water I was stuck in thick, dark mud.  My feet have never felt more disgusting.  Mud and clumpy grass and wood chips all slipped into my sandals.  But having stuck out the storm, I was sure as hell not missing the Cold War Kids show.  With water on the stage, the set was delayed at least half an hour.

When they were cleared to play, Cold War Kids were brilliant. The best part of their show was that everyone who stayed through the storm was a real fan of the band. It seemed everyone was singing along to every song (not just the singles) and dancing in the mud. It was the best vibe of the weekend.  Here is a video of their final song, the delightfully dark Saint John:

You can see a video of Cold War Kids performing Something Is Not Right With Me on my YouTube Channel.

Were you at Lollapalooza or another 2011 music festival? Whose performance rocked your world?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Other Destinations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.