Lollapalooza Day 3

By: Eric Ratkowski

Day 3

Though the crews of Lollapalooza did their best to dry the grounds, Day 3 kept the same mud-haven theme that everyone was accustomed to.

The greatest mystery of Lollapalooza was while I tossed a pair of shoes and two shirts, people who were dressed completely in white kept everything immaculate. The legend of big foot has nothing on those people.

First artist I saw on Day 3 was Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

The amount of hype I heard concerning Macklemore gave me the impression the man was on the verge of greatness.

Until “ And We Danced“, I was unwilling to go above average. To be fair, it is hard to grasp lyrics if you ever hearing someone for the first time ever but I guess I completely missed the hype on this one. The show was entertaining, but that is as far as I am willing to bend.

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Lollapalooza Day 2

By: Eric Ratkowski 

If you were watching probably any news station in the Midwest, you saw that Chicago was pounded by storms midway through the second day of Lollapalooza.

Call it a blessing or curse, but we were literally about to head out the door when we saw mass amount of people exit the park (one of the advantages of having a hotel across the street).

Storms were dampening the grounds, but nothing was dampening the spirits of those from the park.

Parties broke out in the streets and in the hotels. Concerts or no concerts, everyone was going to have a good time.

“Everyone is here to have a good time” said Joe Fizarelli of Ontario, Canada. “A little rain cannot hurt a hotel party”.

Once the festival reopened two hours later, nobody was sure what would it mean for the artists who lost time due to the rain.

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Lollapalooza Day 1

By: Eric Ratkowski/WXOU

With temperatures in the mid 80s, Lollapalooza kicked off its 20^th anniversary festival with perfect conditions.

As with festivals such as Warped Tour, Bonnaro, it is literally impossible to see everyone unless you have some insane Usain Bolt speed.

First band on the docket for my friends and I was the White Panda at Perry’s.

If you had been to last year’s Lollapalooza’s, you were familiar with the great white tent that was Perry’s stage. Well, that idea was completely scrapped.

What stood in its place was an absolute behemoth of a stage that rivaled the two main Bud Lite and Red Bull stages. 

The White Panda hyped up the crowd by playing most of their “Bambooyah!” set list along with a few new tracks they had been working on during their hiatus.

I may giving away my secrets a bit early but I would vote The White Panda as my favorite surprise band.

There was a bit of a lull until the headliners and those directly before them. I walked around and took in a few different bands including the Black Angels, but no one really peaked my interest and made me stay for more than a few minutes.

The headliners were the Black Keys, Black  Sabbath, Wale, Passion Pit and Bassnectar.

Since I wasn’t sure if Ozzy Osbourne was going to be alive long enough for us to see him in concert on another day, I decided to sit through Passion Pit playing at the Bud Lite stage in order to get close for Black Sabbath.

I had heard many positive reviews from those who had seen Passion Pit previously and they were justified.

From the opening song “Take a Walk” to the final “Little Secrets” Passion Pit completely contradicted what was to be expected from the metal Gods in Black Sabbath but overall had a solid performance. Admittedly,  me being unfamiliar did lead to questioning if a woman or man was singing at certain points. Lead singer Michael Angelakos has a very distinct voice.

Black Sabbath was great for a band that’s lead singer is 63. Not going to lie, as soon as I heard “War Pigs”, I was off to see the other headliners. Osbourne did not move around much nor give much of a stage show but the sound was CD quality.

Bassnectar was OK but having seen the tail end of Nero, I wasn’t struck as seeing something mind-blowing.

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Show Review- Beach Boys

  By: Julia Luciw     

   As the title of the Beach Boys 1965 Party! album suggests; that is just the atmosphere the band brought with them to DTE Saturday, June 30^th, for their 50th anniversary tour. The Beach Boys started off the show with “Do It Again,” showcasing their harmonies and surf-rock sound. It was incredible to see the original lineup of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine who were founding members. They did acknowledge Bruce Johnston as an original member, having been with the band since 1965. Guitarist David Marks actually lived in the same neighborhood as the Wilson’s.           

After playing a few songs, Mike Love joked that they already needed to take a nap! He also recognized that DTE didn’t exist and it was ‘Pine Knob’ to them. The crowd cheered with mighty applause. To me, it was special and even nostalgic to see them up there at 70 years old singing and playing just as good as they used to. I do have to recognize the great touring band that made sure that they sounded at their finest. Most notable were members Jeff Foskett on vocals with Paul Mertens playing the sax, flute, and harmonica.

            What I really enjoyed were the deeper cuts including “Hawaii,” “Wendy,” and the thought-provoking “All This is That.” It was nice to see each member get their time in the spotlight showcasing their respective hits, with the bulk going to Mike Love and Brian Wilson. Still, I loved hearing Bruce Johnston sing “Disney Girls” while David Marks took over on “Getcha Back.” Al Jardine rounded out the group sounding eerily the same as he did in the sixties with his vocals on “Help me Rhonda.”

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Album Review: Periphery

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Counting Crows

By: Christina Venditti, Program Director     

  After a warm-up band ambient enough to put a Red Bull addict to sleep, the Counting Crows began their show by teasing the crowd with an iTunes sample-length play of Bill Withers “Lean on Me.” Abruptly stopping the bro-fest breaking out in the audience, Adam Duritz and each of his perfectly manicured dread locks took the stage with the rest of his leathery-skinned band mates.

Opening their set with an eight-minute version of “Round Here,” the Crows got their fans’ hopes up just to throw them right back down. Performing a slew of covers (yes, covers) off of their new COVER (did I say cover?) album, Underwater Sunshine, Duritz lost the crowd’s attention somewhere between the third and fifth no-name band remake.

Finally redeeming themselves, the Crows finally played back-to-back-to back Films About Ghosts songs, “A Long December,” “Friend of the Devil,” and “Rain King.”

Offering advice like, “the future we dream of is never really the future we end up with,” Duritz may as well have put his psychic hat on, because he told my future. I, like much of the rest of the audience, dreamt of a future that included me seeing the Crows perform Mr. Jones. SPOILER ALERT: it didn’t happen.

Overall, Duritz sounded like the same dread-locked guy as he did nearly two decades ago with the release of August and Everything After. He was equally as impressive as he was unnecessarily politically-charged during the encore. Preaching about the Greybird Foundation and upcoming presidential election, Duritz essentially turned into a human youtube ad-style PSA; annoying. In the time he could have spent playing hits like Colorblind, or Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby or, shall I even suggest, MR. FLIPPING JONES, he stood onstage with his terrible opening bands and denied us of what we came for.