I don't like reading most music reviews and I'm bad at writing them. So instead, I'm going to write a review of the politics seen at Lollapalooza, with some comments about the music mixed in.
The first thing anyone notices is that Barack Obama is EVERYWHERE! Obama is the most popular band in America judging by the number of t-shirts worn by concertgoers. The campaign has an official booth in the vendor section that's always surrounded by a dozen or so people. Beyond that, other vendors were selling their own stylized Obama shirts.
Its amazing to see how quickly Obama has gone from candidate to youth cultural icon. There's nothing wrong with that, despite McCain's transparent display of jealousy in his campaign commercials. This is the most serious effort to reach young voters by any major party nominee since 1992, and the first time the current young generation has had a nominee speak to them in a meaningful way that shows he understands their political viewpoints. In 2004 young voters turned out in large numbers to defeat Bush (after being ignored by the Democratic Party from 1994-2002), and in 2008 they'll turn out even more because they finally have someone they're excited to vote for.
The first song with a political message I noticed was Cat Power's cover of Fortunate Son. Her version is what I imagine the song would have sounded like if it were recorded by the Velvet Underground but with a female vocalist. Some of her slow bluesy numbers sounded like live recordings of Janis Joplin's slow bluesy numbers, but she still managed to stay current. Her show is one of my favorites of the festival.
I've read that Radiohead are politically involved but I didn't hear anything political during their performance. They were a total flop. The organizers made a colossal mistake when they scheduled them as the only headliner with no competition playing at the same time.
For the first half of their set the lead singer whined and screeched to drearily slow songs like he was trying to commune with the whales. I think I heard the whales at Shedd Aquarium answer back. I like my share of slow, melancholy, introspective music but it should be more musically engaging than what I heard Friday night.
Hey Radiohead! You're famous millionaire rock stars. You can stop whining now!
In their second half they picked up the pace a little and played some of their hits. But nearly half their audience had already left by then. I talked to one woman who was a big Radiohead fan but was thinking about leaving because she couldn't take it anymore. I thought maybe I was biased so I asked around. About 3 out of 4 people I asked thought Radiohead was the biggest flop of the festival so far. Even some of the people who liked it mentioned the fireworks and circling helicopter; not the music.
Music critics have been propping up Radiohead for years and even the reviews I've seen of the concert don't admit how badly their show went over. They're one of the most overrated bands of all time.
On day two Rage Against the Machine played a series of emotive songs about love, heartache and the responsibilities of fatherhood. For their encore they covered the Carter Family's gospel-country classic Wildwood Flower and encouraged everybody to "just say no to drugs."
I'll post a real review of day 2 later, which had more happening politically than day one.