My First Time Music-Festivalling

As an avid fan of music and concerts, I typically avoid festivals as the price is always too high to justify it. I usually even avoid single-day passes as the artists I love are typically smattered over the course of the festival. All that changed this past Sunday when A) I went to a music festival. namely, lollapalooza and B) there were enough bands I loved playing in one day for me to justify spending $90. My friend and I chose to use our gaps to get 'good' (relative to a festival) spots rather than dash from band to band. But here's the recap from the four bands upon which we feasted our eyes.

First up, was the amazing (and local) Company of Thieves. Genevieve (the lead singer) has such a mesmerizing voice; quite whimsical at times and smokily angry at others. In addition, she has a fantastic 'rocker' persona on stage that made the entire set a delight. Highlights included hearing many of their brilliant new songs and rocking out to 'Under the Umbrella.'

After a quick food break, we headed over and waited for about a half hour for Mumford & Sons. This was one of the most enjoyable shows of the day as the four-piece band from London had such joy in playing. Highlights include chanting 'Love it will not betray you dismay or enslave you, it will set you free' from Sigh No More with the crowd, the horns on a new song and Thistle & Weeds, and calling the set-closer to be 'Dust Bowl Dance' along with so many others.

We stood through the end of Yeasayer's set plus an hour before we then saw MGMT. While the band themselves were awesome, the crowd was full of absolute jerks. Let's suffice it to say you could barely breathe, let alone move and spent roughly a third of the show passing off body-surfers. Highlights include opening with a brilliant version of Pieces of What and the dance hits that got the crowd rocking; namely, Kids, Time to Pretend, and Electric Feel.Finally, in a tough (*cough cough) choice between Soundgarden and the Arcade Fire, my friend and I saw the Arcade Fire. Almost needless to say, if you haven't seen this band life, you desperately need to. There was eight of 'em onstage, absolutely rocking out and not losing the crowd for a minute. Highlights included absolutely losing it (dancing) on Sprawl II, a most delicious rockin' rendition of Haiti, and Crown of Love with a special dedication to the National.