Harley-Davidson Festival, Day Three: “Bruuuuuuce!” Also: Cameo and Blue Oyster Cult Still Exist

Photograph by Brad Fedie
"Good evening Harley-Davidson Enthusiasts,” Bruce Springsteen said just before nine last night. More than 180 minutes later, he was still on stage, closing out six months of steady touring and, for all intents and purposes, the Harley-Davidson Festival. (There are only a handful of gigs Sunday.)

Despite all the time on the road, Springsteen showed zero signs of fatigue. He bounced around the stage, sweated like Kevin Garnett, rolled around on his back, and took numerous trips into the crowd to shake hands and let fans sing into his mic.

Most of the best-known, crowd-pleasing songs came near the end of the show, including “Glory Days,” “Born to Run,” and “Rosalita.” Preceding those show-stoppers was a load of steady rocking, several cuts that pushed past the ten-minute mark thanks to extended solos and crowd sing-alongs, one bar-band classic (“Wooly Bully,” which came after Bruce picked up a sign out of the crowd requesting said bar-band classic) and “Livin’ in the Future,” which Springsteen introduced with a short speech that railed against “rendition and illegal wiretapping.” That drew a few isolated boos, but the response Saturday was overwhelmingly positive. If “Born to Run” wasn’t biker-appropriate enough, Springsteen also broke out “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” a song that mentions Harleys – not that he even needed to play to the crowd like that. They were with him for all three-plus hours.

Earlier in the day, the Festival grounds welcomed two bands still kicking three decades after they were born. “The original Blue Oyster Cult” (or so they called themselves on stage) turned out sludgy jams and oldies like “Burnin’ For You.” Cameo were a much weirder presence. The lineup that played Saturday featured several long-time members, including frontman Larry Blackmon – the guy who sang “Word Up!” With Blackmon dressed in black leather pants, a black jacket, a red top hat (of sorts) and a red codpiece, he and his party-starting, funk-rocking bandmates got a good response from the crowd. After the show, Blackmon told me that Cameo are still gigging steadily, though they usually only play on weekends.

Leather Chaps, Danny Trejo and “I Beat Anorexia”: Roaming the Grounds at Harley Fest

Photograph by Brad Fedie

At Harley-Davidson Fest, the grounds surrounding the concert stages serve a full range of biker interests, from a tent offering a look at (and chance to sit on) 2009 Harley models, to a pavilion featuring mini-seminars on subjects like “Staying in Shape on The Road,” to “Sphere of Fear” performers (bikers riding around an enclosed orb) to ubiquitous beer stands (16 oz. Miller, $5.75) and merch booths (leather chaps, $30).

The funniest, strangest event so far was the “Hot Model Grand Finale,” a beauty competition (of sorts) featuring men and women who won similar contests at other Harley fests across the country. The grand prize: A chance to appear in the 2009 Motorclothes catalog. Every contestant was a minority – strange, since the Festival appears to be ninety-eight percent white. (Also: Many models were somewhat less than attractive.) Amid booming hip-hop hits, the audience picked two genuinely good-looking people as the winners, but not before three celebrity guests – Darrell McDaniel (from Run-DMC), actor Robert Patrick (from “Terminator 2” and “The X-Files”) and actor Danny Trejo (from “Con Air” and loads of other movies) – popped on stage to do little more than briefly say hello to the crowd and proclaim their love for Harley motorcycles.

Briefly Noted:

*Best Mini-Seminar: “Helmet Hair Tips,” about how to look your best while wearing protective headgear. The host directed his tips (e.g., wear helmets with an anti-static liner) at folks who ride their bikes to weddings and corporate jobs. He also directed them at “all you women,” even though his manicured, bottle-blonde coif and long ponytail suggested he took his own advice.

*Best Shirt: Tie between an “I Beat Anorexia” tank top (worn by a very, very fat man) and a black tee reading, “If My Motorcycle Could Blow Me I’d Never Go Home.”

*Best Biker Patch: Three interlocking fists and the words “Soul Rydaz,” referring to a group of Christian bikers. Runners up: A Harley logo patch that said “Helping Ugly People Having Sex for 105 Years” and an American flag patch that said “Try Burning This One…Asshole.”

Harley-Davidson Festival, Day Two: Foo Fighters and ZZ Top on the Banks of Lake Michigan

Photograph by Kyle Bursaw

Right now there’s a giant parade of bikers passing by my hotel; their revving motors are easily audible through my ninth-floor window. That sound has been at least as big a part of the soundtrack to Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson Festival as the music of bands like the Foo Fighters, ZZ Top, Gary Allan, Los Lonely Boys, Foghat, Blind Melon and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, all of whom played Friday near Lake Michigan. Yesterday, I found the random biker stuff (expect a post on that to follow shortly) more interesting than the music. But the tunes generally seemed to sate the bikers, which is a good thing: You don’t want these guys angry.

The Foo Fighters headlining gig proceeded roughly as expected – lots of intense, supercharged bashing, lots Dave Grohl chewing gum and delivering throat-shredding screams – except for one thing: Solos. Roughly the half the songs had extended guitar breaks. The violinist got a long solo, as did drummer Taylor Hawkins and the auxiliary percussionist – on triangle, no less.

Much of the set focused on darkly rocking material from the Foo’s newest album (last year’s Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace) and elsewhere. It seemed the crowd would have preferred some of the better-known sing-alongs earlier in the set – they had to wait an hour for “My Hero” and “Everlong.” Grohl, who admitted he was nursing a giant hangover, committed a venial sin:
He was drinking Coors, a no-no in Miller Town. (A few people booed him for it.) But he delivered the best stage banter of any performer so far at Harley Fest: To wit, “The is the first time I’ve seen a fat white dude show me his tits.” He also told the crowd, “You guys are pretty fuckin’…nice,” a totally apt compliment for a crowd of Midwesterners.

Though the Foos were the bigger draw, ZZ Top got a larger share of Harley riders -- fitting, since their music is generally more biker-appropriate. Billy F. Gibbons told me he had chatted up several bikers the night before. He also took song requests from them – including “Planet of Women,” an oldie the band had to re-learn before Friday’s gig.

ZZ’s crowd-pleasing, highly likeable blues-rock set indeed included “Planet of Women,” plus some more familiar oldies: “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” “Legs,” “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide,” and a set-closing “Jailhouse Rock” jam. It also included some familiar visuals: Black outfits, white guitars, sunglasses, guitar-dipping choreography, and beards whose length was rivaled by only a few bikers I’ve seen here.

Harley-Davidson Festival, Day One: Kid Rock and Joan Jett Rouse the Leather-Clad Throngs

Photo: Brad Fedie

For bikers, this year’s Harley-Davidson Festival is a big deal: Organizers are expecting more than 100,000 Harley riders and guests to descend on Milwaukee this weekend to celebrate 105th birthday of the H-D motorcycle. Many rode to Milwaukee from all around North America; some came from as far away as New Zealand. On day one of the Festival, thousands came to Miller Park for fifteen hours’ of comedians, merch booths, bike stunts and beer, beer, beer. Oh, and music, too: The two big acts on day one, Kid Rock and Joan Jet, were like politicians speaking to their bases, turning out brassy, biker-friendly rock to a sea of sun-burned, leather-clad men and women very much in the mood to be entertained.

When I talked to him before his show, Kid Rock, a Harley owner himself, told me he might tweak his set list to make it more biker-appropriate. He may have done just that: The gig was light on rapping and included the Detroit rock medley – snippets of Seger, Nugent, the Temptations and Eminem -- he thought the Harley folks would like. But less because of setlist tweaks than Rock’s natural greaseball charm, the crowd ate up all of Rock’s set, standing on bleacher seats and pumping fists in between trips to buy cups of Miller.

Rock was flanked flanked by a big incarnation of the Twisted Brown Trucker band, which featured two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, a percussionist, a sax player, a DJ, and two female backup singers. The band ran kind of like a Harley – noisily and powerfully– as Rock, dressed in what looked like a custom jogging suit, ran through much of his most recent album, the very blue-collar-friendly Rock N Roll Jesus: Among others, there was the sweet, Skynyrd-quoting reminiscence (and current hit) “All Summer Long,” and the sleazetastic title track.

Rock did not always rock. He took time out for a version of his sad rock star ballad “Picture,” where he duetted with one of the backup singers, and he performed an interlude – exactly the same one I saw him do in Oklahoma City a few years back -- in which he showed off his skills on turntables, drums and guitar. After announcing, “it’s time for a little honky-tonkin’,” Rock also turned in “Half Your Age,” a country song that seems to be about getting a new girl after his marriage to Pam Anderson failed (chorus: “She’s half your age and twice as hot”). Only this time, his drummer, Stephanie Eulinberg, stepped from behind the kit to deliver a tweaked chorus that got a giant cheer “He’s half your age, with twice the cock.”

You can quibble with the material, but not the effort – Rock sweated his way through nearly two full hours, telling the crowd he was pleased to be “rockin’ all you drunk fuckers in Milwaukee.” Whether or not he meant it, the crowd believed him.

Jett didn’t get quite as enthusiastic a response – she was playing mid-day to a smaller crowd --but she rocked just as efficiently. Wearing leather pants and a skimpy bikini top, she came out firing with two of her best known songs: “Bad Reputation,” and “Cherry Bomb.” After a mid-set lull that featured largely newer, less-known material, Jett broke out the familiar cuts that got the crowd up: the fist-pump-able “I Love Rock N’ Roll,” the arm-waveable “Crimson and Clover.”

Between shows, the RS staff talked to a bunch of bikers. The best quote came from avid biker (and “American Idol” Contestant and Harley Fest Performer) Amanda Overmyer. After borrowing a bike from some dude – she decided to leave hers at home – to ride for our video team, she repaid the guy by telling him, “ Dude, letting someone ride your bike is like letting someone fuck your wife.” (Expect video footage of Overmyer here shortly). In addition to covering the big remaining shows this weekend, we’ll try to bring you more biker coverage. Just don’t expect me to get on a Harley. I like my limbs just the way they are.

Outside Lands Post-Mortem: We Like It. We Really Like It.

The general suckiness of All Points West had me a little worried about San Francisco's inaugural Outside Lands Festival. And, in fairness, Year One is tough if you're gonna invite sixty thousand people to a three-day rock concert. There are all sorts of logistical nightmares that were somehow inadequately anticipated. In the case of Outside Lands, for instance, as much as I admire the promoters' interest in avoiding the dreaded festival sound bleed (the horror!), a few of the event's stages were so far apart that folks couldn't even be bothered to trudge back and forth. And they might want to consider having it a few weeks earlier, when it's not so brisk at Golden Gate Park. Because it's hard to rock out to "Karma Police" when the sound of your teeth chattering is drowning out Thom Yorke.

All told, though, I'd give Outside Lands a resounding thumbs up. The event was produced jointly by Superfly, who have made Bonnaroo into America's best music festival, and Another Planet, an SF-based company helmed by Bill Graham-protege Greg Perloff. As a result, Outside Lands had the same kind of respect for its customers and adventurously curated line-up that has made Bonnaroo America's best music festival. Moreover, Another Planet's Perloff gave the festival its sense of advent, staging it in Golden Gate Park, and inviting hometown flavor (see Kaitlin's post about the bong made out of a watermelon below).

I saw some great performances by Devendra Banhart, Cold War Kids, Radiohead, Tom Petty, and Wilco. I met Steve Winwood and talked to Toots from Toots and the Maytals about how he coined the turm reggae, chatted with Banhart about whether the phrase "buttgasm" connotes a good thing or a bad thing. And I got to meet Justin Vernon, from Bon Iver, who is not the sad-sack you'd expect. Vernon (hilarious! humble!) and Banhart (lovable! humble!) are my two new favorite indie rock stars. Watch this space tomorrow and Thursday for my Q&As with those dudes. -- JENNY ELISCU

Outside Lands Day Three: Wilco cracks smiles, zippers

Photo: Theo Rigby

Although Jack Johnson owned the official closing slot for the first Outside Lands festival, he might have not been the ultimate stop for some. By a simple turn of events—that is, schedule overlap combined with last-day fatigue—the last show many would see at Golden Gate Park this year would be Wilco. Of course, there is also the matter of choice. Whatever the reasoning, those who chose the Twin Peaks stage did so knowing that they were likely going to end their festival experience here. Lucky then, that Wilco made the choice justifiable. “We love you too, random guy we don’t know in a massive crowd we can’t see,” Jeff Tweedy replied to a shouted offer of affection. “Wait, raise your hand, maybe we can see you.” A pause. “Well, you look crazy, so I’m glad you’ve found love.” And he’s not the only one—throughout a show mainly made up of work from 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and later, Wilco lovers of all makes and models let their devotion be known.

For Tweedy, upon whose mood a Wilco show’s success often depends, the feeling was mutual. “We’re having such a great time, but we’re running out of it,” he said, just after setting everyone a-sway with the geographically apropos “California Stars.” There were no stars out yet, but no matter: Tweedy was smiling, and that was enough for most, including his own band. After a rousing “I Hate It Here,” and “Walken,” Tweedy even offered some praise: “That was a pretty good solo,” he said to guitarist Nels Kline. “For a guy with his zipper pinned together.” Okay, conditional praise. “Can you imagine worrying about your schlong falling out?” Tweedy inquired with a grin, before sending the crowd away—to Jack Johnson, maybe, but home with a smile, certainly—on “I Am the Man Who Loves You.” That’s right, he loves you. All of you. Whether you’re crazy or not. – KAITLIN FONTANA

Outside Lands Day Three: Canadian Achin’ for Stars and Broken Social Scene

Photo: Chris Tuite

Something you may already know: Canadians love seeing each other in other countries. It’s the macrocosm version of seeing your neighbor at the supermarket. “Oh, hello, we live near each other! We’ve both chosen this situation to be in! Isn’t that neat?” Well, the same thing happens to Canadian musicians, especially those that orbit in and around Broken Social Scene. And, as far as Canadians who are also musicians go, that Venn diagram shares a lot of middle ground.

So it’s not a surprise that the appearance of both Stars and Broken Social Scene at the same festival, on the same day, on the same stage, would result in some serious “Howdy, Neighbor!” action. First to take up residence on the Twin Peaks stage was Stars, who were the inaugural group to spin off from the original BSS. On a stage bursting with bouquets of roses, singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan passed their trademark duets back and forth before an excited audience. “This is a conditional dedication,” said Campbell by way of set up for “Soft Revolution.” “To Barack Obama, as long as you don’t turn into a motherfucking cocksucker like the others.” From there the band would offer material mostly from 2004’s Set Yourself on Fire, as well as this past year’s In Our Bedroom After the War, all the while tossing roses haphazardly into the throng.

Millan was more effusive than usual, taking up nearly as much banter time as the legendarily chatty Campbell (sample: “Okay ladies and gentlemen, you have about six days left to have a summer romance. So get to it!”), and shimmying across the stage in a black fringed dress. Not to be outdone, Campbell sang a line from Phil Collins’ “One More Night” as an intro to the band’s own track of the same name, albeit with alternative lyrics: “Give me one more night, I can’t fuck you to death forever.” With conversational vigor like that, it was only natural that the energy of the set was high, as was the desire to share it. “Have you heard of Andrew Bird and Broken Social Scene?” Campbell asked, before sending the kids away on “Take Me to the Riot.” “They’re pretty good. You should stay and see them.” If not for your own sake, then for theirs: much of the band would return, energy intact, for BSS’s set later in the day.

Once the primary incubator for Canadian music talent, Broken Social Scene is now more like a hometown for its members: homey, familiar, a bit quaint. Nice to visit, but not somewhere people spend too much time in. It’s no surprise then that the original troupe is down to a few core members— I spotted Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and Justin Peroff—and that the rest of the touring band is cobbled together from the Scene’s home label, Toronto’s Arts & Crafts, and from friends in other bands. At Outside Lands, guests included Land of Talk’s Liz Powell and original BSSer Andrew Whiteman (Apostle of Hustle), among others. Embracing the now-patchwork nature of his collective, Drew gave ample time to the promotion of his friends’ work (such as Brendan’s new album, Something For All of Us, from which BSS played a track, and numerous mentions of the other bands these folks spend time in). Between these asides, BSS breathed new life into old material from Broken Social Scene and You Forgot it in People, giving songs like “7/4 Shoreline” an amped-up, more kinetic live reading. Add to that a rare appearance of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl,” which was made possible by Millan's presence (she sang the record version). When it was over, Kevin Drew swept his increasingly motley crew away with a reminder to the crowd—and perhaps to himself—“Don’t forget: we are Broken Social Scene, and we did this together.” – KAITLIN FONTANA

Outside Lands Day Two: Steve Winwood and Ben Harper Pursue the Groove

Photo: Theo Rigby

With the chilly afternoon in full swing, Steve Winwood arrived on a gentle, Pacific sea breeze, waving politely to the crowd before declaring a set chock-a-block with “Stuff from [2008’s] Nine Lives, and we’re gonna mix it up with some older things.” From there the one-time singer for Traffic led his tight-knit band through Nine Lives’ best, like “Raging Sea,” and “Dirty City,” the album version of which features Eric Clapton. As promised, he balanced the set with old material, like Traffic’s “Empty Pages.” All throughout, Winwood was an affable guide to his music, but although he and his band revel in a comfortable, lived-in feel, there was little in the way of barn-burners, or even pulse-raisers, to be found here. As a consequence, Winwood’s effort came off as one-note, with songs all blending into one jazzy, mid-afternoon groove-a-thon. There’s nothing wrong with consistency, necessarily (especially for one couple, who made out extravagantly on the grass during Winwood’s set). But later, when Winwood joined Tom Petty for “Gimme Some Lovin,’” and “Can’t Find My Way Home,” the juice from a crowd set alight by Petty’s up-tempo charm slapped a giant smile on Winwood’s face. Comfortable is alright; still on fire at sixty is even better.

Following Steve Winwood on the Land’s End main stage, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals were, at first glance, a perfect match for a San Francisco audience: rockers with a folk bent, musicians with an activist bent, quiet types with a bombast bent. Those gathered greeted Ben’s roaring welcome (“San Francisco!!”) with an equally raucous, hearty response. After spending an hour blissed out to Steve Winwood, they were ready for something a little harder. But Harper and his band made a conscious decision to stick to the thoughtful side of their catalogue: tracks like “Glory & Consequence,” “Forgiven” and “Diamonds on the Inside,” made up the bulk of the set, punctuated by lengthy instrumental excursions from one track to the next. He was best when he ventured into angrier territory, as with “Whipping Boy,” an anthem about standing up for yourself in a relationship, which Ben described as “an excellent song written by a man from my hometown of Claremont, California, Mr. Chris Darrow.” But for the most part, Harper stayed away from such fist-clenching manifestos. On its own, a few hours on the grass listening to Ben Harper’s lighter side is not such a bad thing, but taken with the generally lackadaisical feel of the day’s performances, the sleepiness of Harper’s set disappointed. And so, with day two drawing to an underwhelming close, Tom Petty was left with a mammoth task: To pick up the lagging day’s pieces, and to get the chilly crowd moving again. – KAITLIN FONTANA

Outside Lands Day Two: What’s Your Bong Made Out Of? Or, Lupe Leads the Pack

Photo: Theo Rigby

Whether it was the cold mist gathering around Golden Gate Park’s edges, or the smoke around the park’s patrons, day two at Outside Lands was a little…slow moving. As one shivering concertgoer remarked, “I could go see what else there is, but I don’t feel like going anywhere.” Even if she had gone on a jaunt, she might not have been that impressed. Across the park—from the medium stages to the biggest—was a whole lot of the same. Same mellow, funky grooves. Same lingering, noodle-y ten minute guitar solos (or twenty minute, as was the case with Primus).

The day started well, at least on the smaller stages—a rousing set from veteran Oakland hip hop outfit the Coup got bodies in motion, and a hypnotically frenzied take by New York’s Liars got hippies, teens and curious types of all ages nodding along. But once the big names started to show up, and the temperatures started dropping, the place became one big sway-along. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but moderation, my friends. Perhaps not so coincidentally, it was around this time that you could spot the Pot-ermelon being lugged around — a hollowed out watermelon living its second life as a massive bong. And so the tone was set.

At the front of the park, a late-arriving Lupe Fiasco tried his best to get the crowd in gear, starting with The Cool’s “Kick Push,” for which his band pulled out the stops, blending rock, soul, blues and hip-hop elements in an awesome extended mash-up. In fitted slick black track suit and a single piece of gold jewelry, Lupe was like a toned-down Kanye: less boastful but just as assured. It was easy then to get the crowd to agree when he asked “Who here loves hip hop? I love hip hop. ‘Cuz hip hop saved my life,” before launching into that title track. Still, people weren’t bouncing as much as he would have liked, so Lupe spent his energy rushing the crowd and beseeching them, with raised arms, to rally. It was a battle he’d continue to fight through the set; at least, when he wasn’t wooing the ladies with tracks like “Sunshine.” It was pretty hard-fought — many folks remained seated on the ground. Perhaps if he’d dedicated “Sunshine” to the Potermelon instead of the women present, he’d have gotten better results. – KAITLIN FONTANA

Outside Lands: Radiohead is Silent and Deadly

Photo: Chris Tuite

There were supposed to be two note-worthy reasons to see Radiohead’s slot as the opening night closers for Outside Lands; instead there were three. The two intended reasons? This is the last in a string of well-received festival appearances that the Oxford chaps would be playing on North American shores, and -- specific to San Francisco -- this is the first time that any band would be playing in Golden Gate Park after dark.

Well, make headlines they would, but not for those reasons. Instead, two notable, groan inducing sound cuts during the early part of their set (during “Airbag” and “All I Need” respectively) were what people would be talking about the morning after. The first time it happened, Thom Yorke was affable, even amused, by the situation, asking, “Who stepped on the plug?” But the second time, he spat something under his breath before launching into “Nude.” During the pauses, when the band could be seen in close-up but not heard on the giant, CCTV-style split screens that have been the norm this tour, it was hard not to pose philosophical questions like, “If Radiohead plays their last North American festival in a park after dark and no one can hear it, do they ever come back?” That is, if you weren’t loudly asking (like one audience member) “Why don’t they do something?”

After a gaffe like that, it’s hard to get back into the swing of things, especially when you’re picturing the fallout for the production company or the festival itself. Still, the band charged through beneath LED light rods that created waterfalls, bursts and pulses of color to elevate the mood of songs like “There There,” “Talk Show Host,” and “The Gloaming,” for which the throbbing neon green lights lent a nuclear air. And it’s too bad that the distracting sound cut likely turned the crowd’s attention away from songs like Kid A’s “Idioteque,” which here got its electric guts pulled out and exposed with a slight, but brilliant, tweak to its instrumentation by Johnny Greenwood.

Exiting the park, the talk was all about tomorrow—who would be held responsible for “stepping on the plug.” But even Thom Yorke must have remembered at some point that he and his band had just made San Francisco history. –KAITLIN FONTANA

Outside Lands Day One: Cold War Kids Usher in the New; Beck Barrels Through

Photo: Chris Tuite

Seeing as their new album, Loyalty to Loyalty, is set to come out next month, it would make sense that Cold War Kids would road test some of their material on the crowd at San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival. But singer Nathan Willett was not content to simply lay it down: first, he asked permission. The vocal response from an energized mid-afternoon crowd suggested that he need not have been so polite, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

From there Willett and his band played a set evenly weighed between the new stuff and the best tracks of 2006’s Robbers & Cowards, namely the drinker’s lament “We Used to Vacation,” (here given a down tempo, maraca-laced treatment), the laconic “Hospital Beds,” “Hang Me Out to Dry,” and jangly set closer “Saint John,” which Willett sold as having “a good storyline.”

The Kids sounded more assured on these tracks, but more excited and loose on new material, which included the shouty single “Something’s Not Right With Me,” the unhinged melody of “Mexican Dogs,” and the “Saint John” of this album (as far as good storylines go), “Every Man I Fall For.” For his part, Willett, bounding between the piano at stage left and a center-stage mic, threw himself around, looking like the love child of Chris Martin and Michael Stipe as he gestured and hurled his body at bandmates and instruments alike. “I closed my eyes and imagined I was at Café Du Nord,” he said at one point, referring to the band’s legendary secret gig at the San Francisco café two years before. “I bet some of you were there,” he added, getting a whoop from the crowd that confirmed his suspicions. At that show, Cold War Kids were warming up audiences to the idea of their first album. At this one, they were doing something infinitely harder: selling a second chance.

Beck, who followed Cold War Kids on Outside Lands' secondary Sutro stage, took an entirely different tack than his predecessors. There was no selling happening here, just simple, speedy presentation of the highlights of his catalog (which is pretty dense; Beck is becoming the Woody Allen of pop music) under a stark, white-lighting scheme that complimented the straightforward nature of the set. Entering with an “Afternoon,” to the crowd, he led his band -- well dressed and well rehearsed folks, all -- through a tight, double-time first half with few breaths of air. In this way, he was able to traverse the poppier side of his recent archive quickly (“Nausea,” “Que Onda Guero,” the new “Gamma Ray,”) before shaking things up a bit with a blues guitar solo lead in to “Loser.” After that, Beck took a visible breath, removing his newly-signature broad-rimmed hat and shaking out his blonde locks before “Devil’s Haircut,” the screaming final chorus of which has been outsourced to his triple-duty bandmates. They then all came center-stage with electronics in hand for “Hell Yes.” “Get your damn hands up,” the song demanded, and the crowd obliged.

From there it was a smooth slide into home, with a bluesy Dylan cover (“Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat”) and the new and charming “Modern Guilt” leading into a trio of sway-worthy numbers—“Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime,” Sea Change’s “Lost Cause,” and Modern Guilt’s psychedelic “Chemtrails.” Knowing full well the value of set organization, however, Beck revived his followers --now trickling towards Radiohead on the mainstage -- by dropping a grinning, beat-heavy “Where It’s At” on their backs. –KAITLIN FONTANA

Beck, Petty and Oodles of Vino: We're Pretty Amped About Outside Lands

When I was a kid, large-scale music festivals fell into two inconvenient categories: They were either a) in Europe or South America or somewhere far, far away from my home in Vancouver, or b) chock-a-block with shitty bands who really didn't engender the kind of good, communal festival vibes I'd associated with the legendary U.K. events like Reading or Glastonbury. In '99, for instance, I went to something called Edgefest, a Canadian version of Lollapalooza in its dreams, but not so much in reality. (The year I went, Hole headlined, but the other acts were alt-rock also-rans including Finger Eleven and Moist.) You can't really blame them, though: After all, the late Nineties weren't the best time for commercially-viable alternatives to the mainstream, which may be why the infamous Woodstock '99 was such a colossal mess.

Oh, how things can change in a decade. Now the market is so flooded with three-day outdoor festivals, it makes it difficult for individual events to stand out. But I have high hopes for San Francisco's Outside Lands, which kicks off in but a few scant hours at Golden Gate Park and will feature the first-ever after-dark performances under the city's magnificent Golden Gate bridge. It's environmentally friendly, centrally located, and will offer copious distractions from the music itself. Plus, the event is produced by Superfly, the company behind Bonnaroo.

I'm excited to see bands I've yet to see live (Cold War Kids, Andrew Bird), to cheer on my Canadian brethren (go, K'naan!) and to see Radiohead dry instead of in the deluge of their recent Vancouver show. And, if it blows, I'll just head over to what I anticipate will be the best of all Outside Lands's non-musical attractions: something called Winehaven, which is basically a tent where they serve delicious artisan wines to of-age concertgoers. Watch this space over the next few days for (possibly inebriated) reports on sets from Beck, Tom Petty, Lupe Fiasco and others, plus the low-down from Jenny and Pete on backstage shenanigans. -- KAITLIN FONTANA

LCD Soundsystem Do the Hustle

Even though you might think you hate disco, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Pat Mahoney want you to keep an open mind. "I recognize that disco has a stigma – there's a knee jerk reaction to it that when people hear the word they imagine it's something funny," says Murphy, who called in from the Los Angeles stop on the duo’s currently running DJ tour. "But we're more interested in the other side of it." He says that when he buys vinyl to spin at these gigs, he's looking for obscure clues that he may have unearthed something weird and brilliant from an era that produced so much cheese. "A lot of time the artists only make one song," he explains. "It's an interesting way of digging for things: you're looking for label or producer a lot of the times when you're shopping. If the label looks funny, or it's an interesting year, or there's a weird combination of last names like a French guy or an Italian guy and it's from canda. That'll give you a heads up that it can be interesting." Here are a few more of Murphy’s tips for aspiring ultra-cool DJs:

What do you do to chill out before your shows? You mentioned you eat…?
No we just eat! We’re kind of boring. If you have friends in town, you’ll try to see them. Then you eat something that won’t make you tired. You can miscalculate that easily: Have a big burger and that doesn’t work at all. That’s basically it. And try not to get too wasted. Managing your body in a really lame way.

What’s ideal energy food?
Sushi is the best food. It’s not so heavy and it’s got a lot of protein and you don’t tend to eat tons of it. If you eat pasta or French food, you’re dead.

And what are you drinking?
I’m into champagne lately because it’s delicious and someone else is paying for it. And it’s not that strong. If I drink beer or whiskey I get too tired. Champagne is right in the middle.

Do you have to tailor your sets to the mood of the crowd depending on the city?
It varies from night to night. Early in the night, you have to figure out what people respond to, but not worry too much about it or it’ll fuck your head up. We haven’t been traveling around doing this too much, but we’re lucky in the sense that people know what we do. We don’t have to swim uphill too badly against a crowd that doesn’t know what to expect. Even when we’re playing London: I don’t’ know what a London crowd likes. But they know we do disco. When we go to Spain, I’ll take something techier. When we go to a festival, we’ll bring big, big 20,0000 people records so you don’t bum everybody out. The difference is that you have a handful of records that can steer it back to where you want it to be. Some times I’ll bring stuff that’s a little faster so we can steer it back to the tempo we want.

What’s the ideal tempo?
I don’t think there is a perfect tempo. Most classic disco is 120BPMs. But we like to play some stuff a little faster than that. And I like stuff a bit slower. But that seems to be the generic dance music tempo. Eighty BPMs was the hip-hop tempo back in the old days.

After you wrap up the disco tour, are you starting a new LCD Soundsystem record?
I’m not making any plans. I’m just enjoying not dealing with it. It’s the elephant in the room. Btu I don’t have to worry about it. I have of other stuff on my plate.

Trent Reznor Digs Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and So Should You

Photo: Walter / Getty

While Pete and I are running around at the Outside Lands festival at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this weekend, there will be an equally awesome three-day concert happening over in the U.K. The twentieth annual Reading Festival will feature performances by everyone from Metallica and Slipknot to the Killers and Pete Doherty's Babyshambles. And stoked as I am to have performances by Beck and Tom Petty and Cold War Kids to look forward to in SF, I'm bummed I'll be missing one of my favorite new bands, British dance rock act Does It Offend You, Yeah? at Reading. Their debut album, You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into (Almost Gold), sounds alternately like the Rapture, Ratatat, Daft Punk and New Order, with songs like "We Are Rockstars" and "Let's Make Out" as well suited for dancing as head-banging. It is righteous, righteous stuff. And if you want a second opinion, how's about the seal of approval from your boy Trent Reznor? He asked Does It Offend You, Yeah? to open for Nine Inch Nails at two upcoming arena gigs. They have a tour of their own coming this fall, which ought to be a welcome relief from the non-stop festival hopping they've been doing all summer. I nabbed some time with the band backstage at Lollapalooza, and here's what they had to say about all the other -paloozas:

You guys played at, like, twelve thirty this afternoon. Is that the earliest you've ever played?
Singer-bassist James Rushent: We’ve gone on stage about three in the morning. That could be the earliest.

How do you even prepare for a gig first thing in the day?
Guitarist Morgan Quaintance: We prepared by going out really late DJing and getting really drunk last night, then getting like four hours sleep.

You guys have played at more than a dozen festivals this year. Do you think there are getting to be too many?
Quaintance: Yeah. I think people don’t realize that what’s good about festivals is that they each have their own distinctive character. Like I remember Reading was the kind of grungy festival and Glastonbury was the hippie festival. And you got festivals like Bestival where it’s fancy dress and it’s in Isle of Wight. But some people just put on a festival and it doesn’t have a character or its own identity. It’s just bands.

So why do you do them?
Quaintance: I think if we didn’t do them then we wouldn’t have half of the bands that we’ve got. I think a lot of the people have gotten into our record because they’ve seen the band live and heard about the band live. Eighty percent of the people I speak to who’ve come to see us say they came because of our set at Coachella. So if we didn’t have festivals, I don’t know if we’d still be here. -- JENNY ELISCU

Phone Call From The Road: Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara

Photo: Getty Images

One of my favorite rock & roll escapades last summer was a trip I took to Victoria, British Columbia, to interview indie rock duo Tegan & Sara. The twin sisters and I walked around Victoria, ate some lunch, hung out at the apartment they were temporarily sharing while recording The Con. But mostly, they chatted and bickered, their conversation musical in an entirely different way than the beguilingly acrid love songs they've been writing for more than a decade now. Point is, I loved them off the bat. So I was delighted this afternoon to get a phone call from Tegan Quin, who, it's worth noting, had already impressed me as one of the most adorably neurotic artists I'd ever interviewed. She was in Los Angeles filming her appearance in the video for Against Me's "Borne on the Waves of FM Radio," which features her backing vocals.

How're you doing?
I'm good. My back hurts, though. I shot a video a week ago for our band and had to stand for sixteen hours straight. The concept is I'm being wrapped up in phone cords, and they were big heavy winding cords, the first time they unwound me after two hours of standing, when they were unwrapping the cords from me, they ripped it off really fast. It's gonna look beautiful and amazing, but I'm convinced that's why my back hurts now. Angela Kendall, who did the documentary on the making of The Con -- she actually shot the video. Sara made the suggestion we do phone cords, because a lot of the songs were about me being on the phone with the person I wanted to be with all the time.

How did you first hook up with Against Me?
When their first record came out, I loved them and when they put out the next record, I interviewed them for Much Music during the Warped Tour. I gushed about how much I loved them nd I think they thought that I was really weird. Then they told me they were making a record with Butch Vig and I was like, 'You should have me on the record! I'll play guitar.' And then a month later they called and said they had a song they wanted me to sing on. He was giving me a rundown of why he wrote the song: It's about a long distance relationship, and it basically summed up everything I was trying to say on The Con.

How was it different from what it's like recording with Sara?
Well, they had been in a really amazing studio and were joking they hadn't seen a girl in months, so they were really nice to me. I'm used to just being in a ghetto studio with Sara going, 'Get away from me!' But I was at Warped Tour in LA yesterday, and I saw the Against Me guys, and they were all sweaty and stinky. So I hope they smell better when I see them to make the video. I ran into my friend Hunter Burgan from AFI -- we have a side-project together. I was saying to him that I'd only been to Warped Tour when I was a teenager in high school, but yesterday I was like, 'Why is it so hot? Why did I wear black?'

Have you and Sara ever played on Warped Tour?
No. We haven't. And a friend of mine who knows me pretty well and has been out on the Warped Tour told me, 'Don't ever do Warped Tour. You'd hate it.' And I'm sure I would, because the three things I hate most in the world are outdoor shows, camping and camp -- hanging out with a bunch of people you don't know all the time and you have to do activities together. Then the whole not-knowing-what-time-you're-playing-every-day thing? Sounds awful!

What's the deal with this Hunter Burgan side-project?
We met like three years ago after he emailed me when we were on tour with So Jealous. I sent him a lot of B-sides and things and he started redoing the instrumentation and turning it into a dance electro thing. Sometimes it sounds like Kelly Clarkson, actually. I think it could make us both really rich. Sara and I just did a tour with Cyndi Lauper, and she co-writes on every song. That's my retirement plan, to sit and write with really cool artists. It was funny writing with Hunter, though. Like, actually being in the same room. I've never written with anyone, because Sara and I don't write together. He's like, 'Write lyrics,' and I'm like, 'With you watching?'

But you've got a lot of collaborations going, eh? You're also appearing at a Housing Works benefit in New York with Augusten Burroughs?
I got an email awhile ago saying his plans for the audio book for A Wolf at the Table was to score it with original music and then the songs would be released on iTunes. I'm a huge fan of his and have every book. They Fed Exed me a book and I read it, and I was like, 'Oh no! I'm a narcisssist, I've never written about anyone about me.' So I started writing a letter to him, asking questions, like 'What should I write about?' I got very emotional and weepy as I was writing it, and direct quotes from the letter ending being what make up the song. It took ten days to write the song, which is nine and half days longer than I apply to anything I do. But then he wrote me back the most intense email I've ever gotten. It made me cry. I saved it, and I never save anything, even from girls that I like. The event is on September 4th, and Housing Works is a really good cause benefiting people with HIV and AIDS. Living in Vancouver, which is the number one city for intravenous drug use in Canada, HIV plagues our city, and it's a cause that hits home with me. -- JENNY ELISCU

Awesome Fall Tour News: We Are Scientists Opening for Kings of Leon

We Are Scientists have long been woefully underrated, so I was thrilled to hear that Kings of Leon will be taking the Brooklyn band out on tour this fall, from October 10th through November 19th. Earlier this week, guitarist and singer Keith Murray called in from the road to tell us how different life is for the band in Europe versus in the States.

Where are you right now, Keith?
I'm at JFK, in Terminal 1. It's kind of weird, actually, because I've never been to Terminal 1 before. We're going to Austria, so we're in the Lufthansa terminal, which is pretty minimal and totally bereft of any chain. They've got weird vendors that frighten me. Like, there's a thing called Panini Express, which sounds like a chain, but it's not a chain.

So you guys are pretty much rock stars in some parts of Europe, aren't you?
Yeah, this will be our fourth European tour this year. Our second record, Brain Thrust Mastery is doing well enough there that the U.S. has sort of just been sport for us. In Europe, we’re one of those bands that’s forced down your throats because we’re on the radio and MTV all the time. In the U.K., we get treated very, very well\, just in general. It's always weird to come home to New York and live totally in obscurity and anonymity. Germany has also been great to us. People are pretty unanimously cool there.

Are you willing to say, right now, that Germany is your favorite country?
[laughs] I will say this. All the time we’ve spent away from America, the United States seems like Disneyland to us now. I think it’s solely due to deprivation. But we used to have this attitude like, 'One of these days we’re gonna get outta here and make something of ourselves!' Now I can never wait to come back.

You must be stoked about the Kings tour. You guys are all gonna fall madly in love with each other.
That’s sort of our specialty -- falling madly deeply in love with bands we’re touring with. When we were smaller, we had the reputation as the eager puppy of opening bands. The Arctic Monkeys had this reputation as cold and brusque. And we became best friends with them after three shows.

Nathan from Kings says he suspects there will be a lot of merriment on this tour.
That’s gonna be our last tour for this record, so I think we’re gonna wanna go BIG. I think the partying should be undue and inappropriate. For us partying means drinking until five a.m. Nothing particularly dangerous or liable to stop the tour because we’ve ended up in jail. But, in an ideal world, we do it every night. -- JENNY ELISCU

MGMT Are Sorry If They're Boring You

Photograph by Josh Rothstein

Having seen MGMT perform at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this year, I'm not surprised when someone who adores the band's debut album, Oracular Spectacular, says they were disappointed by the Brooklyn duo's live show. But, after talking to Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser at Lollapalooza, I have high hopes for their set at Austin City Limits in late September. "If you look boring onstage in a club, you look 20 times more boring on a big festival stage," says Goldwasser. "Yeah, we're not exciting," adds VanWyndgarden. "We're trying to figure that out." These mop-haired hippie boys were barely even touring last summer, and it's obvious they're still figuring it all out. To that end, they say they've been compiling a catalog of live performances by their favorite acts from the Sixties and Seventies — bands like Queen and Led Zeppelin — to figure out how to improve their performances. "A lot of bands handle the 'being boring' thing by like, getting the crowd to sing, or clap, or having extended parts of the song," says VanWyngarden, totally ingenuously. "We're still just playing our songs. And maybe that's good for now." --JENNY ELISCU

Between Festivals, We Contemplate The Big Questions

Today, I don't know what to be more excited about, the fact that the Hold Steady are going to be opening for Counting Crows a few times this December (take that, hipsters!) or the fact that Britney Spears appears alongside British comic actor Russell Brand in the new ads for MTV's Video Music Awards. It is truly a riveting day in the music business, friends.

Seriously, though, the ads for the VMAs are pretty damn Britney-riffic. Kudos to Brand -- who won over an American audience with his brilliant camp performance as a rock star in Forgetting Sarah Marshall -- for ostensibly ad-libbing Spears into two great twenty second bits. I can only hope this bodes well for how he'll face up to a challenge that has crushed more experienced comedians under the weight of its self-imposed gravitas. Even the mighty Chris Rock himself faltered when he stood up to the VMA beast. And if Brand can knock his portion of the September 7th broadcast out of the park, maybe the VMAs won't suck nearly as bad this year as they have for the past few.

And if Britney shows up? Well, shut up! That would just rule. -- JENNY ELISCU

Oy Points West: What Would Perry Do?

Photograph by Jason Bergman

Furthering the theory that there are starting to be a few festivals too many, the inaugural All Points West whimpered its way through the past weekend, bumming out tens of thousands of concertgoers who hauled their asses to Jersey City, of all places. The three-day concert, put together by Coachella promoters Goldenvoice, was headlined on Friday and Saturday by Radiohead and on Sunday by Jack Johnson, who failed to draw the same sold-out crowd as Thom Yorke and co.

Ticketholders complained most about the alcohol situation: Lines were impossibly long and you were allotted only five beers before getting cut off. Friends reported that they had waited more than an hour in blazing midday heat just to get an over-21 wristband. And when you deprive festival-goers of beer, they turn apathetic about the performances, and the artists start picking up bad vibes. Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill dubbed All Points West a "depressed-ival," and noted a lack of enthusiasm from the crowd.

And, much as I enjoyed performances by Metric and Animal Collective and Kings of Leon and Radiohead, All Points West lacked the sense of advent you want in a rock festival. I was reminded of what Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell told Rolling Stone earlier this week about how he approaches organizing the annual event. "My opinion is that the lineup is the first thing that people look at," Farrell said. "With Lollapalooza, the quality it stands for makes people want to attend, but also the artists themselves. I care about the backstage as much as I care about the front of house and the front stage and I'm always thinking about how the artist can enjoy the festival as well as the audience."

When it comes to deciding who to book as headliners, Farrell has a pretty specific kind of artist in mind: "The prerequisites are, you need a group that has been around long enough to become great. These groups after fifteen or twenty years get amazing. Musicians get better with age. To me there's a window for these great groups where they can come and perform and bring production and still have the energy but now have the wisdom and the experience. When I look to book I'm looking for those types of groups, firstly because this way you're seeing the best in the world, and also because I want the audience when they go home to say to themselves, 'Wait a minute: THAT was a concert.'" Though we're still basking in the afterglow of triumphant performances by Rage Against The Machine and Radiohead and Kanye West and Wilco and Nine Inch Nails, All Points West is going to have to bring their game up a notch if they want to make it to All Points West 2009. -- JENNY ELISCU

Bloc Party Fans Show Us How It's Done

Photo: Rory O'Connor

You have to give it up for British audiences: They know how to go nuts at a rock show. Whether because the crowd at Bloc Party's Webster Hall gig last night was packed with U.K. ex-pats or simply because the London foursome seems to have crossed over from being just another British post-punk band to being the one British post-punk band everyone can agree to like, the fans made an enthusiastic racket, eliciting two encores. Singer-guitarist Kele Okereke now comfortably wears his rock star charisma with the same ease he applies to slashing through precisely-timed riffs on songs like "Hunting For Witches" and "Helicopter." Watching Bloc Party last night, I was reminded of Mission of Burma, a punk band that was always cool without insisting upon its coolness. Meanwhile, if the new single "Mercury" offers a decent preview of the band's upcoming third LP, they've got my vote for one of the British scene-stars most likely to remain relevant in the twenty-teens. -- JENNY ELISCU

Anthony Kiedis Nabs Dylan For New American Music Union Festival

Photo: Getty Images

I was scooting around backstage at Lollapalooza last weekend when I got a phone call from Anthony Kiedis, ringing to talk about his upcoming New American Music Union festival. During a summer when every major fest attempts to diversify its bill, New American Music Union's line-up coheres beautifully by focusing on an array of acts who likely already share fans. Plus, Kiedis -- who curated the selection of artists -- managed to get Bob Dylan to agree to play alongside the Raconteurs, Black Keys, Spoon, Gnarls Barkley and the Roots. The event will be held at Pittsburgh's Southside Works this Friday and Saturday. Here's what the Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman had to say about booking Zimmy.

I'm assuming Dylan was always on the short-list of folks to book for the inaugural New American Music Union?
Bob Dylan is definitely someone I would love to go see, but I also wanted to do it for all my friends who are dead who loved Bob Dylan. And all of my crazy friends that were actually alive when Bob Dylan first came on the scene. And then I’m doing it for all the really cool teenagers that managed to tap into Bob Dylan -- kids that look a little less predictably into places to find cool music and found Bob Dylan.

Was it difficult to get him to do it?
Uhhh… yes. And fortunately, that wasn’t so much my job. My job was more to write the words "Bob Dylan" down on a piece of paper. A month later, after a number of phone calls and all kinds of jostling, it happened.

Have you seen him play before?
I've seen him before from afar, at a time when I couldn’t even appreciate Bob Dylan, under less than optimum conditions. That was on the island of Oahu in the Eighties, when I was completely mental and not ready to get on that wavelength.

What are you hoping he’ll play?
I’m not even really gonna get my hopes up, because if I start getting my hopes up and have my favorite Bob Dylan songs in the expectation chamber and he doesn’t play them, I’m gonna be disappointed. I’ll just be waiting the whole set, like, 'Play my favorite, play my favorite!' And I just want him to play whatever he’s gonna play that night, and be grateful for that. -- JENNY ELISCU

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Much as I loved Kanye West's performance at Lollapalooza on Sunday night, it wasn't the rapper himself who held my focus but the amazing sign language interpreter standing stage right. She had even more bravado than West, which is no small feat. Turns out that C3, the company which produces Lollpalooza, hires ASL interpreters for every performer on every stage at Lollpalooza, even though hearing-impaired fest-goers have got to comprise a tiny percentage of the 225,000 who attended the three-day event in Chicago's Grant Park. The same company puts together the Austin City Limits festival and I can't wait to see an interpreter sign along with Vampire Weekend's world-beat indie pop and Conor Oberst's quickly-worded folk songs. Sometime between now and ACL -- which Pete and I will cover in late September -- I hope to get an interview with one of the talented signers, so watch this space for that. Meanwhile, check out the interpreter for the Black Keys , who also offered some fine interpretive dance moves during Radiohead's set. -- JENNY ELISCU

Lollapalooza, Day Three: Chromeo Kicks Up Their Red Spiked Heels

Photo: Kisby/Getty

The Day-Glo dance duo of Dave 1 and P-Thugg, Montreal natives both, dished out their irresistibly sproingy Québectronica for a delighted crowd – who regularly filled the gaps between songs by chanting, Wizard of Oz style, “Chro-ME-o, OHHH, oh!” Guitarist Dave 1 (who also happens to teach French at Columbia University, where he’s a Ph.D candidate in French lit) and keyboardist P-Thugg (whose pair of synths were whimsically perched on a pair of sexy artificial legs in red stiletto heels) announced they’d been best friends since high school. And Chromeo displayed an evident musical rapport as they kicked through a series of sunshiny synth-pop tunes, including “Bonafied Lovin’,” “Mama’s Boy,” “Fancy Footwork” (the title track of Chromeo’s most recent album), and the duo’s personal favorite, “100%” – which also happens to be the amount of satisfied customers Chromeo sent on their way at the close of their sheerly delectable set. -- MOIRA McCORMICK

Lollapalooza, Day Three: Kanye Rules Chicago -- He'll Tell You So Himself

Photo: Grabowski/Retna

“Is this what you’ve waited for all weekend?” said Kanye West in his trademark ego-has-landed fashion (but without his trademark louvered glasses), midway through his headlining set Sunday night at Lollapalooza. The gathered throng dutifully hollered back in the affirmative, and the show went on. West, a local hip-hop kid made good – and one of several Lolla bill-toppers with ties to Chicago – proffered an expensive-looking, crowd-pleasing stage extravaganza that effectively showcased his inarguable gifts as a mass-audience pop entertainer. From the strikingly Broadwayesque sequenced light bars that illuminated his airplane hangar of a stage to his evidently populous (but largely invisible) backing band, Kanye’s production was big-bigger-biggest and then some. West even incorporated Chicago’s sharply etched skyline into his visuals -- especially effective when a shot of the illuminated, diamond-shaped Smurfit-Stone Building was used to preface “Diamonds From Sierra Leone.” His generous set was smoothly paced and heavy on the favorites (“Gold Digger,” “Jesus Walks,” “Flashing Lights”), and by the time West closed with a brawny version of recent hit “Stronger,” the crowd was too sated to ask for more. -- MOIRA McCORMICK

Lollapalooza, Day Three: The National Soothe Sun-Baked Masses

Photograph by Rory O'Connor

For those Lollapalooza-goers whose senses were a bit overloaded from three full days of music and scorching summer sun, there was no better remedy than The National, who held court early Sunday evening at the festival's north end. Through the gradually deepening dusk, the New York fivesome wove shimmering sheets of indie guitar pop, with the brooding voice of Matt Berninger embodying the beauty of melancholy. And though Berninger's vocals are sometimes a dead ringer for Ian Curtis's, The National provided a warmer musical context than Joy Division ever did. The gentle but insistent beat of "Slow Show" gathered steam as Berninger crooned, "I wanna hurry home to you... and crack you up so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain." The gorgeous "Ada," with its harp-like keyboards and graceful horn fills, meanwhile, had the audience singing along to its whispery chorus, "Leave it all up in the air..." Whatever might have been ailing you, whether sunburn, hangover or Lollapalooza fatigue, the National brought sweet relief. -- MOIRA McCORMICK

Lollapalooza, Day Three: Saul Williams Confuses, Impresses During Afternoon Set

Photograph by Rory O'Connor

Amid a fusillade of fuzz guitars and screaming synths, Saul Williams took the stage at Lollapalooza, all feathered dreadlocks and futuristic warpaint. "You guys ready?" he called out, surveying the amped-up fans, many drawn by his slamming track "List of Demands" from a recent Nike ad. To their vocal assent, Williams came back with an ominous, "We'll see about that..." For the next hour, the slam poet/rapper/actor/hardcore rocker and his backing band hammered out his unclassifiable hybrid of Afropunk, metal, and industrial music -- a combination so boundary-smashing that it was, indeed, too much for some of those who showed up just to hear "List of