Lollapalooza 2008: Saturday In Photos, Rage Delivers Bruises
By Scott Lapatine & Amrit Singh
Saturday was mostly just your standard, hot, sold out, music-filled day at Lolla. Until Rage. Wilco were great and photogenic Coachella last year, it was a massive sea of bodies, flaring fists, thousands chanting, inciting, fucking you for telling them what to do. Unlike Coachella, there were no calls for Bush to be tried as a war criminal. There was, however, Zack's repeated set interruptions and calls to "please take a step back" due to oppressive crowd pushing (the first and only time Rage and the Dead will ever share a vibe -- or verbiage). It actually was a very nasty scene, a result of anywhere from hundreds to thousands gaining free admission to the already capacity crowd by jumping fences and forming wedges to bumrush the gates, and years deprived of, or consumed with, Rage. The DeRogatis blog goes in depth with photos and reportage.
We weren't in the photo pit for that set, which we're told is a good thing (anyone up front walked out bruised, missing belongings, and for many, even worse), but we did otherwise manage a full day of music and photos, including Will Sheff dressed in his Saturday best and full head of hair (a fan: "It looks like he's wearing a helmet!"), Lupe Fiasco's lyrical and physical dexterity (us: "I'm winded just watching him"), afterpartying with Spank Rock (yes Lindsay Lohan was there, yes he and Amanda Blank dedicated "Lindsay Lohan's Revenge" to "you know who you are").
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
MGMT
OKKERVIL RIVER
SPANK ROCK @ HARD ROCK
SPANK ROCK @ LOLLA
BATTLES
BOOKA SHADE
THE COOL KIDS
UFFIE
JAMIE LIDELL
FOALS
SHARON JONES
LUPE FIASCO
[Okkervil, Lupe, Explosions In The Sky & Spank Rock @ Hard Rock photos by Amrit, all others by Abbey Braden]
Posted at 2:46 PM in Concert
Tags: Battles | Booka Shade | Explosions In The Sky | Foals | Jamie Lidell | Lollapalooza | Lupe Fiasco | MGMT | Okkervil River | Rage Against The Machine | The Cool Kids | The Ting Tings | Uffie
"We weren't in the photo pit for that set, which we're told is a good thing (anyone up front walked out bruised, missing belongings, and for many, even worse), but we did otherwise manage a full day of music and photos, including Will Sheff dressed in his Saturday best and full head of hair (a fan: "It looks like he's wearing a helmet!"), Lupe Fiasco's lyrical and physical dexterity (us: "I'm seriously winded just watching him"), afterpartying with Spank Rock (yes Lindsay Lohan was there, yes he and Amanda Blank dedicated "Lindsay Lohan's Revenge" to "you know who you are"), and realizing that Daniel Masterson (aka DJ Momjeans) has a playlist and probably life stuck in '06 and is The Worst and so Momjeans has become shorthand for being stuck in time and ill-fitting and The Worst (not that it wasn't already)."
Most unreadable sentence ever. Congrats!
Score = 9
True, Matthew, but the sentence does give you a sense of the pandemonium of the festival.
Nice photo set, guys.
Score = -1
white people love grammar
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yeah- WTF? Was it the intense sun or the masses of drugs taken that yielded such a retarded statement? Courtney Love's ramblings read like Sallinger compared to that piss.
Score = -2
Since when did Weird Al play drums for MGMT?
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Seriously, fix that shit. It's downright unprofessional.
Score = -1
Innerpartysystem was amazing. AMAZING.
Give them a break on sentence structure, Lolla makes for a long weekend. Mark Ronson owned Sunday, in my opinion.
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saturday wasn't nearly as hot as friday or sunday. i have a mean farmer's tan from sunday.
but seriously - too many people this year. WAY too many people.
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I agree so much with this. Holy crap Saturday was a blessing in comparison to Sunday. This year it seemed way more overcrowded. But I mean, I guess Friday makes sense considering it was the first time Lolla's sold out on a day.
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ummmm pix are not displaying
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This year's lineup was so much weaker than last year. Yeah, a few good headliners, but the day shows were a snooze. And Toadies were the best band you could find to open for Rage?? WTF, they were terrible.
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I think my gripe was having bands like Blues Traveler & Toadies on the myspace stage when Saul Williams, Girl Talk and plenty of other more contemporary (read: better) bands/musicians on the smaller more crowded Citi stage (which was also well-placed walk-wise, but not sound bleed-wise). Also, for all of the terrific bands that were there, it was a top-heavy line-up. Pretty thin, headliners not included.
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Lolla '08, featuring Take Care Of Each Other Against The Machine!
Ah well, I guess corporate Rock is still Rock.
Score = -1
Rage was pretty intense. I only got a few bruises, my friends were pretty sore by the end, but got pretty close. The mosh pit started an hour before the band even hit the stage. I have a couple bruises, and didn't even attempt to bring out my camera. Still had an awesome time.
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I loved the rage show until i fell into the section between the stage and the crowed when i was body surfing to killing in the name off. two police officers or security officers handcuffed me and took me to the side of the stage where i was kicked and choked i made a police report and went to the hospital where i found out that i had a broken rib but i cant do anything about it because i have no witnesses i know that some one out there had to have seen it happen and if you did i ask you to please help me do something about it thank you. my email is tioshnohek@live.com
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i think the biggest surprise of the day was foals. the entire band was totally into it and the lead singer walked around in the crowd while playing his guitar which was pretty awesome. plus they took all their water bottles and threw them out to the crowd which was very classy and much appreciated.
did anyone else lose anything at rage? i didnt, but my friend lost his rage shirt that he was holding and my other friend lost his glasses and a shoe. to me, that is the sign of a truly great concert.
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kinda of a late respone but foals was simply amazing.
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