Lolla countdown begins

By Rob Janicke

If you'll be at Lollapalooza, the indie-rock extravanga in Chicago that is now just one month away, your blood is already boiling and electricity flowing with anticipation. One of the best festivals of the 1990’s is back and is better than ever!

I was just preparing my schedule using the great scheduling feature on the Lollapalooza web site, a pre-festival planning tool I strongly recommend. Going to festivals can be pretty stressful if you don’t have a plan. With so much to see and so much ground to cover you could find yourself at a stage you didn’t want to be in front of or perhaps at the right stage but at the wrong time. Trying to navigate through one day of festival going is tough, but three days? Make a schedule, folks!

Anyway, when using the tool, it immediately sinks in just how much we have to look forward to--more than 100 big-name and up-and-coming bands. Take a look:

For Day 1, the choices include moe, Satellite Party, Daft Punk, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Son Volt, Blonde Redhead, The Fratellis, Silversun Pickups, and more.

On Day 2, choose among Tokyo Police Club, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Patti Smith, Muse, Motion City Soundtrac and others.

Day 3 has Kings of Leon, Iggy and the Stooges, My Morning Jacket, Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, Pearl Jam, and more.

That's just the bands. I’m didn't mention all of the other exhibitions and sights to see throughout the festival. Build some flex time into your schedule to soak in some of the rest the festival has to offer.

Day 3 is interesting for several reasons. It’s the last day, so the fatigue factor should be setting in at this point. By the time Pearl Jam goes on at 8 pm, all the other stages will be finished. Everyone at the festival, including most who have been immersed in it for 72 hours, will be watchiing just one band--Pearl Jam. Yes!

In the coming weeks, I’ll take a closer look at some of the bands I mentioned today and give my subjective recommendations on which ones you should check out. Your choices may vary, but it could help you when your using that online scheduling tool.