Pearl Jam closes strange and glorious weekend on Day 3 of Lollapalooza

By Rob Janicke

I don’t typically use words such as “grand” or “finale” but in this case I’ll make the exception. Days 1 and 2 of the 2007 Lollapalooza in Chicago, Illinois have been two fantastic days of sights, sounds, people and atmosphere. Why not expect the last day to be a “grand finale?”

I knew this day would be a bit different from the previous two in that most of the estimated 70,000 people would be gearing up to see the festival headliner Pearl Jam at 8 pm at the main stage. This “prediction” was the driving force in how my schedule was going to play out on this final day. As with days 1 and 2 there were plenty of good bands to see and much ground to cover. Here’s the problem though…I knew that if I wanted to be in the same zip code as the main stage to catch Pearl Jam at 8 pm, I’d need to be near that stage around 3, because by then people would begin camping out to secure a prime spot for the headliner. This was a bit of a dilemma but I was confident that Lollapalooza would not let me down. I was right!

My first planned stop was to see Juliette and the Licks at 11:30 am. It was another hot day and I wasn’t moving as quickly as I had on Friday. Because of the heat induced laziness I was a bit late for my date with Ms. Lewis and her Licks. When I did finally arrive at the Adidas stage, what I saw and heard was an absolute jolt to my system, waking me up and preparing me for the rest of my day. It is true that the Juliette in “Juliette and the Licks” is actress Juliette Lewis. After seeing her play though, she is now lead singer Juliette who also happens to be an actress. The band is raw, loud and sloppy enough to be just right. Lewis is a tiny human being with tremendous presence. At one point she threw herself head first into the crowd only to eventually be held up by her feet, high above the crowd, arms aloft in victory. The crunching guitars, the melodic choruses and Juliette’s passion kicked Lollapalooza Day 3 into high gear!

At 12:15, I made my way over to the Bud Light stage to check out punk rockers The Cribs. I wish I hadn’t. Nothing too exciting here at all. They basically play boring punk rock with no hint of originality. It may as well been a punk cover band in a very hot, outdoor bar somewhere. After the high of the previous band, this was a downer.

I was hoping to get a kick in the ass from the next band, The Heartless Bastards over at the Myspace stage, and I wound up with a slight push instead. This trio out of Cincinnati plays inventive music with cool grooves and great melody. The problem is that it just doesn’t translate in the great outdoors. Their sound gets lost in the elements and leaves the viewer confused and deflated. It’s not the band’s fault, mind you…they’re really good. Wide open spaces just do not allow for music like this to thrive. The band gets no vibe from the crowd to feed off of and the crowd in turn gets no energy from the band. The venue is just not the right fit for these guys. I’d love to see them in a small club somewhere and give it another shot…I think it would be well worth it.

Ok, so now it’s getting close to the time where I had planned to head over to the main stage to stake my claim on the piece of grass that would become my home for Pearl Jam later on in the night. It was approaching 2:15 and I really wasn’t interested in any of the bands performing during this time slot. Thankfully, I met and talked with a great guy called Chris who had come all the way from South Africa to attend this festival. He really made the insane trek to see his favorite band (Pearl Jam) live in concert because they have never been to his native land and he saw this as a terrific opportunity.

One of the bands he was excited to see was The Black Angels, who I had never heard of before. I decided to head over to the Citi stage with Chris and see why he needed to see this band. Let me take this opportunity to thank him…The Black Angels flat out blew me away. I don’t even know where to begin with this eclectic band from Austin, Texas. It took me about three or four songs into the set just to get a grasp for what I was witness to. Every musician on the stage (except for the drummer) switched instruments at one point or another throughout the show to the delight of the rather large crowd. The best way I can describe their dark yet melodic sound is The Doors meets Neil Young meets Satan. Lead singer Alex Mass seems to channel the spirit of Jim Morrison while belting out sounds reminiscent of the great Neil Young.The psychedelic rock boiling behind him sets a trance-like mood that keeps you on the edge of your seat…well, if you had a seat. By the time they were through mesmerizing and probably scaring the crowd, I was left wanting more. This is a band I will definitely see again.

Now that I had witnessed the Black Angels, I was ready to sit and wait for Pearl Jam to put a cap on a great weekend. I was trying to position myself near the stage for the 4:15 performance of Kings of Leon. The crowd had become very thick and immobile. People were not moving from this point on. Pearl Jam was just a few short hours away and no one was giving up their tiny pieces of Grant Park’s grass and dirt. This was not going to be easy. I was able to get a decent enough patch of grass for myself and watch what was a good Kings of Leon set. I’m a fan of the band and I like most of their songs, but I felt like they had left something out. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I have to admit I felt slightly disappointed.

My Morning Jacket was up next. These guys are interesting at best, with the occasional good hook. Most of the songs seemed to blend with one another without much distinction among them. They did, however, enlist the services of a youth choir from Chicago, which added some needed bigness to their sound.

Dusk was now hanging over Chicago’s Grant Park with seemingly the same anticipation as the capacity crowd. The beginning of the end for Lollapalooza 2007 was moments away and the buzz was unmistakable. I was reflecting a bit on the weekend at this point and was somewhat sad it was coming to an end. On the other hand, I was very excited for the next and final act, Pearl Jam.

Opening up with a vicious blast from their debut album Ten, “Why Go,” got this 2007 crowd feeling like it was 1992 (the band’s first and only other Lollapalooza appearance). After rockers “Corduroy”, “Save You” and “Do the Evolution,” the band slowed things down a bit with the sing-a-long fan favorite “Elderly Women behind the Counter in a Small Town”. After ripping through several other “greatest hits” with all the power and passion that one would expect from these rock veterans, they ended the first set with the 90's anthem “Alive,” which nearly brought down the house. There is something about listening to 70,000 voices singing “I’m still alive” that leads you to believe that you are better off here in this moment than anywhere else on earth. Coming back for what was the first of two encores, Vedder and company ran through “Betterman”, their rendition of the cult classic “Crazy Mary,” “Life Wasted” and a loud, violent version of “Rearviewmirror.” By now the night sky had fully engulfed Chicago and Pearl Jam had completely taken over Grant Park.

Hitting the stage for their second and final encore, Pearl Jam enlisted the help of two friends. The first is a man called Tomas Young who is the Iraq war veteran that the song “No More” was written about. The second is an old friend of the band and brilliant musician in his own right, Ben Harper. This lent tremendous feeling to a song already overflowing with passionate protest. The next and final song, not only of their set, but of the entire weekend, was the Neil Young cover, “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Once again, the band had some help. From my vantage point, I couldn’t make everyone out, but the stage was full of people just rocking out and singing along. What was impossible to miss, though, was the way the whole shebang came to an end. Former Chicago Bull and longtime Pearl Jam friend and fan Dennis Rodman hoisted Eddie Vedder onto his shoulders giving the singer the opportunity to see as far as his eyes would allow. He flashed the peace sign to the masses of Lollapaloozians (that’s not a word I just made that up) still hanging on every note, hoping they could stay for at least one more song. It was a strange, yet glorious end to a strange and glorious weekend.