Jaunted

FRIDAY, DAY 1
2:15PM: The sun is shining and crowds are pushing along the western edge of Grant Park, heading to the fest. (See the official map here.) We surrender our wrists for three-day wristbands that will let us enter and exit the park whenever we want. (This will prove key to festival survival; pity the one-day ticket holders, who don't have such privileges.) The Polyphonic Spree is just leaving the stage (darn!) but Electric Six promises us they'll "turn it down to eleven" with a punchy set on the PlayStation stage. Between danceable rock songs, the lead singer describes his plan to activate a time machine in the Sears Tower and travel to George W. Bush's deathbed, 30 years in the future. Sweet!

3:30PM: Over on the Bud Light stage (one of the two "main stages" of the festival, set at opposite ends of the park with Buckingham Fountain in the middle), the Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. is losing her voice. She pulls out a mysterious bottle and says, "Jack White FedExed this to me, he said it would help." Whiskey? Scotch? Dick Cheney's blood? Later we find out it was just some kind of throat spray. It's hard to sit still, especially after she slips lyrics from Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" into one of her songs. (I recognized it because I was there when Pixies played the first Chicago-based Lollapalooza, in 2005.)

5:05PM: My concert buddy (who also happens to be my sister) and I wander off the grounds to Millennium Park, Chicago's recently redesigned waterfront greenspace featuring a Frank Gehry-designed bandshell and this sculpture, officially titled "Cloud Gate TK." But don't ask for it by name: Locals dubbed it "The Bean." Next to the Bean, forty-foot-tall towers shower screaming kids with water. As long as we're out, we pick up more bottled water: Festivalgoers are allowed to bring two factory-sealed bottles, up to a liter each. The festival organizers have dropped the price of SmartWater bottles to $2, but there are also refill troughs where you can fill up for free.

6:45PM: After a break for a vegan burrito and chicken satay, we detour through the "Who Art Thou?" art exhibit on the Lolla grounds (featuring student work from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, just a stone's throw away) and the "Green Street" eco-friendly display, where you can pedal a bicycle to generate electricity to power a police siren or watch a drum circle. The eco-friendly angle is something of which festival re-founder Perry Farrell, who was present for the original Lollapalooza festivals with his bands Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros, has been a champion. Too bad we didn't see him there, because his band Satellite Party was playing the massive AT&T stage. (I saw him a few other times over the weekend, as a bundle of balloons which spelled out his name trailed behind him.)

8:30PM: Daft Punk opens its set with the five-tone call-out from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." And all of Chicago leans forward. The French duo stays hidden behind crazy masks and suits while neon lights flash around them. Local boy Kanye West is a no-show, but we didn't need him anyway; this show is like being the protagonist in a giant video game, albeit one with a really good soundtrack.

Tomorrow: Days 2 and 3, including Interpol and Amy Winehouse performances, the Kidzapalooza report, and a vegan ice cream tasting.

[Photos: heatherlove; ccutlip; tammylo; laffy4k; jhahn6; kisokiso]

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