Jaunted

12:30PM: My partner in crime woke me up at the criminal hour of "before 9AM on a weekend" so we would make it in time for the 20-member Swedish band I'm From Barcelona. (That's correct, their name references Catalunya, but they are not from there.) I'm so glad she did, because with their "Sesame Street"-like antics (man in a bear suit, lead singer crowd surfing with a pool floatie, singalongs encouraged) we suddenly feel energized for another day of hard listening.

1:30PM: Here's a tip for you aspiring rockers out there: Covers are never wrong. Covers are your friends. Pete Yorn covers both Warren Zevon ("Splendid Isolation") and The Smiths ("There Is A Light that Never Goes Out") in his set, then throws in a third with a twist: He makes a joke about how Bonnaroo concertgoers confused him with Swedish duo Peter Bjorn & John and kept asking him to play "That Song," the duo's indie hit "Young Folks." Then Mr. Yorn, who obviously has a sense of humor, played "That Song" and did a bang-up job of it. (Here's a video of him doing it a week earlier.) Maybe not all the folks watching got it, but I did, Pete, and I salute you.

3:15PM: The "Mindfield" area is a combination carnival and sideshow featuring sumo wrestling suits, strong-man competitions, and... hey, karaoke! Specifically, karaoke on a PlayStation game called SingStar which can pit player against player to see who is the most in tune. (Alas, the game doesn't measure dance moves or between-song banter.) Unlike your classic karaoke bar, the folks who rush to the front of the line pick songs by Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, not Whitney Houston or Rod Stewart. Thank goodness!

4:05PM: After my cohort (who, for her fourth year in a row, is working at a Girl Scout camp) begs to be taken there, we head over to Lollapalooza's kids area, Kidzapalooza. Wait, you can take your baby to the rock show now? You bet, and he or she can "pet" guitars at the School of Rock Petting Zoo (named for the Philadelphia institution, not the Jack Black movie), get a punk-rock hairdo with washable dye and play PaRappa the Rapper. When we arrive, none other than Jim James of My Morning Jacket is on stage shredding to... "Rainbow Connection," of Muppets fame. A hard dance floor front and center may look mosh pit ready, but it's just for parents and kids who are sitting down (as Perry Farrell urges them to do). But there is trouble in the grove! Word has gotten out that Patti Smith is going to do a kids' set later this afternoon, but the rock goddess is nowhere to be found. A School of Rock all-star plays for a while, but when Perry calls out, "Who wants to hear a John Mayer song?" the excitement is, uh, less than palpable. (Mayer was not at Lollapalooza; his concert with Ben Folds cruised through town six weeks ago.)  You know what makes endless waiting better? A cookie dough ice cream cone from Temptation, a local vegan dessert outlet. It was as delicious as your local scoop shop, and we admired the man who served it to us in old-school apron and jaunty paper cap.

5:35PM: The Brazilian group CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) has cancelled over on another stage, but that doesn't matter because the Minneapolis/Brooklyn band The Hold Steady is on. Lead singer Craig Finn, shown, in a Twins jersey, relates how he "just started the band so my friends and I could get together and drink once a week... now we're going to Dublin to open for the Stones. We're so incredibly thankful to all of you," and then he ripped into the band's typical closer, "Killer Parties." Our sidekick snuck over to Regina Spektor and noted that she was very cute, never left her piano the entire set and was also profusely thankful.

7:50PM: It's pouring and we're under the grove eating spinach quesadillas and lukewarm pizza. Snow Patrol's set got briefly exciting when a man in a Spider-Man outfit (shown) tried to rush the stage, but the Scotch-Irish band manages to cool it back down to a lull. Patti Smith's set sputters until she digs into "Because the Night" and then chases it with a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Now that's a legend.

8:30PM: The last time I saw Interpol, I was in Providence, Rhode Island and they played on a dark stage in a three-quarters-full venue. The setting couldn't have been more different tonight, when I find myself in a muddy field, getting slowly soaked and sneaking peeks at the skyline as the band plays. People, this is why I am a music fan. I briefly entertain fantasies of booking a ticket to the major British music festivals (Glastonbury et al), where I can jump around in Wellies like a crazy person. Actually, Wellies would have been useful on a night like this, but who cares?

10:45PM: Guy on the Red Line El train heading to Howard takes a poll as to who went to see Interpol (on the slightly smaller Bud Light stage) and who went to see Muse (on the AT&T stage). Interpol wins but by sheer noise volume, mostly coming from my partner in crime and me.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 -- DAY 3

12:13PM: We're back at Mindfield to watch a trivia game, being played for a silver PlayStation. We knew we should have entered when none of the four players could recognize that the Rolling Stones are not from New Jersey. Hint: They have accents.

1:30PM: Here's another thing Lollapalooza Classic didn't have: Comedy! We're not sure how many kidneys Perry Ferrell had to sell to get members of Chicago's The Second City to come out and perform, but hey, he won't need them anyway. They just left us rolling in the aisles at Mindfield in a set which included a lot of music-related material, from My Parents Were In A Rock Band?! to Rap Music Sure Is Dirty These Days.

1:45PM: Sorry, I'm From Barcelona: Smoosh is officially the cutest act at the festival this year. And when we say "the cutest," we mean, "like puppies and rainbows." A rock trio featuring sisters Chloe, Asya and Maia -- ages 15, 13 and 10 -- who play simple but catchy songs they write themselves? We suddenly wish we were much younger and cooler.

2:30PM: After the antics oft described in the tabloids, Amy Winehouse does little to change minds when she starts her set 15 minutes behind schedule. But reviewers who twitted the crowd for not being more responsive must have been sitting in the premium air-conditioned Lolla Lounge ($1200-plus a head) -- the sun has just come out and the mercury just hit 91 degrees. Winehouse gives her coquettish all when she's singing, but between numbers she stands back with her knees together, as if bashful. Her back-up singers, on the other hand, are flailing in complete coordination.

4:15PM: Here's where our story ends, because we -- and I know this is sacreligious -- decided not to stay for Pearl Jam. Feel free to leave us hateful comments, but we were exhausted and dehydrated, plus we felt the chances of something historic happening on stage (and making our presence worthwhile) were quite low. As it happens we missed Dennis Rodman's appearance, but that's all right. Sign us up for 2008 already! The festival may have doubled in size since 2005, but our "limited presale" tickets mean we saw each band for about $5, if you don't count all the bands we heard a few numbers of. What a deal! Now, to sleep for a week or two.

Related Stories:
·   Jaunted At Lollapalooza: Post-Mortem Part 1 [Jaunted]
·   Chicago Travel [Jaunted]
·   Chicago Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photos: tammylo; Mark C. Austin; Staciaann Photography (and again; sarahs_and_aaron's; tammylo; violetxinjian]