Here is what I had a chance to see at Lollapalooza 2008 on Day 1:

Jeff Tweedy (partial) - Kidzapalooza

- TONS of people.  It took me a few minutes to realize that Jeff Tweedy is in Wilco as I am not a big fan of Wilco.  Because of that, I think that some of the tunez were lost on me…  I liked what I heard…

Rogue Wave - Kidzapalooza

- Still a lot of stragglers from Jeff Tweedy.  Some of the band did not seem “in to it” and the other members were perhaps overly so.  After seeing them play acoustic on the kids stage, I wish I would have seen them plugged in when they played on the MySpace stage…

Tiny Masters of Today

- This is the band that we came to see at Kidzapalooza.  Two of the band members (Ivan and Ada) are the nephew/niece of Carrie — who I played hockey with in NYC.  I had not listened to much of their stuff before the show; I knew only that they were certainly going to blow the volume out of the place after two acoustic sets before them.  The crowd was sparse to start, but grew a LOT over the course of the set.  There were folks singing along behind us…   I really did dig them.  Ivan can really play — as can Jackson, the drummer — and I was really impressed with their stage presence.  They finished up with a cover of House of Pain’s “Jump” — which has gotta be on its way to being a YouTube sensation…

Cat Power

- This was the first half of my Austin City Limits redux (I saw Cat Power and The Raconteurs on the same show…) and it was a little disappointing.  I really dig the band — and they were certainly tight — but their music, like a few other bands I saw, just did not lend itself fully to playing in the middle of hot/sunny afternoon while outdoors.  I would definitely see them again — just in a much smaller venue.

The Raconteurs

- In the second half of my Austin City Limits party — and only one stage away — the Raconteurs ROCKED out on a big stage.  It was almost the polar opposite of Cat Power.  It was like watching and listening to a 70’s guitar rock band — in 1975.  They owned the stage.  They owned the music.  Sadly, and again like a few other bands, after they played “Steady As She Goes” there was a mass exodus.  They were fantastic and I really look forward to seeing them again.

Radiohead

- Let me start here:  I am not a big Radiohead fan.  Even that is a stretch.  We set ourselves up by the big Lolla balloon stantion.  And I honestly could have gone to sleep.  I watched the concert goers that climbed the stantion intently…  I tried to watch the video screens but they were split into six mini screens on each side and heavily coloured so that you could barely make anything out from where we were.  There was a neat stage effect that made it seem like it was raining.  I guess that counts as a highlight.  There were (unrelated) firewords for a bit of their set.  That was exciting.  I dunno.  I like a LOT of “off kilter”, “derivative” or just plain “strange” music and seeing Radiohead in concert confirmed what I already knew:  they do nothing for me.