As many participants freshly argue...

As many participants freshly argued during the Chicago City Council debate throughout the big box ordinance, bigger isn't always better and quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality.

Well, Lollapalooza 2006 was the Wal-Mart of pop-music festivals.

Texas-based promoter Capital Sports & Entertainment gave 40000 to 60000 concertgoer each day a portion of bang for their blade Friday through Sunday in a well-organized, tightly policed environment. on the other hand too many acts were mediocre; a bland, impersonal, marketing-crazed vibe prevailed, and the site -- which doubled the area of Grant Park used in 2005 -- was thus spread out that Lollapalooza became sum of two units separate concerts, one in the north at Butler Field and the other southern at Hutchinson.

It was simply too difficult to rouse quickly or with ease between the far-flung stages. even now sound bleed was still a major point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled with louder performers continually overpowering quiet single in kinds In the end, fewer stages -- each worked with genuinely top-shelf talent -- would have made for a better experience, however the promoters would have sold fewer corporate sponsorships (sources said companies paid about $100000 for naming rights) and they would have had to unfold a more focused musical aesthetic rather than this year's scattershot approach.

Despite these efforts to suffer no ticket dollar go uncollect a colossal portion of Chicago was not set forthed at the fest. Performing as the primary-stage headliners Saturday night, customary and Kanye West delivered spirited places that marked personal triumphs as their first present to views in Grant Park, with their mothers and dozens of friends and family members watching from the wings.

The pair million-selling acts are among the principally successful artists Chicago has at any time produced, and their sets forward the shore of Lake Michigan with the skyline as their backdrop should have been a celebration of this city's ascendance as a major force in hip-hop. further the crowd that cheered them in succession was almost entirely white and hardly a mirror image of Chicago. For that, you had to make progress outside the festival grounds and across Columbus Drive, where about 300 Chicagoans, evenly divided between white and black youth, listened from afar without having to pay $73 a day for a ticket and $3 for a bottle of water, all while being treated as an ideal demographic for nonstop advertising.

"We market to all areas of the city and nation," promoter Charles Attal said at a pres talk Saturday with partner Charlie Jone and festival figurehead Perry Farrell. "We can't sway who's buying the tickets." even now while Chicago's two alternative-rock radio stations were a major carriage at the fest, none of its powerhouse R&B or hip-hop exits was represented.

Dismiss these observations as nitpicking, or note that many among the thousands of teen and twentysomething fans be seened to be having the times of their lives. if it were not that if Capital Sports truly intends to make Lollapalooza the jewel of the national concordance scene and a festival worthy of Chicago, they ne to do a fate better, whether those at the concordance realized it or not.

everyday 'n' Kanye

These shortcomings weren't the artists' fault, aside from the fact that not many recognized the festival as something special. They mainly played the same set they do at each other tour stop, avoiding the collaborations that made the original Lollapalooza unique. Again, yet promoters did little to encourage this, with no real area for the artists to mingle, they haped up in their tour buses, got on the outside played and left.

The strongest lineup by way of far was on Saturday. everyday kept things old-school, fronting a lean arrange with keyboards, drums and a DJ and relying upon his charisma and deft verbal skills. Later, Kanye performed a stripped-down version of his spectacular touring point out to keeping the sexy female string section and his incredible DJ A- Trak, and overcoming hardy problems to deliver hit after hit, as well as giving cameos to compeer Chicagoans Lupe Fiasco, Common and Twista.

The Go! Team created a party atmosphere with its mix of indie- distaff hip-hop and Motown. But nothing could top the group's performance at the Intonation Festival in 2005 when a dispose of neighborhood kids fresh from the Union Park swimming puddle joined frontwoman Ninja onstage to dance.

canticle OF THE SUMMER

Later, rapper/vocalist Cee-Lo and DJ Danger Mouse -- together as Gnarls Barkley -- foreheaded a 13-piece band dressed as tennis pro and the duo prov as compelling onstage as onward album. They played their hugely popular hit "Crazy" -- moreover so did the Raconteurs, Kanye and Mates of State. You know you're hearing the single of the year when in the way that many musicians rush to mask it.

Typical of his appearances from first to last the festival he founded, living logo Farrell introduced Gnarls Barkley as his "favorite band in the world." Then he left after sum of two units songs, accompanied by his wife and a massive bodyguard (think Vin Diesel forward steroids) to return to his air-conditioned trailer until his nearest obligatory cameo.