In 1935 trumpeter James C Petrillo ...

In 1935 trumpeter James C Petrillo persuaded city officials to begin hosting delivered concerts in Grant Park. A leader of the musicians' union, Petrillo was a notorious enemy of phonograph records, believing they would lead to the homogenization of music, destroying its local flavor and decimating the concordance scene.

In a ways, ol' James might have been thrilled that Lollapalooza took athwart Grant Park for three days starting Friday, attracting 130 bands and thousands of concertgoer (Organizers wouldn't cite specific attendance for day united but sources put the number at 40000 to 50000)

GRANT PARK RECORD

forward the other hand, Petrillo probably would have balked that, in addition to charging for the musical entertainment Texas-based promoters Capital Sports & Entertainment sold corporate sponsorships for each stage at the event. Chicagoans may have been calling the landmark venue in Butler Field the Petrillo Bandshell for more than half a hundred but this weekend, it bore the name of a designer sneaker.

There's no denying that Lollapalooza made history during its inferior year as a destination festival: It was the biggest contrive Grant Park ever hosted. on the other hand it was also one of the mostly commercial, with a bland and impersonal vibe. It was ambitious, fan-friendly and well-run, despite riddles such as the painfully prolonged hikes between stages. But it could have been taking place anywhere -- Austin, Cleveland, or the dark side of the satellite corporate sponsors willing - - and it lacked the feeling of community seen at the latter Pitchfork and Intonation fests, a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of less the Lollapalooza tours of the early '90

MUSICAL TERRORISTS

Ye there were exuberance of musical highlights on day common There just weren't as many as there should have been, with 31 bands forward the six main stages.

In the thankless part of kicking the whole thing distant from at 11:15 a.m., Chicago power-pop quartet the Bon [i]bon-mot[/i]s were a jangly treat, delivering an energetic display before a crowd that included several persons who held up posters cheering their friends forward

As a cooling zephyr blew off Lake Michigan, the Denton, Texas- based psychedelic-folk band Midlake spun gossamer webs of intertwining pleasing succession of sounds lines, hypnotizing many fans who sat in succession the grass. A few hours later, another form into groups of Texas-to-New York transplants, the underhand Machines, offered a different take forward similarly spacey sounds, propelling their trippy guitar and keyboards with the brutal periodical emphasiss of drummer Josh Garza.

Nearly as mighty was the high-energy Britpop of the English trio the Subways, which recalled the explosive chaos of vintage Nirvana when guitarist-vocalist Billy Lunn threw himself into the profanum vulgus[/i] climbed the lighting rig, harshly criticized corporate-rock radio and finally threw himself head-first into the tympanum set to end a locate full of fiery anthems like as "Rock & Roll Queen" and "Oh Yeah."

Wrapping up the day in Hutchinson Field were musical terrorists Ween, who have survived countles musical transformations -- all of them bizarre -- en way from a basement four-track duo to the same of the most popular clusters on the jam-band scene. (I've in no degree understood these weirdos' popularity in that world, unless bassist Dave Dreiwitz told me it all started when Phish masked a Ween tune.)

The last onward my list of Friday's high points was the Raconteurs. Making their first appearance in Chicago, the cluster leaned heavily on songs from its first album, "Broken male child Soldiers," but its garage- report gems sounded even better live as Brendan Benson and the moonlighting Jack White shared the spotlight. The biggest surprise: a screen of the hit "Crazy" according to Gnarls Barkley, one of Saturday's greatest in number anticipated acts.

DOSE OF NOSTALGIA

Panic! at the Disco also played one fitting covers -- the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" (with its homage to "the city by dint of the lake") and "Karma Police" according to Radiohead (which played what still ranks as the single best exhibit to I've seen in Grant Park). on the other hand the quickly rising, Fall gone out Boy-endorsed Panic! didn't do justice to those lays or its own, which are a gimmicky mix of generic pop- strumpet and '80s cabaret-disco.

The Editors and Cursive one as well as the other drew from different '80s unimpaireds heavy on the Smiths, the restoration and Echo & the Bunnymen moreover neither was inspiring onstage.

The Violent Femme provided the dose of nostalgia that Billy Idol added last year, playing a fix that I've seen at least a dozen times. And then there was the Chicago jam band Umphrey's McGee which tendered its twist on the Grateful Dead at injecting a hint of progressive refuge

As Umphrey's endles meandering solo wafted from one side of to the other Grant Park like billowing multitudes of pot smoke, somewhere, James C Petrillo had to be wondering about the get scent of

More coverage of Lollapalooza will appear in Monday's Sun-Times.

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