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Jane's Addiction / Photo by Ian Witlen
Best & Worst of Lollapalooza: Day 3
Aerosmith's Joe Perry joins Jane's Addiction, Bat for Lashes silences intruders, Vampire Weekend honors John Hughes -- plus Deerhunter, Lou Reed, and more!
By Spin Staff 08.10.09 10:08 AM
Jane's Addiction / Photo by Ian Witlen
THE BEST:
BEST SURPRISE GUESTS: JOE PERRY WITH JANE'S ADDICTION
Closing out the festival on the Budweiser stage, Jane's Addiction did what they've been doing all summer: put on a sensual, bombastic, raging, funky, moody display of widescreen hard rock. Bathed in flashing yellow, blue, and red lights, festival founder Perry Farrell strutted about in a gold tuxedo jacket and pants, Dave Navarro gave his abs their required amount of air, and the less flamboyant rhythm section of drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery laid down their utterly unique tribal rhythms. It's the fantastic, galvanizing stuff we've come to expect. The surprise came during the encore, when Farrell introduced someone to the stage to propose to his girlfriend (she said yes), and then called out Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry to play with the band during the closing "Jane Says." He didn't say anything. The audience roared its approval. I think that's a 'yes.' -- DAVID MARCHESE
BEST NONSENSICAL STAGE BANTER: DEERHUNTER
"The cool thing about me is that my onstage breakdowns have nothing to do with drugs," said Deerhunter's rail-thin, gawky frontman Bradford Cox, in one his many rambling moments at the Citi Stage. As the bumping bass bled over from Snoop Dogg's show at the main stage, he babbled about viruses infiltrating his brain, a Holiday Inn with a Mayan water park, and measuring your age against that of the solar system. At one point he even gave fans a warning: "This is going to sound like shit," he confessed before jumping into "Agoraphobia," the poppiest track off Deerhunter's 2008 release Microcastle. He was wrong -- the performance was one of the day's best. -- WILLIAM GOODMAN
BEST TONIC FOR A SCORCHING SUMMER DAY: VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Nothing, other than a cold drink, hit the spot on the final, scorching day of Lollapalooza quite like the Caribbean and sub-Saharan mélange of musical globetrotters Vampire Weekend. The quartet played most of their best-known material during their hour-long set, but maybe most ebullient was "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," which they dedicated to Chicago filmmaker John Hughes, who died on the eve of this year's festival. From The Breakfast Club to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Hughes' movies share much the same quirky and endearing spirit as the Vamps' music. -- BILL FRISKICS-WARREN
BEST TOTALLY ODD-BALL FAN: BOYZ NOIZE
Shocker: Rave music usually gets people dancing, squirming, and spinning, and, sometimes, touching each other and professing their love for the music's ebbs and flows. But one fan in Velcro-strapped shoes and a flannel shirt at Perry's Dance Tent during German drum and bass and techno DJ Boyz Noize, a.k.a. Alex Rihda, opted to stand completely still and hold a long stick with a plastic owl tied to the top -- you know, the type you can attach to your porch to scare away pigeons. The guy didn't budge, and was complacent with the chaotic swarm of bodies gyrating around him. Apparently the drugs are good in Chicago. -- W.G.
BEST SUPERNATURAL MOMENT: BAT FOR LASHES
Natasha Khan is like something from a fairytale -- and she knows how to silence the nonbelievers. In moccasins, spandex leggings, a glittery tank top, and fluorescent eye shadow, the songstress put on one of the day's best shows, gliding through the autoharp and piano-led tunes off her stark, mystifying, and ethereal album Two Suns, and her 2006 debut, Fur and Gold. And when the rockabilly guitars of Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam bled through from the Citi Stage during her performance of "Sad Eyes," Khan amped up the swells of keyboards and ghostly vocals as a big gust of wind pushed south -- and jostled the overhead speakers so much that the roadies were forced to evacuate everyone onstage. -- W.G.
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