How Lollapalooza helps boost the music industry

After three full days of performances by 130 bands in Chicago’s Grant Park, the el is no longer packed with passengers wearing festival wristbands and the Michigan Avenue skyscrapers are no longer reflecting haphazard waves of rock music.

“Until next year, my lovelies,” festival founder Perry Farrell smiled as his band, Satellite Party, closed their set Sunday evening.

An estimated 160,000 fans braved blazing sun, humidity and rain to attend the festival that once spearheaded the 1990s alt-rock movement, suggesting that the touring business may be what saves the music industry.

This year’s headliners included Pearl Jam, Daft Punk and Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals. Pearl Jam bandleader Eddie Vedder must have been in a good mood as he closed Lollapalooza Sunday evening, obliging the massive crowd with a greatest hits set. Fireworks erupted in Soldier Field during the performance of “Even Flow” from the 1991 classic album, Ten.

If Lollapalooza had a lifetime achievement award, it would have gone to Iggy Pop earlier Sunday afternoon. The lean, muscular, frontman smashed claims that punk is dead. The 60-year-old commanded more energy than many of the younger musicians combined. He invited hundreds of festival-goers onstage during the raucous “No Fun” – the national anthem of punk recorded in 1969 by Iggy’s band, The Stooges.

Battle of the Bands

It’s impossible to catch every band at Lollapalooza, started in 1991. Walking at a good pace, it takes about 15 minutes to push past thousands of fans to reach the opposite end of Grant Park. Concert-goers often had to make painful choices between two of their favorite acts. The toughest battles for fan attention included Muse versus Interpol, Regina Spektor versus The Hold Steady and Lupe Fiasco versus Amy Winehouse.

In another cruel organizational move, My Morning Jacket played at the same time as Modest Mouse. My Morning Jacket was promoted to the AT&T stage after a stellar afternoon performance last year at the Bud Light stage. Leaning back to hold his guitar face-up to the sun, bandleader Jim James solidified the Louisville band’s reputation for being a great live act.

Although My Morning Jacket’s collaboration with Chicago’s Youth Symphony Orchestra enhanced Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” it otherwise did little to improve the songs in the set. The quartet fell into the trap most rock bands do when they partner with orchestras – creating simplistic scores based on 19th-century romanticism.

We can do it

Lollapalooza was dominated by four female performers: Amy Winehouse, Regina Spektor, Patti Smith and Karen O.

Not only did rebellious soul chanteuse Amy Winehouse show up, she showed up sober and executed a breathtaking set. With a beehive hairdo larger than her whole body, Winehouse swiveled behind the mike stand as she sang selections from last year’s Back to Black and cover songs of ’60s soul classics. A live band accompanied the British 23-year-old, who improvised on almost every melody.

Russian singer-songwriter Regina Spektor performed Saturday with a big, endearing grin as if she were a seven-year-old in a school Christmas play. Spektor opened her show a cappella, tapping the microphone with her finger while singing in her quirky, playful voice. In addition to playing a number of songs off 2006’s Begin To Hope, Spektor delighted the crowd with the dark humor of “Baby Jesus” and dedicated “Poor Little Rich Boy” to rock legend Patti Smith.

After a semi-traumatizing performance involving the F-word on the 2006 Kidzapalooza stage, Patti Smith returned to her hometown this year to play for the adults. The punk poet played “Gloria,” from the classic 1975 album, Horses, and a passionate rendition of Nirvana’s “Smell’s Like Teen Spirit.”

Donning a silver cape that may or may not have come from Gene Simmons’ closet, Karen O made a dramatic entrance alongside her two band-mates Saturday. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer defines rock star charisma. From the intimacy of “Maps” to the screeching fury of “Sealings,” to the sexy swagger of “Phenomena,” the garage rock outfit emerged victorious.

Tighten it up

The weekend’s best performances almost justified the steep $195 three-day and $80 single-day ticket prices. Next year, however, Farrell should focus on quality, not quantity. A staggering 130 bands hit eight stages August 3, 4 and 5. From the cookie-cutter indie rock of Paolo Nutini to the limp Californian ska of Slightly Stoopid, Lollapalooza 2007 had a lot of excess. The festival could easily be a two-day or three-day evenings-only, event.

That’s not to say Farrell should nix the local or up-and-coming bands. Chicago’s DJ duo Flosstradamus revealed why they fill every club they play and Schaumburg quartet Wax on Radio earned new fans under Friday’s relentless sun.

Big business

Perry Farrell should be very pleased with the weekend’s estimated 160,000 head count. Just three years ago, the festival was canceled due to poor ticket sales.

The North American concert business has been particularly strong in 2007, according to first-half numbers reported on Billboard Boxscore. Attendance was 20.4 million from January through June, generating box office revenues of $1.05 billion from the 6,886 reported shows. Last year, major tours from the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 and Bon Jovi set record highs.

Meanwhile, despite the surge in digital sales, the recording industry continued its downward spiral last year. Retail dollar value of digital and physical recordings dropped 6.2 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

“The recording business is dead, but the music business is healthy,” Farrell said at the festival. “It’s an ideal time for musicians.”

Although the weekend marked the third year in a row the festival rocked Grant Park, it was only the first event in a five-year, $5 million contract between the Austin, Texas-based promoters C3 Presents and the Chicago Park District. Chicago music-lovers can rest assured – Lollapalooza is guaranteed to be back every summer for the next four years.
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