Lollapalooza 2010 Recap
2010 Winter Movie Preview

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Safely back in the home office, we don't mind telling you that this was the hardest Lollapalooza to cover yet. There are several reasons for this, ranging from the newly expanded grounds to the overall quality of the roster, to, frankly, our advancing age. We're not that old, mind you, nor of frail health, but old enough that the size of the grounds definitely becomes a factor in which bands we see and which ones we skip. Some of the more privileged writers get shuttled from the northern end of the grounds to the southern end. We're not privileged writers, so if we need to go from the Bud stage to the Sony Bloggie stage to the BMI stage to the Parkways stage, we're missing a good quarter to half of a multiple band sets in the process. The bottom line is that, if we're missing a review for your favorite band, it's likely because of the things stated above, or that said band was playing at the same time as someone else, which was a bigger issue this year than in any other since Lolla became a destination festival in 2005.

Still, like every other year, there were some unforgettable performances, and the crowds were by and large very well behaved (though things got a little dicey during Green Day's set), not to mention massive. Everything was bigger this year, from the space (115 acres) to the attendance (estimated at 240,000). This is great for the city of Chicago and their parks system, which makes millions each year from hosting Lolla. That lineup, though...it wasn't our favorite, let's put it that way. In fact, Sunday didn't have a single band that we were dying to see, which has never happened before. Because of that, we're doing things a little differently this year, packaging our recaps based on the time of day the bands played. Don't be surprised if some of the bands that played earlier in the day this year are closing this joint a couple years from now. You know, like a certain side stager in 2007 who goes by the name of Gaga....

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