Lollapalooza Coverage: Through the Lens Writing and Photography by Randy Cremean Pearl Jam
 Whether it be their fight with Ticketmaster, their decision to not make videos, or their outspoken political views, Pearl Jam have always done things their own way. This aspect of their personality manifested itself at Lollapalooza with an insistence on allowing only twenty photographers into the pit for their show and, furthermore, restricting the movement of those twenty so as to not hinder security and EMT personnel who were attending to the droves of crowd surfers. Pearl Jam's management would make the decision on which publications/photographers were granted access. Everyone else was shit out of luck. This policy likely stemmed from the band's concern for the safety of their fans. You see, at the 2000 Roskilde Festival, nine fans were trampled to death as the crowd ran to Pearl Jam's stage. The band was so shaken that they nearly retired, and they refused to play festivals for six years. Whatever the reason behind their pit policy, Soundcheck is honored to have been chosen as one of the twenty publications allowed to photograph Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza. Eat your heart out, Rolling Stone!
I'll be honest: I haven't listened to Pearl Jam much in the last ten years. However, as the opening guitar licks of "Why Go" blast from the immense speakers six inches from my face, I can feel the adrenaline surge into my system, and it's all I can do to keep still long enough to take a picture. The lyrics spill from my mouth, ripped from unused memory lattices and sent burbling forth like water from a spigot. As I struggle to adjust my camera settings to the shifting lights, my mind is nearly overwhelmed by people, places and experiences attached to the music. Memories, like fingerprints, are slowly raising, and it makes for a surreal time. Eddie Vedder looks older: he is now a chestnut-skinned mountain man with receding hair, but his eyes still burn with barely-restrained rage as the veins in his temple throb in time to the trip-hammer drumming of Matt Cameron. His voice is angry and plaintive, the voice of a generation who grew tired of boy bands and pop divas; a generation who became disenchanted with 9-to-5 white collar jobs and business-as-usual politics. And yet, for all their disillusionment, nothing has really changed. That's why Eddie still wails and cajoles. He's a man with a message, and eighty thousand people have shown up to hear it. I'm From Barcelona 
Lollapalooza marked I'm From Barcelona's first-ever show in the United States. The twenty-nine person band from Sweden was preceded by a ton of hype and, thankfully, exceeded every expectation by turning in one of my favorite sets of the festival. With their colorful outfits (including a guy in a cuddly bear costume), crazy antics, crowd interaction, and sheer numbers, IFB are a photographer's wet dream. In true Socialist style, frontman Emanuel Lundgren is not the focal point of the performance. At least a half dozen other band members take turns coming to the front of the stage or actually entering the crowd to directly engage the fans. The obvious comparison is to Polyphonic Spree, as both bands feature dozens of people and cheery, upbeat songs. Whereas the Spree can, at times, exude a creepy cult vibe with forced joviality, I'm From Barcelona are sweetly sincere in their positivism and joy. If the Spree are a Fragile Army, then IFB are counselors at a progressive music and art summer camp on the outskirts of Jönköping. Their seemingly unadulterated innocence is reinforced by songs about building a treehouse, oversleeping, and getting the chicken pox. While it may all seem trite as you are reading this, the overall effect, in person, is endearing and uplifting. LCD Soundsystem  More cowbell? Damn straight! LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy looks like he's spent the last 48 hours locked in his parents'basement playing World of Warcraft. The unlikely-looking savior of New York City's dance-rock scene has several days' growth of beard accenting his doughy features. His ensemble of white jeans and a white t-shirt emblazoned with a green unicorn has surely sent the fashionistas into a tizzy. But man, can he sing and write insanely great songs. As he and his band launch into "Us vs. Them", Murphy clings to the mic stand with his face pressed against the oversized, antique-looking microphone. He treats the stand like a security blanket or, perhaps, a purely psychological shield against the ravenous eyes of the crowd. He dances with jerky, constrained movements, like a Pentecostal minister wrestling with snakes. Maybe he just has too much soul and is afraid to unleash it all in one place? By the time he's singing "Daft Punk is Playing at My House", five or six photographers have put down their cameras and started dancing. The irony, of course, is that Daft Punk is headlining the main stage after LCD Soundsystem gets done. The rhythm is contagious and you can't help but wonder if a couple of robot heads are bobbing behind the big curtain on the main stage.
My Morning Jacket  Gideon. What Have You Told Us At All?
Make A Sound, Come Down Off The Wall.
Religion - Should Appeal To The Hearts Of The Young.
Who Are You? What Have You Become?
They take the stage in matching purple tuxedos and launch into "Anytime". As Jim James careens around the stage with his twelve-string guitar, he stops, suddenly, with stiffened spine, head thrown back and eyes rolling into the back of his head. He looks like a man in the throes of religious ecstasy. By the time James' ethereal voice has carried the opening verse of "Gideon" to the back of the massive crowd, we've all accepted the revelations of this amazing rock 'n' roll prophet. The Chicago Youth Symphony, playing in front of an enormous, Candyland-esque backdrop, does more than provide orchestral punch to the mix: they are the living embodiment of the message in "Gideon", and another example of the youthful, quasi-irreverent ethos of My Morning Jacket's Lollapalooza experience. Earlier in the day, James played a short solo set on the Kidzapalooza Stage. With banjo accompaniment, he urged the kiddos to come up close and proceeded to play the "Chipmunk Song" and "Rainbow Connection". For My Morning Jacket, each song is a spiritual journey, and their childlike exuberance ensures everyone, regardless of age or creed, feels welcome to join them. !!!  !!! (chk chk chk) play some of the best funk-infused disco-punk you'll ever hear. Had it not been for Peter, Bjorn & John's sound system failure, I would have missed out completely on one of the most entertaining shows of the festival. Don't ask me why I chose PB&J's bland Swedish pop over everything else in that time slot. It's a freaking mystery. When the sound cut out on PB&J, I hustled over to the MySpace stage to see if I could catch some of !!!'s set. As I turned the corner and approached the pit, I saw a white guy dressed in a blue polo shirt and very short shorts shamelessly dancing, gyrating, thrusting, and grabbing his crotch. Photographers live for performances like this, so I flashed my credentials, ran into the pit and started snapping.
Frontman Nic Offer is the love-child of Jim Morrison and Napoleon Dynamite. (Yes, I know this would require some kind of crazy, cross-dimensional, time traveling violation of the Fourth Wall, but I stand by my assertion.) Just look at the gym shorts from 1980, the shock of shaggy hair, and the over-the-top dance moves. And yet, despite the similarities to everyone's favorite Idahoan, Offer exudes a palpable, if musky, sexuality, and his confidence as a performer has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. The heat index is in the 100s, but that's not slowing him down. Nic Offer is the consummate lead singer and, on this day, he's a force of nature.
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