There aren’t many bands I’ll drive 300 miles to see. And Portland’s Dandy Warhols probably won’t make the list anytime soon. But, there I was at the sweat and beer-funked Vic Theatre in Chicago Friday night (September 12) helping my wife celebrate her birthday with her favorite band.

We’ve seen the Dandy’s in three or four different states (physical locations, not of the mind, though the math on that is questionable as well), and they’ve typically delivered one of two kinds of shows: blissfully transcendent bubblegum drone or frustratingly shambolic noodling. In one case, when they played Lollapalooza in 2005, an all-day wait for their set turned to disappointment when the Dandys seemed determined to out-crazy the Brian Jonestown Massacre with a set that teetered on the edge of madness, extending the sometimes friendly rivalry depicted in the awesome documentary about the Massacre, “DiG!”
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Maroon 5 swept through the Midwest two weeks ago, performing in Chicago on Friday night and in Milwaukee on Saturday night. And now that I’ve been to quite a few of the shows this summer as the representative for Skittles, Starburst and Maroon 5’s sweepstakes promotion, I’m becoming a sort of expert. I’m learning what makes a great show and when exactly the band has chemistry with the audience.

In Chicago the chemistry was there, but you could see that the band had to work for it. Before they came onstage, Frank Sinatra’s “Chicago” blared throughout the amphitheater as it became pitch black; you could tell the audience was touched from the noisy applause.

The bandmembers then walked onstage as the song finished up and they tore into their first song of the night, “Harder to Breathe.” The performance sounded much harder and grittier than the actual recordings on their albums. James Valentine’s solo during “The Sun” was as manic as ever, while “Won’t Go Home Without You” was as sweet as ever, with Adam Levine having everyone in the audience hold up their cell phones to create quite the visual effect. All in all, a solid show.

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Frequent You R Here contributor Jami made it from Wisconsin to Lollapalooza last weekend and sent us several shots, including this one that has her posing in the harsh light of day with “Time to Pretend” rockers MGMT.

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The end is upon us here on the final day of Lollapalooza. I haven’t looked at the actual temperature, but my body is telling me today is the hottest day. This doesn’t bode well for me since today is my earliest day, because I had to catch Austin, Texas’ awesome instrumental band the Octopus Project.

The Octopus Project’s music consists of rockin’ jams with a background of some “Mario Bros.”-esque synthesizer action. I first thought I had walked onto the comedy act of Dane Cook when the first thing the group said is that shouting is not an appropriate answer to “How you doin’ today?” Instead, they wanted us to answer, “Fantastic, thanks for asking!” I was excited to see everyone really enjoying their set, because they won over a lot of fans.

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I first have a disclaimer to note before I dive into my review of the Radiohead portion of Lolla. First, I hate it when someone says a band’s show is awesome, due to the fact that they never go to shows and don’t even know what awesome is. Second, I hate when people say a band did an awesome show just because the band is really good. No matter how talented, any band can have a bad show.

One last thing to note is that I really dig Radiohead but I by no means worship them to the extent that most people do. Furthermore, In Rainbows was a good, solid album but I wouldn’t call it the album of the year for 2007 like damn near everyone did.

With that said, you are about to read an honest, unbiased review of Radiohead.

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You don’t come to a festival like Lollapalooza for the purest musical experience. For that you’re better off spending the dough on intimate club gigs to which only fan club members have access.

No, you come to them for the completely random, ecstatic moments that occur when thousands of people are gathered together to listen to more music in one day than their brains can possibly process. And when the artists onstage are fully aware of that, they do their best to Entertain with a capital E.

The winner of Friday’s most random, ecstatic moment, and everyone within a 100-yard radius of her would agree, was the girl who decided that the best seat in the house for Radiohead was atop the speaker stand, about half a mile from the stage. Those things are built like ladders, and when the “security guards” (20-year-old, very hesitant girls) turned their heads, our heroine shimmied up, and within seconds was grooving in her own little world, seemingly oblivious to anyone’s cheers or pleas for her to get down.

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God I love the Black Keys. I don’t know how it occurred to me, but had they been hot in the ’90s they could’ve sold a million “Got Keys?” shirts.

I knew the Black Keys were relatively popular for an “underground” band, but I didn’t realize how popular. You would’ve thought they were the only band playing at the time when thousands showed up at the North Stage to see them (many showing up well over an hour early to secure a good spot). Oddly, there was a sign-language interpreter during their set. Not to be rude, but if you’re deaf why would you come here? Anyway, she was rockin’ some air bass, which is ironic considering the Black Keys are only a guitar-and-drum duo, hence no bass.

I would’ve never thought two grungy white guys could channel Jimi Hendrix so well into modern-day music. I highly suggest that Harmonix make a Black Keys track pack for “Rock Band” — the bassist can just drink a beer in the meantime. Also, Patrick rocked out on the drums with a freakin’ tambourine, which I’ve never witnessed by any other band.

The banter was limited from the duo, but they did note that they were neighbors with Chicago since they are from Ohio, and proclaimed, “I’ve never been in a mosh pit before. I think I would get f—ed-up in a mosh pit.” This was my first time to see the Black Keys, because they always somehow manage to come to my town when I have anything from a friend’s b-day to go to or even a graduation to go to.

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The Windy City is not living up to its name. It’s hot with zero clouds and only a slight hint of a breeze here on day one of Lollapalooza.

Unfortunately, my day started late due to the necessity of sleep from watching the 1 a.m. showing of “The Dark Knight” (every other showing had been sold out for days). Anyway, this was actually my first time to see the Go! Team live. They did not disappoint. I hate to be cliché, but I highly prefer their first album, and luckily for me they played a good balance of new and old songs.

There is nothing more awkward and entertaining than watching thousands of white people (and a few dozen black people) dancing to “Ladyflash.” The white-man shuffle seemed to be the preferred move. You know the one where you keep trading your weight between your left and right foot while snapping your fingers, flailing your arms or mimimg the scratching of a turntable. I even saw a few people attempting Seth Rogen’s “dice throw” move from “Knocked Up” (that is so last year and almost as bad as shouting “I’m Rick James, bitch!”).

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I just took a look at the schedule again. I will likely be seen running rampant around the festival going to various stages. I also have some hard decisions to make on who I see when there are multiple awesome bands playing at the same time.

Sunday is the worst. Too many bands to choose between: Gnarls Barkely or Girl Talk? The Black Kids or Lupe Fiasco or the Raconteurs? NIN or Kanye West?

I’ve already decided that I will be saying goodbye to the festival with NIN on Sunday night instead of Mr. Kanye West. It will be the biggest bummer to miss Obama if the rumors reign true and he introduces Kanye. If people know what NIN has in store for them, I’m sure I won’t be alone in shunning Kanye on Sunday.

Kanye tells you (and Entertainment Weekly) that his show is amazing, spectacular, etc. But … NIN have been giving people their money’s worth for a lot longer than Kanye.

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You R Here user BonShelley snapped some shots of Bon Jovi when the band played Chicago’s United Center last month.

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