Phewwww… what a fucking road trip! Not only did I see arguably the best concert of my life with my little bro, but we also both fulfilled a lifetime dream by attending Kansas City Chiefs training camp. The Chiefs-Vikings scrimmage we went to in River Falls, Wisconsin got called due to excessive fighting (an entirely different story in its own), but the concert alone was well worth the drive. When we arrived at Lollapalooza in Chicago, we were already quite a few beers deep and it was late in the day. We went to see My Morning Jacket and Pearl Jam, and both bands ripped it. Here are the setlists, along with some photos and pretty decent YouTube footage of two badass shows…

Pearl Jam

I don’t even know where to begin here. A good place might be this blog excerpt from sterogum, though:

“As a young man who used to ride the El train and listen on a Walkman to people like Patti Smith and Iggy Pop, there’s a great deal of meaning to performing on this stage,” said hometown hero Eddie Vedder, right before launching into one of the band’s least Patti/Pop influenced tunes, “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A My God We Forgot How Many Words Are In This Song’s Title.” With beers hoisted skyward, we all just wanted to scream “HELLO!” alongside a throng of something approximating 800,000 folks in Grant Park. The song was sorta perfect — a tune about past days, coming from the band most befitting Gen X nostalgia.

Dude, it was crazy. I’ve never seen a band captivate an audience (a worn out audience at that) like that for well over two hours. I can’t imagine that very many people have ever heard a crowd of that size singing every word either. Amazing. And, yes, the rumors are true — that is Dennis Rodman hoisting Eddie Vedder into the air, and Lance Armstrong and Ben Harper were also on stage (among many others). The highlights were the furious opening four songs, the audience co-singing the classics, Mike McCready killin’ it on “Evenflow”, “Not For You” (maybe my bro’s favorite song, and the first time he’s heard it in over ten P.J. concerts) and “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.” Actually, I think “Daughter” blending into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Part II” took the cake. Especially when Eddie belted out, “George Bush leave the world alone.” You’ll definitely hear more from me on this one, as I have a sports-related Pearl Jam post brewing. Oh, and here’s a nice pic of The Worm lighting a blunt backstage (after the jump). Not that I approve of that sort of thing, but hey … Continue Reading »