"Best! Crowd! Ever!"

There's something to be said about being happy just to be there. Band of Horses seemed happy just to be there. They were so happy that they played 20 minutes over their time, right over Jane's Addiction.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were incredibly happy to be there. I mean, here they are, the little headliner that could. Are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs big enough to headline a festival the size of Lollapalooza? I dunno. Probably not. Not right now, anyway. Maybe in a couple of albums.

Now, how are you gonna top the Beastie Boys? I don't know. I mean, they're the fucking Beastie Boys. Sort of like how Lou Reed is Lou Reed, the Beastie Boys are the Beastie Boys, and it's going to be fucking hard to step up and say "Yo, we're filling in for the Beastie Boys."

Now, I wanted to see the Beastie Boys. When the original Lollapalooza lineup dropped, they were the one act that I really, really wanted to see. If I didn't get the $60 presale tickets, I would have gotten a one-day pass to see the Beastie Boys. So, when they had to cancel their tour I was disappointed, but what can you do, right? MCA has cancer, and you gotta put everything on hold. So was I less enthused when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were added to the bill? A little big. I know...three Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs. I was mozy-ing on over to see them after Animal Collective, taking my sweet time. No need to rush, right? Wrong.


The Yeah Yeah Yeahs fucking brought it. They made Saturday at Lollapalooza. Would it have been "better" than what the Beastie Boys would have done? Who knows. It probably doesn't matter. The crowd was very into it, the songs played fantastically in downtown, and Karen O is...well, I can't even think of the right words. "Amazing" seems too generic. She also changed clothes almost as many times as Kevin Barnes. They had energy, and the crowd fed it right back. The situation seemed nothing less than perfect from where I was standing on the east side of the stage. Again, they were just happy to have been invited, but they were also able to step up and put on the show of the day. Sure, Karen O forgot the lyrics to "Maps" but nobody gave a damn. No, there wasn't an encore, but how were you going to top the first 80 minutes? It was one of those nights, one of those situations where nothing could go wrong, even if it did. Only the most hardcore of Beastie Boys fans who only showed up begrudgingly because they had already purchased tickets would have been disappointed by this, if even them. I don't know how you could have left this show without a big smile on your face. It's hard to even describe, but they just...did it.



The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are here, they're legit, and as a festival headliner, on this night, they were great. Karen O said we were the "Best! Crowd! Ever!" Thanks Karen. You guys were pretty fucking great, too. I believe in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.