From a Great Height

Way2Poppy and I had a hell of a time at Lollapalooza this past Friday where we saw Mates of State and Radiohead, who were both exceptional. Raconteurs were just ok - I have to say I was a bit disappointed.

Radiohead epitomizes modern rock sophistication. They are entirely professional, utterly passionate crowd-pleasers. Check out their setlist:

15 Step
Airbag
There, There
All I Need
Nude
Weird Fishes
The Gloaming
The National Anthem
Faust Arp
No Surprises
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Reckoner
Lucky
The Bends
Everything In Its Right Place
Fake Plastic Trees
Bodysnatchers
Videotape
Paranoid Android
Dollars & Cents
House of Cards
Optimistic
2 + 2 = 5
Idioteque

I'm partial to their poppier Bends / OK Computer era so I was particularly thrilled to hear those two albums fairly well represented. With their performances of Fake Plastic Trees and Paranoid Android, Radiohead solidified their status with me as one of the best bands of my generation. I have a whole new respect for them. Oh, and their light show was easily the best I've ever seen.

This was my third time seeing Mates of State and with each show, they keep getting bigger and bigger yet their sound remains grounded as simple, catchy-as-hell tunes. The songs from the new album sounded especially great and I can't wait to see them a fourth time when presented with the opportunity.

I took some mobile shots of our time there but they were terrible. See Lollapalooza's official photos to get a good sense of what went down. Those were the only shows we ended up seeing. I would've loved to see Wilco, but we chose to see them sing during the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley on Sunday instead!

Setlists
Photos