Today marks a big day in the music world with the lineup announcement from one of the largest and most relevant festivals in the world, Lollapalooza, which will take place from August 7-9 at Grant Park in downtown Chicago. (You may recall the location)
And while Milwaukee's big summer music festival lineup continues to disappoint, the Lolla lineup - top to bottom - is one of the best we've seen this year and is certainly worth making that trecherous 90 mile trip of constant road rage and mass confusion that is the drive to Chitown.
3-day passes to the festival are on sale now and are going for $190, which is a great deal considering how many bands will be there over the course of the weekend.
Headlining this year will be Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction and Kings of Leon. Granted, this is a big step down from last year's powerhouse headliners (Radiohead, Kanye West, Wilco, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails), the strength of this festival is in the shows that will wind up in the late afternoon-early evening range.
Among bands set to perform are: TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Andrew Bird, The Decemberists, Neko Case, Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Santigold, Arctic Monkeys, Atmosphere, Cold War Kids, Peter Bjorn and John, Of Montreal, Heartless Bastards, Gaslight Anthem, Ra Ra Riot, No Age, Kaiser Chiefs, Deerhunter, Snoop Dogg and Lou Reed.
Click here for the full lineup.
Perhaps this is indicative of the where the music industry is in 2009. There's an over-abundance of young, semi-established talent with a growing fanbase, but there's also the big names trying to replicate past glory. Perhaps this year will be the changing of the guard, where fans at these big summer festivals will see that there's more talent in the daylight hours than there is when the lights go out.
Regardless, after seeing this lineup and the lineup for the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, those in charge of Summerfest need to take a good long look at these recession-proof festivals and realize that it wont be bands like Chicago or Barenaked Ladies that will bring the people to the shores of Lake Michigan, it's indie bands.
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