Sound opinions

"That's the worst headlining band I've ever seen," said one person early in Radiohead's set. He and a friend were storming away from the stage at the south end of Grant Park. Indeed, Radiohead is not typical stadium rock. It's amazing that 75,000 people showed up to watch them tonight as part of Lollapalooza. It's hard to believe this is the same band that recorded "Creep" so many years ago. Radiohead certainly delivered tonight, mostly playing hits of the past decade or so.

Other highlights today:

-Lollapalooza is a study in shirtlessness. The upper 80 degree temperatures had everyone scrambling to take their shirts off.

-Jack White of The Raconteurs is looking more and more like Glenn Danzig, former frontman of The Misfits and Danzig (pictured at right).

-Cadence Weapon left a memorable impression when DJ Weasel climbed onto the scaffolding above the stage, hung there for about 30 seconds and dropped the 6 feet or so back to the stage.

-Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks delivered their fuzzed-out post-punk sound. I saw Pavement (Malkmus' former band) at Lollapalooza in 1995, and all I remember was him hunched over a guitar with a big mop of hair. Hasn't changed much, 'cept I like it now.

-Big festivals are marathons, not a sprint. I haven't been to anything like this since approximately 1997. I learned that you can't assume you will get very close to the stage during any headlining act. It takes precision and planning to get close enough to really see one of the big names. We will take that into consideration tomorrow when Rage Against the Machine tears the roof off this sucka.