The Big Pink + Semi Precious Weapons + The Black Keys + Jimmy Cliff at Lollapalooza 2010: Live review

Two things that struck me on day one of Lollapalooza 2010:

First, two-man bands do not fare well on massive festival stages. Well, with the exception, kind of, of the Black Keys, who I'll get to later. Secondly, flamboyant glam singers are back in a big, bold way.

Photos: Will Rice

The Big Pink, like Javelin in the morning, are a studio twosome who fail to see the benefits of hiring enough backing musicians to fill out the sound for special occasions like, um, playing a gigantu-massive festival in Chicago. The Brits' debut album gets buy on swagger, soaring vocals and guitar fuzz. But I've seen better duos like the Kills go down in smoke (often literally with these black-loving bands) on the same stage in the past. "Dominos," a thumping boast about bagging chicks and the group's best song, is a catchy, (old) MGMT-ish number, though I swear they played it twice. They might as well have.

Semi Precious Weapons live, if you haven't heard them, are like Guns N' Roses in fishnets and on crack, New York Dolls with filthier mouths and less restraint. Lady Gaga is a massive fan. Which becomes evident when the biggest pop star in the world struts out onto the smallest stage at Lollapalooza to stage dive into a stunned crowd. Photographers and security go nuts. The band goes apeshit. Stevy Pyne fingertaps and shreds on his guitar as Gaga rolls atop the sweaty fans. Instruments are tossed around and played behind the head. I think the band members wrestle at some point. Gaga is surprisingly let back on the stage in one piece. The towering Justin Tranter, in high heels, screams, "If any of you call Lady Gaga a fucking pop star, I'll kill you!" He also calls the crowd "filthy cunts" and "bitches." They love it. "Lady Gaga broke my mic," Tranter pouts. It's true, but the faint crackle of distortion oddly adds to the dirty garage glamor. This band is pure insanity, not far from Foxy Shazam, who have brilliantly blanketed Grant Park in free fans shaped like the singer's head. It's hard to image two bands coming out of Friday with a greater increase in fanbase.

The Black Keys, unsurprisingly, begin their set as a duo. That's their thing. Pat and Dan rip into older, bluesy cuts. Halfway through, however, a bassist and organist join the band for a run through killer cuts from the amazing new Brothers. The blues duo is a nifty, if overplayed shtick, but as a foursome, Black Keys 2.0, this band just jumps out of the speakers with greater immediacy (though there were some sound issues early on to boot, which didn't help). Which is saying something, because few blues-rock acts have the chops of these Ohioans. Auerbach slips into sweet falsetto for the T. Rexian "Everlasting Light." "Tighten Up" and "Ten Cent Pistol" prove this band has jumped to another level this year. To close, they strip back down to a one-two punch. "I'll Be Your Man," the theme from HBO's Hung, is given a slight, slower reworking.

Earlier in the day, I was interviewing the Walter and Hamilton from the Walkmen. They were joking about their "terrible" cover album of Harry Nilsson's Pussycats. I tried to stick up for the band's own work, reminding them that at least that cocaine bender record (Nilsson and John Lennon's bender, not the Walkmen) features Nilsson's most gutting performance, a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers To Cross." I had almost forgotten that Cliff was playing this year in the token legend's spot, mostly recently used by Lou Reed to clear the north field. Cliff's reggae is lighter and smoother in old age, but that number still gets me in the knees. Everything else, in his set and at Lolla, can't really compare. It's a bit of a cruise ship concert, but the one song makes it worth the rocking back and forth.

Photos: Lollapalooza 2010 Sunday
Photos: Lollapalooza 2010 Saturday
Photos: Lollapalooza 2010 Friday