Lollapalooza 2009 - Day 3.1 Dan Deacon/Deerhunter/No Age at the Logan Square Auditorium

Yes, despite spending the entire day standing in the brutally hot sun, and already having heard over 30 hours of music in 3 days, I was still ready for more after leaving the Lollapalooza grounds. I got on the Blue line, and headed to Logan Square to catch what was hopefully going to be one of the more interesting shows I've seen in a while.

Three of the bands at Lollapalooza, Dan Deacon, Deerhunter and No Age, were on a small tour for a few weeks, and held their final date on Sunday night after their Lollapalooza performances. There was an interesting twist to the tour, instead of all three playing their normal sets, all three bands were set up at the same time in the same space, and all were playing together.

At least the impression I got was that they would all be playing together throughout each others' songs, to make this a very unique tour that would probably never happen again. However, it was slightly different than I thought, all three bands basically took turns playing, starting with Deerhunter, then No Age, the Dan Deacon, and followed that pattern for the rest of the night.

I was pretty much completely exhausted by this point in the weekend, but I managed to find a spot near a wall and was able to sit then prop myself up for the remainder of the night. They unfortunately decided to have 3 performers open the set, but thankfully each only got 20 minutes. The first two made some droning noise that went on for most of the 20 minutes and was nothing to note. The third guy was decent, he performed only with singing and with a drum, at least he was more tollerable than the previous two guys.

Things got pretty interesting from that point on. The marching band that performed with Dan Deacon at his Lolla set filled the center of the already crowded room, and proceeded to play 3 or 4 songs of their own while moving carefully through the crowd.

From that point on, it was time for the main event. The set started with Deerhunter going first, and they played a slow building song that took a while to get moving. Next up was No Age, who again cranked through one of their speedy stomping numbers in no time. They were then followed by Dan Deacon, who immediately whipped the crowd into a jumping dancing frenzy with another of his crazy dance tracks.

It was obvious from that point on who the real star of the evening was, and who the majority of the crowd was there to see. While Deerhunter and No Age took another turn, the marching band quietly filtered in again and filled in the already cramped space that Deacon was performing in. They then blasted through "Woof Woof," which was already a highlight on the main stage, and was even crazier in the confined space of the Logan Square Auditorium.

After that, even Deerhunter's lead singer Bradford Cox admitted he had the impossible task of following Deacon's insane song, and didn't even try to match his energy, instead playing a slow, mostly solo song with only his guitar. After another No Age track, Deacon again stepped up, with the marching band still surroudning him, and again attempted the interpretive dance circle routine that he did so well at his Lolla set during "Of the Mountains."

The crowd was so insane during part of the song, while they were all jumping up and down together, that I swear the floor of the Auditorium was bowing and could have collapsed at any point. And how I didn't develop seizures because of the crazy lights Deacon was using, I will never know.

After one more round, of songs, with the other bands getting an extra song or two in, Deacon had one more track, and he busted out "Wham City" from his previous album "Spiderman of the Rings" and drove the crowd into a further frenzy. After that, there was time for another song, and the other bands decided to play together, but nothing could match what had just happened before that.

It was pretty much 1:30 am by the time that happened, and it was doubtful much else was going to happen from there, so I took that as my cue to call it a weekend, hop back on the train, and head towards home and throw my exhausted carcass onto the bed. I think I heard rougly 35 hours of music all weekend long, it was a very memorable and great time all around.