A surprise to no one but still ameaningful gesture, Perry Farrell showed up on stage just as Lollapalooza 2006 wound down. The Jane’s Addiction frontman, who thought up Lolla way back when, came out to introduce “the greatest band in the world right now” (the Red Hot Chili Peppers). First, though, he boasted about how well his original vision was maintained by the three-day Chicago festival.

“There were 70,000 people here, which means there were 140,000 legs, and we were all like one big centipede,” the ever-flowery Farrell said.

Actually, Perry’s comments were pretty right-on as far as Sunday went. The day was full of many innovative if not yet famous acts, like the original Lolla offered. And it was rich in diversity, too, although all of the hip-hop acts played the first two days. It even turned out to be a day full of feel-good, positive-minded, hippie-dippie themes like Farrell would want it– from Matisyahu’s prayers for peace in the Middle East and the Chili Peppers’ one-nation-under-a-groove effect to Jeff Tweedy dedicated songs to his wife on their 11th anniversary.

Like Kanye a night earlier, Tweedy repeatedly made aw-shucks comments about playing to so many people in his home town.

“You make us proud, Chicago,” he said near the end of his band’s hour-long set.

He had other reason to give thanks, too: The audience stayed attentive while he and his bandmates tried out four unreleased songs, which they wrapped around favorites like “Shot in the Arm” (the opener), “I’m the Man Who Loves You” (closer) “The Late Greats” and, of course, “Via Chicago.”

The Chili Peppers also went a little hog-wild about playing new material, filling up almost the entire first of their set with tracks from “Stadium Arcadium,” save for a version of “Scar Tissue” that seemed to appease the crowd early on. But they too pulled it off. Ever since guitarist John Frusciante rejoined, this once-spotty band has been consistently stellar in concert. In fact, Sunday’s set was 100 times better than the one I saw them play during Lollapalooza in 1992.

Right before the Chili Peppers, Broken Social Scene had a breakthrough set like the one the New Pornographers enjoyed a night earlier, playing to fans awaiting the bigger act. At the end, they brought out frequent collaborator Feist, who played her own set a night earlier (that woman has a surprising amount of soul in her voice). After a gorgeous finale of “Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl,” the crowd literally wouldn’t stop cheering for them. Alas, encores were as staunchly prohibited at this Lolla as was any beer not made by co-sponsor Budweiser.

Minneapolis exes the Hold Steady, who didn’t seem to mind the Bud so long as it was free, were the first highlight of the day. They played a 1:30 set on one of the medium-sized stages. It was a little too early and bright for Craig Finn’s dark tales of hard-living to have all the impact they normally do, but the teens on hand (who can’t easily see them live) ate it all up anyway. And the Twins fans on hand seemed to enjoy Finn’s snarky shout-out to A.J. Pierzynksi.

Ah, I could go on about several other great sets and a few other things I’d like to complain about (I didn’t even mention the poor food concessions), but three days of criss-crossing Grant Park has left me as spacey as, well, Perry Farrell. Look for a more thorough and coherent wrapup of the entire fest in Thursday’s newspaper.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Lollapalooza, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.