BY LAVINIA JONES WRIGHT

Sifting through Lollapalooza's intimidating and huge lineup this year was not an easy task. Whether it was by geography (the Lollapalooza site – Chicago's Grant Park – is long and narrow with main stages as far as a twenty minute walk from each other) or by chronology (this year's fest featured old favorites – Nine Inch Nails, Toadies – and newcomers – MGMT, Yeasayer), tough choices had to be made. Here are the highlights and lowlights of Blurt's weekend at Lollapalooza:

Friday, August 1^st

As a testament to their incredibly affecting ghostly pop songs, Oakland's Rogue Wave drew a crowd of thousands for their early afternoon set on Lollapalooza's MySpace stage. They played pleasantly distorted versions of "Every Moment" from their 2003 debut Out of the Shadow and "Bird on a Wire" from 2005's Descended Like Vultures as well as their 2007 Zune commercial hit "Lake Michigan," which was all the more poignant because of the real Lake Michigan directly behind the stage.

The always defiant and sexy Kills followed Rogue Wave on the MySpace stage, hammering through a songlist heavy with tracks from their most recent release, Midnight Boom. Dressed in their usual style — completely wrong for the hundred-degree weather — in scarves, leather, and leopard, Hotel and VV wowed fans with a spit-fire set. They opened with the traded vocals and industrial rhythms of "U.R.A. Fever" and worked through the raucous playground chants "Tape Song," "Cheap and Cheerful" and "Alphabet Pony," before ending on an appropriate note with "Fried My Little Brains."

The late-summer heat caused the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney to gush twice as much sweat as usual as they pumped through their wild, gritty set of blues songs.Across the park as the Kills took a bow, the Keys launched into "Girl Is On My Mind" to kick off their hour-long performance, which included "Strange Times" and "Same Old Thing" and ended with "I Got Mine."

On the tree-covered Citi stage, dreamy Brooklynites Grizzly Bear were a fan favorite; their set was a Friday afternoon darling, although its last fifteen minutes overlapped with the beginning of the metallic and overly sanitary set by Bloc Party.

Back on the south side of the park, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks surprised the crowd with a happy demeanor and excellent renditions of songs from his most recent record Real Emotional Trash. In fact, it wasn't until he forgot the lyrics to "We Can't Help You" and had to start the song over after a little practice that it really felt like a Malkmus show.

Finishing off the first night in style, Radiohead played possibly the most perfect setlist ever that included a broad range of tracks from their entire back catalog while the stage rained lights and the sky rained fireworks and nearly eighty-thousand onlookers stood in awe. 

A few blocks away at the House of Blues, Athens rockers The Whigs played a midnight set for a rowdy crew of die-hard fans, who screamed out requests as kindly frontman Parker Gispert raced to fill them.

Saturday, August 2^nd

Philly folkters Dr. Dog were the highlight of the early afternoon on Day Two, treating the assembly of thousands to growly blues and bouncy pop tunes from their shiny new record Fate, as well as from their last two critically-loved full lengths Easy Beat and We All Belong.

That band’s dusty Americana and buoyant excitement made a stark dichotomy for Gutter Twins, who took the AT&T stage at 2:30. The hauntingly dark organs and Mark Lanegan's deep baritone vocals, combined with Greg Dulli's vampire-like dress, conflicted with the bright afternoon sun, but the set was gorgeous nonetheless.

MGMT put on a fair, but not spectacular show, as did the semi-dull Okkervil River and the utterly disappointing Uffie.

The afternoon was redeemed by the amazing Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, who bounced back from a tense moment with an onstage fan to blow away the excited crowd.

Backstage DJ Momjeans (aka Danny Masterson) prepped for his set with brother and fellow actor Chris at the open bar.

Saturday evening included the triumphant return of 90s radio favorites the Toadies, who came to Lollapalooza to kick off a tour behind their first album of new material in nearly fourteen years. The day before, when BLURT had the opportunity to chat with Toadies, the Texas natives and all-around nice guys were stoked for the show and to be playing together again. Said frontman Todd Lewis of the new material and reunion shows, "It's been great so far, so well received. My only objective with this album, as with our first, was just to make a kick-ass record and then get out on the road."

Excited fans stuck around even after the band played their mega-hit "Possum Kingdom," sacrificing time they needed to snag good spots for headlining sets by Wilco and Rage Against the Machine. While Rage stole a larger portion of the audience for their disorderly show, Wilco scored the Best Dressed award, sporting matching loud and gaudy Western-style suits.

Sunday, August 3^rd

The Whigs had their chance on the festival stage first thing on Sunday, drawing a well-deserved but shockingly huge crowd. Their smart and unruly energy was one of the big highlights of the fest overall (but it caused BLURT to wonder just what business G Love had following them).

Poet and revolutionary Saul Williams gave a wild and fabulous performance on the forested Citi stage. Fans sported Williams' signature multicolored feathers in their hair and nodded along to tracks from his acclaimed new album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, participating in a shouted call and response with the singer, who traveled every inch of the stage during the course of the set.

Meanwhile, Tardust producer Trent Reznor got ready to take the stage for Nine Inch Nails' headlining set, which went up against Kanye West's for the last moments of the festival. West gave a hit-filled show on his expensive and impressive glow in the dark stage that included "Thru the Wire," "Flashing Lights," and "Gold Digger," as well as a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." NIN satisfied fans with favorites such as "Closer" and "Hurt,” ultimately capping off this year’s Lollapalooza in a vigorous spirit.

[Photo Credits: Lavinia Jones Wright]