Tuesday Top Ten: Lollapalooza Edition 2018

August 2-5 was this year's edition of Lollapalooza, once again in lovely Grant Park here in downtown Chicago.  Due to some poor work trip scheduling on my part, I was only able to go Thursday through Saturday, but had to skip Sunday because I was traveling.  Shit happens, I guess.

And on top of that, I had a miss a few bands I wanted to see on Thursday (most notably, Franz Ferdinand) because of some other non-music-festival-related commitments, and then Saturday was a disaster.  One of the two entrances to the fest -- the one I use almost exclusively -- was closed for 45 minutes in the middle of the afternoon because it was so backed up, so I missed seeing another few bands I wanted to catch.  I also had to miss the headliners Saturday night (Vampire Weekend and The Weeknd) because I had tickets to a Jack White aftershow at the Metro.  I'm not complaining at all about that -- just that I probably would have tried to see half of both headliners' sets.

Now normally, I would have some long, elaborate post ranking my ten favorite bands that I saw, complete with pictures of each band and all that shit.  This year, however, since my Lolla experience was somewhat incomplete and I only saw some or all of 14 sets, I'm going to just run through everyone I saw chronologically and give them a grade.  No more work trips the Monday after Lolla.

Thursday
Slaves:  A-
This British duo rocked an early afternoon crowd.

Basement:  B+
These guys were kind of punkish, garage rock-y, so I enjoyed them.

Curtis Harding:  B+
I was happy to see a few soul acts in this year's lineup.  Harding was the one I most wanted to see, and he was solid.

Camila Cabello:  B
My daughters -- who I took with me earlier in the day on Thursday -- were livid that I was going to be seeing Camila Cabello and they were not.  She was fine.  I don't really know much of her music, but the millennials seemed to like her.

Arctic Monkeys:  B-
I love Arctic Monkeys, but their set was a little too drowsy and loungy, in large part because their new album is a concept album set in a casino and lounge in space.  I could have used more rock from them -- and I know they can rock.

Friday
Post Animal:  B+
These Chicago-based rockers put on a good show, with a combo of rock, punk, psychedelia, and pop.

Parquet Courts:  A
I have been a fan of Parquet Courts for several years now, but hadn't seen them live.  They didn't disappoint, and they were pretty funny as well.

CKY:  B+
My only real familiarity with CKY comes from their song "Flesh Into Gear" off the Jackass movie soundtrack (Bam Margera's brother Jess is in the band).  They played that one, so I was happy.  They were otherwise too hard for the people I was with, so we only stayed for a few songs.

Greta Van Fleet:  A-
This was the band I was most excited to see at Lolla, and they didn't disappoint.  Three brothers and their cousin from small town Michigan who sound like Led Zeppelin.  That's all you need to know -- other than the fact that there is no one in the band named Greta Van Fleet.

BORNS:  B
We were listening to this kind of from the middle of the field in between where he was playing and where Bruno Mars would be playing afterward, and I liked what I heard.

Bruno Mars:  A
I have only a handful of Bruno Mars songs in my vast music catalog, but he's always been one of those guys who I thought would put on a really good show, and I was right.  He is certainly a headliner, and he killed it.

Saturday
LL Cool J:  A
After Greta Van Fleet, LL Cool J was a close second as far as who I was most excited to see.  His set was a hip hop history lesson for all the youngsters.  He was awesome.

St. Vincent:  A-
I guess I didn't realize how weird St. Vincent is.  I don't mean that as a bad thing.

Dua Lipa:  B-
This was background music while I decided how quickly I needed to leave to get to my Jack White aftershow.

Jack White aftershow:  B+
The White Stripes are one of my favorite bands, and I own every studio album Jack White has released with the White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, and solo.  I was beyond excited when I got tickets to his aftershow at the Metro because it would be the smallest venue in which I had seen him.  It was a "no phone" show -- the first I'd ever been to -- which means everyone got a little neoprene pouch to put their phone in, and it snapped shut, so you couldn't use your phone until someone unlocked the pouch after the show.  I didn't mind that, frankly, since it meant I didn't have to watch the show partly through someone's iPhone.  White was great and played some White Stripes songs I wasn't expecting him to play, including one of my favorites, "You're Pretty Good Looking For a Girl," which he's played less than 20 times live solo.  My only beef is that he played for a mere hour and fifteen minutes (and the setlist.fm page for the show incorrectly says there was a second encore), and I could have stood for at least another hour.