The amount of bands I was able to see on Friday and Saturday (I was unable to make Sunday) at Lollapalooza still seems ridiculous.  Here’s the list, including my ratings (***=would pay to see them again; **=would buy the album; *=would stop by their stage for a few songs at the next music festival).

• (*) Manchester Orchestra
• () The Knux
• () The Builders and the Butchers
• (***) Bon Iver
• (***) Fleet Foxes
• (***) Thievery Corporation
• (**) Andrew Bird
• (***) The Low Anthem
• (*) Langhorn Slim
• (***) Los Campesinos
• () Joe Pug
• (***) Band of Horses
• (***) Blind Pilot
• (*) Santigold
• (***) TV on the Radio
• (*) Lykke Li

On Wednesday an article I wrote for Christianity Today, Dispatches from Lollapalooza, about the festival was published online.  The article is less about these bands than it is about the ability of our churches to learn from aspects of the festival.  Funny enough, The Daily Swarm picked up the article which led to a number of music blogs linking to it.  I’m not sure they knew what the article was actually about, but if any of their readers clicked through and read the article- which may have been odd enough- some of the comments at the end of the article must have seemed completely bizarre.  Ah well.  Thanks to Christianity Today for being interested in this type of article.

All in all the festival was a great experience and I’m extremely grateful for the gift of the tickets.  While there is something amazing about hearing so much music in one spot, I think my preference will always be for one band per concert.  At Lollapalooza it was hard to remember with any specificity what I liked about a band because they began to blur together.  Even so, I’d recommend it should you ever get the chance.