Austinist on the Road: Lollapalooza Day One Highlights

Inspired by their comments, we finally mustered up enough strength to return to the park and duly headed to PB&J's performance where we were treated to tracks from their somewhat maligned new album Living Thing. The clap-along, sing-along friendly audience was immediately caught in the title cut's groove and the "Lay It Down" chorus had them pumping their fists. But of course, selections from the stellar Writer's Block release was really what they wanted and they were soon nodding along in agreement with "Amsterdam" before PB&J's breakthrough single "Young Folks" sent fans into pandemonium, with Peter Morén immersing himself in the crowd for the majority of the song much to their delight. We saved our energy for our personal favorite, "Objects Of My Affection" and it did not disappoint as the band slowed things down impeccably during the affecting lyrics "So I'm gonna give, Yes, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give you a try." And it was great to see the band enjoying themselves -- as the song picked up again, Peter pranced around the stage with unbridled enthusiasm, and Björn Yttling, who had endeared himself to us by constantly pacing back 'n' forth in the media tent earlier with his bright green umbrella, just plain rocked out. Instant legend.

After a quick trip to the media area, we positioned ourselves stage left and waited patiently for most anticipated set on our schedule -- Depeche Mode. The band kicked off with three songs off their Sounds Of The Universe, taking advantage of the obvious zest in the air to sneak in new material up front. The industrial crunch of "Wrong" satisfied us early on as David Gahan urged on fans with shouts of "C'mon" and "Sing it." How many fans actually knew the lyrics to this stuff was still up for debate as even Gahan broke into a smile at the lack of response. Unsurprisingly, the crowd had settled down a tad but revitalized during "Walking In My Shoes" although Gahan's appeals to "Sing it" were still largely unheeded. But by now, Gahan was strutting around stage, even breaking out his trademark "clap," made famous in the video for "I Feel You." The easily identifiable synth melodies of "Question Of Time" and "Fly On The Windscreen" were probably the choice "80's moments" of the first hour as the band powered through new-ish classics like "It's No Good," "Precious," and the Martin Gore ballad "Home."

We were halfway through now and surely the large part of the set list had been questionable. Would the second hour deliver the music the masses had come for? The answer was a resounding yes. "Policy Of Truth" met with the largest response yet to Gahan's continued pleas to "Sing it" and a double shot from Songs Of Faith And Devotion (the powerful "In Your Room" and and the stinging "I Feel You") were true signs that the best was yet to come. And it did for the majority of the gathering with "Enjoy The Silence" as the band finally could sit back and let the fans sing the entire chorus of arguably their most popular song. The band walked off stage to huge applause after "Never Let Me Down Again" and although we were delighted to hear one of our favorites, we now realized there would be no live renditions of "Everything Counts" or "People Are People" this evening. Depeche Mode returned for an all too brief encore -- "Personal Jesus" had south Grant Park in a frenzy yet again with the tireless fans chanting every lyric, making up for the disappointing reception they offered "Stripped." A soggy, dirty first day was now over and we were left reflecting as we herded out to the streets, reassured that one of our favorite bands from the 80's is still a relevant and vital force in today's music scene.