Lollapalooza, Day 1 wrap-up

Day one of Lollapalooza is in the books. It was marked by a lot of rain and mud, although the weather eventually quit and it ended up being a perfect summer evening.

I watched Kings of Leon to close out the show. That might have been the tightest batch of songs that I've seen any band deliver. Not one note was out of place or missed. The vocals were dead on. And the crowd went wild.

I can't even guess how many people were at the North end of Grant Park to watch the Kings play. If the Qwest Center holds 17,000 for a concert, there was at least double that. Maybe triple? Quadruple? There was no way to tell.

I thought I was far back until I had to go to the bathroom. People were standing as far back from me as I was from the stage.

Lead singer Caleb Followil said the group played Lolla way back when it was a traveling festival. Typical crowd for their sets, he said, was a whopping 10 people. Must have been wild for him to look out on the crowd from tonight.

Kings of Leon delivered songs from all albums, including favorites like "Taper Jean Girl" and "Sex On Fire," both of which had excellent crowd singalongs.

The set was structured differently than your average rock show, though. Instead of closing out the show with "Use Somebody," currently the band's most popular song, the group went with one I don't even know the name of. But it was refreshing to see a band buck the formula and just play whatever they wanted.

I didn't see Depeche Mode (the night's other headliner that performed at the other end of the park) but I had friends that did. I'll ask them what they thought and post that in this space tomorrow.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm going to get some rest in order to prep for tomorrow. Day two should be interesting.