Lollapalooza: Day one is done

One of the things that I love about Lollapalooza us that it's in the middle of Chicago. It's wide open grass and it has a great festival vibe but then you look up and it's Chicago's impressive skyline.

Watching both Coldplay and Muse Friday night in that setting was a great way to cap off the day.

Coldplay played a lot of familiar stuff such as "Yellow" and "Lost" as well as some songs I didn't know, which may have been brand new or really old.

My guess is new since this is the band's "first proper show back in America," as singer Chris Martin put it.

I know all the Coldplay jokes and, sure, they play a lot of epic pop-rock power ballads, but dammit, I like them. They're even better live.

But I didn't stay. I saw Coldplay a couple years ago, but I've never seen Muse, so I hoofed it back to the other end of the fest.

I made a quick stop at Perry's, the DJ tent named after Perry Farrell. In recent years, Perry's has been a small stage/pavilion that a thousand or so might gather around. This year, it's a giant tent the size of a football field (at least) and it was overflowing with people.

Girl Talk was holding court there when I stopped by. There ain't no party like a Girl Talk party and this one was nuts. So many people were in there dancing that I couldn't even see him.

I didn't stay long (he's coming to my area soon) and went to see Muse.

If there was a volume battle between the two headliners that night, Muse was winning.

I like them because each song has so many ways to be enjoyed. On tracks like "Resistance" and "Uprising," you could alternately dance, mosh, jump, rock out, crowdsurf, make out or sing along. And people did.

It was a fun way to end the night.