August 1-3, 2008 – 225,000 fans, 90 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 stages, 3 days, 2 flights, and 1 “suntan” later, Lollapalooza 2008 has come and gone.
Headlined by the troika of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against The Machine, this year's festival marked a three-day sellout, with attendance of 75,000 music fans flocking to Grant Park in the heart Chicago.
I photographed a modest 19 bands over the three-day festival, including all of the major headliners for the three nights. The latter was actually a somewhat rare feat, especially considering that only 25 photographers were allowed to photograph Rage Against The Machine due to tense security and a heaving barricade.
For this festival I shot with the Nikon D3 and the new Nikon D700, which share the same newly developed 35mm sensor. For lenses, I brought the Nikon 14-24mm, Nikon 24-70mm, and Nikon 70-200mm, the trifecto of Nikon's f/2.8 zooms. The gear performed flawlessly.
One great aspect of Lollapalooza, aside from the shotgun-convenience of photographing so many bands in one short span of time, was meeting other photographers.
It was a pleasure to meet and hang out with music photographers whose work I'm familiar with. It was also a very pleasant surprise to meet a number of folks who read ishootshows.com.
I've already posted the image set from Radiohead and a few teasers, but stay tuned for the full sets for NIN, Rage Against the Machine, and many many more from Lollapalooza.
PS: If for some reason you just can't wait for more, the new September issue of Rolling Stone features a small shot of Chan Marshall, AKA Cat Power, that I shot at Lolla in the “On The Road' section. Big thanks to Jason “Eagle Eyes” Bergman for the tip off on this placement.
