Lollapalooza: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Review and Set List

Yeah Yeah Yeahs took the Budweiser stage at Lollapalooza 8:30pm. Bringing in Karen O. and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a last minute replacement for the Beastie Boys proved to be a great choice as fans split almost exactly in half for the night’s two headliners. Karen O. marched out onstage in a colorful headdress giving the crowd a gruff “what’s up Chicago!” before launching into “Runaway”. The dance party didn’t really start until “Heads Will Roll” which got nearly the entire crowd jumping by the first “Off off off with your head; dance dance dance ‘til you’re dead.”

After “Gold Lion” and “Zero” were out of the way, Karen got a little ahead of herself and forgot the lyrics to their biggest hit and her self-proclaimed favorite song, “Maps”. Thankfully there was a crowd roughly 30,000 strong that were able to take up the slack and help her through it. She even walked off stage for a minute trying to get down into the pit but came back moments later exclaiming “it’s too far, otherwise I’d come down.” That’s something you don’t see in many headliners at Lollapalooza.

Towards the end of his set, lead singer of Tool, Maynard Keenan scoffed, “My only regret is not getting to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Bad scheduling I guess.” While talented in his own right, the man has obviously never seen Karen O. command a crowd the way she so famously does. If you ask me, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs more than filled the shoes of the Beastie Boys, a feat that seemed almost impossible when MCA and the boys had to drop out. Thanks Karen.

Setlist from 8/8/09:

1. Runaway
2. Phenomena (Listed as “Phenom (Beastie Break)” )
3. Heads Will Roll
4. Pin
5. Dull Life
6. Gold Lion
7. Cheated Hearts
8. Skeletons
9. Hysteric
10. Soft Shock
11. Honeybear
12. Zero
13. Turn Into
14. Maps (acoustic)
15. Y Control
16. Date With the Night

Photo by M. Janicki via Flickr