Image Credit: Nick Pickles/WireImage.com

If Lollapalooza, with its 130 bands spread over three epic, deodorant-challenging days in Chicago’s mammoth Grant Park, is a marathon and not a sprint, Friday was its hope-you-carbo-loaded 10K kick-off.

Fans of chugging, red-meat rock– and Aerosmith obsessives (brothers Adrian and Tony Perry are the sons of Aero icon Joe Perry) — came out early for Boston boys TAB the Band; frontman Adrian told me that they recently spent time in the studio with Mark Neill, who co-produced the Black Keys’ Brothers. I like the Stones-y, jangling “She Said No (I Love You),” even though the title sounds uncomfortably like an After-School Special about date rape.

Next up: Electric Touch, a whammy-bar-friendly Austin outfit with a British frontman whose  black-jeans strut works melodically, if not always lyrically. Either way, the dude near me in the full-body blue spandex bodysuit with his cargo shorts all bunched up underneath seemed to have no reservations; he was extra-loving the “Blitzkrieg Bop” cover.

Reports say there are 90,000 showgoers expected this weekend, and approximately 45,000 of those seemed to be in attendance at Foster the People‘s set on the Sony stage. The L.A. breakouts’ indie-pop anthems — and faithful, slightly incongruous cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” — were swallowed at times by the field’s massive sprawl, though the kids didn’t let that stop them from some surprisingly civilized crowd-surfing during “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls),” “Helena Beat,” and “Pumped Up Kicks,” a.k.a. The Hit. (Don’t worry, “Houdini,” you are still my favorite.) Frontman Mark Foster seemed appropriately awed, recalling to the crowd his very recent days spent selling clothes and pulling coffee. Barista no more! READ FULL STORY »