Whether one is charitable and inclined to say that Lollapalooza is making a (better late than never) effort to incorporate the desires of the Chicago music community and the rest of its customers, or more cynical and prone to the view that, as confirmed my by interview with talent buyer and co-owner Marc Geiger a while back, the brain trust behind the giant musical Walmart on the lake has never really had any vision for the thing beyond raking in the Benjamins, it's interesting to note the festival's current invitation to us to "Be the Booking Agent" (coming to me originally via the ever-diligent Tankboy at Chicagoist).

"Tell us who you'd put on next year's Lollapalooza lineup, happening August 6-8, 2010. Give us your Top 5 artists -- monster headliners to bands we've never even heard of -- from rock to avant-garde, indie to hip-hop, and all the sounds in between. Speak up by November 10. We'll collect all of your ideas, then see what we can make happen," the invitation reads, before asking for (one presumes) valuable demographic data about us voters and then offering the opportunity to pick as many as five (five!) acts to fill Grant Park next summer.

Well, thanks, fellas. Are you also going to share your commissions?

Meanwhile, a petition is making the rounds urging, "Save Chicago music - You can help!"

"Music, arts and cultural programs presented by the city of Chicago are threatened by severe budget cuts," it notes. "We can't let this happen--our city is known around the world for its free music programming that not only brings enjoyment to hundreds of thousands of fans and adds to the richness of our civic culture, but also generates jobs and income for local businesses.

"If you value programs like Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, the World Music Festival, SummerDance and Millennium Park concerts including Music Without Borders, Downtown Sound and much more (see below for a list), please do your part. City budget hearings are underway, and you can make a difference. If you do nothing, these programs could be cut back sharply."

While some would say the world (or at least Chicago) might be better off without Blues Fest, there is no denying the value of the burgeoning cutting-edge music programming at Millennium Park, which recently has included Andrew Bird, Shellac, the Dirty Projectors, Calexico, the Feelies, Red Red Meat, Tortoise, Chuck D and the Bomb Squad and more.

The full text of the petition follows the jump, and it also can be found posted here.

The best show by far of Lollapalooza 2009 really was part of Lollapalooza in name only: the after-show at Metro in the wee hours of Monday morning that marked the world premier of Them Crooked Vultures, the new supergroup featuring Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, former Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and the legendary John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

Sources said the band turned down the chance to replace the Beastie Boys when they dropped off the Lollapalooza bill as Adam Yauch battled cancer; apparently, the new group preferred to make its debut in a much more intimate setting. (Instead of the potential crowd of 75,000 that would have seen the band in Grant Park, it played instead to 1,100 at Metro, mostly hardcore fans of Homme and Grohl lucky enough to get tickets after a fan club notification.)

Addressing the setting for this auspicious bow, Homme said, "We could have done this in L.A." As he pantomimed a well-endowed woman performing a rude sexual act, the crowd cheered wildly. "That's why we came here!" he added. "We came to Chicago because we wanted to play Metro!"

During an amazing 12-song, 80-minute set, Them Crooked Vultures went on to prove it is one the rarest things in rock: a supergroup that not only deserves that appellation, but which actually is greater than the sum of its storied parts.

With second guitarist and occasional keyboardist Alain Johannes, another veteran of Queens of the Stone Age, augmenting the star trio, the heart of the sound owed a lot to that band's brand of hypnotic but intense stoner rock, as well as to the more spacey and bluesy sounds of Homme's earlier group, Kyuss. Grohl also played for a time with the Queens, after their third album, "Songs for the Deaf" (2002). But as great as that group has been at various points, Them Crooked Vultures take the sound to a whole new level.

Simply put, Jones has enhanced any musical setting he's ever graced with his classy and virtuosic presence, whether it's been producing the Butthole Surfers, performing in a trio with art-rocker Diamanda Galas or serving as the solid anchor that grounded his larger-than-life band mates in Zep. And as obsessive rock fans who grew up worshipping Jimmy Page and John Bonham, Homme and Grohl seemed thrilled to be standing onstage with one of their heroes, and they pushed themselves to new heights to prove that they deserved the honor.

One of the hardest-hitting percussionists of his generation, Grohl seemed even more intense in this setting than he'd been during his stint with the Queens, hammering his snare with both hands to create a massive backbeat, firing off rapid fire single-stroke rolls that made his single bass drum sound like two, and playing long and complicated fills between hi-hat, snare and rack tom without ever losing the songs' propulsive drive.

Indeed, the complexity of the arrangements in tunes such as "Elephants" and "Caligulove" bordered at times on progressive rock--both of the old-school Yes variety, and the more modern Tool flavor. But the fact that the quartet never lost that forward momentum or the essential gritty blues growl made the music more of a full-body hard-rock experience than a cerebral study in musicianship, even when Jones sat at the keyboard to add a lovely coda to "Daffodils," or moved from a six-string bass, to eight strings, to 10 strings and finally to a mystery instrument that resembled a strap-on lap steel guitar with a built-in digital screen.

Homme handled most of the lead vocals, though Grohl, Jones and Johannes all traded off on backing parts. As for the thematic concerns of the material--well, it's never been easy to discern what Homme is singing about onstage, and we'll just have to wait to figure that out until the group releases its debut album, "Never Deserved the Future," on Oct. 23.

UPDATE: I incorrectly printed the release date and album title above based on a story from Rolling Stone that turns out to have been wrong. Says the band's publicist: "There is no set release date as yet. I don't think there's an album title either."

If the Metro show was any indication, the disc should be a stunner. The band presumably played the entire album--there was no encore--and only one song fell flat: "Interlude w/ Ludes," an alien lounge tune that found Jones on keytar and Homme putting down his ax to slink around the stage like an unholy combination of Dean Martin and Tom Jones.

Them Crooked Vultures set list: "Elephants," "New Fang," "Scumbag Blues," "Dead End Friends," "Bandoliers," "Mind Eraser (No Chaser)," "Gunman," "Daffodils," "Interlude w/ Ludes," "Caligulove," "Warsaw," "Nobody Loves Me."

Sun-Times contributor Anders Smith Lindall reports:

Live from the sauna that is Grant Park, it's the third and final day of Lollapalooza.

As usual I'll be focused on the northernmost stages--which today promise the likes of Jane's Addiction, Lou Reed and Neko Case--while Jim holds down the south. Apart from those big three, though, I have fewer must-sees today and more inclination to just follow my ears.

Powered by the lingering buzz of several excellent shows on Saturday, I have my hopes up.

Music aside, an aspect of this iteration of Lolla that's drawn notice from fans is the video boards, which are order of magnitude sharper than any I've seen before. (Their colors also seem super-saturated, lending an almost hyper-real look to the filmed images.)

Scenes from the crowd at Lollapalooza early in day three Sunday; Sun-Times photos by Marty Perez.

Follow the jump for more on the video operation, including an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at a the production of a planned 3D documentary feature.

1 p.m.: Things are off to a slow start here on the third and final day of Lollapalooza 2009 in the southern end of Grant Park. The heat already is stultifying--the dashboard reading on my Mac says it's 90 degrees--and I just got word that, in addition to a heat advisory in effect until 6 p.m., though there is no hint of it at the moment, a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued "with large hail and strong winds" later in the day.

Last year, on the Monday after Lollapalooza when the tornado-warning sirens went off for the first time I've heard since I moved to Chicago in the early '90s, I called the city to ask what evacuation plans were in place for Grant Park in the event of severe weather during the concert or any other major event. Chicago emergency management personnel declined to answer, citing security concerns in the event of a terrorist attack (!).

It seems fairly obvious that if the weather turns dangerous, people in the north of the park will be herded into the underground parking garages below Millennium Park. In the south, the plan is less clear: It would be a long walk to Soldier Field or the Field Museum across Lake Shore Drive, and it's about a mile to Millennium Park in the north. The hotels on South Michigan are a considerable hike, too, and they probably couldn't shelter 30,000 people in a hurry.

Let's hope we never have to find out.

As for day three's opening sounds in Hutchinson Field, the wispy tunes of the London-formed, Brooklyn-based pop band Alberta Cross drifted off the stage and floated away over Lake Michigan with precious little to remember or mark them as unique.

Meanwhile, onstage now, the Syracuse, N.Y. pop band Ra Ra Riot is jangling away, with its genteel melodies enhanced by sawing cello and violin. But the group's songs are no more noteworthy.

The band is playing to a crowd that already numbers about 10,000 however, and listeners are just sort of standing politely in the dusty field, sweating and baking under the bright sun.

Bat for Lashes onstage in Hutchinson Field; Sun-Times photo by Marty Perez.

Much more as the day progresses after the jump.

And plans for Sunday ...

Sun-Times freelancer Anders Smith Lindall reports:

First post, 10:55 a.m.: It's a few minutes before 11 on Saturday morning; Lolla Day Two is about to begin. The conditions are already soupy on the lakefront, as today promises to be a real steam bath. At least it will be a change from Friday's relentless rain. This pic I snapped during the Bon Iver set pretty well sums up yesterday's conditions:

There might be an up side to the worrisome practice of Lolla bar tents selling beer in aluminum cans--including 24-ounce tallboys--rather than plastic cups. While security personnel fret that the cans could become dangerous missiles, the value of aluminum recyclables may be keeping them off the ground and out of the garbage:

Finally, must-see recommendations from two more notable faces in the crowd.

Rock-poster artist and Dianogah bass player Jay Ryan, buttonholed backstage at yesterday's Andrew Bird gig: "I'd like to see TV on the Radio and Neko Case. But I'll be at a wedding instead."

WXRT host Marty Lennartz: "I'm looking forward to Lou Reed. It's been so long since he did a real rock show, a festival show. For years he's been doing these oddball projects. I'm sure he has something special planned."

Regular updates follow the jump.

With yesterday's mud slowly drying under increasingly hot and humid if still overcast skies, the second day of Lollapalooza gets underway for me at noon at the smaller stage at the foot of Balbo with theNewNo2. The quintet takes its name from the classic TV series "The Prisoner" starring mod-era hero Patrick McGoohan. But the group is destined to be best known as the band fronted by Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatle George and Olivia Trinidad Arias, and a dead ringer for his father circa "A Hard Day's Night."

Though I'm a proud Chicagoan, nepotism has never counted for much with me, and the truth is I would love theNewNo2 no matter whose DNA the bandleader carries. Even stronger than the band's debut album "You Are Here," released late last year, the group's short but intense live set is a wonderful, swirling, psychedelic noise-pop assault that mixes equal parts vintage '90s shoegazer rock (a la My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Slowdive) and more recent Moog-laced Radiohead, though it's distinguished by the strong melodies and vocals that, yeah, sorta do sound like you-know-who.

An impressively noisy guitarist who also plays a weird sampler/analog synthesizer that looks as if it was made at home from parts at Radio Shack, Harrison takes the stage wearing a goofy pirate's hat that he bought at the festival yesterday--it winds up in the crowd in the hands of a guy who wrestles it from several other fans who all dived for it--and a T-shirt that says, "La Muerte Palooza."

"Did you get rained on yesterday?" the singer asks. "Sorry about that. We're here today--that's why it's nice out."

Who am I to argue with that kind of logic?

Dhani Harrison (left) with drummer/keyboardist Oli Hecks of the NewNo2.

Much more on Lollapalooza Day Two after the jump.

UPDATED SUNDAY 3:10 p.m.: Promoters have just announced that the final day of Lollapalooza, like the two before it, has sold out of single-day tickets. Saturday, spokeswoman Shelby Meade said the "sold-out" number was "about the same" as last year, which promoters put at 75,000 per day, or a total of 225,000 concertgoers in Grant Park throughout the weekend.

It's shortly before 11:30 a.m., and the main acts have yet to start in the southern end of Grant Park at Hutchinson Field. But technicians already have tested the sound system with the theme from "Star Wars," the infrastructure is all in place for the fifth year of Lollapalooza as a reinvented destination festival--complete with much less of an obnoxious corporate presence in terms of signage on the big stages, a definite aesthetic improvement to be sure--and the first rumor surprise of the weekend is buzzing around.

Young mainstream country chanteuse LeAnn Rimes is said to be performing on the Kids' Stage with the festival's corporate figurehead and Jane's Addiction front man Perry Farrell at 3:30 this afternoon.

Oh, and it's starting to rain a bit.

Hang on, folks. Here we go.

She's not crying. It's just the rain, dampening the first day of Lollapalooza 2009 in Grant Park. (John J. Kim/Sun-Times)

12:20 p.m.: The music gets underway in Hutchinson Field with the Henry Clay People , a twangy alternative-country-leaning pop quintet from Glendale, Calif., inexplicably named after the 19th century politician known as "the great compromiser" (or, alternately, "the great pacifier," though he was an ardent hawk who advocated the War of 1812).

The group is almost painfully earnest as it performs its upbeat but largely unmemorable sounds in front of an early, umbrella-carrying and poncho-wearing crowd of about 500 hearty souls. It covers Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" (the song that musician sued the Republican Party over for using in an unauthorized campaign ad for Sen. John McCain; hmm, do you think these guys were poly-sci majors in college?), pays homage to a deceased friend named Randy by bringing his ashes on stage ("He wanted to travel the world, and now he's here with us playing Lollapalooza!") and tries to get a reaction from the soggy minions by referencing the last big event that happened in this field.

"This is a song about the end of the world. It was written pre-Barack Obama."

(Silence.)

"This is Grant Park, where he gave his acceptance speech, right?"

(Nothing.)

"Um, O.K...."

Still, the group does provide a fitting opening for the festival, perfectly nailing--perhaps unconsciously--the vibe of the new Lollapalooza with a tune it introduces as "a song about why rock 'n' roll scenes are so important." The key lyric: "This ain't a scene, it's just a generation caught in between... This ain't a scene, it's just a place to be."

The rest of day one continues after the jump.