Gnarls in Charge

On the scene at Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza's evolved quite a bit since its early-to-mid-'90s incarnation as a traveling road show and alt-rock tour: On hiatus from 1998-2002 and canceled in 2004 on account of poor ticket sales, Perry Farrell's brainchild — aping the success of such weekend-long destination fests as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Austin City Limits — has downsized, to three days in one city.

Well, maybe downsized isn't exactly the word, considering this year's Lollapalooza (Aug. 4-6 in Chicago's Grant Park) boasted more than 130 acts over eight stages. Among the performers: Chicago natives and alt-country rockers Wilco; the Jack White side project the Raconteurs; a sweet and low-key Iron and Wine; the psychedelic confetti- and balloon-loving festival junkies the Flaming Lips; the slightly grating dance-rock cheerleaders the Go! Team; eclectic pop musician Andrew Bird (who treated the crowd to Royal Tenenbaums-esque whistling and violin plucking); and Blues Traveler (no lie).

Amazingly, though, the best moments of this fest — known for so long as a safe place for rock fans, save the token inclusion in the '90s of acts like Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, and Arrested Development — were Saturday's one-after-the-other main-stage hip-hop performances by Gnarls Barkley and Common, capped off by a set from headliner Kanye West. For a festival that still has a whiff of the past about it — this year's headliners, the absurdly thrashing Red Hot Chili Peppers, also headlined back in '92 — it was a thrill to see something fresh and new. A shame, though, that it was almost all white people watching these three acts. Do something about that, Lollapalooza!

A breakdown of Lollapalooza 2006's highlights:

Gnarls Barkley: The most fun show of the fest. Cee-Lo, Danger Mouse, and their 11 backing musicians came on stage to the strains of ''We Are the Champions,'' all dressed in tennis whites (this being Chicago, I was really hoping they would garb up in Blues Brothers attire; it was pretty hot, though). Then they launched straight into ''Go Go Gadget Gospel,'' a veritable Gnarls Barkley mission statement. They wanted to see us laughing, smiling, dancing. They played ''Crazy.'' They played a Doors cover and a Greenhornes cover. We obliged.

My Morning Jacket: Ideally, every live performance by this band would begin at dusk — their sound is so big that it could follow the sun into the west. Starting directly after Iron & Wine (Jim James and Sam Beam should have a hirsute-off), the set, with reverb-heavy vocals from lead singer James, was amazing — sometimes rocking, sometimes jammy, sometimes country-ish. Plus, MMJ were one of the only bands to overcome the second main stage's underwhelming sound system, which sunk both Ryan Adams and the Shins.

Common: Playing in front of a hometown crowd, Common spat hot fire, blasting through much of his great last album, Be, before turning the stage over to DJ Dummy and a set of turntables, which he took time to remind everyone was ''where hip-hop started.''

Sleater-Kinney: Some of the most rabid fans of the weekend were in attendance for one of the Portland punk girl trio's last shows before going on ''indefinite hiatus.'' Drummer Janet Weiss was a force of nature, at one point playing harmonica and the skins at the same time. ''We had a good time at the beginning,'' bleated Corin Tucker on the song ''Rollercoaster.'' Everyone had a good time at the end, too.

Broken Social Scene: It's hard to get everyone in this sometimes 14-person Canadian collective at the same place at the same time, so it was fantastic to see Feist (who played her own set the day before) and Amy Millan (whose band Stars played two days before) on stage with everyone else. Sure, sometimes this band can be so upbeat it's almost sickening, but on Sunday, playing to a massive crowd standing in wait for the Chili Peppers, they got everything just right.

Kanye West: This one definitely started off on a bad note. West busted out of the rafters to ''Diamonds From Sierra Leone'' only to discover that his mike didn't really work. ''We traveled the whole world and played some great shows and come back to my city and y'all gonna f--- up the sound? Embarrass me in front of my hometown?'' Not surprisingly, the sound was perfect after that. West brought out Common, Twista, and Lupe Fiasco (on a skateboard!) and rolled out his hits — ''Gold Digger,'' ''Slow Jamz,'' ''Get 'Em High'' — at just the right moments. He closed with ''Touch the Sky,'' and everyone's hands went up to do just that.