Still upset about the lack of hip-hop on last year’s Lolla lineup? Maybe you think the annual music fest behemoth should take on more country acts, or (gasp) jazz artists. As announced earlier on Twitter, fest organizers are taking virtual requests. Submit your own Lollapalooza requests now. Make your voice heard, whether you think the Polkaholics still haven’t gotten their due, or that it’s high time the Waco Brothers headlined the whole shebang. There’s an additional suggestion box on the ballot, so don’t be afraid to air any other grievances. After all, it’s our world. Lolla’s just living in it.

Just as Lollapalooza 2009 fades into memory (Fuse is currently screening the highlights for cable subscribers—and the audio/video quality is superb), you can start making plans for Lollapalooza 2010. I have a hard time thinking 3 hours ahead much less 365 days in the future, but if I was more of a planner I might scoop up Lolla 2010 tickets at the “early bird prices” at which they are being offered. Right now, Early Bird Three-Day Passes are $175 at lollapalooza.com with no service free.

Photo: Flint Chaney

Lollapalooza is always as much a circus for the eyes as a feast for the ears, so we unleashed a squad of photographers to record this year’s three-day festival for posterity. We’ve got live music shots from Friday, Saturday and Sunday plus Kidzapalooza and various Lolla after-parties—plus portraits of the fest-goers themselves. Check ‘em out and tell us what you think.

The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach was supported by an ample band on the PlayStation stage, and though many probably hoped to hear more BK gems, I was happy to hear him play from his impressive solo debut, Keep It Hid. Auerbach’s got a soulful, lived-in voice that speaks to his promise as one of the great songwriters of his generation, as cuts like “Last Mistake” make plainly clear.

Band of Horses followed on the same stage with a similar formula that leans heavier on the group’s punk-rock roots flavored with lap steel. After a late start due to Lou Reed’s delay, they tore into a set culled heavily from Sub Pop discs Everything All the Time and Cease to Begin, and previewed a few new songs from a forthcoming disc. By 8:30pm the Horses were already into an encore and apparently felt no obligation to stop, despite the sound of a whipping helicopter blaring out of the Bud stage speakers against a backdrop montage of Jane’s Addiction album covers. It almost seemed like BOH was baiting Perry Farrell, asking “should we play one more?” after Jane’s was well into a thundering intro.

Jane's Addiction, Photo: Flint Chaney

It was a bizarre clusterfuck of sound for anyone stranded in between both stages, and it only got weirder as a helicopter hovered overhead to formally announce Jane’s set (though I’m still unclear as to what the chopper added, aside from exacerbating the confusion). BOH must’ve been played for a good 15 minutes beyond that, firmly establishing themselves as true punks opposite JA’s gaudy glam-metal getup.

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If you’re going to get naked at a music festival, please do it on a hot, sticky day, rather than a cold, drizzly day—and not just for aesthetic reasons. According to the Trib’s blog, the fellow from the video below ended up going to the hospital.

Playstation Central

Looking for excuses to avoid yesterday’s heat, I took a break from Vampire Weekend’s lackluster set and ventured into PlayStation Central, the air conditioned tent loaded with PlayStation consoles, games and kids eager to have at ‘em. What must have been close to 50 young festivalgoers sat zombie-like in comfy, leather sofas trying out new titles on sleek, flat-screen televisions. At first I wondered if such a tent took away from my romanticized image of a music festival that Friday’s relentless rain had all but destroyed, one in which the elements are embraced as much as the music. But I had seen lifelessness in just as many of the drugged-out faces outside as I saw in the video-game tent, and outside there was no two-player mode option to keep those people connected. Really, though, I’m just trying to rationalize how much I enjoyed singing “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” on PlayStation 3’s new SingStar.

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Over the course of Lollapalooza, I picked up the following unverified factoids—spread at your own risk. The following is at least 25% factual.

1. All the main-stage shows were filmed in 3-D HD for a consumer format that has yet to be made commercially available. Ultra VIPs could watch the sets somewhere on the Lolla grounds while wearing a 3-D headset.

2. The head honchos from C3 were on site with a private bar and restaurant trailer that featured on-site open-air pit for roasting pigs.

3. Lollapalooza is completely paid for through sponsorships before a single ticket is sold.

4. There’s a great new diet going around called the Lollapalooza Diet that gives you abs like Dave Navarro almost instantly. Here’s the trick: Eat a veggie burrito from the food stalls in the midway, wait a day, watch the pounds come off.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Lollapalooza’s last day was hot. How hot? It was hotter than a stolen tamale. Hotter than a steel playground in Hades. Hotter than Megan Fox in a jacuzzi full of lava. Simply cycling down to the fest at noon was a surprisingly uncomfortable and sudorific ordeal, so you can imagine how exasperating navigating swarming crowds all day was. Fortunately, Lolla shot-callers did schedule some capable performers at the smaller stages, allowing festival goers to enjoy some much-needed elbow room along with their music.

Earlier in the day, Chicago’s own electro dance-pop duo He Say, She Say got the heads bobbing with Drea Smith’s raspy, Santigold-tinged vocals and Million $ Mano’s fizzy beats. While I wasn’t thoroughly dazzled by their performance, I did find the addition of a drummer and guitarist added a dash of pizzaz to the duo’s live performance. “Crash Dummie” was received well by the crowd, and the duo scored some brownie points by closing out with a cover of “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters.

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As music fans braved the Sunday morning heat for the kickoff of Lollapalooza’s last day, many were diverted from their trek to the south stages by the amazing mini metal guitar hero Yuto Miyazawa. The 9-year-old Japanese thrasher killed “Purple Haze” and the Hendrix version of the National Anthem, charming the mostly adult crowd even though his vocals were a bit hard to take. It was a great kickoff to a mostly hard-rockin’ day at Kidzapalooza.

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Kaiser Chiefs, Photo: Flint Chaney

I tend to approach Britpop phenoms like the Kaiser Chiefs with a bit of skepticism—and I never found the ’70s punk or Jam comparisons for this band apt—they’re really a pretty straightforward alt-rock band at times. But Sunday, the band put its best foot forward—strutting and rocking like a main-stage act, thrilling the crowd, sometimes entering it and introducing a lovable keyboard player named Peanut to kick off one tune with handclaps. Songs like “I Predict a Riot” and “Yours Truly, Angry Mob” aren’t generic by any means—the band proved that artistic ambition and big bold rock moves with a dash of mod aren’t out of place at a big fest. Plus, they slagged Budweiser.

Photo: Jacob Nelson

I have a soft spot for Gang Gang Dance in part because I was neighbors with two of the sometime members during my stint in Washington, D.C.—and I always give the band’s weird, jammy, percussive albums a spin or two. After overcoming some sound issues and tucking the wailing vocalist way back in the mix where she fit better, the band went from painful to brilliant as it slipped into space dub mode and let its frenetic grooves, off-the-wall synths and chorus-effected guitar take over. It settled into a jam-tastic rave that suited the henna-tatooed dancers to my left in the shade. A guy wearing a towel and headband danced with his back to the audience from stage—maybe he’s the dance in the gang. The ethnic no-wave suited me fine for a while.

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