Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill performs at Lollapalooza 2009 on Friday
Photo: Barry Brecheisen/ WireImage

CHICAGO -- Somewhere in Chicago on Friday night, hopefully dry and warm, you can bet that Perry Farrell was grinning ear-to-ear. Despite a persistent all-day rain that turned the massive Lollapalooza fairground along the Chicago waterfront into a slippery mudbog worthy of Woodstock, the musical mash-up spirit that the festival's co-founder has been chasing for nearly 20 years made a strong showing.

As the rain finally let up in time for the headliners to take the stage, on the north end, the battling band of brothers (and cousin) Kings Of Leon were making the most of their third go-round at the fest, pumping out their muscular Southern boogie to an adoring sea of fans. Meanwhile, at the other end, British synth pop veterans Depeche Mode moved muddy feet with a classic set of keyboard anthems, including "Enjoy the Silence" and thunderous set-closer "Personal Jesus."

But it was what was happening in between the two stages that surely made Farrell smile. The Jane's Addiction frontman, who has long harbored a fascination with techo/rave dance culture, expanded his dance area this year and created a party space that drew huge crowds all day. Despite two world-famous headliners performing just yards away in either direction, the large leafy area was packed with thousands of bodies gyrating and throwing their hands in the air ecstatically to thumping techno, just as they had earlier in the day to jeep beat hip-hop and old school dance tunes.

However, that's not what the whole day was like. With one of the weaker first-day line-ups in the reborn festival's recent history, the day began slowly in a steady drizzle with California's the Henry Clay People warming up a sparse crowd with shambling indie-rock tunes about the apocalypse and a story about an urn of a late friend's ashes they are touring with. Matching the grey drizzle perfectly on an adjacent stage was were pastoral, beardy plaints of the Other Lives.

Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra brought none of those daffodil vibes, though, crunching bones with driving rockers like "In My Teeth," "Shake It Out" and their breakthrough hit, "I've Got Friends." They ended with the surging/swooning epic "Everything To Nothing" just as the rain really began to fall.

Once the skies opened up around midday -- and all those brightly colored mohawks began to sag and the lunchtime beers became a terrible idea -- the soggy masses had New Brunswick, New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem to keep their spirits up. Channeling an inked-up Springsteen, singer Brian Fallon wove his stirring tales of busted hearts and small town girls with their sailor tattoos with a charming grit, strumming hard through get-outta-this-town anthems like "Great Expectations," "The '59 Sound" and "Old White Lincoln."

The Knux, one of the few hip-hop acts on this year's bill, made sure their presence was known, hitting the stage to the strains of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," and swaggering like a rebel rock band, complete with distorted guitars over sampled beats. Clad in matching black Knux T-shirts, they looked like a rap Ramones tribute. MC Krispy Kreme did his best to get the crowd hyped with shout-along choruses on "Remind Me In 3 Days" and the rousing "Cappuccino."

Cleveland's Kid Cudi fit surprisingly nicely on the Perry Stage after synthetically produced acts like Simian Mobile Disco and Crookers led the way, because he himself seems to live in a world that is half real and half synthesized. Like mentor Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, Cudi has found a sweet spot between hip-hop and electronically enhanced singing, even if it was sometimes hard to tell if he was actually singing live along to the tracks.

If that wasn't your scene, the men of Bon Iver were sure to mellow you down easy with the droney strains of "Lump Sum" and "Blood Bank" and perhaps the strangest mass festival sing along ever, the plaintive "Skinny Love," with its refrain of "Now I'm breaking at the britches/ And at the end of all your lines."

The schizophrenia continued back across the way, as the funky hippie techo of STS9 mutated into the spastic gothy beats of Crystal Castles and then the psychedelic mindstorm that is Of Montreal. What other band's lead singer is carried on stage by a pair of Skeletor-looking monsters for a set of short-attention-span pixie-pop that included masked ninjas battling a gigantic female sumo wrestler, transvestites in one-legged leotards releasing balloons and pajama-wearing goons in gasmasks delivering Christmas presents filled with smokebombs?

In addition to playing such fan favorites as "Nonpareil of Favor," "For Our Elegant Caste" and a beat-assisted version of "Wraith Pinned To the Mist," the kaleidoscopic set also featured a surprise appearance by urban boho songstress and friend Janelle Monae for a cover of David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream."

The day's biggest crowd, however, belonged to Kings of Leon, who played the festival in 2007 and reminded the adoring crowd that their 2003 Lolla set was a disaster. After opening with the fiery three-punch combo of "Be Somebody," "Taper Jean Girl" and "My Party," singer Caleb Followil recalled how the then-new group played to just a handful of people back then, joking that when the meager crowds got a load of their mustaches and outfits, they quickly dispersed. That wasn't the case this time, though, as the now world-beating rock group funked up "Molly's Chambers" and "Crawl" with a grimy, Stonesy flair and created a chorus of tens of thousands on their breakthrough hit, "Sex on Fire."

It was hard to believe that jittery band Caleb spoke of was the same one whose soaring, radio-ready anthems were bouncing around the skyscraper canyons of downtown Chicago on Friday night, as if they belonged on the main stage all along.

MTV News is all over Lollapalooza this weekend! Head over to the Newsroom blog for more, and for the latest updates check us out on Twitter.

• The Lollapalooza 2009 Experience

• Vampire Weekend, Jane's Addiction, More At Lollapalooza 2009

• Kings Of Leon
• Depeche Mode
• Kid Cudi
• Jane's Addiction

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in "New Moon"
Photo: Summit Entertainment

"New Moon" director Chris Weitz recently gave an interview to movie site RottenTomatoes.com in which he talked about the status of the film — it's due in theaters November 20 — and spoke at length about the music he's lining up for the soundtrack.

Now, normally, soundtrack stories aren't that interesting ... but two things were different here. First, the "New Moon" album follows the mega-successful "Twilight" soundtrack (which featured a pair of new songs from Paramore and has sold more than 2.1 million copies to date) and second, Weitz mentioned that none other than Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and the Kings of Leon were interested in contributing songs.

For real.

"I am surprised at some of the bands that have said they're interested. It's kind of great," Weitz told the site. "The criterion will still always be what's right for the movie at that given moment, but Thom Yorke is interested; we might, if we're very lucky, get Kings of Leon to do something ... it's exciting to be able to have access to this kind of talent."

Speculation about just who would appear on the "New Moon" soundtrack has run rampant for months, with names like Kelly Clarkson and Coldplay being tossed about, but Yorke and the Kings of Leon?! They just seemed, well, different ... and yes, we know that Radiohead's "15 Step" featured prominently in the "Twilight" film (though was noticeably absent from the soundtrack album), but still ...

So we decided to find out for ourselves if Weitz was being serious. First, we reached out to Atlantic Records, who — along with music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas's Chop Shop Records — released the "Twilight" soundtrack, and will be doing the same for "New Moon." A spokesperson for the label told MTV News that he could not confirm the story, since the track list for the "New Moon" soundtrack was still being worked out.

We then reached out to reps for Yorke and the Kings of Leon, hoping they could shed some light on the "New Moon" situation. Turns out, they couldn't really.

Yorke's spokesperson told MTV News "not denying [the story], but there's nothing confirmed as yet." When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Kings of Leon told us "They like the film a lot, but it's a little too early to tell if they can be involved."

So, while we now know that the Kings of Leon like "New Moon," we're not any closer to figuring out if they — or Yorke — will appear on the soundtrack to the film. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• "New Moon"

• Kings Of Leon
• Thom Yorke

Will Ferrell
Photo: MTV News

The franchise can already count millions of screaming girls as devotees, but "Twilight" can add some Hollywood heavyweights to its list of superfans. In a Movie Awards night packed with many unexpected moments, some unlikely celebrity Twilighters were also exposed. From Denzel Washington to Will Ferrell, it looks like just about everyone has "Twilight" fever.

MTV News caught up with Washington and his daughter, Olivia, who gushed about her love for the film and, of course, Robert Pattinson. Olivia said "Twilight" was "really good" and assured everyone that it's not "just a chick flick." While Washington admitted that he hasn't actually seen the film yet, he promised to make a movie night out of it with his daughter. "We'll watch it when we go on vacation," the actor said.

"High School Musical" stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens may have been in a PDA showdown with Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the Best Kiss category, but Efron put aside any beef and graciously hailed Twilight as a "great film" on the red carpet and said the Edward/Bella lip-lock was "a great kiss."

That kiss also brought out the inner superfan in Stephanie Pratt. When Sway caught up with Pratt after the show, the "Hills" star pegged the "Twilight" Best Kiss acceptance speech as her favorite moment of the night, but couldn't hide her disappointment that Kristen and Rob didn't smooch for real.

"When Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson ... were so close and the whole auditorium was like, 'Are they gonna? Are they gonna?' Then they didn't! But I was, like, dying to see them kiss." Pratt gushed on her way to the show's afterparty.

And you may have been a little confused when Will Ferrell was seen clapping enthusiastically during the now-infamous almost-kiss, but MTV News got the inside scoop: Ferrell is a closet Twilighter.

When the comedian was asked if he was a fan of the movie, he gave a true-to-form quick response. "Obviously," he said. "It's a gimme. You look at me, you're like Twiiii-liiight," Ferrell joked. And as for what "Twilight" team the "Land of the Lost" star supports? "I'm kinda Team Edward, I'm kinda Team Jim, I'm kinda Team ... Stanley."

OK, so Ferrell may not know all the movie's characters, but he did go on to profess his love for everyone's favorite brooding vampire. Ferrell confessed he tried [unsuccessfully] to meet Pattinson all night. "He [kept] going, 'Not now, not a good time.' " (We're not sure how serious he was about all this!)

One celeb that did get to meet the heartthrob backstage was Abigail Breslin. The "Little Miss Sunshine" star officially became the envy of teenage girls everywhere and even got to shake Pattinson's hand. The star jumped up and down in excitement after the encounter.

And finally, Kings of Leon may have been busy giving the crowd a rocking performance onstage, but backstage they showed love for the Best Movie winner.

"I really liked 'Twilight' a lot," singer Caleb Followill told MTV News. "It was a cool, generational kind of movie. I thought it was really pretty."

If you were as excited as we were about the first "New Moon" trailer on the MTV Movie Awards, show us! Turn on that webcam, tape your reaction and upload it to YouRHere.MTV.com. Tag your upload as "Twilight" so we can find it, then check back here as we post the highlights!

How many trophies did the vampires win? What was the year's ultimate WTF moment? Check out the winners, fashion and outrageous moments of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards!

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

• 2009 Movie Awards: Red-Carpet Moments
• Behind The Scenes At The 2009 Movie Awards
• 2009 MTV Movie Awards | The Entire Show On Demand

• 'Twilight' Takes Over The Movie Awards

• Kings Of Leon

Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill performs at the MTV Movie Awards
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

When the Kings of Leon arrived at the Gibson Amphitheatre for their big performance of "Use Somebody" on Sunday at the MTV Movie Awards, they may not have expected the amount of mutual celebrity fandom that would take place backstage before and after they performed.

Before hitting the stage, the three brothers and cousin met up with their old friend Zac Efron, and we caught then making some plans with him to meet up after their performance and the show. On Saturday, they told MTV News that they've been friends with Zac for some time.

As for the rest of the crowd, "I think we'll win them over," singer Caleb Followill told MTV News about the show's ability to gain the band even more fans. "We already got the 'High School Musical' kids and the 'Twilight' kids. ... I really liked 'Twilight' a lot. It was a cool, generational kind of movie. I thought it was really pretty."

Then, post-performance, the guys came across Danny McBride and Will Ferrell, who were (oddly) petting stuffed cats during their entire mutual-fandom conversation with the Kings. Although one of the bandmembers asked the guys to make plans, the offer was apparently not taken up. Then, they all posed for a picture before the Kings made their exit.

• Behind The Scenes At The 2009 Movie Awards
• 2009 MTV Movie Awards | The Entire Show On Demand

• 2009 MTV Movie Awards | Full Fashion Recap

• Kings Of Leon

2009 American Music Award Nominees

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• Jay-Z
• Taylor Swift
• Beyoncé

Woodie Awards 2009 Nominees

• 3Oh!3
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• Amanda Blank
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Vampire Weekend, Jane's Addiction, More At Lollapalooza 2009

• Depeche Mode
• Perry Farrell
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• The Knux
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2009 VMA Nominees

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
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• Kings Of Leon
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Travis Barker, DJ AM, More At KROQ's Weenie Roast 2009

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All Points West Festival At New Jersey's Liberty State Park

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Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amy Winehouse, More At Coachella 2007

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Kings Of Leon, Mastodon, Flava Flav, More Rock SXSW '07

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