Lollapalooza turns it up a notch
CHICAGO — The 300,000 folks who flooded Grant Park for Lollapalooza had more than 130 artists to choose from over three days, with eight stages scattered across the park's mile-plus stretch. While the big headline draws came by way of Eminem (Friday) and Outkast (Saturday), the dance and DJ side of things pumped all weekend long, with sets from Cut Copy and Calvin Harris (Saturday) and Skrillex (Sunday).
What's new? Aside from new sponsor names gracing the main stages, perhaps the most obvious change at the music festival was the look of Perry's Stage. "Now it's a monster, it looks like it's a Transformer," says Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell of his namesake stage, which boasted large Jumbotron screens and an elevated mixing console. "We're mixing live music and video simultaneously with time coding." Another addition: festgoers could link their wristbands to their credit cards. "It lessens traffic, it keeps a flow in the park because you (have fewer) people standing in a long line," Farrell says. "A much, much better experience for people."
The old school: Eminem, who headlined Friday, brought the old-school rap. He also brought out surprise guest Rihanna, and the two performed Love the Way You Lie, The Monster and Stan. On Saturday, Outkast was backed by a band with a horn section for its much-anticipated reunion. Andre 3000 and Big Boi gave the fans what they wanted, performing Rosa Parks, Ms. Jackson, Hey Ya! and The Way You Move. They may not have veered from the setlist of their previous reunion shows, but the Dirty South rappers' long-awaited return to Chicago still paid off. Earlier Saturday, "verbal assassin" Nas traversed material from his classic Illmatic, which turned 20 this year, and also addressed Chicago's murder rate. "I've been in this music for so long. I've seen so many come. I've seen so many go," he lamented before launching into Accident Murderers.
The new(ish) school: Lorde could easily have been a headliner, judging from her Friday set, which found the 17-year-old dancing around the stage while delivering her rhythmic cadence for Tennis Court and Royals. Her charisma and command of the stage were strong, as was her humility: "I'm at a loss for words, which doesn't happen too often," she told the crowd. "From up here, it looks like an awful lot of people — it's probably my whole town and my whole high school."
Fancy that: Iggy Azalea performed Friday on Perry's Stage, which occupied a vast field spilling over with fans. While she matched the draw with a big onstage presence, plenty of backup dancers, call-and-responses of "Drop that (expletive)" and chest-rattling bass, her blended EDM/rap set, which included her hit Fancy, felt pretty repetitive as the performance wore on. No matter to the fans, who sang along to pretty much everything she dropped.
It's Super Kate! Kate Nash may have released her debut album back in 2007, but she has spanned several styles in that time, from pop to punk to Motown. She looked like a superhero during her Saturday set, complete with a colorful cape and leaps and bounds into the audience. While the effort left her breathless, her peppy delivery, enhanced by an all-girl band and a balloon-filled stage, made for some lively daytime fun.
Rocking it: While the fest was well represented in the dance, pop and rap realm, there was still plenty of rock to be had. Arctic Monkeys held its own, despite Eminem being the band's headlining competition on Friday night. Early Saturday, Parquet Courts was a wall of sound, with one several-minute song building into a squall that sounded (in the best way possible) like whales distressfully communicating, and the mosh pit in front of the stage roiled along. Spoon is such a good band that it is sometimes taken for granted.That's not to imply that fans weren't appreciative at the group's late-afternoon Saturday show — the crowd was certainly ample and engaged. It's just that Spoon has long perfected its live show with confident chemistry and nary a bad album to work off. So it was no surprise that new material the band tested out from its forthcoming They Want My Soul (out Aug. 5) would be just as impressive.
Rainmaker: "I made God cry with my sad songs," Jhené Aiko announced during her early Sunday show, but fans sure were happy with her R&B-grooved set, during which she jumped into the rain to move with her soaking-wet crowd. If that were true, the weather gods must have been happy with Bleachers' Sunday set, which took place as the skies cleared and the sun even broke through briefly. Saxophone solos, dueling drums, searing guitars and infectious sing-alongs abounded in the cheerful set, in which most songs, including Rollercoaster, turned into anthems. Jack Antonoff's side project (his other group is fun.) drew both younger and older fans, which was apparent in the cover of The Cranberries' Dreams. "Anyone born in the '90s?" Antonoff queried in introducing the song, to which there wasn't much response. While many may have been tots or not even born when that song came out, the field divided for closer I Wanna Get Better, with the young ones rushing to meet Antonoff as he leaned over the barricade to sing into the crowd.
Sunday's theme, mud: Intermittent but heavy rain plagued Sunday and mud pits formed throughout the park. Chromeo had fans grooving and entertained in the slippery terrain with the duo's electro-funk material and humor, including Sexy Socialite and Fancy Footwork. But Donald Glover, who performs as Childish Gambino, looked vacation-ready in an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt (which came off later) and a pair of shorts. His sunny disposition at the beginning of his performance set the tone for a fun, though rain-drenched set, part of which he spent running through the crowd and working the stage with dance moves. While he appeared buoyant, it belied the raw emotions of some of his material. "Why ain't you calling me back?" he lamented during the anxious Shadows. Later, he ended Sweatpants with "I don't give a (expletive) about my family name" before dropping the mic. To further punctuate the sentiments expressed, fire plumes shot off throughout his set.
Battling headliners: Kings of Leon drew the largest Sunday crowd with its bluesy, revving Southern rock. Having filled stadiums, the returning Lolla veterans expanded their sound with a backing orchestra this time around, and they also delivered fan favorites, such as Use Somebody and Black Thumbnail. Those looking for an adrenaline rush headed to Skrillex on the other side of the park. Skrillex was part party conductor, part aerobics instructor: Whenever he commanded the crowd to bounce, they did. Bathed in hazy smoke and lights onstage, the DJ/producer head-bobbed and jumped on and off his console to work the already-grooving crowd into a bigger frenzy while striking visuals on the video screens cued with his beats. Meanwhile, hometown artist Chance the Rapper may have been new to the headliner slot (he performed on a Lolla side stage last year), but he had no problem filling the Perry's Stage area, sweetening the set with an unanticipated appearance by R. Kelly, and easily overcame the soundbleed coming from Kings of Leon's nearby stage with his compelling hip-hop.