Friday, August 7
Pouring rain, sweltering heat and the threat of running out of 24 oz. beers before the weekend was over did not stop more than 200,000 people from swarming Grant Park to witness the fifth non-touring year of Lollapalooza.
Fans flooded the gates at 11 a.m. on Friday eagerly seeking front row seats for the concerts they had been anticipating all year. There were high hopes for Friday's lineup, which showcased impressive names like Bon Iver, STS9, Fleet Foxes, Crystal Castles, Thievery Corporation, Peter Bjorn and John, Andrew Bird, Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode, among over twice as many others.
As usual, Bon Iver's voice captivated all who were listening. His remarks about coming from Wisconsin drew cheers from the crowd, which was heavily comprised of Cheeseheads. He glided through most of the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, opening with ""Lump Sum."" His first two songs immersed the crowd into his style, aside from five drunken girls screaming ""Play ‘Skinny Love,'"" a clear fan-favorite. Sure enough, he played ""Skinny Love"" next and their needs were satisfied as they sang along drowning out the sound of his voice with the slurs of their off-tune voices.
After Bon Iver, the stage was reset for Fleet Foxes, and even though lead singer Robin Pecknold had a fever, he sang no less impressively than any other performance thus far. Five guys from Seattle walked on stage and immediately captivated every pair of eyes with a view. Their unique style and 70's-esque presence turned back the clock as they opened with ""Sun it Rises"" off of their eponymous debut. About halfway through the concert a girl in the crowd asked to live in Pecknold's beard, which sparked a minute-long onstage debate as to whose beard would be a better home, drummer Josh Tillman's or Pecknold's. The Foxes also made comments concerning the difficulty of revving up a crowd when playing their laid-back style of music. As Josh Tillman said, ""It's hard when you can't say ‘are you ready to rock and roll?'""
As nightfall approached on Friday, the rain finally let up after a long gloomy day of rain and cooler-than-normal temperatures. This conveniently allowed everyone to dry off before the headliners began.
Come 8 p.m. the crowd began spreading out between two stages, the Chicago 2016 stage and the Budweiser stage. Kings of Leon's impressive time slot, seeing as they had been placed in an early afternoon set at Lollapalooza just two years ago, meant they had a lot to live up to in comparison to past headliners like Radiohead, Muse and Daft Punk. Yet with the following they have acquired, it looked like the concert would be a hit. The Kings looked more like princes after their first few songs, which were unrecognizable. As a result, during the first 20 minutes of the two-hour show more people left the area than pushed forward to get closer to the stage. Overall, it was a disappointing show: They had big shoes to fill and fell short.
Saturday, August 8
Unsurprisingly, Saturday came with a complete transformation in weather. It was hot, humid and almost as unbearable as the rain that had fallen the day before. Yet spirits were high and water was flowing as everyone prepared for another day of non-stop music.
Day two was full of up-beat bands including Atmosphere, Santigold, TV on the Radio and Animal Collective, who not only played a regular set, but also played a DJ set at Perry's stage. Perry's stage was the place to be, as thousands of people gathered to create one giant dance party.
TV on the Radio played on the Budweiser stage at 5:30 p.m., an upgrade from the MySpace stage they played on two years back. The stage bigger and their sound had increased too, though it seemed lead singer Tunde Adebimpe's microphone was off for a majority of the show. From time to time it was difficult to tell what song they were playing because you could only hear the harmony being sung by fellow band member Kyp Malone. Yet their energy overcame the sound troubles as Adebimpe dedicated ""Crying"" to his daughter Isabella for her birthday.
When Animal Collective began playing their normal set the excitement was palpable in anticipation of their show and the headliners that played right after: Tool and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who replaced the Beastie Boys after member Adam Yauch was diagnosed with cancer. Throughout the weekend a few bands even dedicated songs to Yauch, and you could tell that people were thinking of him through his difficult time.
In addition to Tool and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Bassnectar played at Perry's stage. Out of all the DJ's that played on Saturday Bassnectar knew how to hype up a crowd. The ratio of glow-sticks to listeners was about three to one, which created a lightshow among other things. At one point in his set he questioned what made our grandparents and great-grandparents ‘freak out,' which lead him to play ""Sing, Sing, Sing"" and everyone in the crowd began dancing.
After Saturday's fun, a portion of the crowd headed to the Metra station in hopes to catch a ride back to wherever they were staying… however, much to everyone's chagrin the Metra that was supposed to leave at 10:40 p.m. didn't work, forcing everyone to wait until 12:40 p.m. for the next one to come…
Sunday, August 9
After Saturday's train fiasco, Sunday provided some much-needed mood up-lifting. Everyone was in good spirits and worked towards making the last day of the festival worthwhile, which wasn't a difficult task with the lineup. Sunday was full of classic bands that everyone should see in their lifetime like Snoop Dogg and Jane's Addiction. The lineup was also full of recent sensations such as Dan Deacon, Vampire Weekend, The Hood Internet, Passion Pit, Band of Horses, Silversun Pickups and the Killers.
The Hood Internet was extremely upbeat and although it was about 95 degrees and humid people were still dancing non-stop. The only damper on the show was the girl who was bodysurfed out of the crowd for having her eardrum poked out by her own sunglasses.
Passion Pit played on the Citi stage, which is the same stage Girl Talk played on just last year. It's a smaller stage than most of the others but creates a thicker crowd. When the band played ""Sleepyhead"" the crowd went wild. Along with the song came gusts of cold wind from Lake Michigan, which cooled off the masses and drew cheers from every listener.
Shortly after Passion Pit, Snoop Dogg was set to begin. He came out on stage with a personalized microphone, a Lakers t-shirt and the same slow swagger as usual. The concert was full of hit after hit. Throughout the show he encouraged tens of thousands of people to taunt police with middle fingers and marijuana. Not only did he focus on being rude to police he also brought everyone together with multiple call-and-responses.
Finally, after 130 bands and three days of non-stop music, Perry Farrell, the creator of Lollapalooza, had his chance to show the audience what he was made of while taking the stage for his headlining performance with his band, Jane's Addiction. Being the founder of the festival, Perry has a lot of clout among Lollapalooza veterans, so any show involving him is destined to be a good one
Farrell was quoted in an interview prior to the festival saying that he wanted the last show to be big, really big. For the next two hours Farrell and Jane's Addiction mesmerized the crowd. After giving the fans of Lollapalooza a heart-felt thanks for coming to the festival and keeping it going, the band ended with ""Jane Says,"" and with that the festival drew to an end.
At last, after three full days of music, sweaty crowds, greasy food and sleepless nights, Lollapalooza was over.
