It’s mid-August so you know what that means — Lollapalooza has come and gone and per usual I’m back from my annual pilgrimage home to partake in the festivities and ready to fill you all in. The lineup was a little weaker this year than normal — the headliners, which are usually the least interesting part of the day, were almost completely skipworthy this time (or I wished I had after I gave them the benefit of the doubt) and of course the two I really wanted to see were playing at the same time, so that was a bummer.
The electro tent, which in years past had been one of the best parts of the festival, has recently devolved into an unchanging blob of monster noises and DJs shouting “1-2-3!” every 30 seconds before another vanilla drop, and I barely went by it this year. (The one time I did I came this close to having a true old man moment and asking one of the kids, “Explain why this is good to me — have you listened to early Daft or Chemical Brothers? Underworld? Prodigy? Soulwax? THOSE guys knew how to put together a set that’d get you moving AND had melodies to keep you coming back! Are you going to remember ANY of this? Wake up thinking about or humming any of this? ‘Man –‘member when that modem dialed in to the Internet and then a few seconds later that computer died screaming? EEEEEaahahahhahaEEEEEEoooooraaaaaaaahhhh! That was so awesome.'” But I stopped myself — barely…)
As for the rest of the fest, most of the bands I’d initially been excited to see again were coming off mediocre new releases (Spoon, Alt-J, the Districts and Shins) so that meant this year was almost entirely about discovery — a dicey proposition when acts like Lil Uzi Vert and the XX are considered headliners. Luckily, though, I was able to pretty consistently find some winners and fill my days without big deadspots. All in all I got to about 46 bands over the four days and saw some fantastic stuff — here’s the highlights so you can enjoy too! I’ll do the discoveries in a separate post since my computer’s dipped in stupid right now (like seemingly everything else around me — MF’g technology…)
Day one:
Best set of the day (and probably the festival): Cage the Elephant. These guys flat out killed it — by the second song guitarist Brad Shultz was crowdsurfing while playing and by the third or fourth lead singer Matt Shultz (who by the way came out dressed in drag with a sparkly purple dress and big fishnets) had also followed him into the crowd. After that the two spent the rest of the set alternating time in the sea of people, with Matt strutting onstage like Jagger while Brad almost willed the crowd to sing along to every song (looking a bit like Vinnie Jones from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels). And they sounded great — the band has more good stuff than you realize, from early tracks like “Back Against the Wall” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” to newer ones like “Spiderhead” and “Cold Cold Cold.” They switch from rockers to swooners effortlessly and with the no-holds barred performance it added up to a hell of a show. Check out their set here (and skip to 54 minutes in for the communal singalong on “Cigarette Daydream” for a highlight (which of course cuts out right at the end but you get the gist — MF’g technology…)):
Day two:
Best set of the day: Run the Jewels. These guys are a close second to Cage for best set of the fest, throwing down another virtual headliner set on the same stage in the same early timeslot (630pm?!) for the second day in a row as the aforementioned crew. And they leveled the yuuuuge crowd (never before seen in yuuman history) almost as thoroughly. The guys have been touring off their excellent third album (certain to make an appearance here in a few months on my year end list) and continue to be one of the few hip hop acts worth catching live. They sound good, you can understand them, and they actually play entire songs (instead of 30 muddy seconds where the crowd does half the work and then they go on to the next micro-moment). Best part of the set was this one where Mike spotted a kid’s sign in the crowd that said “Let me come up and rap ‘Legend Has It'” so they call his bluff, get him onstage, don’t even give him the beat to get him going — and then this happens… Pure. Fucking. MAGIC!
Day three:
Best set of the day: Alvvays. These guys were part discovery in that I’d long loved the single “Archie, Marry Me” off their debut, but hadn’t gotten into much of the rest of their stuff. That changed after this set, though, which won me over with songs like “Next of Kin,” “Party Police,” and “Atop a Cake,” among others. Frontwoman Molly Rankin is ever the charmer onstage, and both she and the band have a bit of Blondie going on at times, which is never a thing to argue with. The new songs sounded good, as well, so I’m looking forward to seeing what their follow-up offers (due out 8 Sept). I gotta stick with what got me there, though, so check out their performance of “Archie” here:
Day four:
Best set of the day: (tie) Barns Courtney and Car Seat Headrest. This one was a tough one as the day actually had several really solid sets — in addition to these two there were surprisingly enjoyable ones from old favorites the Shins and Arcade Fire (who as easy as they make it to hate them closed the festival out with a bang, focusing on old favorites rather than their nu-disco offerings), as well as acts I’d largely ignored like Milky Chance (which probably threw the weekend’s best dance party, in all honesty). These two edged them out, though, if only by a hair — Barns Courtney because of his over-the-top performance and really catchy tunes, Car Seat for bringing the heat and making me reconsider my previous dismissal of their stuff.
For the former, Courtney recently broke his foot (jumping off stage in Milwaukee, apparently), so he played most of the set on a gurnee being wheeled around by his helpful “nurse.” (That is, when he wasn’t perilously jumping on one foot near the edge of the stage or momentarily using crutches before chucking them elsewhere on stage, to the increasing annoyance of his helper.) Despite being largely immobile, it was a high energy set and he had the early bird crowd singing along en masse. Songs like “Fire,” “Glitter and Gold,” “Golden Dandelions,” and “Hands” all worked well, as evidenced (in part) here. Check out a snippet of his set here (and keep your eyes peeled for yours truly around the 7:51 mark):
As for Car Seat, these guys have been one of the big buzz bands for the last couple years, but never really won me over with any of their stuff. Similar to Alvvays, though, seeing them live got me the gospel as Will Toledo and company brought the house during their set. The band has an early Beck/Eels vibe at times on the albums, but came out harder here and it worked. Songs like “Something Soon,” “Times to Die, “Maud Gone,” “Fill in the Blank,” and the epic “Vincent” all sounded great. “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” was the earworm I couldn’t get out of my head all week, though. I must have listened to it about 25 times, belting out the refrain at the end at the top of my lungs at times (good thing wifey’s been traveling — sorry, neighbors…) Check it out here (here’s a link to the actual Lolla performance of it, since it’s not allowing it to embed — MF’g technology…):