Review of Lollapalooza: Day 2

Waking up for day 2 of Lollapalooza was the first challenge of a difficult day. Originally I had planned to get in at 12:45 for Doomtree, but my body didn’t cooperate with my early alarm. Still, this time I had a Tim with me, so at least I wasn't making the trek to Chi-town solo. We hit the road and made it into the festival grounds by about 2 PM after moving into the hotel and settling in. After opting to explore the grounds a bit with our new Australian travel buddy, Lara, we finally settled at Google Play at 3:30 for Charlift. After the band was auspiciously absent for about 15 minutes, I assumed an early adapted diva attitude for the group, but an announcement went out that Grant Park was being evacuated. My initial reaction was a “Fuck that! No one else is leaving, I’m staying put!” but when I saw the steady exodus from Grant Park and the impending officers on big horses with bigger guns, I realized I should probably skedaddle.

If you want to understand what it was like being at “the year Lollapalooza was shut down”, just imagine 100,000 concert-goers spilling onto the streets searching for shelter. It was madness- a fairly large group of people were drunk enough already, and the Chicago tourists were confused and dissatisfied with the escape from the Grant Park playpen. On top of that, everyone was abuzz with, "Is it done? Do we go home today?" and the frustration that came with that possibility. All the obvious places were booked- coffee shops, cheap restaurants, book stores and the likes- so we grabbed a cab and headed for the rainforest café. Which was awful. I’m not food critic, but shit, that experience need not be repeated.

By the time we were admitted back in at 6 PM, spirits were high and the grounds were destroyed. The schedule had been totally fucked, creating a mind-blowing complete overlap of Tune-Yards, Fun, and The Tallest Man on Earth; yeah, my top 3 acts for the day. I tried to catch Fun at the small Google Play stage which was packed- I couldn’t see anything, nor hear particularly well. I moved over to TuNe-YaRdS who were extraordinarily fun and upbeat despite the circumstances. Meryl is so talented and versatile, her live show even more impressive at the technicality of it all the second time around. Beyond being incredible musicians, they’re cute and bubbly and engaging; if you weren’t doing your best white people dance to “Bizness” or “Killa”, something’s wrong.  Surely TuNe-YaRdS gained many fans for a phenomenal celebration of the reopening of Lollapalooza in a prime location. With the massive growth and undeniable appeal of Tune-Yards (it’s exhausting to stylize, sorry) I wouldn’t be surprised if they are in Fun.’s shoes this time next year.

We trudged through 6 inch deep puddles of water (goodbye, beloved Toms!) towards the main stage for The Weeknd. For those of you unfamiliar with the group, it’s the stage name of Abel Tesfaye, the elusive man who put out 3 stellar R&B EPs this past year. The Weeknd’s music is the soundtrack for the hazy post-party; it’s dark, moody, emotionally loaded, and a bit mysterious- the exact opposite of a 6 PM performance on the Main Stage at one of the biggest music festivals in the United States. Contrary to critics, I was in love- Abel sounded so incredible live. Despite little stage presence, there was an air of theatricality in how he related with the music; his fingers tensing with frustration, his knees weakening as his voice soared. The live band worked great, particularly with cuts off the Thursday mixtape- for someone with no technical debut record, this man sure has a lot of show-stoppers. Sure, I would’ve loved it more in a dark, stuffy NYC club, but hearing 30,000+ people singing “High for This” together was quite paralyzing. Better yet was “The Birds Pt. 1”, hearing his authentic crooning, “Don’t make you fall in love with a nigga like me, nobody needs to fall” penetrating half of Grant Park has allowed me to listen to his material through renewed ears.

I was more keen on seeing British indie-rockers Bloc Party, but the group was too enthusiastic about Calvin Harris for me to pass it up. It should be noted that I’m pretty unmovable in my stubborn perception of DJ sets; Lollapalooza has so much legendary talent, why waste that opportunity to see someone hit “play” on their MacBook? Still, my spirits were high and I was ready to dance. This was my first official visit to Perry’s, the EDM super-party of Lollapalooza. Harris is a competent party starter, between remixes, hits, and danceable beats backed by an engrossing light show. The crowd was what really made it- audience members danced harder and more passionately than I had been exposed to before. The attitude was relatively contagious. Many consider Harris one of the better sets of the weekend, while I considered it largely unmemorable- I don’t remember much about him, I just remember pumping my fists and not being disgusted with myself for doing so.

I decided to keep the party going with Swedish House superstar Avicii; it was hard to decide between him and Frank Ocean, but I decided to stick with the group. Seated in a booth that was designed to look like a 25 foot head, I felt out of place the second I got there. The crowd for Avicii was more conspicuously on drugs, starry eyed youth crashing into me left and right to tell me how “real my energy was”. It was more alienating than endearing- I don’t think my face has been touched that much all year. Still, Avicii was fun enough. I danced, I laughed, and got to get lost for a bit in the carefree embodiment that I’ve bottled up throughout the summer.

Would I go to see Calvin Harris or Avicii again? Probably not. Has my mind been changed about EDM? A little- it was fun, but not worth an admission ticket. I still stand firm in my belief that music should be good sober or drunk or whichever state you’re in- had most attendees been sober, they would not want to be seeing Avicii. Still, it was an experience that I’ve never had before and I appreciate it for that. After trying to get into an Of Monsters and Men afterparty at the House of Blues (and failing), we trudged home barefoot and got pizza, reflecting on a great day. Tim put it best, if anything, when he said that the evacuation was the best thing that could have happened to Lollapalooza day 2. The heightened spirits upon knowing that the event wasn’t cancelled made the energy in Grant Park magical- we were just excited to see how it would affect the final day of the festival.