Where do I even begin. I am just unwinding from one of the best weekends of my life, Lollapalooza weekend. For those of you who don’t know what Lollapalooza is, it is a three day music festival in Chicago’s Grant Park. The festival boasts 7 stages for performances, in addition to one “Kidz” stage, and has a few big headliners and then almost every type of music under the sun. You get to preview a lot of different musical genres including dubstep, rap, alternative, rock and roll and so much more. Did you get the clever Fun. reference in the blog post title? If so you are already on a roll because there is a lot more music talk to come!
Now that you know a little bit about Lollapalooza let me try to paint the picture for you on the first day. Once you step into Grant Park imagine 150,000 people flooding the walkways, jorts and jirts (jean shorts and jean skirts) are omnipresent, neon speckles the crowd of people from headbands to t-shirts, and of course tank tops were everywhere due to the hot weather. The air smells like a mix of hot dogs, fried dough, and beer. Imagine what it smells like at a baseball game, subtract the smell of salted nuts and add in a dash of deep dish pizza and you have Lolla. Ages of people ranged anywhere from middle schoolers to parents of the middle schoolers. That was one of the great things about this festival, that since there was a variety of artists that catered to different tastes you had many people from different walks of life and different age groups.
One of the worst things was trying to find out which bands to go to because a lot of great bands overlap during the course of the day. Here comes the interactive part of this post. If you have the time go to the Lollapalooza Lineup site and as I go through each of the days here see if your lineup matches up with mine.
I took Friday off of work and got to downtown Chicago on Thursday night. I was staying with two friends from USC who were also in town for the music festival. In total there were ten of us that got together during the course of the music festival all from USC.
First Day
White Panda
Dr. Dog
Madeon
Passion Pit
Nero
Black Keys
Bassnectar
The first day was amazing! I was just taking in all of the scenery and the whole experience. Listening to a band live with so many other people all around you definitely is a lot better than listening to it on a computer. The first day we happened to do more of an electronic day, which I was pretty fun! Highlights of the day were Dr. Dog, whom I have never heard before, but they were very upbeat while putting on a good performance, and Passion Pit. The energy at Passion Pit was insane and we got front row! White Panda, they do a lot of mashups of songs, was a blast but I wish I got to see more of their set since we got there late due to a long wait in line and the rest were also awesome acts but those were the standouts of the day.
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- Perry’s was the electronic / house music stage
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- Day 1 Collage
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- Close to Bassnectar before we got up front
Second Day
Givers
Fun.
Skream & Benga
Calvin Harris
Avicii
The second day was quite interesting! The whole music festival was actually evacuated due to rain, a storm warning and hail. However, it was the best day ever! Givers were great in the morning when it was sunny out. They are definitely an up and coming band who performed their song “Up, Up, Up” with great enthusiasm. Once the festival resumed it was a muddy mess, this is where the night got so much better. When you are covered in mud a great thing happens, you just start not to care about anything in the world but the music you are currently listening to. We proceeded to dance in the mud, a mud fight erupted, and by the time Calvin Harris came on at the Perry’s stage everyone went wild. Not a care in the world, just getting back to basics and enjoying music. Calvin Harris and Avicii were great! They gave awesome performances and as Avicii was closing you could see fireworks from Navy Pier. We were front row for Calvin Harris and close for Avicii, it was so much fun!
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- Day 2 Collage
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- Avicii was DJing on top of a huge head
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- Muddy after Saturday’s Evacuation
Third Day
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Sigur Ros
Of Monsters and Men
Miike Snow
Justice
We finished strong on the last day even though my feet were sore, back hurt, and I was drinking Coconut Water like it was a limited resource. The three day experience, late nights, and jumping around at the concerts was definitely taking a toll on me. However, we carried on. Macklemore was high energy and got the crowd pumped. My highlight of the day was an Icelandic band called Sigur Ros. I couldn’t understand their music, however their instrument ensemble, coupled with the lead singer strumming his guitar with a harp string (sometimes playing it with his tongue), and the girls around me crying because it was so “beautiful” really made for a great musical experience. Streamers and a huge inflatable birthday cake were being tossed all over the place during Of Monsters and Men especially when they played Little Talks. Miike Snow delivered an exciting performance and I was surprised because people say that he is hit or miss in concert. Justice was a great way to end the day. With almost one-eight of all the Lolla participants in attendance the crowd energy was high and there was a lot of glow sticks being thrown around everywhere.
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- Massive crowds at Miike Snow
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- Lollapalooza sign on the last night
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- Miike Snow performing
Also there was a ton of USC students there whom we always stopped to talked to or at least flashed a little Fight On. Lollapalooza was a highlight of this summer and I can’t wait to attend again! Can’t wait to see you next summer Chicago.
Did your lineup match up with mine. It probably didn’t exactly and that is why I had a great time at Lolla, because everyone has different tastes in music and to experience a band with people that have chosen that band over many other good ones is a great experience.
