We may be tipping our hand with the title of this one, but this is not hyperbole. While it’s true that last year had Green Day, Denzel Curry, J-Hope, and Polo & Pan closing out the festival after artists like DJO, Charli XCX, and Chicago’s own Beach Bunny playing earlier in the day, this year was at least four steps ahead of that. And we were mostly on the north end of Grant Park for the day! So what did the last day of our Lollapalooza look like?
It started off at the Tito’s Stage. If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know how much we loved Bakar’s 2022 album, Nobody’s Home. At 2 PM, the British singer took the stage, and by the end of his set at 2:45, he had converted the entire crowd to his cause. Even on the second day of rain, Chicago showed out for Bakar. Songs like “Reclaim!” and “The Mission” carried even more weight live, and as he climbed into the VIP section to perform his final song, the 2019 single “Hell N Back,” people who were peacefully enjoying from the back started sprinting to get a closer look at the performance. Bakar brought his best, and we’re certain that he’ll be climbing festival bills in the near future.
Following Bakar, we had to sprint to the press lounge for our second interview of the weekend! We got to sit down with Jeffrey Paradise, aka Poolside, and talk about his upcoming album, his inspirations, and his new seven-piece live band. Be on the lookout for that full transcript to show up later in the week!
And then it was back up to Tito’s to catch one of our most anticipated sets of the weekend. Alvvays was a late addition to the Lollapalooza lineup, and frontwoman Molly Rankin made light of that fact by announcing between “After The Earthquake” and “In Undertow,” “We were a last-second addition to this festival. Are we prepared? Perhaps.” For their bassist’s birthday (shoutout to Abbey Blackwell), Alvvays put together what is simultaneously the most incredible and deflating live performance we’ve ever seen. That latter part is, of course, a reference to the fact that Alvvays is so insanely good, an aspiring songwriter could see them and decide that there is no way they could ever reach this level. Despite the fact that they were a late lineup addition, despite the fact that they were playing early-ish in the day during the rain, despite the fact that they were just in Chicago two weeks ago to subheadline Pitchfork Music Festival, Alvvays put together one of the best Lollapalooza sets we’ve ever seen. To the woman in pink who clutched the setlist close to her chest and danced around a little after the performance was over: we completely understand.
Following Alvvays, we stayed at Tito’s to be as close as possible for the next performance, but that doesn’t mean we missed Lil Yachty. Since he had evolved from Tito’s in 2018 to Bud Light this year, we were able to take in most of his set as well. He covered all of the bases from his early career within the first 20 minutes or so, and then it was time: a live band came on stage, and he ripped through the tracks from his most recent album, Let’s Start Here. While most of the people in the crowd seemed confused by this development, we think the new work translated really well live. It also didn’t hurt that he performed his remix of Tame Impala’s “Breathe Deeper” as well. A solid performance from a solid artist.
Joey Bada$$ took Tito’s right after Lil Yachty ended, and we have never heard the bass that loud at that stage. It felt like Jamie XX at Re:Set in Nashville. It was insane. What was more insane was how Joey hasn’t lost a step. It’s been six years since he was at Lollapalooza, and it felt like we were still back in the ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ era. The crowd was insane, and Joey was feeding off of it heavy. When you can have Chance The Rapper show up towards the end of your set and that be just as energetic as the rest of the set, that’s insane. We had to get out of the pit before Chance showed up simply because Tito’s is on concrete, not grass, but man… There was something special with the Tito’s programming this year. A lot of great performances happening there. Joey Bada$$ among them.
With the day/weekend/festival coming to a close in approximately three hours from the end of that set, it could be assumed that the crowds were exhausted. It could be assumed that, in the words of Thomas Mars in 2013, “people are tired, they’re ready to go home…” But, as the Phoenix frontman noted ten years ago: “not you, Chicago, you’re always bringing the energy.” So when Rina Sawayama took the Bud Light stage following Joey Bada$$’s Tito’s set, the Chicago crowd knew what time it was.
Rina Sawayama’s Outside Lands set last year was amazing. There is no doubt about that. This was even better. Her vocals were on point. Her outfits and outfit changes were the stuff of legend. The Bud Light “ad” that was presented as part of the production between “XS” and “This Hell” was as funny as it was poignant. And, to top it all off, she got the entire crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to her drummer, Simone, in the same key. No dissonance whatsoever. At least not around us. For that alone, Rina Sawayama needs to be commended. But that performance of “This Hell” to round out the set is going to live in our minds rent free for quite some time. Is Rina Sawayama pop royalty at this point? We think so.
And then we headed down south to catch a glimpse of Red Hot Chili Peppers. With John Frusciante back in the fold, the band seemed tighter than they were in 2016. This is not meant to be a knock on Josh Klinghoffer, because their 2012 performance was amazing. Something just seemed off for most of their 2016 performance, and we were a bit hesitant to spend any time at their set this year because of it. Thankfully, we went with our gut. The band is just better with John Frusciante, and though we didn’t stay for the whole set, the first ten songs were enough to confirm our suspicions while reminding us just how good Red Hot Chili Peppers truly are. We don’t think this will be the last time they’re at Lollapalooza, since they have an excellent relationship with C3 Entertainment and festival founder Perry Farrell, but if it turns out that it was, we’re glad it was with Frusciante.
Much like years past, though, there was a massive conflict that we needed to split time for. French nu-disco/electro-funk band L’Impératrice took the Bacardi Stage at 9. We got there around 9:15. About five minutes later, they worked a live performance of Daft Punk’s “Voyager” into their song, “Submarine.” And then we lost our minds. Everyone in that crowd was dancing without cares, some of them getting roped in by the music on their way from Lana Del Rey to Louis The Child, and it was there that we were reminded that bands like this are why we go to festivals.
Sure, the headliners are the ones selling a majority of tickets, but these lesser known gems are what we descend onto parks of over 100,000 people for. We say lesser known even though we knew of them beforehand and even though they have well over 2,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify (not a metric of quality, just a metric of popularity), but what are the odds that the majority of the 120,000 people in Grant Park yesterday knew who they were beforehand? Frontwoman Flore Benguigui announced before “Voodoo?” that, “We’re gonna make this place – this muddy place – the weirdest dancefloor in the world right now.” And that we did. It was a magical end to our on-site journalist’s thirteenth summer in Grant Park, and we’re insanely grateful we were able to make it happen. Through all the rain, technical glitches, and family emergencies, Lollapalooza managed to keep us together.
And that’s really all we can ask for from live music.
Be on the lookout later in the week for interview transcripts from Franc Moody and Poolside, and watch for our full “Best of the Fest” recap article to come out in the next few days! If you were at Lollapalooza, we hope you got to experience what you were looking for, too. If you weren’t, we hope we were able to provide some insight into the hectic nature of the weekend in Grant Park while also showing that, despite everything, Lollapalooza is still the pinnacle for a reason.
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