40 Best Things We Saw at Lollapalooza 2014
With the skyline in the background, Lollapalooza once again brought three days of music to Chicago's Grant Park. Kings of Leon and Artic Monkeys rocked out, Skrillex and Calvin Harris kept the crowd dancing, Outkast and Nas rapped some of the greatest verses ever written, Iggy Azalea played her song of the summer and a few dedicated people dressed up as those inflatable tube-men that wave outside car dealerships. Here the best things we saw.
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Best of The Fest: Lorde
The ways in which Lorde continues to surprise us speaks volumes about what we traditionally believe to be true about teen performers (and teen girls in general). With nothing but a minimal-but-booming two piece backing band, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor commanded the stage with ferocity and control that even some of the festival's legacy acts and headliners couldn't muster. The power of her performance was nothing short of transfixing. The live arrangements of her songs have largely been stripped of their sweetness and lux-choral backing tracks, reducing "Biting Down" and "Tennis Court" to their brute electro-pop marrow — leaving her to occupy the cold space between the stutter and boom of the beats. She danced like she was trying to fling her arms off her body, but just as with her voice, the sense that she was in absolute possession of her abilities never waned. She nailed every stomp and every note — but it was clearly fueled by passion, not perfection. Towards the end of the set, between songs, she paused to regard the crowd and you could see she was at a loss for words — as much in awe of us as we were her.
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Best Comeback: Outkast
Outkast opened their Saturday night show with a deft move: If you want to stoke people's excitement, why not open with your fastest and most bombastic song? "B.O.B" it was, and yet, still, it was only up from there with the front end of the set favoring cuts off 1998's Aquemini ("Skew It On the BBQ," "Rosa Parks," "Da Art of Storytelling Pt. 1"), including the title track which speaks of how "heroes eventually die." Then out saunters longtime Dungeon Family affiliate Sleepy Brown, clad in black and purple satin jammies for "SpottieOttieDopaliscious," who sidled up to Big Boi for a performance that was nothing short of sublime. As Andre began to muse on "Ms. Jackson," as if on cue, the sky lit up with fireworks from an unaffiliated Southside celebration for the songs duration. From there they ping ponged between new-weird ("She Lives In My Lap") that re-arranged the map to one of the songs that put them on it ("Player's Ball") in the first place, and closing with a 1-2 hit of jubilation with "Int'l Players Anthem" (the full horn section making the Willie Hutch sample come to life) and "The Whole World." Heroes do eventually die — but sometimes, when we're very lucky, they come back to life just when you need them most.
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Best Evidence Eminem Does Not Give a Fuck: Eminem
Eminem capped Lollapalooza's uneven first day with more unevenness. Doling out a 30-song set that spanned hits and misses that began with some scene-setting verses ("Bad Guy," "3 a.m.," "Kill You"), Eminem floated through all of them with an unflagging manic energy, making his anxious stage charisma seem mannered rather than sustained. The obvious high points were the prime-era Dre-produced tracks, which were the only songs he truly seemed to inhabit. When Rihanna showed up for a Top 40 trifecta of "Monster," "Love The Way You Lie" and to fill the Dido spot on "Stan" she was a respite, but there was little palpable connection between them. Rihanna seemed like a phenomenally glamorous stranger who had happened to waltz up on stage — an object for Eminem to orbit around. (The brief appearance by perdurable sidekick Royce Da 5'9" for "Fast Lane" was a strange reminder of what it looks like when an audience connects with a performer's energy, not merely their songs.)
Two issues plagued the set, one being uneven sound (vocals were almost inaudible post-Rihanna); the other was the casual use of thundering and sudden gunshot samples used to end songs and mark changes throughout the set. It's a cheap trick to get the audience's adrenaline up and one that had fans both screaming and hitting the deck in well-founded fright. It's been suggested that this was a particularly callous idea in a city that in 2014 has logged 1,254 shooting victims (as of Lollapalooza weekend), but Eminem is two decades into a career built on caustic, myopic regard of his own problems — why would he suddenly care about ours?
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Best Evolution of EDM: Skrillex
Passing Perry's stage on Saturday the strains of Lil Jon's "Get Low" were heard not once, not twice, but thrice during different sets. While the crunk era is certainly enjoying a resurgence these days, it's a pointed reminder that when it comes down to it, a lot of DJ acts are a few bass drops are shy of your average wedding DJ — hell-bent on crowd pleasing with the most familiar comforts. Skrillex, as evidenced by his Sunday headline set, uses his audiences trust to nudge them beyond all that is familiar in his set (namely his own music, his remixes of others') towards lesser knowns acts he is bringing up on his own label (David Heartbreak, a recent Trollphace remix) and atomizing dancehall, pushing it all further away from genre convention.
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Best Encore: Kings of Leon
The Followill men have a winding history with Lollapalooza; they hit the road in its 2003 tour, during which they happily sabotaged a rival act, and headlined the festival in 2009. Perhaps that familiarity is what prompted the methodical Southern rockers to go off the rails —relatively speaking, at least — in the encore of their Sunday headlining set. They began by ushering out a classical string ensemble for a dramatic take on "Crawl" (from their 2008 breakthrough album Only By the Night), violins scraping against their beefed-up psychedelic guitars and singer Caleb Followill's guttural screams. Then, amid autumnal violet lights, they launched into a cover of Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," Followill sighing along with melancholic torpor over the guitar-thick power balladry. The experimentalism suited them.
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Best Time To Puke: Iggy Azalea
Perry's, the stage where big names in EDM are usually hosted throughout Lolla weekend, has gained a reputation for making "turn down for what?" a lifestyle and not a choice. The side stage on the park's south side is usually filled with neon tank wearing bros and underbutt for days beneath the strobe lights, smoke machines, and bass drops. The stage and its space are also relatively small and mostly made for very sweaty and packed dancing (where you are likely to come into accidental contact with one too many of the sweat-drenched and aforementioned neon tanks and underbutts). The placing of Iggy Azalea's set at Perry's was a little poorly planned, especially given that — whether you love her or hate her — she is responsible for two contenders for Song of the Summer. By the time she came around on Friday afternoon, Perry's was twice as packed as usual with an especially young audience that seemed fairly unprepared for the type of squish that would happen if they dared to even get to the halfway mark of the audience space. Only a half hour into her set there large numbers of stumbling fans being carried off by friends and the sight of multiple people puking in whatever open corners of the space they could find.
Azalea herself did not have the benefit of a Jumbotron for the majority of the audience to see her with and was swallowed by the stage. Even with all the controversy, she's not the most compelling performer and sort of tossed out her songs for the audience to consume without much exuberance about it. At the end, she gave the crowd what they wanted and, after the most showmanship of her set with the miming of a scene from Clueless, Azalea revved up "Fancy" for a sing-along that continued as the masses tried to flee the area to get to their next set.
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Best Teen Make-Out Spot: Calvin Harris
Though Rihanna failed to show up for Calvin Harris' headlining set, as she did for Eminem's the night before, Harris seemed to do just fine doling out hit after hit that he often had a hand in producing. Promptly at 8:45 p.m., the Scottish DJ kicked his set off with his Alesso collaboration, "Under Control," and popped off the fireworks pretty early. Naturally, the type of cliché lyrics overlaying his electro house beats and dance pop make for the perfect soundtrack to countless underage couples professing their love to one another and making out throughout the audience on Grant Park's north side (especially since all the older folks were at Outkast). Harris threw out a collection of the hits from his 2012 album, 18 Months, over the course of his set, including "Sweet Nothing," "Feel So Close," "I Need Your Love" and "We Found Love," as well as remixes of some other crowd-pleasers like Capital Cities' "Safe and Sound," Florence + The Machine's "You've Got the Love" and Icona Pop's "I Love It."
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Best Use of ‘Illmatic’ as a Setlist: Nas
Nas has seemingly never not been with us, yet his Saturday set at Lollapalooza felt like a comeback, like a ferocious reminder of what the man has done for us — what a menacing revelation Illmatic still is. Nas paced the set so there was hardly a breath between songs (save for some banter recognizing and mourning for Chicago's ebbless gun violence), with the energy you expected from him 20 years ago.
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Best Costumes: The Inflatable Twins
After they presumably escaped from a car dealership, these turnt-up inflatable buddies headed straight to the Kongos' set on Sunday, where they swayed and hugged all passerby in benevolent silence.
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Best Stadium Riffs: Interpol
The Interpol of a decade ago seems to have informed the sound of their return: big, sustained chords perfect for wooing those in the upper-deck cheap seats of the arena. No sudden changes, just walls of call-and-response guitar, Paul Banks' baritone bleating and a merciless backbeat. Though it seemed as if much of the attendant audience were merely camped out early for Lorde spots, folks perked up for the chestnuts ("C'mere," "Slow Hands"), there was a clap-along and enthusiasm for new song "Anywhere" — a good sign that perhaps the band can reclaim the marketshare that was lost in their lengthy hiatus.
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Best Hype Man: Rich Homie Quan
The primary takeaway from Rich Homie Quan's set was a new familiarity with his DJ/hype-man, DJ Fresh. We spent the first approximately 20 minutes of Quan's set being entertained by Fresh, who played some Beyoncé, shouted out everyone who was there with their girlfriend, did the moonwalk and otherwise did his exuberant best to distract us from the fact that Quan had yet to take the stage. The Atlanta MC did finally take the stage, citing an intractable phone call with his "baby mama," but it was with such little fanfare that the crowd did not immediately notice. While Quan's capable of drawing a huge audience — you'd think that 51 million views on YouTube would merit main stage rather than the shady glen adjacent the farmers' market — dude ain't ready for prime time. The MC delivered "Blah Blah Blah," "Get The Fuck Out My Face" and "Type of Way" in snippets, as well as portions of the YG and Yo Gotti tracks he appears on — before ending his set seven minutes early —delivering maybe 15 minutes of music for the 17 that he graced us with.
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Best Rock Star Moment: Benjamin Booker
The young, New Orleans based singer and guitar slinger has found a curiously cool cross between indie rock distortion, grunge mumble and classic blues-rock that is best experienced live and turned up to 11. Though Lollapalooza is always filled with countless rock acts, Booker may have been the strongest and most refreshing with his early afternoon set on Saturday. Highlights included a shredding version of the punky "Violent Shiver" as well as number of tunes that have yet to even be released, but all was set aflame by the ceremonious smashing of his guitar at the end of his set. As soon as he played his last note, Booker took his instrument and furiously whacked it against the stage a few times before tossing the neck into the audience, pushing his mic stand down, and walking off stage as the crowd cheered as if they were filling a stadium just for him.
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Best Souvenir: Benjamin Booker
After Benjamin Booker tossed the neck of his guitar into the crowd and walked nonchalantly off stage, fans lingered in the audience to hopefully take home a string or take pictures with the lucky many who had caught one of the larger available chunks. As one older man excitedly noted about how good he felt about making the call to catch Booker on Saturday: "I knew this kid would be the one! I knew he would tear it up!"
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Best Cover (Rap-Rock Edition): Kongos
The South African folk-rockers have a viral hit under their belt — their single "Come With Me Now" has reached 9.7 million views on YouTube — and their confidence is palpable. In the four brothers' Sunday-opening set at the Palladia stage (which netted almost as many viewers as Nas' gig the night before), the band dropped a bit of "Nuthin But a 'G' Thang" by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, then mixed it live with a drawling vocal take on the Beatles' "Come Together." The band's accordionist chimed in from the background, bouncing irrepressibly as the crowd cheered on his every wheeze, adding to the odd yet affable chemistry.
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Best Cover (Rock-Rap Edition): Vic Mensa
Surprising: Chicago MC Vic Mensa performs a faithful cover of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" in the middle of his set. Not surprising: His audience, filled with kids holding up 'Vic Fucking Mensa' signs and rapping along to every word of his songs, loved it. Like Chance on Sunday, Mensa made his hometown proud and gave a speech on how "alive" the city still is in spite of "that Chiraq shit." He also introduced his fans to a fun new jam about threesomes, "Major Payne," and performed with a blow-up doll on stage. Between a guest appearance from Chance on "Tweakin" and a reunion of his defunct band Kids These Days, Mensa offered some heartwarming reflections on being a southside success story. "I'm y'all three years in the future," he said after talking about how was just another kid like them who had gone through Chicago Public Schools. To prove it, he kept the stage packed with his friends and crew, which made his set feel more like a party than a concert.
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Best D.I.Y. Set Design: Jungle
The British electro-funk collective Jungle takes glee in their found sounds: Bandleaders Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland fold creaking doors, rustling keys and crunched soda cans into their self-titled debut (released in July on XL). To open the main stage on Saturday afternoon, the band went on a high-energy tear through their slick singles "The Heat," "Lucky I Got What I Want" and "Time" — hitting their high-end keyboards and guitars with fervor as their drummer struck a set of strung-up glass Coke bottle chimes. Keep it real, lads.
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Best Case of A.D.D.: Spoon
It was just a mylar balloon shaped like a sombrero — not the most or least interesting prop to hover above the crush of bodies at Lollapalooza. Yet when its owner lost grip on it during Spoon's Saturday afternoon set, and it began to float upward lazily into the cloudless Chicago sky, it seemed like the most alarming and fascinating spectacle Britt Daniel had ever seen in his life. The Spoon singer stared at it as it rose, the massive main stage video screens zooming in on his unblinking gaze and furrowed brow. Up soared the balloon, up rose Daniel's eyes in perfect accord. This lasted for several verses of "The Underdog" and was a strange joy to behold — and Daniel didn't flub one word throughout, though he looked glum when the mysterious zeppelin finally left his sight. Someone else released a happy-face balloon after, in empathy, but it just wasn't the same. We'd all been through too much already.
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Best Bad Trip: Jenny Lewis
Not since "Sloop John B" has a vacation gone this awry. Jenny Lewis made her Lollapalooza entrance great form, pacing the stage with far more assertive energy than a woman in that much pastel can usually convey. She kicked off with a country-fried take on "Just One of the Guys," the lead single from her new solo album The Voyager, and hit a delightful (if schadenfreude-heavy) emotional apex with "Aloha & the Three Johns." In it, she grinningly detailed a train-wreck tropical excursion, replete with a stranger getting an al fresco hand job, her boyfriend smashing a television, her awkwardly demanding an engagement and everyone generally praying for death. Her Lolla set, thankfully, was miles more fun.
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Best Hip-Hop Buddy Movie in the Making: Run the Jewels
For the last few years El-P and Killer Mike have been the rap Joan Didion/ John Dunne partnership — two masters whose kinship clearly elevates each other's game, in, what from the outside, looks like the platonic ideal of reverent collaboration. El-P bounded on to stage, practically skipping, with a goofball grin from ear to ear, giddy in the throes of what's becoming a mid-career boom; Killer Mike made it clear there was no place he would rather be than rocking the mic and making the music he loves, alongside his friend.
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Best Irreverence in the Face of Antiquity: Parquet Courts
New York punks Parquet Courts hit the Palladia stage — complete with its scalloped set design that amusingly mimics white marble columns — on Saturday, and appeared disinterested in matching the ambition of their surroundings. Their mixing began much too small for the large field, the guitars tinny and singer Andrew Savage indecipherable past the fifth row, as they popped out tracks from their punchy new album Sunbathing Animal. But by that album's "Vienna II," Savage had found his stride, seething, "How'd it die? / We broke its neck / We raised it to the power of 10" as the back rows cheered. Parquet Courts lost that momentum shortly after, via a downtempo interlude of fuzzy ballads, but capped it with their Light Up Gold anthem "Borrowed Time."
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Best Two-Note Guitar Solo: Courtney Barnett
The Melbourne-based three piece is a fairly subdued and simple live act, but Barnett and Co. kept a crowd despite the rain with charm and familiarity: When they offered up "Avant Gardener" with no particular fanfare, near the end of the set, it was clearly the song the entire audience had been waiting to sing along with. Barnett is still primarily a club act, but the momentum she's built in the last few months has meant that she's now fairly adept at handling festival crowds (she's done Glastonbury and Coachella in recent months) — but yet there was nothing more showy than a two chord solo on her new guitar. By being herself, Barnett provided the perfect antidote to some of the overblown acts on the bill.
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Best All-Ages Dance Party (Established Band): Fitz and the Tantrums
Very few of the acts were as cross-generationally appealing as Fitz and the Tantrums — teens, twentysomethings, and families whose days at Kidzapalooza had ended all flocked to dance to "Out of My League." Everyone was in for a treat when the band exploded with a raucous cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" that got everyone moving despite probably feeling some waning energy on the festivals' hot second day. The neo-Motown vibe of their tunes, though a bit plastic, sufficed for a perfectly uplifting hour that ended with whistling soul single "The Walker."
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Best All-Ages Dance Party (Emerging Band): Joywave
The biggest surprise of the weekend was Joywave, who are riding the wave of their burgeoning hit "Tongues" (their previous stop was a performance on Late Night). The young band's set proved their success is hardly a fluke. All their songs are as fun as their best ones; their chemistry makes them compelling and their time on the road has made their set seamless. While the shaded grove of the BMI stage is often the favored place for dads to nap between sets, Joywave brought the disco to the forest, moving the kids that comprise their fanbase, as well as their parents (and other folks old enough to appreciate a band using Upstairs at Eric's as a template), who ran "this is my jam!"-style down the embankment to boogie in the pit with their kiddos. One of few bands at the festival this weekend who seemed as capable of connecting with an audience as they were entertaining them.
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Best Fuck Tha Police: Flosstradamus
During Flosstradamus' set Sunday afternoon, the DJ duo told the crowd they'd been banned from ever performing at another Chicago street festival after an especially rowdy mosh pit some years prior. They then instructed the thousands in attendance to all raise their hands and flip off the Chicago Police Department, who were posted up nearby. The cops' response? Just shy of ROFL-ing. When we asked a nearby officer if he was aware of Flosstradamus being outlawed on the streets of Chi, he merely replied, "Uhh, no."
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Best Reason to Dance in the Rain (Light Spray Edition): Jagwar Ma
Jagwar Ma came out as Friday's only rainfall was finishing up and the Australian indietronica act's house vibes and echo-y vocals made for a perfect soundtrack to the light sprays causing festivalgoers to put on their ponchos and whip out their umbrellas. Beginning with Howlin' opener "What Love" was either a perfect coincidence or an appropriate setlist change with lead singer Gabriel Winterfield in full unhinged mode and repeating the lyric "waiting for tomorrow brings another day another sun" as the light started to peak through the clouds. The group kept their set upbeat, highly danceable, and Nineties alt-esque for its entirety with tracks like "Uncertainty" and "Let Her Go" serving as crowd-pleasing favorites for the packed audience at the shaded Grove stage.
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Best Reason to Dance in the Rain (Heavy Downpour Edition): Bomba Estereo
It is a testament to Bomba Estéreo's showmanship that their crowd doubled in size as buckets of rain doused Lollapalooza on Sunday afternoon. The psychedelic electro-poppers from Colombia shrugged in response, paint-streaked singer-rapper Li Saumet shaking her blue headdress toward the grey sky and continuing to sing her bilingual preachings of peace and goodwill, shouting the ebullient chorus of "Pure Love" (from their great 2012 disc Elegancia Tropical) over piercing synths and heart-rattling percussion. The faithful flung up their hands and remained in her thrall, dancing through the worst of the day's storm; tellingly, those who'd queued up across the field for Delta Rae scrambled for cover like they were steerage class on the Titanic.
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Best Bad Girl: Meg Myers
Myers has had some minor success (the corny "Monster," the explicit "Desire") in the last two years with videos that present her as more unhinged Fiona Apple — which is not a necessarily a bad look. Myers' career seems like it stands a chance if only she (or, perhaps, her label?) could figure out what kind of artist she is going to be beyond a jumble of bad-girl clichés. However, Myers has a tremendously powerful voice that most immediately recalls Evanescence's Amy Lee, and much like Lee, you have to wonder what Myers is doing with this band. In Myers' case, she's in a sometimes-pop, sometimes metal-ballads band with an electric cello. With an occasional EDM-lite drop in the chorus. And Myers playing an acoustic guitar and singing sweetly, nervously tugging down her crop top and swimsuit bottoms. And then closing the set like she's auditioning for a screamo band, flinging her body around in a way that make's Lorde's stage moves look like that of a sedated Tai Chi master. Get thee to a proper metal band, Meg Myers!
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Best Use of Flute: Gramatik
Even money that Slovenian EDM DJ-producer Gramatik is a huge Anchorman fan: He began his Saturday afternoon Perry's Stage set with a piercing, interminable flute trill. Gramatik (real name Denis Jasarevic) favored cuts from his 2011 album Beatz & Pieces Vol. 1, including his zydeco-influenced "The Drink Is Called Rakija" and the reggae-leaning "Break Loose," and he also paired live sax and trumpet with those heavy dubstep beats and glitchy bass drops. A mid-set highlight: He seamlessly mixed "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder with "Digital Liberation Is Mad Free" by Grizmatik (Gramatik's side project with the producer Griz) — and no flutes were harmed in the process.
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Best Irony-Crushing Earnestness: Delta Rae
"This is a Christian band, right?" a gent in a neon Cool Story Bro tank asked us urgently. "They have to be." He said this just as the singer-guitarist Ian Holljes let out a roaring "We're so fucking excited to be here," complicating the case, but the question was understandable: Throughout their set, Delta Rae projected a freshly-scrubbed enthusiasm bordering on Ned Flanders levels of earnestness. ("We live together in a house in the woods," cried singer Brittany Holljes at one point. "It's great!") The North Carolina folk-poppers led a stomping, stirring a capella take on "Bottom of the River," a single from 2012's Carry the Fire, but it was a cover of "Because the Night" (written by Bruce Springsteen and Chi-town native Patti Smith) that most roused their audience — and was delivered by singers Holljes and Elizabeth Hopkins with beaming smiles, of course.
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Best Brain-Melting Mash-Up: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue
Why aren't there more trombone breaks in punk music? Troy Andrews, a.k.a. bandleader Trombone Shorty, made a great case for them during his Sunday afternoon set. He covered Green Day's "Brain Stew" with real ingenuity, piecing together the heavy staccato guitars of the original with assaultive sax shrieks and his own scorched-earth trombone soloing. Andrews usually sticks to jazz and R&B fusion, including on his last album Say That to Say This, but he clearly should ring up Billie Joe for a joint album.
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Best Aussie Pride: Flume
Already a major EDM star in his native Australia, the 22-year-old DJ-producer Flume (real name Harley Streten) led a mellow, appreciative interlude at the shady Grove stage on Sunday evening. Taking the stage to "Drop the Game," his collaboration with countryman Chet Faker, and pointing appreciatively to the Australian flag hoisted above the gently bobbing audience, he rewarded that homeland loyalty with a simmering remix of Lorde's "Tennis Court," steadily building the nostalgic, unassuming pop track into the most thunderous drop of his set.
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Best Gonzo Painting: Black Ink Art
The "Green Street" crafts row pushed plenty of music-themed oddities on Lolla wallets, from rings carved from coconuts to repurposed vinyl laser-cut in Bob Dylan's profile. Even Gonzo guru Hunter S. Thompson made a celestial cameo in the Black Ink Art tent, bestowing peace and a toke to all who entered.
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Best Start to the Weekend: So So Glos
Lollapalooza wouldn't really be Lollapalooza without the threat of Chicago's unpredictable weather, varying between extreme levels, looming all weekend. Naturally, the weekend started with a rain delay and ended on Sunday with a muddy afternoon storm. After Friday's delay and before some later light sprays, Brooklyn punk rockers the So So Glos proceeded to destroy the Lake Shore stage underneath some gloomy-looking skies. Between scorchers like "Wrecking Ball" and "Speakeasy" (a song against "internet racism, sexism and homophobia"), the So So Glos gave the audience plenty of reasons to start a circle pit at a time when the rest of the city was probably on their lunch break. There were plenty of reasons to be and stay hyped all of Friday, but the So So Glos were the perfect and exciting beginning to a wild weekend. Frontman Alex Levine offered some sage advice that "if you don't like the show, you can tweet about it," but the band only gave Lolla reasons to love them.
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Best Excuse for a Good Cry: Into It. Over It.
Chicago act and Evan Weiss' brainchild Into It. Over It. has been the reason behind talk of an "emo revival" in the past few years and from his set at Lolla, there is no question why Weiss is its leader. On Friday, Weiss came prepared to engage his audience with the rare sight of him joined by a full band to perform his songs at full volume. Of course, Weiss wasn't afraid to make sure his audience were in touch with their feelings and after dedicating a song to his cat who died ("a legendary cat deserves a song"), he invited fans to tell him about their deceased cats as well. Throughout, Weiss showed his gratitude for being able to play a fest in the town where this New Jersey kid has built his career as well as for the band joining him on-stage for the afternoon. The set ended with the emotionally charged "Midnight: Carroll Street" and if you had to let out a good sob, there was no more perfect time to do so.
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Best Dressed: Lucius
Lucius are great at a number of things — singing, songwriting, harmony, etc. — but their festival fashion has been awe-inspiring all summer. On Friday in Chicago, the always-matching lead singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig sported their signature Anna Wintour bobs and vibrant floral dresses that not only popped off the white Palladia stage but continued their call for festival fashion to be stepped up by everyone else on the festival circuit. As they are also known for, Lucius gave a tight and flawlessly synced-up performance that began with catchy single "Tempest." Live, the band have shown their ability to shift seamlessly between chill folk outfit and wildly energetic indie rock blast. By the time they got to "Genevieve," the group were an all-out percussive powerhouse complete with headbanging and bobs gone wild as the lead singers pounded on their instruments as if they were secretly in a metal band all along. Lucius closed out with a strong finish and a pair of their best, the empowering "Wildewoman" dedicated to a friend on her birthday and the very Sixties-centric "Turn It Around" which was mashed-up with Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," making for a strong finish to their set and a lot for the rest of the weekend's acts to compete with.
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Best Time for a Nap: The Temper Trap
Australian indie rock band the Temper Trap has had a sleepy sound from the moment we were introduced to them with 2008's "Sweet Disposition." The song was the centerpiece on the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack and featured in countless commercials with its subtle, driving sound beneath Dougy Mandagi's soothing falsetto. This year marks the band's third feature on the Lolla line-up but second time playing after getting rained out in 2012. With the addition of some of their soon-to-be-released new material to their setlist, the Temper Trap were a mostly bland mid-afternoon set with only a couple of highlights, like 2012's "Trembling Hands," a quick and surprising cover of the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" and, of course, "Sweet Disposition." Beneath the mid-afternoon sun, the band was a perfect excuse for a snooze before getting a prime spot for headliners Outkast.
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Best Punk Rock Moment (Rap Edition): Ratking
When you are an up-and-coming act getting a chance to play a festival as huge as Lollapalooza, you're clearly going to give it all and put your entire life into your performance. Sometimes all of that energy leads you to smacking yourself in the face with your microphone and bleeding from your forehead for the majority of your set, which was exactly Wiki of hip-hop trio Ratking's ordeal on Saturday. The group kept the stage so wild, that it was barely noticeable to most that Wiki was bleeding for at least a few songs and not once did he falter as he, Hak, and Sporting Life repped New York — even thought Wiki had to have been in excruciating pain as the spot on his forehead kept turning into a brighter shade of red.
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Best Spectacle Bros: The Groomsmen
Marauding groups of bros-in-costumes at Lolla is a growing tradition. This year, some were camouflaged or matchy-matchy; others were done-up like seapunks on safari; all were game to pose for a pic with you and your friends, no matter how how turnt you (or they) were. They were there to be seen. This five-deep posse of wannabe Groomsmen (who insisted they were headed to a wedding later in the day) were not content to merely get in your selfie, they were also serving as twerk objects when duty called, happily getting low with passerby.
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Best Conversation Starter: R. Kelly
Chicago's own R. Kelly showed up to help out Chicago's own Chance the Rapper, performing "The World's Greatest," "Bump N' Grind" and, of course, "Ignition (Remix)." This came just days after Ohio's Fashion Meets Music dropped the controversy-wracked singer from their line-up entirely. Was this a sign of the indefatigable nature of his music? An insensitive error in judgement? Two hometown heroes just finding an excuse to collaborate?
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Best Wookiee: This Guy
How do you say "Having Fun?" in Shyriiwook?