Once a year suburbanites from the northern suburbs of Chicago infiltrate the city for 3
infamous days, known as Lollapalooza. Taking place downtown in Chicago’s Millennium Park, the music festival is one of the biggest in the nation. Though it is known for an overload of electronic artists (past headliners include Skrillex, Calvin Harris, Nero and Major Lazer) every year the bill features a decent amount of urban artists. This year I was able to see artists such as SZA, The Weekend, FKA Twigs, A$AP Rocky, Tyler the Creator, Travis Scott and DJ Mustard, all of whom contributed to a pretty great experience.
I begun my Lolla experience on the morning of Friday, July 31st by seeing SZA, an west
coast R&B sensation, who I would say did well. In all honesty part of my experience was ruined by the overwhelming amount of clueless people who were just waiting at the stage to see Paul McCartney (who’s performance wasn’t for another 8 hours), but I will say that despite being a short set, she did deliver a good performance. Mid day I saw DJ Mustard who simply gave me all the bops that were desperately needed at this festival. Seeing that he has quite the discography I was not surprised one bit by this positive experience and had an amazing time at his set. I ended my Friday by seeing The Weeknd, who in my opinion was mediocre. He sounded okay, but I wasn’t a fan of his set list - given that most of his songs were features, such as his Ariana Grande feature “Love Me Harder” and the “Or Nah” remix. It was quite clear he doesn’t really have the amount of material to be headlining such a large festival, and left me hoping that his next album helps him overcome this.
Lollapalooza: The Weeknd, FKA Twigs, A$AP Rocky, SZA, Tyler the Creator, & DJ Mustard
Other acts I saw were A$AP Rocky, Tyler the Creator and FKA Twigs who I would say all delivered good performances. I have to exclude Travis Scott from this list, because after one song he encouraged the crowd to riot, jump the fences and get on stage, resulting in his getting arrested and his set being immediately shut down (which was actually hilarious to watch from a long distance). Out of the three I am surprised to say that FKA Twigs was definitely my favorite, delivering a complex and visually striking performance by using lighting from different angles as well as good vocals and a clear effort to connect with the crowd.
In my eyes, Lollapalooza was definitely a success this year and came back from it’s
mediocre lineup last year. If any of you happen to be in the Chicago area in late July, I highly recommend for you to buy a one day ticket and experience part of this weekend for yourself.