Reverb is on the ground in Chicago bringing you highlights from this year’s Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park.
Day 2
The best: Death From Above 1979 asked the large mid-day crowd, “Did anybody see us in 2006 at Empty Bottle? Does anybody here even know what Empty Bottle is?” Shortly after the crowd halfheartedly clapped in response, drummer Sebastien Grainger launched into a half-baked cover of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” and everyone went wild. Eclectic alt-rock legends Ween took the cover song aesthetic several steps further with a masterful rendering of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” But only Ween would follow that dance classic with a satirical ballad like “Your Party.” That juxtaposition is Ween in a nutshell. Minnesota rap group Atmosphere, in a challenging sandwich slot between Cee Lo Green and Eminem in the park’s south end, out-classed and out-performed them both.
Most disappointing: It was a day of interruptions. Cee Lo continued a recent string of terrible performances, blaming poor sound engineering and technical gaffes in cutting his set short by at least 20 minutes. Bleeding sound from Eminem and My Morning Jacket frequently interrupted the hauntingly beautiful side stage-headlining performance by Beirut. And in perhaps the night’s most deflating moment, Perry’s stage headliner Pretty Lights had its set ended mid-song when the fire marshals literally pulled the plug.
The strangest: A 50-something year old man dressed in a fish net shirt and combat boots started a mud-soaked dance party with a group of teenage girls, complete with flips, twirls, and occasional break dancing … at Lykke Li.
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Matt Hoffman is a Chicago-based writer and a new contributor to Reverb.
Jonathan Michael Johnson is and a new contributor to Reverb. .
