Tuesday Top Ten: Lollapalooza 2017

A week and a half ago, hundreds of thousands of music fans descended on Chicago's lakefront for the 13th edition of Lollapalooza in Grant Park.  It was my 12th in Grant Park and 13th overall (shout out to Lollapalooza '94!), and as always, it was a blast.  For the second year in a row, Lolla was four days, stretching from Thursday through Sunday.  I'm not sure that fourth day is necessary, but I'm sure they're making money, or else they wouldn't do it, and who am I to complain about another day of great live music?

While I had to ditch out on Sunday due to some travel conflicts, in the three days I did attend,  I saw some great bands, and did some even better people watching.  Aside from some dicey weather Thursday night, it was a pretty nice weekend weatherwise.

Thursday, as I did last year, I took Daughter and Lollipop down to the fest for the afternoon, so that they can witness what not to wear and how not to act when they are teenagers.  Seriously, how can a 17-year-old girl wearing basically just a bra and short shorts be so drunk/high at 1 p.m. that she can't stand up?  It's fucking Thursday.  Pace yourself.

Anyway, the Kidzapalooza area was fantastic again.  The girls got free tattoos, free hair coloring, free balloons, not free sno-cones, and a free Kidzapalooza pin.  They also got to paint on a giant plywood contraption.  Both painted pizza-related images.  We are from Chicago, after all. 

The girls even watched a few real bands this year, including White Reaper and The Oh-My's, and unknowingly took in their first (and second and third and fourth and fifth) smells of weed.

Around 4:30, I had to take the girls to meet Jester when she was done with work, which meant that, unfortunately, I missed Liam Gallagher's meltdown.  In case you didn't hear, the mercurial Oasis frontman played about four songs before quitting because the crowd watching him apparently wasn't large enough.  I had a work function to attend, so I also unfortunately missed Cage The Elephant, who I hear put on a great show (they always do).

Upon my return, I met up with my friends Chandler, Daniel, and Meredith in time for Spoon.  Then it started to rain.  Muse was one of the headliners that night, and after their fourth song -- as lightning was flashing on both sides of Grant Park -- all of the shows going on that night were canceled, and the fest was evacuated.  Fear not, we made our way to a local establishment, so that we could imbibe a few more beers.  Sadly, my Bulls flip flops -- which, as you may recall, were wounded last year -- fell back apart, so I spent my walk back from the L to my house with one flip flop on and one off.

Friday, we gained a few more compatriots, as Jester, Kyla, and Jen joined us.  It was only in the 60s, so for the first time ever (and quite begrudgingly), I wore pants and shoes to Lolla.  At least it didn't rain.  Unfortunately, the band I was most looking forward to seeing -- The Pretty Reckless -- had to cancel their set because their flight the night before got canceled.  But nevertheless, we persisted.

The downfall of cooler weather is that, instead of needing to drink liters and liters of water to stay hydrated, we gravitated towards beer.  We also discovered the cocktail tent right around 4 p.m.  Quite prophetically, we predicted this would be the turning point.

The margarita was very good -- and very strong.  We declined from there, going with our standard "sport bottles of wine when the sun goes down."  They added rose as a wine option this year because, you know, white chicks love rose.  Jester's brother Willie eventually met up with us at some point.  Blink-182 headlined that night and was great.  Kyla may or may not have been slipped a mickey by a stranger.

That night, Foo Fighters were playing an aftershow at The Metro.  While we didn't have tickets, we decided to head to the G-Man Tavern, which is right next door, hoping that maybe a Foo or two would stop by before or after the show.  The show started at 11.  We closed it down at 2.  The Foo Fighters were still playing for another half hour after that.  Willie and I grabbed some much-needed Mexican food on the way home.  I miss late-night burritos.

Saturday, the weather was just about perfect.  Mid '70s, mostly cloudy.  It was a nice full day of music, capped off by lovable local hero Chance the Rapper.  During Chance's show, we staked out our usual spot on the little hill to the left of the stage.  Some dude was lying down and full-on puking into a sewer grate about 15 feet away from us for a good five minutes.  I offered him a water, and his eyes were focused on something that was apparently 20 feet behind my eyes, but he nodded "yes."  When I got back less than two minutes later with said water, he clearly had no recollection of our exchange, but he took the water nonetheless.  After a few minutes of lying on the ground and appearing nearly comatose, he popped up and danced his way into the masses of the crowd.  Such is Lolla.

Here's a panoramic shot of the field Saturday night before Chance the Rapper started.

Here are the bands and artists for which I saw two or more songs over the course of the weekend:

Thursday:  White Reaper; The Oh-My's; Middle Kids; Spoon; Muse

Friday:  PUP; Cloud Nothings; Tegan & Sara; Ryan Adams; Run The Jewels; Moksi; Blink-182

Saturday:  Blossoms; Ron Gallo; 888; Highly Suspect; Colony House; The Shelters; Royal Blood; The London Souls; Live; The Head and The Heart; Chance The Rapper; Kaskade

Here are my top ten shows that I saw over the course of the weekend:

Honorable Mention:  Blossoms; The London Souls; PUP

10.  Muse
These guys probably would be higher on the list if they played more than four songs.  They were just starting to ramp up when the lightning began.  Muse is one of those bands that is made for large crowds.

9.  White Reaper
Even though they were too loud for Daughter and Lollipop, I thought they were great.  They were energetic, and their music was a nice blend of punk, power punk, pop punk, power pop, and garage rock.

8.  The Shelters
I missed their regular set Saturday afternoon, but thankfully they were playing at the Toyota tent Saturday evening, so I caught some of their set.  Good, catchy, California rock and roll.

7.  Cloud Nothings
I have liked these guys for a few years.  Another good, garage-y punky band.

6.  Chance The Rapper
I'm not going to pretend that I'm some huge Chance fan.  I think he's a great dude, he does a lot for the community, and he's a Sox fan, so you know he's okay in my book -- but I don't know any of his songs.  That said, I really enjoyed his set.  He commanded the crowd, and there was a really cool moment when he asked everyone to put their cell phones up, with the screen facing the stage.  Nothing like 50,000+ cell phones shining in the night.

 

5.  Blink-182

I had never seen Blink-182, so I was excited to see them.  They didn't disappoint, even if Tom is no longer in the band.

4.  Royal Blood
I love Royal Blood, and was pissed I didn't get tickets to their aftershow at Lincoln Hall.  Regardless, I'm always amazed at how they get that much sound out of only a bass and drums.  They rock, plain and simple.

3.  Run The Jewels

They were fantastic.  The whole set was full of energy, and they even brought a fan up on stage to rap one of the songs (see pic below), and the guy killed it.  We had a lot of fun watching these guys.

2.  Live
Live was another band I was pretty excited to see, since I've never seen them.  I gotta tell you, they brought it.  We got relatively close (or at least closer to the stage than we usually bothered to get), and enjoyed the hell out of their set.  In addition to their classic hits, they covered Johnny Cash and Audioslave (the latter, obviously, in honor of Chris Cornell).  The band looked like they were having fun, and I know all of us Gen Xers in the audience were having fun.

1.  Ron Gallo
This was our annual "discovery of Lolla."  My favorite thing about Lollapalooza is discovering new bands.  Ron Gallo and his band were awesome.  It was fuzzed-out protopunk and rock, full of visceral energy, reminiscent of The MC5.  Their songs not only rocked, but had a bit of irreverence, which I liked.  Definitely check them out if they come to your city.