Lollapalooza 2014 Review

By Josh Kohn

The 10^th year of Lollapalooza took place at Grant Park on August 1-3 in Chicago, Illinois. Over 300,000 attendees scattered around the park to catch their favorites artists. 130 plus artists took over eight stages all in a three-day span. Headliners included Eminem, Outkast, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Skrillex, and more.

Friday started with music fans patiently waiting outside the Grant Park gates at 11:00am who were all ready to start off a long and thrilling weekend. Those who couldn’t catch the music in person had the opportunity to stream Lollapalooza through the Red Bull livestream on their computers with three different channels to choose from.

After a few rain showers passing through in the afternoon, one of the more excellent acts on Friday were Portugal. The Man. The entire audience was very spirited as everyone yelled out the lyrics to “Purple Yellow Red and Blue.” Later in their set was followed by a funny cover of “Day Man” from the TV show, ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’’ At the end of their set, they played the more popular songs of “Modern Jesus” and “Creep in a T-Shirt.” They were without doubt a fan favorite on Friday.

Returning to Chicago after his 2011 Lolla debut, Eminem was the one of the most hyped performers of the weekend. He played a 90-minute set full of classics and a few new songs from, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, his latest album. Little did everyone know, Lolla fans were in for a treat as Rihanna arose on stage to perform “Monster” and “Love the Way You Lie.” Afterwards, a guest appearance was made by Royce da 5’9” to surprise the crowd with more fun. Unfortunately with the debacle of scheduling issues, we ended the night by running across Grant Park to catch the 2^nd half of Artic Monkey’s performance.

The Arctic Monkeys were already putting on an incredible performance as we were quickly approaching the Bud Light Stage hearing the ending of “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”. They continued to play a very compelling set that put the crowd into a mellow trance. Soon the crowd was back into a groove by singing the lyrics to “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” AM then concluded Friday with an encore of “R U Mine?” as a nice way to end the night.

After a very long and hot Saturday consisting of acts such as Gramatik, Martin Garrix Spoon and more, one of the acts many were looking forward to on Saturday were the talented hip-hop duo of Outkast. A disappointing performance at Coachella had some worried that they wouldn’t live up to expectations at Lolla. They began their set with “B.O.B” and “ATLiens that had the crowded dancing all over the place while trying to sing the lyrics at the same time. Unfortunately, with a huge crowd filling the Samsung Stage we were very far away and felt the same way as many did at Coachella. Outkast wasn’t entirely bad but wasn’t entirely good. We decided it was best to leave and finish Saturday night by catching the last 35 minutes of Calvin Harris’s set. He gave a solid performance spinning EDM songs from the DJ booth that had the bass booming at the crowd. The crowd loved him, dancing to his radio-hits such as “We Found Love” and “Summer” at the Bud Light Stage to end Satuday at Lollapalooza.

Sunday started off with a downpour of rain scattered across the park. The rain came and went as it ruined shoes, phones, and filled the grounds with muddy swamps. This wasn’t going to stop the performers or the fans from leaving the park like it did in 2012. Everyone did what they could to relocate to dry areas such as standing under trees or even tables but it wasn’t a big help at times.

During the afternoon, Chromeo put on an unbelievable live performance filled with disco and funk music. The duo used an electronic guitar, keyboard, a unique voice box, and a DJ controller, which had the crowd boogying to the disco. They finished their set by playing the popular radio hit “Jealous” to end the performance.  

A few hours later, the rainstorms left and it was time to catch one of the most talented rising electronic DJ’s of today. We made our way to the Grove Stage a bit early so we were sure we had a great spot to see Flume. His set was absolutely breathtaking. Each song flowed perfectly to the other and the entire crowed were singing along the entire time. Most underrated performer of the weekend.

Lollapalooza was finally coming to a close and the Sunday headliners were ready to end an unforgettable weekend. Now the decision was to see Skrillex or Kings of Leon? We had to see Skrillex, a king of the EDM scene. Weird beats and noises echoed the Bud Light stage speakers as we tried to get as far to the front as we possibly could. Everyone was jumping up and down and waving their arms. He was making the crowd go crazy to his crazy songs. He played a few of his old songs, some new songs from his latest album, and many wild EDM songs. I think everyone left his performance with a big content smile on his or her face, as Lollapalooza finally came to an end of an incredible weekend.