Lollapalooza Day One delivered on all fronts on Friday, as the tenth anniversary of Chicago’s legendary festival unfolded in Grant Park. Lorde, AFI, J Roddy Walston and The Business, Portugal The Man, Arctic Monkeys and many more delivered excellence in the mercifully cool weather, punctuated by only a brief rainshower in mid-afternoon.
Our day began with Portugal The Man doing a special early performance on the Kidzapalooza stage, where the VIP pit in front was designated only for kids. That means toddlers got to watch one of the best live acts on the planet rock a version of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” before segueing into “Purple Yellow Red and Blue,” leading into “Creep In a T-Shirt”. Those kids had no idea how damned lucky they were. Here’s a short clip of the cover segue:
Just a couple hours later PTM would take the main Samsung stage with a full set, and once again made jaws drop with a spot-on take of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis.
“What a good band. Get back together, fucking assholes,” Gourley implored the brothers Gallagher from the stage.
J Roddy Walston & The Business killed it down on the other end at the Bud Light stage as the rains began to pour down, but the Tennessee hellraisers were only fueled by the darkening weather.
The rains weren’t enough to dampen the mood – not by a screaming longshot. The band tore through a blistering set of rockers and kept spirits high as the skies opened up on Lolla revelers, resulting in happily soaked dance-a-thons in one hell of an intense set from a band with a damn shiny future ahead.
AFI was great to see, but it’s becoming clear that their time is coming to an end. Davey was throwing to the audience to sing so many of the choruses, and you can tell he’s having trouble keeping up those emo chops.
Eminem is due for one hell of a bonus for leaping into legendary status in live performance. He’s finally rapping without a backing track on most of the songs performed, a celebrated departure from his barely-there 2011 headlining slot where he could barely be heard above the recorded playback. Friday’s set was a stroke of cinematic magnificence, with a career-spanning run of tracks and surprise appearances from guests Royce Da 5’9 and Rihanna.
Photos: Eminem at Lollapalooza 2014
The latter appeared to sing their collaborative hits “Love The Way You Lie” and “Monster” before taking on an old classic with “Stan,” as Ri took over Dido’s verses in the song. And don’t believe the hater hype: Rihanna has the sauce. Gallons of it.
We ended the night with a run to the other end of Grant Park to catch the final songs in Arctic Monkeys’ set, as they hypnotized the crowd with a creeping “Knee Socks” before an ecstatically upbeat conclusion with “R U Mine?” A fine way to finish Day One…. now to move into the next gear for Day Two with Nas, Outkast, Fitz & The Tantrums, Spoon, Jenny Lewis and more!
Massive thanks to Samsung, one of Lollapalooza’s main sponsors. The Samsung Galaxy Experience will be open to all festival goers and offer a variety of camp-themed interactive experiences showcasing new Samsung products and the new Milk Music service:
All photos: Johnny Firecloud
