The logistics of Lollapalooza more often dictate just how awesome of a weekend festival-goers are able to have more than the lineup itself. So while organizers have taken strides after every previous year’s fests to make the music more all-encompassing and extensive – engorging even the most diverse stylistic tastes with a buffet of sounds – and improved the crowd flow during entrance and exit at the event’s gates with the addition of a well-executed bag-less entry lane for Lolla attendees, the logistics still find a way to sometimes overshadow the experience.
On a mostly cloudy Friday that saw festival staff and concert-goers prepared for the worst, it was actual the scheduling, not the sporadic sprinkles, that slightly dampened the enthusiastic, sold-out crowd. Not taking advantage of the data gathered from fans from their own online lineup scheduler, which indicated exactly where the biggest crowds were well in advance, Lollapalooza lost the opportunity this year to do what other destination festivals that run later into the night can’t do, and that’s give all of its fans an easily manageable slate of nonstop music they’ll love. Slight adjustments – like moving Imagine Dragons and Icona Pop to the main stage, or taking Twenty One Pilots, Atlas Genius, or Lana Del Ray off the perpetually-packed, tree-lined Grove stage – would have benefited both fans and artists. Even artists on the opposite end, where instead of leaving frustrated fans on the outskirts of an overstuffed audience they played to empty spaces, like Jessie Ware whose sparse crowd on the Petrillo stage would’ve have felt homey over on the Grove, where the jammy live versions of her neo-soul would’ve felt more at home and warmed her heart.
Of course there’s no pleasing everyone, and lining up as many artists as Lolla does every year naturally has to lead to some tough decision making, or split sets, for fans. So missing out, getting caught on edge of a crowd, or swimming through a sea of shoulders and dancing arms, is all part of the game. It’s just that considering how perfectly planned the North Bud Light main stage was from beginning to end on Friday – especially with Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails adding to each other’s hard-hitting, heavy power performances – and the fact that Lolla had already awkwardly adjusted part of Saturday’s schedule (due to the last-minute drop-out of Grove closer Azaelia Banks) the choice to switch things up sooner to fix some of obvious scheduling snafus would have upped Friday from fun to fucking fantastic.
Friday’s Top Five Highlights
1. Nine Inch Nails: A true showman in every sense of the word, Trent Reznor brought back the rock spectacle with NIN’s very industrial headlining set. Not relying entirely on his light show to blow people away, Reznor worked in minimal and maximal extremes like a modern artist, sculpting towering power on “Head Like a Hole,” while sketching subtle nuance with new track “Find My Way” and soundtrack selection “What If We Could.”
2. Queens of the Stone Age: With clouds hanging heavy overhead, QotSA burned through a scorcher of Josh Homme’s desert sun stoner rock. The relentless race of hits early on (“No One Knows,” “My God Is The Sun,” “Sick, Sick, Sick”), and emphatic close of “A Song for the Dead” not only set the stage for NIN to rock loud and heavy, it cemented Homme’s own place in the pantheon of legendary Lolla alumni.
3. Icona Pop: The over-packed crowd didn’t care that the Swedish duo didn’t fit on a second stage – they loved it. Having built up a bunch of buzz leading into Lolla, the self-proclaimed ‘90s bitches brought it: bass-bumping on party anthems like “Ready For the Weekend” and “We Got The World,” while encouraging everyone to make the most of their festival and make out with strangers (which many likely did after returning to the high-hormone Perry’s dance stage).
4. Twenty One Pilots: Back-flipping off pianos and treating the smaller Grove stage like a giant arena event, Twenty One Pilots took off instantly and never looked back during their early afternoon set. Letting loose their radio hit, “Holding Onto You,” not even halfway into the set, the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun held onto their audience with their high energy, genre-bending set.
5. Ghost B.C.: At 2 in the afternoon on Day One, not many were ready for Papa Emeritus II and the Nameless Ghouls’ psychedelic doom-metal. But winning thousands of new fans over with their sheer spectacle – and Papa’s perfectly sardonic persona – the band cranked up tracks off both their albums that beckoned the lifting storm clouds to come back.
Best Discovery of the Day: Chance The Rapper
With two returning headliners (and a number of other artists making at least their second appearance at Lolla) as well as established rising stars, Friday found less room for breaking new artists than the other two days, but Chicago’s own Chance The Rapper seized his opportunity on the tiny BMI stage, drawing a decent early evening crowd while up against some of the fest’s biggest names.
Biggest Bummer of the Day: The Neighbourhood
Although not as hot at noon as it has been at past Lollas, it was still too warm for The Neighbourhood’s too-cool chill rock. Starting out the day the California band stuck to a sound way too similar to their hit “Sweater Weather,” which they played unenthusiastically. Naturally, the majority of the warm-blooded crowd bailed afterwards for more happening events, leaving the band to play three more songs to less than half the capacity they started with.
Friday MI-scellaneous fun fact: The Perry’s stage certainly was the place for anyone here in West Michigan who’s been to Electric Forest. From Friday headliner Steve Aoki, all the way down to EF faves Keys N’ Krates starting out the day, Perry’s matched the kinetic feel of the Forest, even in the middle of city.
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