Lollapalooza 2023
One of the biggest weekends in music has come to a close after an incredible four days of high energy and amazing music at Lollapalooza, Chicago. Headliners for this year included: Billie Eilish, Karol G, The 1975, Kendrick Lamar, Odesza, Tomorrow X Together, Lana Del Rey, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
This year, I had the opportunity to attend the festival on Friday and Sunday, and was able to catch several phenomenal sets; these are some of the weekend’s best acts.
Easily one of the best acts of the weekend was The 1975. Headlining the US festival for the first time in their careers, the band did not disappoint when they arrived on the Bud Light Stage. The band opened with Looking for Somebody (To Love), one of the hits off their most recent album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language.
Healy arrived on stage with his infamous red Fender Strat and immediately brought energy to the crowd. There was not a single moment where the crowd wasn’t engaged and singing along to all the lyrics. Healy himself seemed at ease on stage stating, “Well, well, well,” following the first song.
They went on to play most of the band’s biggest hits; but surprised some of the OG fans in the audience by bringing out indie classics, Chocolate as well as The Sound. The crowd was also pleasantly surprised to hear the heart-wrenching ballad, I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), another one of the band’s hits that don’t usually make the setlist. However, they did have to cut People from the setlist due to time, much to my dismay, however, the show was still absolutely epic.
The 1975 is truly one of the bands of our generation, and was absolutely the standout act from this year’s Lollapalooza Chicago, they truly are still at their very best.
Sticking to the Dirty Hit spectrum of artists, Rina Sawayama captivated the audience at Bud Light Stage on Sunday evening. The energy she came out with was indescribable, she had the entire crowd on their feet for the entirety of her set. Another notable characteristic was her crowd engagement, despite tens of thousands of fans extending throughout Grant Park for her set, she was sure to recognize and point out big fans giving their all throughout each song.
Sawayama didn’t shy away from avoiding hard-hitting topics as she cracked open a cold Bud Light in the middle of the set and iconically stated “I stand by what Bud Light said about queer people” and continued “Cheers, babe. Trans rights are not just for Pride Month”. Absolute queen behaviour and the crowd met her enthusiasm, cheering in support.
Despite the rain pouring down and the fields of mud around Grant Park, Neil Frances came out ready to bring some joy out to the Lollapalooza festival goers. I can imagine it was a bit of a tough spot to come out and play a festival show to thousands of cold, wet, muddy music fans, but Neil Frances easily brought some of the best vibes on a Sunday filled with improbable weather.
Finally, we come to the final headliner, Lana Del Rey. Quite possibly one of the most anticipated acts of the weekend, the crowd held very high hopes for Lana, and while the music itself was phenomenal, the set itself was not without flaws.
Firstly, Lana came out almost 10 minutes late for the set which usually wouldn’t be a huge deal, but with a very strict curfew of 10pm at Grant Park, it meant losing out on possibly 2 or 3 songs.
However, when she was onstage, the entire 80 minutes spent with her were absolutely magical. Opening with A&W, and then going immediately into Young and Beautiful felt like going through some sort of Tumblr-era ascension. Something underappreciated about Lana’s set in my opinion was the background visuals. Throughout the set the background is loops of Lana’s old music videos and song visuals; during the Born to Die tracks it was Lana in a convertible, the American flag, and other symbolic moments from the BTD era.
Her slower moving set, with her lighter angelic feeling vocals carried the crowd into a sort of out of body experience. Lana was the perfect, moody closure to the festival, and it felt as if her set closed out the vibe of the Sunday perfectly.
This year’s Lollapalooza was a phenomenal experience (despite the occasional torrential downpour) and I wasn’t left disappointed by a single artist, but the crown jewel of the weekend was indefinitely The 1975.
