| « Lollapalooza: Day One Recap | Getting Popped the Question at Lollapalooza » |
Lollapalooza Sun Aug 05 2012
Lollapalooza: Day Two Recap
I caught several fantastic performances at Saturday's Lollapalooza, but the day will be remembered for the giant storm that swept the festival and led to the complete evacuation of Grant Park. Festival-goers were instructed to take shelter in three underground parking garages, but everyone ended up flooding all the nearby bars and Starbucks instead. A little over two hours later, the storm passed and we were allowed back in. There were mud people everywhere, but I'm not sure which fields actually contained mud because everywhere I went, the ground was somehow still somewhat dry -- a little squishy but not to the point where my feet were even slightly sinking into the ground.
As we filtered back into the festival, everyone shared stories of their evacuation experience. Who were you seeing when the announcement was made? Where did you go? I attempted to get into a couple daytime Lollapalooza parties going on at the Hard Rock and Angels & Kings, but both were obviously filled to capacity. Most people were just wandering the streets aimlessly until they found a Starbucks or other fast food restaurant that wasn't jam-packed. I ended up at a friend's hotel room at the Marriott Courtyard until we received word that we could get back into the festival to finally start enjoying some music.
By the time we received word that the park would be re-opening it was already 6:24. The revised Lollapalooza schedule had Fun. now hitting the stage at 6:30, so I booked it back to Grant Park to be able to catch the end of their set. To get festival-goers back into the park as quickly as possible, security was lax at the gate and we didn't even have to scan our wristbands.
Scheduling Fun. at the Google Play stage was a huge oversight on Lollapalooza's part. A more open space like the Bud Light stage would have better accommodated their massive crowd. The stage was packed through the trees at the back of the field and onto the pavement into Chow Town. We were able to squeeze our way in to mid-tree area, where we could at least see some of the stage. I've seen Fun. live somewhere just short of 10 times, and they never disappoint. I got there in time to enjoy the last four or five songs, but they were just as great as ever. Singer Nate Ruess excels at being able to feed off the audience's energy to fuel his performance, and with a huge audience singing at the top of their lungs along to "We Are Young," he was as impassioned as ever.
As soon as Fun.'s set ended, the stage cleared out fast and we were able to walk right up front for Washed Out, aka electronic musician Ernest Greene, along with a backing band, with a name that aptly describes Saturday's afternoon in general. They got the crowd energetic and dancing, especially when they played "Portlandia" theme song "Feel It All Around," the point in the set where the entire crowd went nuts.
I was hoping to catch The Weeknd's set, but because of set time confusion I didn't realize he was on at the same time as Washed Out and ended up completely missing him. Bummer. I grabbed a quick lobster corndog and headed over to the Sony Stage for Bloc Party. The combination of Bloc Party's crowd and the amount of people passing the Sony Stage to make their way over to the Red Bull Soundstage for Red Hot Chili Peppers made it near impossible to make it anywhere near the stage, so I ended up enjoying Bloc Party sitting on the surprisingly dry grass on a hill near the staircases. The band played several songs off their new release, Four, but also played all of the old favorites. While I wasn't anywhere near close enough to the stage to actually be able to see the performance, it was highly enjoyable to just sit back and listen. That is, until a drunk trustafarian started puking on the grass directly behind me.
As the night ended, I debated between catching headliners Frank Ocean or Santigold, and finally decided to head to Perry's Stage for Santigold. It was my first time really going inside Perry's Stage, and I was completely astounded at how much the stage has grown since my first Lollapalooza in 2008, when Perry's Stage was a small tent not much larger than my living room. While the stage had been completely packed all weekend, it had cleared out Saturday night before Santigold's set -- probably due to Avicii playing at the same time across the festival at the Bud Light stage. I was able to walk straight to the front of the stage just minutes before she came on and ended up watching her show from the front row.
Those who stuck around for her late-night set (the festival ended at 10:45pm rather than the usual 10:00 to accommodate as many performances as possible after the evacuation) were treated with a phenomenal performance. Santigold's set was a real show, complete with several costume changes, her usual energetic back-up dancers and two guys in a horse costume. Santigold was just happy to actually get a chance to perform, when earlier in the day that was up in the air. At one point she invited audience members up on the stage to dance with her, at first picking specific people out of the crowd, but then once everyone started hopping the barricade regardless of whether or not they had been picked, she let just about anyone on until the stage was filled with dancers. After such a crazy day, this was such a fun and lively way to end the night.
