All You Need Is Love

LCD Soundsystem

Photo by Tasos Katopodis

Joy was rampant at LCD Soundsystem’s headlining set Sunday evening. The crowd might not have been as big as Radiohead’s or the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s, but every single soul that came out for James Murphy and co. had a smile plastered on their face from the opening drum kicks of “Us v Them” to the final flicker of the stage lights at the end of “All My Friends”.

It’s difficult to quantify what it’s like seeing your favorite band at long last. To exist purely in the moment was naturally the goal, but to be so connected to the people dancing around you was an experience unlike anything I’ve ever had. Shaking off the dust is something any reunion act has to wrestle with, but I’d argue there wasn’t a single particle that needed to be swept away.

Between staying active with other projects since the “breakup” and the eternal timeliness of every single song they’ve ever recorded, this band is built to last whether they like it or not. All we can do is thank our lucky stars they decided to call it quits on calling it quits so soon after calling it quits. This world needs LCD Soundsystem. –Pat Levy

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Most Fulfilling Set

Grimes

Photo by Heather Kaplan

It’s hard to think of another undercard at Lolla with more pressure than Grimes. Following the critical success of 2015’s Art Angels, Claire Boucher had a large stage and high expectations to fill. Much to our delight, everything one might hope and expect from Grimes rang true. The set was totally transparent. She told us when she felt awkward, what songs she hated, and why she had to end the set early. Her onstage banter was awkward, while her presence was anything but. Before diving wholeheartedly into “Venus Fly”, she charmingly suggested, “So while I’m up here tying my shoe, why don’t we talk a little about Janelle Monáe?”

As the set progressed, her mood intensified. She writhed and screamed. She head-banged rabidly in solidarity with her fans. Her attentiveness to the audience made it clear she had the utmost respect for them. And because of this, they returned that respect. I heard more exclamations of “I love her so much” at Grimes than any other performance this weekend. Young, old, male, female, in the front row, or on the hilltop — everyone within earshot was enthralled. While several other hard-hitting producers landed on the bill, Grimes shone the brightest. –Danielle Janota

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Too Cool for this Festival

Future

Photo by Philip Cosores Photo by Philip Cosores Photo by Philip Cosores

Future did a version of “My Savages” over the piano part of the “Honest” beat, and I was bludgeoned with a moment of clarity like one of those people getting hit in the head with apples in the Redd’s Cider commercials. Future is too good for Lollapalooza. That’s not to say Lollapalooza is bad and undeserving of booking the hottest rappers in the game. That’s to say that Future is a damn shooting star that this entire planet hardly deserves to witness.

The artistry behind mainstream rap is rarely difficult to comprehend, but Future is so far out in front of everyone else going that it’s Bobby Fischer playing chess against MIT computers-level shit. A special appearance by Chance garnered the loudest reaction of the set, and it was great to see Future paying homage and showing respect to Chicago’s current crown prince.

Photo by Philip Cosores

Maybe one day I’ll fully comprehend Future’s Friday evening set, but right now, it’s like I spent an hour staring at an eclipse: Who fucking knows what I saw, but it was special. –Pat Levy

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The Most Inconsequential Absence of Guest Stars

Chance the Rapper

Photo by Carlo Cavaluzzi

So many of the featured artists on Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book played Lollapalooza this weekend, including D.R.A.M. (who did indeed sing “Special” in his set), Saba, Towkio, and Future, who Chano joined onstage for “No Problem” on Friday. Even some of the guest musicians not playing Lolla were popping up around town, most notably Kanye West and his show-stopping cameo at Drake’s local stop on the Summer Sixteen Tour.

It would have made sense for any or all of them to perform at Chance’s (not-so) secret show at The Metro late Sunday night. Hell, it would have brought the house down. But it also would have undermined the intention behind the last-minute concert: to give local fans an affordable, super-charged, yet down-home preview of the Magnificent Coloring World Tour. This wasn’t about the cameos and other star-making bells and whistles that made his 2014 set at Lolla so memorable. This was about hometown scrappiness, a rare night where he got to play an intimate venue he hadn’t headlined since 2013.

As such, there was a rehearsal vibe to the evening that was absolutely intentional. Backed by the mighty Social Experiment and a trio of vocalists that included Macie Stewart (Marrow, Kids These Days, Whitney), Chance encouraged improvisation on “Sunday Candy”. He encouraged fans to sing along to every last word to every last song (not that they needed prompting), from the rapid-fire bursts of “Pusha Man” to the slow-burn worship of “Blessings”. He encouraged the them to shake the foundations of the building on a stomp-heavy version of “Cocoa Butter Kisses”.

No, Vic Mensa and Twista didn’t come out for their verses, nor did Saba appear for the chorus of “Angels”, even though he very well may have been in the building. Instead, Chance turned the spotlight on the audience, confirming that they were vital in making sure the Coloring Book songs (many of which had never been played live) were as celebratory in person as they are on record.

“I talk about my city all the time,” he said, soaking in the camaraderie of the room. “And this is the only true representation of it.” Not the celebrities. Not the projections. Just the sacred, simple bond between performer and audience. In Chano’s world, the road test is just as effective than the spectacle, if not more so. –Dan Caffrey

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Lollapalooza in its Right Place

Radiohead

Photo by Heather Kaplan

Seeing Radiohead live can be a highly loaded experience. So beloved are the band that hopes and expectations can overwhelm, especially given how finicky they used to be about their setlists and especially during a festival where people freely engage in trivial aggravations like selfies and talking. It can all be very stressful.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

But it can also be absolutely joyous, as it was for me on Friday night. Every single song Radiohead played felt like individual, celebratory events, the stage going dark and resetting each time one ended. “2+2=5”, “My Iron Lung”, and “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” felt like gifts, Thom Yorke’s falsetto tremulous and timeless. They pulled plenty from A Moon Shaped Pool, though as triumphant a return as that album is for Radiohead, it still hasn’t quite sublimated into the music world’s collective consciousness yet. On the other hand, the response to cuts off Hail to the Thief and OK Computer were particularly rapturous. The crowd sing-along to “Karma Police”, the final song, will not be easily forgotten.

And for those more unfamiliar with Radiohead, the light show was probably experience enough. The flashing colours and patterns evoked urban anxiety and urgency: malfunctioning televisions, the spread of contagion, frantic emergency vehicles, information speeding through systems. The numerous screens captured the band at oblique angles in different shades, shots layered with double or triple exposures. There were no roving, stage crew-operated cameras to magnify bodies and faces for those in the back, to make the band and the show more conveniently consumable. You had to take it all in on Radiohead’s terms, and their terms alone. –Karen Gwee

Photo by Philip Cosores

Click ahead for our complete gallery from Lollapalooza 2016.

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