Lollapalooza!

My summer of music festivals continues! This past weekend I took a 14.5 hour road trip to the Windy City for arguably one of the most well-known of all music festivals, Lollapalooza. It was a weekend of good music and amazing 75 degree weather. And also a lot of steamed buns because that was consistently the food with the shortest line and if you think that you can't eat steamed buns for 3 days straight, you're wrong.

Lolla has been around for over 20 years, and it shows in how well organized the festival was compared to some others I've experienced. My one major complaint about it is the fact that, as an all ages festival, it is overrun with teenagers. Though Firefly was technically also all ages, I barely saw anyone who looked under 21. I imagine this is because Firefly is in the middle of nowhere and thus requires the vast majority of attendees to travel, and most parents probably don't let their 15 year olds go away for the weekend without parental supervision. Lollapalooza, being smack in the middle of Chicago, is probably more palatable to parents since their kids can come and go in the same day. This is a theory I made up but it makes sense in my brain.

But on to the good stuff! Festivals are all about the music and the music did not disappoint, especially with Lolla's super efficient layout that allowed you to really maximize your music time. Here's a list of who I saw with some comments.

FRIDAY

Icona Pop - it was very hot. And then it poured for 10 minutes and it was glorious. I think a lot of times people equate music + rain with some type of religious experience and while I certainly don't want to be cliche, I do want to say...this was awesome.

Atlas Genius - I had never heard any of their stuff. I was pleasantly surprised.
Crystal Castles

Imagine Dragons

New Order
Flux Pavilion - 5 stars. Actually, a million stars. One of the best shows I've seen not just at Lolla but ever in my life. Loved it. EDM is totally the kind of stuff that you should be listening to when it's dark out because ravers love their glowsticks, but the sunlight did nothing to quell this insane party.

The Killers - I got bored and left after a few songs.
Steve Aoki

SATURDAY

Matt & Kim - the sound was terrible and I didn't even care because they're so fun and even with technical difficulties they will never disappoint. Matt was all, "I want to introduce you guys to my partner in crime, and also my partner in sex, Kim." Note to future boyfriends - please always introduce me to people in this manner.

Ellie Goulding
Kendrick Lamar - he was decent at Firefly and kicked it up about 60 notches for Lolla. Fantastic. One guy was crowdsurfing IN A WHEELCHAIR. I cower in the face of his badassery. Kendrick was similarly impressed because he stopped the whole show to watch and make sure this guy made it to the front.
Postal Service

SUNDAY

Alex Clare - I only knew one song of his, and it's the same one all of you know because it's in some commercial and sometimes I try to sing it by saying, "And it feels like I am just too close to love you, WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB" to imitate the distorted dubstep noise (try it, it sort of works). He was fantastic and I will be downloading more of his ish shortly.

Ms Mr - crap

Two Door Cinema Club - the biggest let down of the weekend. I really like them and I actually left in the middle because I was so bored.

Vampire Weekend

Major Lazer

Knife Party - ain't no party like a knife party! No, seriously. It was so much fun.

Less than a month until my next set o' festivals! Does anyone want to hire me to review music festivals in a full-time capacity? Because I will endure the teenagers and the heat in order to make this happen.