There is nothing like going to a festival of this stature with so many great bands and cool activities for the masses. Once you buy your ticket sometime in early Spring and then situate your stay, you wait in anticipation for the band schedule to be released so you can formulate a game plan to make the most of your experience. Grant Park is by no means your run of the mill city park. This is one gigantic and beautiful park with nearly a mile between the Bud Light and Red Bull stages so you need to figure out the most effective way to attack it. And don’t forget that you will be navigating through and around thousands upon thousands of equally amped concert goers in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity(such a joy). You need to factor that in as well. So when the schedule was released we needed to figure out day one and make the most of it. It went like this:
Day 1 went off without a hitch and started out for us with Animal Kingdom(have been a fan the moment I heard Strange Attractor), we then rushed over to check out Yellow Ostrich(very nice set), then back to where we saw Ak to catch a few songs from The War On Drugs(Fave), and then head back again in the other direction for Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs(new fave and entertaining live), then on to check out another favorite in Tame Impala(whom I absolutely lurve), now to catch Metric we needed to scoot all the way to the other side of the park but boy was it worth it. Emily Haines is a joy to watch perform and was one of the days highlights for sure. We decided to hang tight and catch Die Antwoord’s set because they were to perform right there at the Playstation Stage. Now not everyone will be a fan of their music as it’s electro Dj rap and they are from South Africa and rap with heavy accents but they are fun as hell live. Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser are one bizarre duo with their flows and could give a shit attitudes. Check em out if possible. Passion Pit was next and high on my list of must see’s and Angelakos did not disappoint. As I say he brightens the dark side of life. We had to jettison back to the other side of the park to catch M83 and he was cool but his spacey, dreamy, airy electro can be too much at times but I still enjoyed it. We decided to end our night with Bassnectar’s set and we danced so hard we dented the ground and poured sweat from our bodies like it was our last night on earth. Speaking of which……………
Tame Impala at Lolla
Day 2 started off as we planned watching Bear In Heaven and Givers. Both very good sets. But suddenly around 3:15pm they made an announcement that the park must be evacuated immediately due to an impending storm of death that was sure to kill all who stayed inside……Say wha?! Everyone thought this was a joke but then someone came on the mic and said “THIS IS NOT A JOKE, EVERYONE MUST LEAVE NOW!” Holy crap they ain’t kidding. I was baffled and upset as we had planned to catch Chairlift and Alabama Shakes right then but then learned of why and immediately understood that they needed to do this as to avert a tragedy similar to the one that occurred at the Indiana State Fair last year. This is what we were up against……….
Understandable no?!
Anyways at 6pm they reopened the gates(thank god) and let the herd back in and we ran right over to check out Tuneyards(I propose Merrill Garbus is an alien to do what she can with her voice), then my man George(Twin Shadow) took the stage and made everything right again with an awesome albeit shorter set due to the storm and then after we skedaddled over to Perry’s Stage to check out Santigold(loved her set). We were happy that the fest continued but we were upset that we missed Chairlift and Alabama Shakes but at least the whole day wasn’t lost.
Twin Shadow
Day 3 went as planned and started out for us with Bombay Bicycle Club(so good live), followed by Polica(autotune be damned Channy still kills it), Little Dragon was next for us and OMG do I love this band and this was to be my first time seeing them live and hells yes they were everything I hoped they would be and more. Yukimi is great live! Toro Y Moi followed and he helped me coast off into festival bliss with his dreamy electro set. Florence and her Machine was a must see as she lights up the stage with her lovely fashion sense and her AMAZING voice and stage presence. Wait whats this I hear?! Chairlift will be playing Playstation Stage after Florence!! Why that’s right here. What wonderful and fortunate news for my ears! What made this even more special was the fact that the herd took off to head over to the other side of the park to post up for Jack White and catch Miike Snow’s set beforehand. So you say. This cleared out the Playstation Stage and let us enjoy their set up close and comfortable. Perfect! as they were one of my favorite acts of the weekend. We finished out the day with some Justice and Childish Gambino. A nice end to an amazing weekend….despite the event that to an unknowing onlooker appeared to be an apocalyptic scene and most certainly the end of days.
Little Dragon
Chairlift
