Lollapalooza 2014 Recap

Posted by dshaq on August 11, 2014

Andre 3000 of Outkast, performing at Lollapalooza 2014

As I walked down Congress Parkway crossing the Michigan Ave. intersection, Lollapalooza became very surreal for me. Hundreds of artists, Tens of thousands of people, and the perfect view of the Chicago skyline above the stages awaited me for the next three days. The lines to enter the festival were long and frantic, with security frisking every person and checking every bag diligently. The scene past the gates was a blur due to the massive amounts of people scattering in every which way possible. At last, I had made it to the festival, ready to see some of the best artists from around the world perform in my city.

Perry’s stage was the place to be on Friday. Iggy Azalea, Above & Beyond, The Glitch Mob, and Zedd, one after another. Ms. Fancy herself started off the madness, rockin a crazy set with an even crazier crowd…as you would expect. Tight flows and kept the crowd engaged, and she looked damn good while doin it. Can’t hate on her hustle. Next was Above & Beyond and it was above and beyond all of my expectations. So funny…but actually. Glitch Mob was turnt to an 11, just like Spinal Tap. They brought a great amount of energy and the crowd was loving every second of it, myself included. After The Glitch Mob, Marshall Mathers awaited my full blown attention. I decided to split the headliners in half, seeing Eminem first then Zedd. Luckily enough for me I was able to see Rihanna make an appearance on stage with Eminem and it was definitely special. At least 50,000 people were in attendance, no lie. It was hard to find my way over to Zedd without running into another person. Zedd was everything you expected him to be and then some. Along with the catchy radio songs that you always find yourself bopping your head to, he threw down some nice remixes and made it definitely worth wile. That was it. Friday was finished and people poured out of the park. However, lucky for some, the night was still young. I hopped in an uber and next thing you know I’m in line to see Disclosure. Crazy? Yes. Amazing? Yes. Mind blowing? Obviously. My first time seeing the UK duo was life changing, to say the least. I feel bad for anyone who was not in attendance and leave it at that. My night was finished and I was as happy as a clam, anxiously awaiting the following day.

Saturday could not come soon enough. We arrived at the festival in time for the beginning of Duke Dumont and his I Got You, which has been on replay since it came out. Groovy would be a great adjective to describe the set. Not so much high intensity, but what it lacked in intensity it made up for in the cleanness and grooviness of his set. Nothing but good words about Duke. Fitz and the Tantrums was next, which was cool. I got to see a couple of their pretty popular songs, like money grabber, and it was really great to see all the band members doing their thing on stage. We dipped over to Gramatik and caught the rest of his show before Martin Garrix went on. Martin Garrix was a lot to take in. He came out firing. It was still pretty early when he went on and he was acting like he was the main headliner that night. Crazy drop after crazy drop, just throwing out all the stops. Next, we shuffled over to watch Foster the People for their set. Mark Foster is easily one of the best frontmen out right now. He nows how to rock a crowd. Foster the People was really clean and fantastic live. We took a little break, grabbed some refreshments, and prepared ourselves for Outkast. Being able to rap along to a lot of the Outkast songs was pretty cool. People lost their shit when Ms. Jackson came on, as did I. However, I was way more excited when they played Spottieottiedopalicious, a personal all time favorite by them. Andre 3000 looked nothing out of the usual, as seen above, and Big Boi kept it G, like always. In lay mans terms, they were amazing and I’m glad I was able to see them perform together, which is not something to take for granted (i.e. Justice 2012). We hiked from one side of the park to the complete opposite side in order to catch the Calvin Harris and his summer anthem. Summer was unreal, as many times as I’ve heard it, it was just as good as the first. Calvin even did a nice remix to his We’ll be coming back, which is a favorite. There’s a reason why he’s a top DJ and worked with so many great artists, he makes hits. Big ups to the Scottish brother on the set. A great way to end Saturday, I found myself heading to bed to rest up for the final day.

Sunday was easily my most hyped day, and for one reason: Flume. I’m not gonna lie, I am a huge fanboy of that dude. He is the man. Every track he touches, pure 24K gold. Now that that’s over, Sunday started off iffy. We decided to try and wait out the rain and got there a little late but just in time to catch most of Chromeo’s set. Those pianos with the mannequin legs are legendary and their music is so funky and catchy all the while sounding so clean live. After Chromeo, Rebelution lined up right behind them and threw down a great performance. Weed smokers rejoiced and hippies gathered, with the reggae music in full force and there was no such thing as bad vibes in the crowd. The horns sounded great, the vocals were crisp, and all together just a fantastic show. From there, we went to Sebastian Ingrosso to catch the beginning of his show before Flume went on. As we left Seb and went to the Grove stage to see Flume, I could hear his set beginning with Drop the Game, with Chet Faker. The whole time listening to his show I was ecstatic. Every song, every drop, every transition, was just perfect. He even closed with his remix of Disclosure’s “You & Me”, epic. The crowd loved it. Last was the decision between Chance, Skrillex, and Kings of Leon. While I really preferred choices 1 and 3, I did what any normal college kid would do, go see Chance and choose where to go later. Although I did miss out on seeing R. Kelly perform, yes that happened, i ended up going to Skrillex on a last second decision. I was not mad at all, Skrillex played a great show, interacting with the crowd often, sometimes a little much, but nonetheless threw down.

Poof. Lolla was over. Three days went by so fast that I didn’t even realize that in two hours it would be Monday and the start of a new week, where people would have to wake up in a couple hours to start working. It was the perfect getaway.

Now I know that this whole post is based on my encounters at Lollapalooza and my own personal choices of who to see, but the fact is that there were so many toss-ups on who to see each day. There beholds the beauty of Lollapalooza. That is what keeps everyone coming back every year. There is too much good music there that you cannot see every single artist you would like to. At the end of the day, it’s all about the music. Without that, there is no crowd, there’s no after shows, there’s nothing. It’s what people are paying heaps of money to go see every year, and it is 100% worth it! Lollapalooza is a perfect blend of every single type of music and caters to all ears and it shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

I just want to send a huge thank you to Lollapalooza for letting FreshNewTracks cover the festival and experience an unbelievable three days. No disrespect to the other festivals, but Lollapalooza is unlike any other. Nowhere can you experience a first class city like Chicago and see all that it has to offer while being able to attend one of the biggest music festivals in the world. Whatever Lollapalooza and Perry Farrell are doing, they don’t need to change a thing, it’s perfect. Mark your calendars for the first weekend of August next year, you won’t want to miss it.

Tags: Congress Parkway, Michigan Ave