Filtering by Category: Festival
Photos: Ethel Cain and Slow Pulp at Thalia Hall
Ethel Cain and Slow Pulp closed out the second day of Lolla with a sold out aftershow at Thalia Hall. Check out photos from the evening below and see where you can catch Ethel Cain on tour next here.
Live Recap: Faye Webster and Benét at The Vic
Following the first day of Lollapalooza 2024, Faye Webster performed an intimate aftershow at The Vic Theatre, with support from Benét.
After Benét and their band got the crowd warmed up with a mix of songs that had the audience both in their feels and dancing, the stage was set for Faye Webster and her band to close out the first day of the fest.
Faye’s appearance at Lolla took place in the midst of her “Underdressed at the Symphony” tour, aptly named after the title of Webster’s 2024 album. Right off the bat, I was impressed by the immersive stage production and design for this tour—lighting rigs in the form of washer and dryers illuminated the back of the stage and racks of clothing hung behind them. The real star of the stage design, however, was the giant t-shirt-shaped screen that projected different graphics and videos to accompany each song throughout the set. But wait, there’s more! During the fourth song of the night, “The Right Side of My Neck,” a bubble machine filled the venue with bubbles to give a fully immersive experience of being in a laundromat.
Webster occasionally addressed the audience between songs, taking time to say thank you for being there and sharing that her entire family was in attendance that night, but for the most part she and her band kept the show moving to deliver a polished and seamless musical performance. As the band performed many of the songs like “Thinking About You” and “Lego Rings” from the aforementioned Underdressed at the Symphony record alongside fan favorites from her previous albums, her band sometimes incorporated in a violin or saxophone, which gave a rich texture to the live versions of these songs. It also fit in with the “symphony” part of the tour!
Towards the end of the set, Faye also shared with the audience that it was her drummer Charles’ birthday and the audience chimed in to sing “Happy Birthday.” The show began to wind down with “He Loves Me Yeah!” before the band returned for a two-song encore. As we approached the wee hours of Friday morning, Webster’s show concluded with her dreamy single “Kingston.”
There are few things nowadays that will keep me out past midnight, but Faye Webster’s aftershow was most definitely worth it! Check out photos of the magical evening below and see where you can catch her on tour next here.
PHOTOS: Lollapalooza 2024- Sunday Recap
Lollapalooza 2024 wrapped up on Sunday, August 4th with another jam-packed line up. Check out the photo recap of the final festival day with performances from Blink-182, Conan Gray, The Last Dinner Party, Medium Build, Two Door Cinema Club, Vince Staples, and Waterparks.
PHOTOS: Lollapalooza 2024 - Saturday Recap
Lollapalooza returned to Grant Park in Chicago for Day 3 on Saturday, August 3rd. The packed lineup drew a mix of music fans of all genres, ranging from local rock bands to K-Pop singers. Check out a photo recap of the festivities featuring Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Briston Maroney, Deftones, Ethel Cain, Friko, Future x Metro Boomin, Hippo Campus, and IVE.
Stay tuned for coverage of Sunday, August 4th.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Sunday Highlights
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024 wrapped up on Sunday, July 21st in Union Park, drawing another mix of different genres to close out the weekend.
I started my third day of the fest with Model/Actriz’s set over on the Red Stage. Having gone in completely blind to the band’s music and their performances, I was instantly blown away by the intensity of their show. Vocalist and frontman Cole Haden dramatically sashayed around the stage at the start of the band’s set, but within a couple of songs he jumped offstage to join the audience in the mosh pit. Haden journeyed to both the left and right sides of the crowd, getting up close and personal with the spectators. The extravagant performance got everyone rejuvenated and ready to take on the final day of the fest.
Photo by Kenn Box
Jessica Pratt played next on the Green Stage, providing a chilled out, easy Sunday afternoon tone as fans watched on under the blazing sun. “Thanks for standing out in the sun with us,” Pratt told the audience as she continued her dreamy songs.
Photo by Alexa Viscius
Mannequin Pussy tied for my favorite performance of the day, alongside Model/Actriz and MUNA—there’s just something about bands that start with the letter M! Fans gathered around the Blue Stage in anticipation a good 20 minutes before this set was slated to start. As the band performed a set heavily comprised of songs from their 2024 album I Got Heaven, lead vocalist Missy Dabice also addressed the packed audience a few times with captivating stage banter that she delivered in her signature sultry whisper that contrasts with her raw singing voice. “Hi boys, I’m Missy. All the men and all the boys raise your hands. I just wanna see what kind of fucked up men come to a Mannequin Pussy show,” she joked before asking everyone to scream “pussy” as loud as they could. The scream theme returned later in the show when Missy instructed everyone to let out a primal yell. “We’re the luckiest people alive to be able to be together, to be able to be in a place transferring your cathartic pain into something that looks more like community,” she prefaced the group primal scream. There’s a certain controlled chaos around Mannequin Pussy shows, where just as you feel you’re about to teeter over the edge, Missy and the band pull you right back in line. Who needs therapy when you can just go to one of their shows?
Photo by Kimberley Ross
MUNA kept the energy soaring high over on the Green Stage, opening with their singles “What I Want” and “Number One Fan” that kept the audience dancing under the evening sun. The trio of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson were joined by a couple of live band members to help bring their songs to life on the stage, but the focus remained on the core band members are they bolted around the stage and fed off one another’s energy. Gavin slipped in some funny banter alongside the music, asking the fest-goers if they just fell out of a coconut tree (in reference to the Kamala Harris meme). Gavin also called out the full circle experience for the band when she shared she used to come to the festival during high school. Towards the end of the set, the band tossed out inflatable horses into the crowd during the performance of “Anything but Me,” which was fitting for the part of the show that had a twinge of twang as Gavin played acoustic guitar.
Photo by Alexa Viscius
Brittany Howard closed out the Red Stage with her soulful, powerhouse vocals. Accompanied by a full band, the singer told the audience “I drove through the night to get here and I’m gonna give y’all everything I got!” Howard delivered, giving me goosebumps with her commanding vocals.
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Now, Mannequin Pussy’s show might have been controlled chaos, but Les Savy Fav’s set was pure, unfiltered chaos from the moment it began. Frontman Tim Harrington rolled up on a Lime scooter from the back of the crowd, parting the sea of concert-goers as he rode to the front barricade. From there, Harrington spent only a few moments onstage before he moved on to spend the majority of the show wandering amongst the fans, venturing all the way to the back of the crowd, and having audience members participate in the show as he went along. Les Savy Fav’s show was more of an interactive art exhibit backed by an epic soundtrack.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Alanis Morissette closed out the entire festival with a setlist packed with hit after hit—opening with “Hand in My Pocket” and winding down with “You Oughta Know.” One of the greatest aspects of music festivals is getting the chance to discover a new act, but fests are best when that discovery is anchored with some veteran performers. It felt truly inspiring and invigorating to get to witness the expertise and finely-tuned craft of stage performance that Morissette and her band have mastered throughout their years of touring and playing live music. Elaborate visual graphics accompanied the tight musicality of Alanis’ performance to elevate the production even further. Morissette and her band also gave a one-of-a-kind performance of “Ironic” at Pitchfork Fest by bringing out the entirety of MUNA to sing the song with her. We love to see a crossover moment! Following the cathartic and chills-inducing performance of “You Oughta Know” that closed out Morissette’s main set, the singer returned for a two-song encore including “Uninvited” and “Thank U.”
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Saturday Highlights
Pitchfork Music Fest returned for day two at Union Park on Saturday, July 20th, with another perfect day of weather and a musical line up that focused on good old fashioned rock n’ roll in the early afternoon and pivoted to pop queens and dance beats in the later hours.
The day began with some local love thanks to Chicago’s own Lifeguard opening the fest on the Green Stage. They kickstarted the rock-focused performances with their grungy, indie sound and had the early afternoon crowd enthralled. As I listened to their set, I overheard an audience member say, “I LOVE Lifeguard! The fact that these teenagers are rocking so hard like a band from the 90’s is insane.”
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Next up, L'Rain, the moniker for artist Taja Cheek, and her band slowed down the tempo and projected a calm demeanor out to the crowd with their ambient, experimental sound that helped get everyone in the right headspace for a full day at a festival.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Another Chicago-based artist, Kara Jackson, hit the Green stage next, and she brought along other Chicago music icons to play in her band, including Sen Morimoto, Macie Stewart and Kaina— all of whom have played past Pitchfork Fests. Kara’s set opened with her popular cover of Karen Dalton’s song “Right, Wrong or Ready” before moving onto her single “no fun/party” from her 2023 debut album. During the second song, Jackson said, “I’ve done this song a billion times in the last year or so. It gets really boring sometimes but I realized it reminded me of one of my favorite other song that maybe some of you have heard before” as she slipped in a snippet of SZA’s “Love Galore.”
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
From there the tempo ramped back up with a slew of bands that all complemented each other’s sounds well. First, New York’s Hotline TNT riled up the Blue Stage, starting off their set telling the audience “Let’s go fucking crazy today” as the band and audience fed off of each other’s energy. Feeble Little Horse followed, drawing in a large crowd over at the Red Stage, especially for the early afternoon timeslot. “We’re so happy to be opening for Carly Rae Jepsen,” the band joked— adding in “And Karly from Wednesday. You should see them too.” Both Hotline TNT and Feeble Little Horse’s sounds had similar grunge elements as Lifeguard.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Before we got to the first Karly of the day, Water From Your Eyes hit the Blue Stage next. Lead vocalist Rachel Brown took the stage saying, “What’s up Chicago? Who likes alternative rock music?” once again keeping up the theme of Saturday’s afternoon line up. Brown also told the crowd that they were currently experiencing a lingering cough following a case of laryngitis, which they chalked up to as karma for sneaking into Pitchfork Festival ten years ago when they were a teenager.
Photo by Kenn Box
Asheville alternative rockers Wednesday, which includes vocalist Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman (who actually played Pitchfork Fest last year), hit the Green Stage next. The group amped up the volume and showcased Hartzman’s signature scream vocals as they played songs from their 2023 album Rat Saw God as well as some newer unreleased material. Wednesday’s set also included a cover of “Women Without Whiskey” by Drive-By Truckers.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
As the day slipped into the evening hours, the vibes of Pitchfork crept more towards a dance party, starting with the legendary hip hop group De La Soul performing some of their iconic songs like “Me Myself and I” alongside a cover of “Simon Says” by Pharoahe Monch— the latter of which featured a guest appearance by Monch himself.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Pitchfork Fest began the descent into evening by journeying into pop music for my favorite set of the day from Jessie Ware. The singer and her band brought a full production packed with choreographed dance numbers and dazzling outfits. Ware herself donned a sparkling jumpsuit featuring cape sleeves and sequins that radiated from the evening sun, while her backup dancers also sported vests bedazzled in sequins. While Jessie showcased her flawless vocals and diva-belting abilities, she also connected to the crowd with her humbled and hilarious stage banter. “This is my favorite city in The States to play,” she proclaimed as she continued to shout out some of her long-time supporters from Chicago by their first names. Ware’s dancers shone as they did flips and lifted the singer up, but Ware also made sure to include the fans in their choreography as she performed her song “Beautiful People.” Everyone got into the crowd-participation dancing as Jessie told everyone to “stand up, turn around, take a bow.” The singer even joked that security could join in. As I’ve mentioned, several of the artists performed covers during their sets today—and who doesn’t love a good cover during a festival set? Jessie Ware’s show was no exception as she performed a rendition of Cher’s hit “Believe,” jumping down from the stage to sing with fans along the barricades.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Meanwhile Bratmobile kept the rock presence alive over on the Blue stage. They brought their riot grrrl songs like “Brat Girl” and “Panik” to the fest. True to the cover-song theme of the day, they also performed a cover of “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Carly Rae Jepsen flipped the switch back to pop over at the Red Stage, entering to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and rocking a sparkling sequin dress. Jepsen’s stage backdrop consisted of a disco ball screen that changed colors depending on the song. Jepsen also set up her songs with some fun stage banter, saying “Are you guys ready to run away with us tonight?” before her hit “Run Away With Me” and joking that she sometimes forgets the words to “Call Me Maybe” so she she’d need the audiences help singing along. The crowd happily obliged to singing and dancing along, and Jepsen also came down from the stage to sing with fans along the barricade.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
The dance party wrapped up the second day of the rest with a headlining set from Jamie xx.
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Check out highlights from the first day of the festival here and stay tuned for the final day.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Friday Highlights
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024 returned to Union Park, kicking off on Friday, July 19th. Although we’ve had storms and heat waves in Chicago in recent weeks, the weather forecast looks great for the entire weekend, and fans were able to start the weekend of festivities with sun and comfortable temperatures to go along with the day-one lineup that included everything from the lofi and laidback Black Duck to amped up electronic acts like 100 gecs and Jai Paul to the soulful rockers Black Pumas.
Around 5:15 PM, DJ and singer Yaeji kicked off the dance party that bounced between the Red and Green stages for the rest of the evening. Flanked by two backup dancers, Yaeji glided across the stage, singing her bilingual lyrics of English and Korean words. A highlight of her set included her most popular song “Raingurl” that features a hypnotic beat and had the whole crowd moving in unison.
Meanwhile over at the Blue Stage, Amen Dunes, which is the musical project of singer-songwriter Damon McMahon, held down the experimental indie rock quota of the festival for the day. The band’s set included a handful of new songs from the album Death Jokes that just came out in May 2024, like “Purple Land” and “Exodus.” Fans also got to hear some familiar favorites like “Miki Dora” from Amen Dunes’ 2018 album Freedom.
Photo by OK Pedersen
Next up, 100 gecs cranked up the energy ten-fold, drawing in a massive crowd to join their rave mosh pit. The duo Dylan Brady and Laura Les kept the crowd smiling and dancing along with their quirky lyrics and outlandish electronic tracks, opening up the show with their song “Dumbest Girl Alive.” Les and Brady also did a great job at setting up their upcoming songs with their witty stage banter—before playing “Frog On The Floor” the duo told the audience to “look to your right, look to your left, now look down and make sure there’s not a frog on the floor!” They also asked the crowd to cheer if they’d ever had a tooth pulled or lost a tooth, adding “let me hear it if you’ve ever gone -1 on a tooth” before they performed “I Got My Tooth Removed.” In addition to all of the dancing I witnessed during 100 gecs, I also spotted my first crowdsurfer of the day during their set.
Photo by Kimberly Ross
Violinist and singer-songwriter Sudan Archives as well as DJ and producer Jai Paul kept the dance parties going at the Blue and Red stages next as we got into some of the final moments of the day one.
Jeff Rosenstock and his band closed out the Blue Stage with my favorite performance of the day, which began with the song “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down playing over the speakers until Rosenstock and his bandmates took their places onstage and finished out playing the song live. From there, the set launched into a feel-good rowdy rock set that was a nice change of pace from the heavily electronic-based music on the lineup. While I spotted one or two crowdsurfers earlier, there were too many to keep track of towards the end of Jeff Rosenstock’s performance— including Jeff himself jumping offstage while playing the saxophone. While the crowd might have been rambunctious, Rosenstock made sure to encourage everyone to remain respectful, asking everyone to say hi to their festival neighbors and keep it a friendly space for others. “Make it a habit throughout the weekend, and if throughout the weekend some fucking dumb dipshit person starts groping the person next to you, and starts getting in their space, just gather the nice people around you and push that person the fuck out of the way so everybody can enjoy the weekend.”
Photo by OK Pedersen
As the sun began to go down, Black Pumas began their soulful rock and roll headlining show over on the main stage to wrap up Friday’s festivities. Their show opened on a high note-literally- as lead vocalist Eric Burton showed off his silky and dynamic vocal range. Burton also took the opportunity to connect and get close to the audience, hopping down from the stage to join the fans on the barricade as he serenaded them. The Black Pumas’ performance made for a great way to ease into some of the more pop-heavy performers that are slated for the rest of Pitchfork Fest.
Photo by Kimberly Ross
Keep an eye out for highlights from Saturday and Sunday of Pitchfork Fest.
Pitchfork Music Festival Kicks Off in Two Weeks
In just two weeks, Pitchfork Music Festival will return to Chicago’s Union Park for three full days on music. Highlights of Friday, July 19th include 100 gecs, Jai Paul, Jeff Rosenstock, and Black Pumas. On Saturday, we’ll dance along to acts like Jessie Ware, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Jamie xx. Sunday closes out the fest with icons like Alanis Morissette, Brittany Howard and MUNA.
You can still grab tickets here, and view the full schedule here.
Get a preview of the festival with the official playlist from Pitchfork below.
Live Recap: Noah Kahan and Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners at The Vic
On the eve of Lollapalooza, I headed to The Vic Theatre to see a Lolla “after” show from Noah Kahan and Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners. Even though some of them take place ahead of the festival, Lolla aftershows are a great chance to catch artists from the festival’s lineup in a much more intimate environment than their fest sets, or even their own tour sets in most cases. Noah Kahan easily could have sold out The Aragon Ballroom or The Salt Shed, but we lucked out seeing him play the smaller Vic Theatre.
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners warmed up the sold out crowd first with their folk-rock sound that complemented Kahan’s sound very well. The group was also slated to perform at Lolla over the weekend, and the lead singer Mitch Cutts told the crowd this was their first time in Chicago. Cutts also mentioned the band had just moved to Seattle from Montana, which is very fitting because their sounds feels heavily influenced by nature and would make for a great hiking soundtrack. Fan favorites from the 45-minute setlist included “Evergreen,” which has become very popular on Tik Tok and Cutts’ described as being “a large part of the reason we’re here,” as well as “Lake Missoula,” which has a version that features Mt.Joy.
After a quick changeover, it was nearly time for Noah Kahan and his bandmates to take the stage, and the venue was packed to the brim with eager fans. His bandmates entered the stage first, taking their places on stage and beginning to play before Kahan ran onstage himself to a greeting of excited cheers. As the band launched into “All My Love” from Kahan’s 2022 album Stick Season, it sounded as if Kahan had hired a choir with a built-in surround sound system because everyone instantly began to sing along. At every concert there’s usually one or two hits where every single person knows the words, but it’s incredibly special when there’s an artist that has an entire set of sing-along songs. The fact that The Vic reverberated with fans singing Kahan’s lyrics back to him is a testament to his songwriting craft—he can not only do an excellent job at storytelling, but his stories are so compelling that they resonate with so many people.
At his Lollapalooza aftershow, Kahan was just a few days out from having to cancel his appearance at Newport Folk Festival the weekend prior due to being ill and vocal strain, but the energy he put into the show wasn’t indicative of a recent illness at all. He not only sounded incredible, but he ran and jumped around the stage, displaying great camaraderie with his bandmates and reciprocating the energy that the audience was radiating.
Singing along to Kahan’s songs is definitely therapeutic in its own way, but the singer also took some time to tell the audience about his own experience with going to therapy between his songs. Before performing “Growing Sideways,” he talked about his first experiences with therapy, saying he used to lie in therapy to try to convince the people around him and himself that he was feeling better. “It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s—I’m only 26, and I know I look like I’ve been divorced— but I’m 26 years old and when I was 23 I started telling the truth and now I’m happier. I wrote a song about the years I spent lying, and it’s called "‘Growing Sideways’” he added. I think it takes a lot of courage to be honest with yourself about your feelings and therapy, but Kahan has been able to share part of his journey with the world and inspire others to continue to take care of their own mental health, which is even more admirable.
As I mentioned, the remainder of the set continued to be sing-along after sing-along, but there were a few moments, during the performance of “Northern Attitude” for example, where the venue literally shook from everyone clapping and singing along. Other highlights of the set included “Dial Drunk” and “Homesick,” which have been all over Tik Tok in the last year. The main part of the set wrapped with the latter, before Kahan and the band returned to play a 3-song encore that ended with the title track from his last album Stick Season.
If you get the chance to see Noah Kahan on tour this year, don’t miss it. It’s good for the soul.
Check out photos of the Lollapalooza aftershow below, and see where you can catch Noah on tour next here.
