Filtering by Tag: Lollapalooza
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.
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.
PHOTOS: MUNA and Meet Me at the Altar at Thalia Hall
Last week, MUNA performed to a sold out Thalia Hall for a Lollapalooza after show, also featuring Meet Me at the Altar. See the photo recap of the evening below, and see where you can catch MUNA next here.
Live Recap: The Wombats and Last Dinosaurs at House of Blues
Lollapalooza week kicked off with some pre-fest after shows, including The Wombats and Last Dinosaurs on Tuesday, July 26th at the House of Blues.
Last Dinosaurs is an Australian rock band, consisting of Sean Caskey, Lachlan Caskey, Michael Sloane, and Dan Koyama. The band warmed up the crowd for The Wombats, joking that it was fitting because “The Wombats are near and dear as an Australian animal.” Throughout their set, I noticed many fans throughout the venue singing along to songs like “Zoom,” “Apollo,” and “Italo Disco,” which the band introduced by saying “If you have any Italian descent, this one goes out to you.” Last Dinosaurs has a new album coming out November 4th called From Mexico With Love, which you can preorder here.
Next up, The Wombats took the stage to a very packed venue of fans ready to dance and sing along to their entire set. The trio consisting of Matthew “Murph” Murphy, Tord Øverland Knudsen, and Dan Haggis had toured earlier this year in support of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not the World, so it was fitting that their show kicked off with two newer songs from that record— “Flip Me Upside Down” and “This Car Drives All by Itself.” From the get-go, Murph and Knudsen unleashed their infectious energy, bouncing around the stage as they played. Before transitioning to a throwback track “Moving To New York,” Murph told the crowd that he “wished this song was about Chicago,” but nevertheless, the Chicagoans still went wild for the song, making the House of Blues floor literally shake from all their jumping.
The set continued to weave through The Wombats’ expansive catalog, including a few songs from 2015’s Glitterbug. As a preface for “Pink Lemonade,” Murph said “I sing a lot about fruits… lemons… this song is the first one about a lemon tonight. The pink lemon.” The other lemony song is of course “Lemon to a Knife Fight,” which comes from 2018’s Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. The band’s good humor came through several other times during the show— about half way through, they broke out into an impromptu muzak tangent, which got a loud reaction to the crowd. “That’s very kind of you, you did not need to applaud for that,” the band replied.
The evening truly felt like a much-needed escape from everything going on in the outside world, and Murph further facilitated that release by asking the crowd to raise their hands and give him an “end of the world scream” before the performance of “Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)” from The Modern Glitch.
The Wombats played their hit “Greek Tragedy” as their “pretend last song” before returning for a 3-song encore that pulled from songs old and new. During the official last song “Turn,” even people in the way back of the venue were dancing with massive smiles on their face. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again— it’s literally impossible to be sad at a Wombats show.
See photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch The Wombats on the road next here.
PHOTOS: Noga Erez and Brittany Howard at Thalia Hall
This past Saturday night, Lollapalooza artists Noga Erez and Brittany Howard commanded the stage for their sold out Thalia Hall aftershow. Check out the full gallery of the captivating show below and take a look at all upcoming Thalia Hall shows here.
PHOTOS: Taylor Janzen and Orville Peck at Thalia Hall
This past Wednesday night, Lollapalooza weekend kicked off early with a show from the festival’s performers Taylor Janzen and Orville Peck at Thalia Hall. Check out photos from the sold out show below, and take a look at more upcoming shows at Thalia Hall here.
