Monday, August 10, 2009 1:05PM - By Andy Keil
The Killers brought Vegas to the masses last night as they closed out the 13th Lollapalooza festival under Chicago’s skyline. Fake palm trees, neon lights, and flashy visuals turned the Chicago 2016 into Sin City for just under an hour and a half as Brandon Flowers belted out hits like “Human”, “Spaceman”, and the obvious “Mr. Brightside”. With a heat index over 100-degrees and hard packed dirt on the fields of Grant Park, the charade was almost convincing. Flowers conducted the synth-pop pageant in his feather shouldered suit and a newfound confidence in his performance.
Check out more about the show and the set list below…
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Monday, August 10, 2009 12:55PM - By Andy Keil
As the sun crept it’s way behind Chicago’s skyline, hometown heroes Rise Against took to the main stage at Lollapalooza to infuse a little punk into the crowds staking claim to spots for the night’s prog-rock headliner, Tool. Tim McIlrath and crew started off with a bang with new song “Collapse” before heading into a more intense “State of the Union” from their breakthrough record Siren Song of the Counter Culture.
Check out more about the show and the setlist below… Continue Reading
Monday, August 10, 2009 12:49PM - By Andy Keil
The rain and clouds from Friday gave way to heat and humidity as Saturday of Lollapalooza rolled around with a day full of new artists. Thanks to the nice weather, crowd sizes seemed to grow substantially adding precious minutes to the walk between stages. The grounds crew deserves a big shout-out for taking care on 95% of the mud left over from Friday’s rain showers; the shoes of countless hipsters have been saved, no doubt.
Saturday started off for us with Atmosphere at 2:45pm at the Chicago 2016 stage. Check out the review and setlist below…
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Monday, August 10, 2009 12:40PM - By Andy Keil
Yeah Yeah Yeahs took the Budweiser stage at Lollapalooza 8:30pm. Bringing in Karen O. and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a last minute replacement for the Beastie Boys proved to be a great choice as fans split almost exactly in half for the night’s two headliners. Karen O. marched out onstage in a colorful headdress giving the crowd a gruff “what’s up Chicago!” before launching into “Runaway”. The dance party didn’t really start until “Heads Will Roll” which got nearly the entire crowd jumping by the first “Off off off with your head; dance dance dance ‘til you’re dead.”
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Monday, August 10, 2009 12:00PM - By Andy Keil
Reckless, energetic, intense are just a few words that come to mind when describing Cage The Elephant’s outstanding live show at Lollapalooza. The Kentucky 5-piece got things started in the heat of the day but the loose guitars and lead singer Matt Schultz’s yelping and screaming helped the fans take their mind off the heat for a little while. Just watching Schultz run around every inch of the stage about gave me heat stroke. He climbed speakers, stood on top of the crowd, and even crawled up the stage banner all before their 45-minute set was up. If anyone left the citi stage unhappy it’s because they don’t have an appreciation for raw energy.
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Saturday, August 8, 2009 5:15PM - By Andy Keil
New York City’s The Virgins are no strangers to festivals. Having played All Points West back in 2008 along with the SXSW festival in the same year, they seemed to feel right at home at Lollapalooza. Playing on the Citi stage lead signer Donald Cumming was the most lively making full use of the stage while dancing around the stage in his bare feet.
Read more about their onstage antics after the jump.
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Saturday, August 8, 2009 4:30PM - By Andy Keil
After being cut from Sunday’s lineup in their own backyard at All Points West, Gaslight Anthem was able to take to the main stage (Chicago 2016) overlooking the Chicago skyline…not quite the same as New York. Brian Fallon and cohorts kicked the day off right starting with “High Lonesome” working their way into “Old White Lincoln,” and then giving the rain-soaked fans a taste of that “’59 Sound.”
More on their performance after the jump!
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Saturday, August 8, 2009 10:29AM - By Andy Keil
Kings of Leon played to a very different Lollapalooza than they’ve played in the past. Instead of the ten or so fans that Caleb mentioned during the festivals traveling days and the mediocre afternoon crowd back in 2007, they played to roughly 40,000 screaming fans as one of this years six headliners opposite the park from Depeche Mode. With a headlining spot, the brothers (plus cousin) got to really dig into their catalog this time and pulled plenty of songs from all four of their discs which pleased both avid and casual fans. Caleb mentioned that Chicago is one of his most favorite cities in the world, “so I’m gonna get drunk tonight,” he remarked. I have a feeling he wasn’t sipping on wine up there…
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Friday, August 7, 2009 11:13AM - By Andy Keil
The beginning of August means only one thing in Chicago, Perry Farrell’s 13th annual Lollapalooza in the city’s beautiful Grant Park. While the 2009 headliners Kings of Leon, Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs don’t quite live up to 2008′s which included: Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Wilco, Kanye West, and Nine Inch Nails, the mid-level acts at this years festival lend to an entire day of musical enjoyment so you don’t have to wait ’til the sun goes down to get your groove on.
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