Holla for Lolla
I introduced Lollapalooza Chile in my previous post, and – as promised – here’s my rundown of the most amazing, mind-blowing, out-of-this-world music festival ever. To properly cover all aspects of Lolla, however, I need to write two posts: one dedicated the musical acts, and one outlining my own personal experience at the festival. So, let’s start with the music.
The first performer we saw on Saturday was Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. We were super excited for his hit “Home,” and he did not disappoint. Despite the crowded, sweaty, stuffy tent the band performed in, we were happy campers and loving their soothing, relaxing tunes. From there, we rushed to a different arena (much bigger), where we caught the end of Empire of the Sun – just in time to hear “Thrill of It.” Empire of the Sun were born to perform, as their costumes – white, flowy linen robes, topped off with giant golden masks – attracted enough attention on their own. The music sounded perfect, and the dancers surrounding them donned gold body suits and writhed their way around the stage, making quite the spectacle.
Fatboy Slim
The next couple acts I absolutely NEED to cover basically deserve several posts of their own, but I’ll keep it short and sweet. Fatboy Slim was clearly the standout of the night (or maybe the festival? Bold statement, I know). He performed in the same massive indoor arena as Empire of the Sun and set up his impressive DJ equipment at the front of the stage. He had three giant screens behind him, projecting a loop of bizarre, trippy, colorful images throughout his set. Although the visuals were amazing (there were flashing lights, too!), I was most astounded by his sheer energy. Fatboy (yes, I will shorten his name to “Fatboy”) is not a young guy – in fact, he is well into his 50s and is a skinny, white British guy – but ohmyGAWD can he get a stadium moving. He approached his DJ stand with confidence and poise, and stood in front of it, arms outstretched, for a solid minute while the crowd went wild. He then played a clip of his ‘90s hit “Praise You,” which drove the crowd into even wilder shenanigans. He THEN segued into a clip demanding all his followers put their hands in the air, and the tone for the rest of the show was set – from then on, there was not a soul sitting down, or a dry eye in the house (kidding about that part kinda, but it almost moved me to tears).
I was a tad frustrated by The Killers’ performance, as they ended their show a half hour early – not okay. This meant I only caught the last song (“When We Were Young”), due to the unexpected greatness of Fatboy’s show, which was at the same time and pretttty darn hard to leave. Their stage was set up outside, and it was relatively hard to maneuver your way to the front, so we were content towards the back. While their sound was good, and hearing the familiar song was fun, they did not have a very dynamic stage presence – and it showed by the less-than-enthused crowd.
Moving on, I was also a tad frustrated with Armin van Buuren’s performance. Many of my friends disagree, but I expected more of the number one DJ in the world. I was surprised that he didn’t play some of his more popular songs and downright shocked by his lack of a solid lightshow. He had a few powerful green lasers that shot around the arena – which were actually pretty cool – but other than that he had no visuals whatsoever. We had a blast dancing to his songs, but were ready to leave about halfway through when it was time for KANYE.
Kanye West
I have few words to describe the perfection that was Kanye West’s performance. Despite the jerk that the tabloids make him out to be, he certainly does live up to the hype. It amazed me how one single guy, on this larger-than-life stage in front of thousands of people, could make such an impact. He wore his infamous red leather two-piece suit and completed his outfit with a series of gold chains and his signature shades. He moved around the stage like it was his domain and had the audience going ballistic – girls were on guys’ shoulders, and the guys beneath the girls were jumping manically (kind of dangerous but whateva). Two screens were set up on either side of the stage to maximize Kanye’s visibility, and the spotlight never left his being. He knew how to work the audience and played a perfect mix of his old crowd-pleasers and his new stuff. Kanye’s show ended the festival on a high note (pun intended, haha), and we were left basking in his glory for the rest of the weekend.