Lollapalooza Closes Out the Summer in Style

Any hardcore festie knows that all-day extravaganzas don't end with the headliner's encore. As Lolla heads navigated out of Grant Park and back toward Michigan Avenue each night, there was an electro-heavy schedule of ... More »

Forget about the music for a minute. One of the best things about a music festival is the food. Think about it: you can get almost anything at a music festival. Gyro? Yes. Burrito? Yes. Corn on a cob on a stick? Yes. Now put ... More »

Los Campesinos is really into their own music. But who can blame them? The indie pop band from Cardiff, Wales plays wonderfully intelligent indie pop music that's dark as it is light, serious as it is goofy. To listen to them ... More »

Lollapalooza is a fest that spans so many genres, you can't expect them to be masters of every domain. Lolla came out strong in the world of rock n' roll and swingin' in the genre of electronic and dance music. As for hip hop ... More »

Highly energetic and unapologetically dark, The Builders and the Butchers is a new band out of the Pacific Northwest. We hear the sun doesn't shine a lot out there, and while listening to The Builders and the Butchers it ... More »

If there's any one unified complaint I've noticed from Chicago area music journalists against Lollapalooza, it's this – Not enough Chi-town representation. Without jumping on the bandwagon, might we make a helpful ... More »

All weekend long we were guests to Perry Farrell's outrageous fiesta in the heart of Chicago. It'd just be rude to leave before the host has had a chance to entertain, right? But at the end of a scorching hot day, the night ... More »

The Raveonettes play dark, fun music reminiscent of '60s surf rock. It's those light underpinnings that lift The Raveonettes' music from the dark and dismal worlds their songs create, which are downright bleak, if ... More »

On Friday afternoon at Lollapalooza, Asher Roth took to the stage and announced that weed was legal at the festival. Blunts and joints were duly waved in the air, and there was not a security guard or cop in sight. Sunday ... More »

If you haven't heard of Miike Snow you have most likely heard their handy work. Two of the groups three members, Pontus Winnberg and Kristian Carlsson, produced Britney Spears' 2004 hit "Toxic." But don't expect to hear ... More »

Every festival this summer has had a rock pioneer. ROTHBURY wheeled out Bob Dylan; Bonnaroo booked the boss Bruce Springsteen; well, Lollapalooza countered with Lou Reed. The former member of the Velvet ... More »

Portugal. The Man is not a country or a man. It's a really great rock and roll band originally from a little town called Wasilla. It wasn't until after they left Alaska for Portland, Oregon that the band really caught fire, ... More »

What exactly is "indie" music? Of course "indie" stands for independent, but independent from what? Big corporate record labels? Maybe in theory, but not in practice. There are plenty of "indie" bands signed to ... More »

Lollapalooza is quite possibly the only summer music festival with something for the kiddies - the Kidzapalooza area and stage. Kidzapalooza provided a G-Rated place for kids to rock, relax and create ... More »

Kaskade is the purveyor of accessible, radio-friendly, highly danceable electronic music. If you're not that into electronic music, but like to boogie down, you'll probably get along pretty well with Kaskade's dance ... More »

As the first flocks of festies entered the park Friday by the thousands, ponchos and umbrellas filled the grounds and a color selection of pinwheels and plastic kept the Lolla kids dry. Over by Perry's, Bob Rifo's Bloody ... More »

When Rum Bum first met Joe Pug in Denver at the Mile High Music Festival, he seemed like a clean cut and quiet boy next door. In Chicago, his adopted hometown, he was more in his element and opened up to us about the ... More »

Walking along Michigan Avenue early Friday afternoon, there was no telling what Lollapalooza's electro experience would have in store. From the main entrance, the rain drizzled, the clouds darkened and shiny, fresh kicks aged ... More »

At times, like in their slow, melodic meditation, "Low Man" Alberta Cross sounds like the perfect southern rock band. At others, like in the driving "ATX" they're the perfect club band – a White Stripes for the headbanging ... More »

Probably the most analog of all the bands at Lollapalooza, Blind Pilot plays perfect rainy day music and perfect road music. In fact, you can almost hear the road in their music. That probably has a lot to do with the ... More »

Neko Case played a blissful sixty-minute set during a blistering hot Sunday afternoon at Lollapalooza. Downtown Chicago provided a perfect backdrop for this hometown, honky-tonk, independent, crooner. Neko's presence brings ... More »

Straight outta the Chicago club scene, electro pop duo He Say She Say brought their genre-bending antics to Perry's to wide acclaim. The band, a collaboration between the classically trained Drea Smith and DJ / producer ... More »

It was around 5:15 p.m. Saturday afternoon when a massive traffic jam impeded thousands of attendees from moving in any direction. We were all going nowhere fast, and one Santi White, A.K.A. Santigold was about to kick off ... More »

Fun, sexy, and girly, Ke$ha makes the kind of pop they like to play on the radio for three solid months. It's party music, or rather, pregame music. If you're a pregaming partier, you'll listen to it as you try on yet another ... More »

The biggest mistake many Lollagaggers made on Saturday - getting to Grant Park late in the afternoon. Those early to arrive did have to contend with searing afternoon heat, sure. But the rewards came with sweet music, ... More »

It might be hard to tell from the video, but Amazing Baby really is amazingly talented. At the risk of sounding like a teenager circa 1986, their music totally rocks. Totally. And in a very good way. The band's sound is ... More »

Saturday's crowd at Lollapalooza put Friday's to shame. An unceasing drizzle and the pressures of a typical work week kept the crowds at bay on the opening day of Lollapalooza. But Saturday it was steamy, sticky, and ... More »

Crookers makes progressive house for people really into progressive house. Which is to say that their music isn't for everyone, even people who dig electronica. Their remixes, on the other hand, like the one they did of Kid ... More »

Depeche Mode headlined a drizzly Day One of Lollapalooza, playing a two hour set filled with seventeen popular, and not so popular, songs. The crowd that had hung on through the dreary, chilly, evening conditions hung on ... More »

You know that phenomenon that occurs when you're sitting at a street light with your windows down, playing your tunes, and someone else is sitting at the same street light with the windows down, playing their tunes? ... More »

Word has been traveling fast that Kings of Leon is the next best thing to break into the rock 'n' roll scene. The band of brothers (plus one cousin) didn't have to prove these words true Friday night at Lollapalooza, the ... More »

Frat-boy rapper Asher Roth took the stage at Lollapalooza for a fast forty minute set during drizzly Day One of Lollapalooza. The 24-year old newbie, wearing USC Trojan gym shorts and a tee-shirt, looked out of place on ... More »

The humble band that stands before you is the skilled, tight, rock and roll band from Montreal, Canada known as the Sam Roberts Band. Listening to their music you have to wonder how there was ever any doubt of ... More »

I came to the Of Montreal performance at Lollapalooza not knowing what to expect - besides the unexpected. Of Montreal is one of those bands people speak about as an "experience." Lead singer Kevin Barnes is a consummate ... More »

Chicago might be a big city but it feels like a small town when it comes to its music scene. It's so small, in fact, that you can connect the dots to make up your own Chi-town music triangle. See, Yello Fever's Jobot ... More »

It always seems that fests pass way too quickly, and things were no different on the final leg of our adventures in Lollaland.

After another late night out with new friends and great after-hours, Lollers ... More »

There's no better city in the summer than Chicago.

Somewhere between the chaos of New York and the nirvana of San Francisco lies our kind-a town, Chicago. Chi-town with its ‘L’ lines. Chi-town: city of ... More »