{"id":10676,"date":"2016-07-29T13:31:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T18:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=10676"},"modified":"2016-07-30T15:14:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T20:14:58","slug":"highlight-review-day-one-lollapalooza-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=10676","title":{"rendered":"Thursday: Day One Lollapalooza 2016 Highlights Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kurt Vile & the Violators-<\/strong> When Kurt Vile initially toured to support his latest solo endeavor,\u00a0B\u2019lieve I\u2019m Down,\u00a0<\/i>he primarily focused on the acoustic elements of his performance. This direction suited his pair of dates at Thalia Hall last October, since it\u2019s an intimate venue that can donate the silence needed to fully digest their introspective nature. That atmosphere is more difficult to capture in a festival environment, though. In an interview with 93XRT at Lollapalooza on Thursday, Vile confirmed that, stating, “The songs that seem kind of simple, they\u2019re deceptively tough to play live.”<\/p>\n

\"Kurt<\/p>\n

As a result, Vile and his Violators assembled a setlist of their loudest rock songs that showed off the sound system of the Petrillo Music Shell very well. Vile never took a solo acoustic moment during the set, but showed off a variety of tracks from many of his albums, even some material released before his breakthrough album\u00a0Smoke Ring for My Halo\u00a0<\/i>drew critical acclaim in 2011. The set\u2019s most peaceful moment, \u201cGoldtone\u201d, satisfied the gloomy atmosphere from the rain storm and gave the audience an opportunity to explore the \u201cdeep, dark depths of [their] soul tones.\u201d He dedicated its craziest moment \u201cto all of the kids out there\u201d with \u201cFreak Train\u201d, a track that abandons Vile\u2019s chill demeanor for a crazed and whacky one.<\/p>\n

AlunaGeorge<\/strong>– If you take a look at the press for AlunaGeorge\u2019s new album,\u00a0I Remember<\/i>, George is nowhere to be see in most press photos, aside from the ambiguous male silhouette on its album cover. That absence was also observed during their Lollapalooza performance Thursday afternoon, but Aluna and her live band played an impressive and dancey set to distract you from focusing on the small details.<\/p>\n

\"AlunaGeorge<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aluna\u2019s new artistic direction shows her off as a strong, independent woman that’s \u201cin control\u201d, and her voice successfully towered over the loud EDM beats built into many songs from\u00a0I Remember<\/i>. The electronic focus surely appeased Lollapalooza attendees and shows that she\u2019s capturing a perfect market for her next album, given her most successful collaboration to date on Disclosure\u2019s \u201cWhite Noise\u201d. Her live band fueled these beats with enough life to create an entertaining live performance, which included a live drummer, keyboardist\/DJ (most likely George\u2019s tour replacement), and two dancers who twerked during many of her celebratory girl-power anthems.<\/p>\n

One odd piece of the performance were Aluna\u2019s performance of tracks from\u00a0Body Music<\/i>, AlunaGeorge\u2019s debut album. \u201cAttracting Flies\u201d and \u201cYou Know You Like It\u201d were performed using the DJ Snake and Baauer remixes, respectively, which makes this writer assume that their original compositions may be lost in the past. While nothing is confirmed of George\u2019s involvement with the group, let\u2019s hope his sexy R&B production will still be apart of the duo\u2019s excellent pop direction in the future.<\/p>\n

Cashmere Cat<\/strong>– Even though Lollapalooza was often celebrated for being a premiere rock music festival in the past, this year\u2019s lineup show\u2019s that the tables have turned in favor of EDM. It seemed like an EDM act graced the stages of Thursday lineup for a majority of the day. Not every act was loaded with gnarly bass drops, though, and Cashmere Cat played a fun set that explored a variety of electronic moods.<\/p>\n

\"Cashmere<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As black-and-white videos of gorgeous mountains and hidden caves played on the screen behind him, Cashmere Cat played tracks by TNGHT, PartyNextDoor, Arianna Grande, and Kanye West (he produced the Arianna and Kanye tracks). The most impressive piece of the set was how he manipulated \u201cWolves\u201d and \u201cWaves\u201d from West\u2019s recent album,\u00a0The Life of Pablo<\/i>. The opening vocal line from \u201cWolves\u201d was twisted into many different keys to accommodate the new beats Cashmere Cat included in the mix and served as one of the most memorable elements of his set.<\/p>\n

Lana Del Rey<\/strong>– In the nine years I have attended Lollapalooza, Lana Del Rey is the slowest headliner I have ever seen take the stage as a headliner, and for that, it was stunning. Lana is an artist built on her natural calm and beauty, and everything about her set allowed those elements to glow and be admired in a new way.<\/p>\n

Considering these peaceful elements, Del Rey\u2019s headlining set required more focus than the evening\u2019s other artists to fully absorb and appreciate. She sings like she breathes\u2014 she performs effortlessly, even when she explores the very lows and high of her range. Her song’s lyrics of \u201csummertime sadness\u201d, heartbreak, and unique femininity definitely didn\u2019t pick up the mood of the crowd, but it seemed like everyone was okay with ending the night on a sullen note.<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The movement on stage was also beautiful and sexy, which was simply built. Del Rey and her back-up singers exhibited sexy hip swaying and seductive hand movements that caressed the air as they would their lovers. The backing band provided the stage presence to keep the stage alive, since Del Rey stood on stage as if she were a piece of still art.<\/p>\n

Subtlety also help Lana Del Rey define the higher points of the set. There were only two upbeat tracks, one in the middle featuring some sexy booty shaking, and the other at the end to help her set end on a high note. The crowd went wild when she picked up a guitar for \u201cYayo\u201d, where she stood on stage alone and required the most silence, and \u201cVideo Games\u201d.<\/p>\n

Del Rey ultimately rewarded her fans for some needed patience at the end of her set, where she spent five minutes taking selfies and signing autographs for fans in the front row. Even though she isn\u2019t most fitting artist to headline a festival loaded with partying acts, she rewarded them and everyone in attendance with the most sincere of thank-yous and a luxuriously alluring air in Grant Park.<\/p>\n

-Sam Willett \/\u00a0(photo’s courtesy, Lollapalooza)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kurt Vile & the Violators- When Kurt Vile initially toured to support his latest solo endeavor,\u00a0B\u2019lieve I\u2019m Down,\u00a0he primarily focused on the acoustic elements of his performance. This direction suited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}