By Christopher David<\/p>\n
We must have done something right, Chicago, as the weather for Day 1 of Lollapalooza was perhaps the best it’s ever been, and it was a beautiful way to kick off 2022 with a solid lineup of bands that followed.<\/p>\n
First up was Last Dinosaurs, an Australian quartet who I\u2019m ashamed to have not heard prior to Thursday\u2019s stellar set on the Bud Light Seltzer stage.\u00a0 Cruising though an effortless forty-five minute set of bouncy, catchy tunes, vocalist\/guitarist Sean Caskey paused at one point to take in the crowd. \u00a0\u201cThis is our first festival in the states, and it\u2019s fucking Lollapalooza!\u201d He laughed, before launching into \u201cCollect Call\u201d from the band\u2019s forthcoming record From Mexico With Love<\/em>. Calling to mind the breezy hooks of Two Door Cinema Club and The Kooks, Last Dinosaurs offered a perfect start to a summer festival.<\/p>\n The crowd amassed for Sam Fender had to feel a little bit of pain, as the UK star\u2019s set was thirty minutes shorter than planned due to technical difficulties.\u00a0 The show did go on, as Fender finally took it upon himself to conjure a semi-solo setlist that began with a cover of Springsteen\u2019s \u201cDancing in the Dark\u201d and offered something a little different than what folks were expecting, given the loss of stage equipment and (presumably) a considerable shift in setlist.\u00a0 Fender\u2019s blend of radio-friendly pop and a heavy nod to the previously noted Jersey boy is a blast of fresh air\u2014an un-ironic lean back into classic rock n\u2019 roll complete with a sax player.\u00a0 Fender seemingly gets bigger with every passing week\u2014don\u2019t be surprised if he\u2019s much higher on the Lolla bill in a few years.<\/p>\n Inhaler, a Dublin quartet fronted by Elijah Hewson (the eldest son of a certain Irish, sunglasses-wearing mega-star), were in top form and continued the wave of indie-pop\/rock bands from across both ponds.\u00a0 Their most recent album, 2021\u2019s It Won\u2019t Always Be Like This<\/em>, is a tightly wound slab of radio-ready indie rock; while U2 comparisons are likely inevitable (and to be fair, the Hewson vocal style is unmistakable), Inhaler\u2019s sound is fresh but familiar, and tracks like \u201cMy Honest Face\u201d and \u201cWhen It Breaks\u201d are grand slams of bright melodies and crisp synths\u2014a letter-perfect live set in every way.<\/p>\n While metal is rarely the focus at Lollapalooza, Thursday had a one-two punch for the metalheads.\u00a0 Apart from the obvious headliners, the day belonged to Lorna Shore, the Jersey-based deathcore quintet who have also been on the rise in recent months thanks to vocalist Will Ramos\u2019 insane vocal range that sounds like all the devils in Hell shouting at once.\u00a0 Taking the BMI stage to a massive crowd, the circle pit that ensued would have made any metal band proud, as the band tore through \u201cTo the Hellfire\u201d and new single \u201cCursed to Die.\u201d\u00a0 Ramos and Co. are a band to watch\u2014despite the seemingly radio-unfriendly sound, you may not have many more chances to see them a stage as small as BMI in the future.<\/p>\n And of course\u2026what more can be said about the biggest metal band in the world, particularly when their backdrop is Lake Michigan and one of the most picturesque spots in Chicago?\u00a0 Metallica brought all the energy and crunch one would expect, opening with the speedy licks of \u201cWhiplash\u201d and\u201cCreeping Death,\u201d setting the tone for the night.\u00a0 James Hetfield\u2019s voice and overall look have really sharpened in the last few years; \u201cPapa Het\u201d seems to be happily settling into his elder statesman role in the rock and metal world.\u00a0 The rarely played \u201cDirty Window\u201d was a brief jaunt into deep-cut territory, and while some of the band\u2019s forays into the depths of their catalog at European festivals would have been a welcome treat for the die-hards, maybe it didn\u2019t matter so much on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWho here is seeing Metallica for the first time?\u201d Hetfield asked only a few songs into their set, and the sea of hands in response was heartening to see\u2014certainly Metallica has fully weathered a generational shift that will carry their torch for decades to come, and tracks like \u201cFor Whom The Bell Tolls,\u201d the immortal \u201cMaster of Puppets,\u201d and \u201cMoth Into Flame\u201d brought Day 1 to a triumphant close.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Christopher David We must have done something right, Chicago, as the weather for Day 1 of Lollapalooza was perhaps the best it’s ever been, and it was a beautiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47438,"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-47437","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\/47437","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}