Lollapalooza couldn’t have gotten off to a better start on Thursday. Nearly every hour of the day had an incredible act taking one of the many Lolla stages. With the incredible lineup on Thursday at Grant Park, we had to make some tough decisions, but are excited to share reviews from the sets we got to see. Our day started with Last Dinosaurs and a portion of Midwxst, but since we didn’t see the entire set they won’t get a full review, but both were excellent.
Sam Fender
Fans at Lollapalooza got to see another side of Sam Fender on the Lolla stage. The British singer-songwriter was robbed of nearly 30 minutes of his set due to technical difficulties. However despite calling “the biggest shamble,” Fender remained patient and rolled with the punches. The star, who has been praised by the likes of Adele and Elton John began his bet solo as his crew sorted out the technical issues. The song he chose was a stripped back version of Bruce Springsteen’s hit ‘Dancing in the Dark,’ which slowed down brought an extra cool vibe to the Tito’s Handmade Vodka stage.
His band eventually did join him on stage and the crowd with the remaining time was happy to hear Fender play hits like ‘Getting Started,’ ‘Seventeen Going Under,’ and more. The Mercury Prize nominated artist made up for every second of lost time on his set with an show stopping performance.
Petey
Petey is no stranger to entertaining crowds on his popular TikTok account where he boasts over 1.4 million followers, but his band stole the show on the Discord stage. I discovered Petey’s music earlier this year and became an instant fan, but seeing it live added an extra element. The band who hails from nearby in Chicago played an electric set. Petey shined as a vocalist with some incredible screams and the entire stage presence was fantastic.
The band was backed by incredible visuals starting with a semi truck backing the band’s newest single ‘Big Bad!’ The track was a perfect start to the festival set. Then the visual changed to a montage of Summer Olympics swimming highlights. Petey told the crowd that the visual was basically a crutch to prop the band up if they sucked, but the band didn’t suck. They shredded. Their set had it all. Truly magic guitar riffs, incredible lyrics, an legit rock-n-roll show, and not to mention laughs as the band settled a years long bet from when they were younger going to Lollapalooza and a bet that resulted in one member of the band getting kicked out for backstroking at Lollapalooza. Now as Team USA was backstroking their way to Olympic gold on their visual, Petey was springboarding itself to a must see rock band.
100 Gecs
Performances like 100 Gecs are some of music festival’s biggest joys. The music sounds like those of the old computer games I would play when my teacher was looking the other way in the computer lab in school but there is a sort of magic in the absurdity. 100 Gecs put on a show. Fans shuffled in from all over the festival grounds to watch 100 Gecs all sporting a smile on their face. Then as their live show came on and they played songs like ‘Money Machine,’ ‘Doritos & Fritos,’ and ‘Stupid Horse’ the smiles only got bigger. The St. Louis duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady have brought this truly unique style of creation and brought it artisticly to a major festival stage in a way that garners major applause and joy as they jump around to the catchy tracks. It was a treat to see.
Remi Wolf
Anywhere Remi Wolf plays, Road Trip Playlists will try to follow. Remi is a star. Her and her band shine on stage wherever they were at. Thursday at Lollapalooza the band treated the festival crowd to Christmas in July. Backed with a Christmas Village of blow-up lawn decorations bearing a Christmas Tree, Frosty the Snowman, and more the band took the stage to Mariah Carey’s iconic ‘All I Want For Christmas’ with each of them sporting Christmas hats. Remi later in the show gifted the crowd with the shoes she came in with but also gifted them with a highly energetic and joyous set on the Discord stage at Lollapalooza.
Metallica
Any time a band as iconic as Metallica is gracing a festival stage you almost have to stroll through to pay some respect. The fact that a band that has been around and achieved as much as Metallica has was taking the T-Mobile Stage at Grant Park felt unreal. James Hetfield himself even noted how unreal it was for the band to be taking the Lollapalooza stage .
“Forty-one years to still be up here kicking your asses and you still kicking ours … we were born to do this and we’re glad we’re still doing it.” Hetfield said. The frontman continued asking how many first-timers were in the crowd for Metallica, the band famously shut down gatekeeping fans after its rise in popularity from being included in the hit show Stranger Things. A rather large number of hands flew up among the crowd to which Hetfield replied “where have you been?”
After Thursday at Lollapalooza it doesn’t matter where those fans had been because after that they were part of a truly special performance. The band played all that new and old fans would want to hear with their hits like ‘Whiplash’ followed by ‘Creeping Death,’ and ‘Enter Sandman,’ and more for a totally raucous set.