The second day of this year's edition of the Lollapalooza Festival offered a string of interesting acts. Here's what I catched:
THE KILLERS
The first thing to notice about them is how outdated they sound and look, a true relic of the mid-2000's that weren't able to survive the female pop wave of the Perrys, Rihannas and Gagas that pretty much sunk mainstream rock for good. The second thing is, what a good band they are. Not exactly the critics' darlings, The Killers made a string of chart smashes that keeps them on the road with their new wave and brought them to a correct performance that are pretty much a reflection of the band: even if they are that good, they're nobody's favorite artists, and for a reason. Even so, songs like "Somebody Told Me”, "All These Things That I've Done", “When We Were Young” (played on piano) and, of course, “Mr. Brightside” remains staples of their time, when bands were revisiting the New Wave and Post-Punk sounds of the early 80’s.
Oh, and they did a killer (pun intended) version of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disarm” as an introduction to “Read My Mind”, their best song. Amazing.
TEGAN AND SARA
Few is left of that indie rock and folk of their beginnings. Now, Tegan and Sara have become Queens Synth Pop and seems like they'll stay that way. On Friday they displayed their many strengths, like a solid songwriting and a great charisma, but also most of their flaws, chief among them they are bland live act, partly because of their flat, uneducated voices that brings the whole performance down, resulting in an unenergetic show, only improving when they grabbed guitars, went acoustic or slowed down the tempo. A shame because the songs are there and the Canadian twins are really good artists.
RUN THE JEWELS
They were SUPERB. Living up to their status of one of the greatest hip hop acts of the decade, the duo composed of veteran rappers El-P and Killer Mike, well, killed it. Performing old-school style: MC's with a DJ behind, but with modern sensibility, they traded fast rhymes and revisited their entire catalog (including "Nobody Speaks", a DJ Shadow song) and drove a devoted audience to madness. It's a luxury that such underground hip hop greats formed a supergroup, and that made them mainstream. Amazing.
PHANTOGRAM
In the eight years since this duo started releasing their first EP's and singles, their music has maintained its intensity and beauty. On stage, they recurred to their experience to complete a good performance, as both Josh Carter (guitar) and Sarah Barthel (keyboards) weren't exactly sharing a great chemistry, with Carter having more of a distant attitude (even if he has a really sweet and sensitive voice) and Barthel, who carried the weight of the entire performance by constantly trying to pump the (relatively cold) crowd, that apparently noticed the disconnection between the duo.
Even then, the songs were there, with Barthel proving the great performer she is. The duo was accompanied by a whole band, including a second guitar player, another keyboardist, a bass player and a drummer and when the band finished I dared to think that, musically, Phantogram and their electronic pop rock could give The XX a run for their money.
CLOUD NOTHINGS
Sorry, the band really tried, but couldn't overcome their many flaws. A huge stage like Lollapalooza strips acts’ skills, and it became clear with Cloud Nothings. They sounded flat, bland and empty, had a lot of mistakes (getting out of tempo, for example) and the songs, to be honest, aren't that good or interesting. The least you should ask for an emo band is to be intense, and they failed by delivering instead a nasty mess by confusing intensity with screaming.
SAN HOLO
San Holo didn't shine as he did at Ultra or Coachella. Probably because his set begun at 1:15, the Dutch DJ and producer delivered a forgettable session, partly because what he produces is average at best, his pseudo-trap-pseudo-brostep-but-totally-pop songs aiming for chart success makes them a bit annoying, and partly because DJ sets works better when it's dark. Part of the reason is that the Perry's stage, dedicated to dance music, is an open stage, pretty much like a rock stage. Lollapalooza should learn from Coachella, that dedicates the Dance Tent, a closed space, to electronic acts.
Yes, people enjoyed the set, but kids that go to dance to electronic music tend to be indulgent.
BLINK-182
They were horrible.
This is no surprise, even on their prime they weren't exactly a powerhouse live. Their fine songwriting doesn't quite translate well to their performances, as they are very limited as playing musicians (other than Travis Barker, that is). With Tom DeLonge now gone for good and with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba replacing him, leaving Matt Hoppus as the sole founding member.
Surprisingly, the band didn't relied heavily on their last 90's-early 2000's work, instead choosing to play way too much of their most recent material (after all, they've recorded a couple of albums with Skiba) and leaving out a lot of DeLonge's songs, a bad decision since it became too boring after a series of unknown, mediocre pop punk songs.
The band, now celebrating their 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album "Dude Ranch" and 18 years since their smash "Enema of the State", but now looking really old (which becomes especially weird when playing "What's My Age Again"), made a disaster. The older songs are good, but for this, one better listened to the albums.
OOKAY
The Sothern California DJ, formerly known as Leisure, made a great set. Inventive, energetic, enjoyable from beginning to end, he showed how seasoned he is by not resorting to cheap tricks to get the audience pumped. His signature trap-meets-brostep style (he even played “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprits” by Skrillex) sounded magnificent and the weather, clouded by the time Ookay took the stage, contributed to the feel-good performance.
Judging by the day’s sets, looks like dubstep could be getting a small comeback.