Waka Flocka Brings some Gangsta to Big Gigantic's Lollapalooza Set
Big Grams was too equal, Oliver Heldens was the real thing, and Slumberjack drew Disclosure fans on Day 3 of Lollapalooza.
As the sun finally peered through the clouds for the first time this weekend, tens of thousands of Lollapalooza patrons lined up on Michigan Avenue in Chicago Friday. When I got to Grant Park, I could not even see the entrance from the back of the line. There was a mass of thousands of people of all converging on the security checkpoint. The wait time to get into the festival was an all-time high at 90 minutes, and when I finally entered Lollapalooza, I quickly made my way over to Samsung stage to see Big Grams (Big Boi from Outkast, and Phantogram). This performance was everything I expected it to be: Big Grams songs with Phantogram and Outkast songs mixed in. The crowd went crazy when an Outkast beat dropped, but sometimes seemed let down when the chorus was replaced by a Phantogram song. Because Big Grams was heavy on mashups, this happened a number of times throughout the performance.
Next, I went over to Perry's stage to see if the hype surrounding Oliver Heldens is justified. At the beginning of his set, he surprised me by not playing only the songs that everyone knows but dropping beats that no one had heard yet. It gave his set a dynamic feel, and he managed a good future house set.
After seeing their show at Shaky Beats in Atlanta earlier this summer, I was sold on Big Gigantic's style of producing. They are known for using a actual drums and saxophone accompaniment, and when the duo came on, it was a nice transition from the ruckus incited by the upbeat house vibes of Oliver Heldens' show. Big G brought out Waka Flocka during their set to perform "Hard In The Paint" and "Gangsta Party". This show had tons of energy and was my favorite of the night.
As the sun was setting, I decided to see Slumberjack at Petrillo Bandshell. Slumberjack is an Australian duo that produces future bass and trap, and their drops were some of the best I heard all weekend. Slumberjack drew a huge crowd including people who were waiting at another stage for Disclosure, one of the night's headliners. When Disclosure finally performed, they opened with "White Noise" followed by "F For You". Brendan Reily and Kwabs made guest appearances, which added a little more "wow" factor to the show, but they did not measure up to the Sam Smith or Lorde appearances that many people were expecting. Overall, Saturday had a special vibe about it, and each performance left me with a good feeling.
For day three of Lollapalooza, the Chicago Tribune's coverage was less specifically electronic than ours.
