Winner of Lollapalooza Saturday: JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound.
Whoa. I got to Lolla early this morning so that I could see Doomtree, my pick for best Midwestern collective hip hop group, and I happened to catch the last half of JC Brooks’ set. Brooks has a fun, funky, retro, post-punk, R&B sound going on, and the leading man has the charisma necessary to pull off this odd mixture in spades. My favorite song of the set was “I Got High” which came complete with Brooks’ “weed dance.” Also, unless I was entirely mistaken, I think his Mom was onstage with him playing the tambourine. Love.
Best Midwestern collective hip hop group of Lollapalooza Saturday: Doomtree
Doomtree is a 7 piece hip hop collective that hails from Minnesota. I like the group entirely based on their song “bangarang” which is a reference to the lost boys in the movie Hook. I’m not really sure what else there is to say.
Most “meh” act of Lollapalooza Saturday: Neon Indian.
Neon Indian is a solid synthpop band with a lot of songs that I really enjoy – Polish Girl and Deadbeat Summer being my favorites – but their sound didn’t come across all that well in the live setting for me, and I think this was true for a lot of fans, as quite a few people left the set about three songs in. Their recorded material is crisp and vibrant but live all the songs sounded muddled and a little vague. To be fair though, things were starting to pick up halfway through when Neon Indian had to leave the stage because of thunderstorm warnings.
Loser of Lollapalooza Saturday: Me.
Really Lollapalooza? Really?? If you evacuate Grant Park for a thunderstorm and then at 6:25 tell us that you’re starting again at 6:30 you know what happens? I end up missing Fun. and my day is ruined. First world problems.