One thing I forgot about Lollapalooza was how communal it actually is. Sure, the majority of people are high schoolers or college students looking to enjoy some of their favorite artists performances, but there are also much more than that. Within 10 minutes of entering the festival, I saw both someone pushing around a stroller, and someone else who had to be in their late 60s. That doesn't even account for the eight year old kids I saw rapping along to Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion, and Young Thug over the course of the fest, or the old lady that had to be pushed in a wheelchair from stage to stage. Maybe it was the three generation family playing bocce ball, or the young families playing catch while enjoying Tai Verdes and Brittany Howard. Lollapalooza is always marketed and looked at as just a bunch of intoxicated high schoolers, but there's always so much more than that.
Even though the new variant is starting to rage across the United States, I hope that Lollapalooza will continue the run of starting to open things up for vaccinated individuals. There are always places that haven't required a vaccine or negative test to get in, like these full capacity baseball stadiums and soon to be, football stadiums, but I likely wouldn't have gone to Lollapalooza if it wasn't for the health requirement to get in. Even then, I still wore my mask the majority of the time and stayed on the outside of the crowds, although that last one is also for other reasons.
Musically, I was able to see 32 full sets during the festival, as well as a few parts of sets from artists like Journey and Nez. Because that's so much music to take care of, I thought it'd be a fun idea to try and rank every set I saw. Don't take each individual ranking too seriously, there's not really that much of a difference between super close numbers like 23 and 24. But also, I wanted to do this so my immediate memories wouldn't be forgotten over time, as I can always come back to this writing and remember what the sets were like. So without further ado, my personal rankings and descriptions of each set I saw over the past weekend!
32. Roddy Ricch
Not gonna lie, my expectations were a lot higher for Roddy, but I was underwhelmed by his performance. He’s done so much more musically in his other performances that just seeing him up there playing the songs through a speaker is pretty disappointing. It was cool that he brought out Mustard and Polo G, but that's about it. Maybe I’m just not a big fan of his music or something, but I was hoping for more.
This sounds meaner that I want it to, but his current look is almost Elton John cosplay. He’s clearly musically talented, but his mannerisms on stage and look were so Elton John inspired that it took away from his actual talent. How Greta Van Fleet is to Led Zeppelin, Jake is to Elton.
30. Playboi Carti
This is either in your top 3, or bottom 3 set of the weekend, no inbetween. For someone like me who’s a non-rager, I’m left wondering how many times he can run around in circles on stage while barely rapping and call it a performance. But for fans of mosh pits, they probably loved being able to turn up to some of the most energetic music of the past couple years.
29. Porches
Imagine if The Strokes went back in time to the 80s with the knowledge of 2021, and the outcome would probably be similar to what Porches sounded like live. Whether that sounds entertaining to you or not will let you know how to feel about them, but I enjoyed their fairly straightforward set.
28. Ant Clemons
A big writer in the R&B scene, Ant’s inserting himself into the current sound nicely, and this performance shows why. His voice was pretty solid, but he also ran through a bunch of songs he wrote, and they were many of the biggest R&B songs of the past year or two. He fits perfectly into the new age of R&B, for better or for worse.
27. RMR
For this being his first ever concert, he did pretty well. Besides completely leaving the stage for a couple minutes midway through the performance, he did all his hits and interacted with the crowd nicely. He just didn’t do anything great or unique at all.
26. Tai Verdes
This was also Tai Verdes’s first ever show, except he had a much larger crowd than RMR. I do like RMR’s music more, but Tai’s positive energy was too infectious. He’s clearly doing what he loves in an honest way, and you can’t fake that type of authenticity. Tai seems like he'll have a longer career than most musicians that got a Tik Tok boost recently.
25. Cautious Clay
After releasing a decent debut album this year, Cautious returned to a pretty large crowd this year. He played everything from saxophone to flute while on stage, but his trusty guitar playing helped him through the performance. Saba also showed up for a guest feature and performance of his 2020 single, “Ziplock”, and shared that they originally connected at Lollapalooza 2019 to make their song together, which was a nice full circle moment to keep the set memorable.
24. Renforshort
At 19-years old, renforshort’s not the youngest artist at the fest, but being the same age as the festival goers normally doesn’t lead to great results. Luckily, she ran through all of her material nicely and was very open with the crowd. Her vocals could definitely improve over time, but it’s nice to see an artist just starting out at the festival for once.
23. Radkey
I went into this set with no expectations whatsoever, but their high energy rock music drew me in fairly quickly. It does all sound pretty similar, especially with the blistering drums, but these guys were flailing around on stage with slick guitar licks and fantastic harmonies. There’s a reason Foo Fighters picked these guys to open for them.
22. Bia
I only knew Bia from her feature on Kali Uchis’s “Miami” and her hit “Whole Lotta Money”, but she came through with a solid hip hop performance. She actually rapped all her songs, the energy never dipped below a nice vibe, and it never got repetitive. Gotta go see how it translates to her studio recordings now.
21. Giveon
Now here’s someone who might become the next star of R&B music. His fanbase skyrocketed after a Drake collaboration at the beginning of 2020, and hasn’t stopped yet. This was his first ever festival and as he said during his set, going from a waiter in 2018 to performing in front of tens of thousands is a dream come true, and he performed like it. Also did a tremendous cover of D’angelo’s “Untitled”, which is probably as close as I’ll get to hearing the song performed live.
20. Moore Kismet
Moore tied with Billie Eilish for being the youngest people to ever perform at Lollapalooza at 16 years old! That alone is absolutely insane and no one can take that away from them. They provided a nice introduction to a heavy electronic show for me, even though it became obvious by the end what the math behind these rave sets is.
19. Brockhampton
Hip hop group Brockhampton had just released their best album since 2017, but the crowd didn’t seem to care about those songs. Only their old songs hit super hard with the crowd, and their energy on stage seemed pretty melancholic the whole time. Maybe their hardcore fanbase didn't fully translate to a festival the way it does their own live show. Either way, Brockhampton are talented performers and that doesn’t go away on a large stage.
18. JPEGMAFIA
Experimental rapper JPEGMAFIA had a decent sized crowd, definitely bigger than I would’ve thought possible. He kept them entertained without a DJ, backing vocals, or any help whatsoever. His screamed delivery and constantly trying to enter the crowd not only kept them entertained, but left everyone with a fond memory.
17. Noga Erez
Noga’s got a really unique sound that’s reminiscent of Billie Eilish a lot of the time. The production is minimally electronic but instead of singing throughout the entire song, Noga raps almost all the verses. Personally, this made it hard to get into her music, as she’s not a great rapper, but her performance went over fairly nicely. Outside of a weird cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Black Friday” verse, no aspect of her performance was less than good.
16. Brittany Howard
Brittany herself was obviously a lot better than this placement, but everything around this performance hurt it. The crowd was unattentive, the stage was the worst at the fest, it was on concrete during the peak hours of the day, and more just got in the way of her performance. Either way, she still sounded great and had a talented and verbose backing band to help the show reach its full potential.
15. Freddie Gibbs
There’s no arguing Freddie is one of the best rappers currently making music, and even though this performance didn’t hit those levels, it was still pretty good. It was a bit messy, which all made sense after he said he “did all the drugs on the table” because he was nervous to be back on stage. When he was actually rapping, he rapped the entire songs, even though he restarted every other song multiple times. He could’ve definitely done better, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t great or entertaining!
Megan ended up with arguably the biggest crowd of the weekend, and she had everyone one of them dancing the entire set. She did over 20 songs in that hour, and although she didn’t rap every single word, she rapped more than some of the other rappers aforementioned. If you’ve seen a Megan performance, you know there’s a lot of dancing and twerking on stage, and it did become stale when she did it for nearly every song. But still, being in an energetic crowd of that size for hits like “Savage” and “WAP” were fantastic experiences!
13. Joy Oladokun
This one surprised me a little bit. It was easy to tell from her album that Joy’s a talented songwriter, but she’s clearly become a fantastic performer as well! She managed to bring some upbeat covers like Prince’s “The Cross” and Nirvana’s classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that did the originals justice, and still sang her heart out with her own material, even with technical difficulties plaguing the entire set. No matter if you heard her album or not, Joy will put on a fantastic indie/folk/rock set wherever she tours. It’ll be an easy ticket to buy if she ever comes to town.
12. Paris Texas
Even after seeing their set at the aftershow the day before, Paris Texas’s energy was infectious. They even had the crowd moshing to slower songs like “Situations”. There were also multiple Soundcloud songs played, and multiple unreleased songs that fans are going to love. Especially since Paris Texas wasn’t even supposed to be there, they showed up by managing to be one of the better acts at the fest!
11. Young Thug
Not many people can show up 20 minutes late to their performance and still end up with a pretty decent set, but Young Thug is one of those people. His outfit changes were absolutely perfect, and the stage design was headliner worthy, even though he was a last second replacement. The actual setlist could’ve used a bit of work, but I kind of respect someone with as many hits as Thugger to not just phone it in with doing just the most popular songs. Either way, it would’ve been a more entertaining performance for the crowd to hear all those hit songs throughout the decade, but I suppose, Young Thug never directly gives fans what they want. Still an extremely memorable closing performance, if not just for the last 10-15 minutes of hits and a Gunna special appearance.
10. Mick Jenkins
Chicago native Mick Jenkins allowed people to finally focus on the words of a rapper for the first time this weekend. His poetic wordplay is always astounding, and the fact that he had a live band just made it even better. He also had plenty of memorable moments in his set, including bringing out friend Stock Marley who told the crowd that at one point last year, the doctors gave him a 33% chance of surviving. You could tell the emotion was dripping off of him, and it was legitimately tear jerking hearing him speak. Mick also played an unreleased song off his upcoming album called, “Things You Could Die For If Doing While Black,” which is infuriating and emotionally moving for a whole other reason. He didn’t waste the opportunity in his home city to deliver greatness.
9. Kaytranada
I wasn’t sure what to fully expect from a Kaytranada DJ set, but it ended up being a full out party! There was minimal crowd interaction, but he was able to keep a steady flow of house-driven songs and remixes he’s done to keep the crowd dancing. Kaytranada made it easy to appreciate the art behind DJing, including everything from where to place the drop to how often you actually need to switch it up. It probably wouldn’t translate well if you were watching it on the live stream, but his set was the best dance party all weekend.
8. Orville Peck
There aren’t many country artists that get booked to play Lollapalooza, but Orville crosses genres and platforms. He tells old school stories about cowboys, but also parallels that to his current life as a gay country star. Orville ran through the majority of his album and EP currently out over the hour, and his vocals rang throughout the massive field nicely. Whether it’s a 4-minute country ballad or a Lady Gaga cover, Orville and crew sounded immaculate.
7. Flo Milli
Flo Milli put on the first set of the fest that felt like a bang. Sure, someone like Orville Peck put on a really fantastic set, but the explosive energy was missing until Flo Milli played to a crowd that overflowed the medium-sized stage. She didn’t need a DJ screaming for the people to get hype, or any backing vocals to cover her not actually rapping a lot. Flo Milli just went out there and slayed a crowd that knew every word of each song she played.
6. Earthgang
They’re basically the most reliable act to me at this point. I’ve seen Earthgang live so many times and even though they’re great, they haven’t put out much new music since the last time I saw them, so I went here with fairly low expectations. But of course, they became memorable once again, and this is mainly for how they ended their show. In the last 15 minutes of their set, they premiered two songs off their upcoming album, Ghetto Gods, each of them sounded fantastic! They also brought out Chicago electronic duo Louis the Child for their song together, and Maryland rapper Rico Nasty out for their collaboration. Even though Rico performed just before them on the same stage, I still didn’t expect them to actually do the song together. Earthgang somehow surprised me once again with another incredible performance, and hopefully Ghetto Gods comes out sooner rather than later.
5. Rico Nasty
No one can match Rico Nasty’s energy while on stage. Her music just scratches that itch for me, and she did not let down with the performance! In just 45-minutes, she ran through nearly 20 of her biggest songs and left me still wanting to hear more. I do wish she rapped more consistently, as she relied on her backing track a bit more than I found enjoyable, but hearing these songs live was a cathartic experience. Objectively, this performance would probably be a decent amount lower, but I’m definitely biased towards Rico’s music and energy, especially experiencing her set for the first time.
They don’t call Marc Loop Daddy for nothing, and he proved it Saturday night. His entire set is always made up directly on the spot, and this was no different. He would build the songs, loop by loop, from the ground up, and would often have hilarious subjects like taking every vaccine to be extra safe. Even the security in front of the stage couldn’t stop smiling and vibing to the music Marc was making. No one had as much positive energy radiating from the performance and crowd as Marc did.
3. Kenny Mason
Another artist I’m definitely biased towards, but Kenny put on quite an amazing performance! I mean, I did see almost the exact same setlist during his aftershow performance a couple days before, but the energy didn’t go away at the festival. Bangers like “Angelic Hoodrat” and “Rih” both hit incredibly hard, while softer moments like “Pretty Thoughts” were really cool to hear multiple times. He was able to rap his entire songs perfectly and I would compare his performance once again to another creative, Atlanta native hip hop newcomer, JID. Kenny just provided more proof that he’s got the “it” factor and will hopefully continue to rise in popularity over the next couple years.
2. Miley Cyrus
This was the perfect festival set and a reason why festivals can be special. I would’ve never paid money to see Miley perform, and likely still won’t, but I don’t think it’s possible to argue that this wasn’t a top tier performance all weekend! She went for more than an hour and a half of tracks spanning her entire career, along with a few extremely memorable covers. It started off especially incredible with her going from a seven-minute version of “We Can’t Stop” mixed with the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind”, to the best songs off her newest album, “WFT Do I Know” and “Plastic Hearts”. She brought Billy Idol after that for their duet “Night Crawling”, and even got Billy to perform his hit “White Wedding”. Nothing else besides “The Climb” and “Party In The USA” would match that four song run for me, but fans went crazy for hits like “Malibu”, “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart”, and her cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”. There was also an especially stunning mashup she did of “Wrecking Ball” and “Nothing Compares 2 U”. She’s matured to a point where it’s actually about the music and not the theatrics, and that allowed for maybe her put on such an incredible performance! Even her speeches felt both impromptu, but very thoughtful. I didn’t even mention that she also brought out Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J, G Herbo, and The Kid Laroi to do their features and songs with Miley. This is something I didn’t know I needed, but I’m so glad that I was able to experience this performance in person!
I mean, who else was it going to be?!? Tyler was the biggest reason why I went to the festival, his album is still my favorite of the year, and every other performance I’ve seen him do has been nothing short of amazing. This was his first large scale performance of this era, and it feels like one big victory lap. He brought out a moving boat and dock on stage as the setup, which is a reference to how many times he talks about buying boats on his album. After running through the first few tracks on the album, he went the next hour performing songs from almost every album in his back catalogue, including way back to his controversial era. He even performed part of “Tron Cat”, which is the song that got him banned from the U.K. Tyler has a pretty passionate fanbase, and it was easily apparent by the amount of audience participation that happened for almost any song. As usual, he was very interactive with the audience, whether that be asking for us to sing or doing what felt like stand up comedy. He always puts his all into his performances, and this might’ve been his best performance yet! Tyler continues to impress with each new era and especially since he keeps such a strict release schedule. Highly recommend anyone to watch the live performance if you feel so inclined.
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