Ranking Every Set I Saw At Lollapalooza 2025 (50 Sets!)
- Andrew Doucette
- 16 minutes ago
- 17 min read
Well this was not the plan going into 2025. I had been planning for close to a year to try and get as many family members as possible to a camping music festival, and we ended up choosing Bonnaroo. Not only was the lineup of Bonnaroo maybe my favorite lineup of any festival I’ve ever been to (outside of Coachella 2023), but doing it with family and friends was getting my expectations astronomically high. So when the festival ended up canceling after one day due to flooding, saying I was devastated would be an understatement. Even now, almost two months later, I still can barely believe it happened. Thankfully, we did get a refund for the festival, so I did my best to pivot to Lollapalooza so I could fill a little bit of the void.
I had last done a full Lollapalooza in 2021, and there have been some big changes since then. Some of them come from going to other festivals and seeing what else is out there, like the immersion of camping on the grounds and late night sets, but some of them are from Lollapalooza themselves. They have not only increased the capacity by at least 15,000 without expanding the festival grounds, but they have taken away places for GA people to give more to VIP and Platinum members. All of this made the festival feel extremely packed at multiple points in the day, and further away from the music. For example, I was further away from a 5PM Isaiah Rashad set than I was in previous years for people like Ariana Grande, Metallica, and Miley Cyrus, and that’s due to those expanded special areas and higher capacity. The GA experience just felt objectively worse than previous years, even though the music itself was fantastic! But then again, maybe the crowds won’t be as much of a problem for people that either didn’t know what it was like beforehand or for people that are more fine with being in crowds than I am. Still though, I know I just criticized it a lot, but the music itself was still wonderful! The headliners delivered, there were plenty of great artists early in the day, and enough music surprises that kept me excited throughout the weekend! So as with the other full festivals, here are the all the sets I saw in the four days at Lollapalooza ranked! I didn’t necessarily see the entire set of each artist, but I did see at least 15-20 minutes of each artist here, and at least 70% of the show for the vast majority of them. And as usual, don’t take the individual rankings too seriously, they are mainly just there to give an idea of how good it was and help me process the shows more deeply. Now, let’s dive in!
This was a bit more generic than I expected, but the singer has a good voice and the band has an interesting semi-electronic indie sound to them. Enjoyable enough for the time.
He didn’t do anything that I didn’t expect, but this show wasn’t connecting for me at the time. It definitely wasn’t helped by the technical difficulties that caused him to be 10-ish minutes late, but still, I was just hoping for a bit more.
I actually do like Salute’s music, but the live performance felt too house-oriented for me. I felt like one of those people that hates electronic music and says it all sounds the same, but the constant drum beat really did feel like all the same. So I’ll just say, shoutout Salute, that just wasn’t the vibe for me at that particular time.
This Irish rock band opened up Saturday, and it started the day off on a decent note. I don’t really have much to say about this show, it was just decent.
I’ve heard good things about Royel Otis, but they kind of just sounded like any other indie-pop band. I think I might stop trying to get into their music and wait to see if it hits me at another time.
She was a pretty cool performer, but in the grand scheme of 40-something performances in four days, seeing her performance was just more of the same. Her making a beat live was kind of cool though. Apparently she’s only 19, so there’s a lot of time for her to hone in on her performing skills.
This was a last second addition after not having enough time to walk across the park to see Wave to Earth for a little bit, but she sounded fine for the type of R&B she makes. Young Thug also came out as a surprise, so that was cool. But yeah, this was good enough background music to enjoy while eating some food.
This was a band I originally found in the Bonnaroo playlist, and their brand of timeless country was fairly enjoyable for a short time. I can’t say there was anything special or unique about them though.
This stage was pretty overcrowded, so I ended up mainly just hearing the set and not actually seeing it. He sounded cool though, it was just not the best experience due to where he was scheduled.
I really liked their facepaint and hair that they had during this show. Musically, it was pretty cool as well, it was just missing anything unique.
Kaicrewsade is from Chicago, and that hometown spirit was felt. It’s another example of you can tell the show meant the world to him, and I always like seeing that. He was a decent rapper though, not much too special besides the live instrumentations.
I mainly showed up to this set because Chance the Rapper had a surprise mini-set directly afterwards, but he was cool. He knew his job was to bring fun vibes and get people excited for Chance, and that’s what he did.
They ended their show 10 minutes early, so I didn’t end up seeing that much of it, but they brought the indie-pop and indie-rock anthems that they’re known for! The energy was upbeat, they were interacting with the crowd a lot, and the songs were solid. Not sure what else one could ask for when this is their first ever Lollapalooza.
I thought Montell Fish was more about the ballads, but from what I saw, he was super energetic and was bouncing around the stage! Once I got past the shock of the sound though, I enjoyed myself. He felt like a slightly worse Jean Dawson, musically, but I’m glad people like his stuff.
For some reason, I didn’t think I would really enjoy this, but I did! Sure, it clearly didn’t end up being one of my favorite shows of the weekend, but I enjoyed their lackadaisical indie-electronic music.
I really liked how you could tell how much the show meant to him. He had (presumably) family and friends surrounding him the entire show dancing and hyping him up. The inflatable car sales things that were on stage were also a fun addition.
I want to be clear, I only saw about 15-20 minutes of this show because I needed to get to ISOxo, but I did enjoy what I did see! He has a giant crowd for his homecoming show, and the stage setup of the Cloud Gate was awesome. I like how he still did songs from Decide to start too!
I didn’t know that Alemeda’s music was that vengeful, but I’m here for a new vengeful pop-rock artist. She was a pretty decent start to Friday!
A lot of these songs ended up sounding similar, but I like the ambient dark interludes that they would have. They are a pretty good band though, it was just an interesting choice for 2PM in the sun for a band that dark.
I do wish that he played a little bit more of the music that I personally enjoyed of his, but I liked it! I’m not 100% if this makes me more likely to see him in Madison in a few months, but he was an enjoyable DJ.
I did see Sammy Virji during the one day of Bonnaroo that did happen this year, so I spent most of my time watching this set sitting down and listening, but he was pretty cool once again. I like Sammy’s UKG sound, and I’m excited to hear what his album sounds like next month.
Post Animal
I don’t remember Post Animal being that rock-oriented, but these songs were harder than I remember. They were pretty good though, so if I listen to the album a bit more and end up liking it, maybe I’ll go to the High Noon Saloon show.
While I did enjoy Cage the Elephant, I still don’t see why people think they’re one of the best rock bands of this generation. I think people just talk them up a bit too much. I did enjoy the Black Sabbath cover a lot though, that was a nice touch. And of course, they have plenty of sing-along moments for everyone to participate in.
This was a complete accident. Pivot Gang was a part of a show for the John Walt foundation at a pop up stage near Buckingham Fountain. I just happened to walk by about 30 seconds before they started, so I decided to stop and watch their little 4-5 song set. It was a pretty fun surprise to run into at Lollapalooza this year!
Sierra is actually someone I first heard of in 2021 when she was playing at the High Noon Saloon. I almost went to her show just because I was bored, and maybe I should’ve because she’s now a pretty big bluegrass artist! She has a pretty unique voice, which came across nicely in person. Maybe I’ll have to actually listen to her music at this point.
I can definitely tell that Kenny has toured consistently since the last time I’ve seen him! It’s both a good and a bad thing, as you can tell he’s more polished and knows how to work a crowd now, but that pure, unbridled energy that comes from finally starting to live your dream of the 2021 show was missing. Still though, even with him ending 15 minutes early, it was a great time!
Layz’s music is too heavy for casual listening, and I’m not sure I’ll listen to much more of it after the show, but the “heavy-ass dubstep” producer will for sure put the energy into anyone walking by the stage. This show definitely jumpstarted the day, musically, just by the sheer energy of the music.
Last year, Silly Goose played a couple renegade shows outside of the festival as the crowd was leaving. It must’ve got them noticed by Lollapalooza themselves, because this year, they were the first band on the official schedule! While I do love the rebellious energy and how that ties into the origins of the festival, the music isn’t something I’d listen to in my day to day life. Still though, it was a good time, especially to start off the festival.
This made me think I need to listen to more of The Marías. I did like their album that came out last year, but I don’t know most of their older material, and this show might’ve convinced me to check it out! Sure, it doesn’t sound super unique or anything, but their brand of moody, synth-heavy indie-pop was very enjoyable!
Chicago is the main place where people would still get excited for Chance the Rapper in 2025. This 15-minute set was only announced a day before, but the stage was filled to hear what Chance had to say. He quickly ran through a couple of his classic hits, before doing three new songs to end the set. He has an album coming out on August 15th, so this was clearly promotion for that. Still though, I’ll take a surprise Chance set anytime, especially when there’s not many better places to be.
This one was a bit of a pleasant surprise! I expected Nourished By Time to be swallowed up by the giant stage just like many other artists I’ve seen, but he actually ended up putting on an awesome show! I’ll definitely make sure to check out his new album in a couple weeks!
I was surprised how many people I saw with the line across their face or fanmade 2hollis shirts (put chobani on my jeans). The show itself was pretty entertaining, but I did see him perform a very similar show at Bonnaroo (the one day that happened) only a month and a half ago, so this is probably lower than it should’ve been.
I was slightly disappointed with their performance, but I still had a really good time! They did just kind of run around on the stage screaming the lyrics, but also, hearing the beats from Revengeseekerz blaring on a soundsystem that big was wild! I do wish the show felt more planned, as they also spent time between each song figuring out what to play next with Dazegxd, who was their DJ for the show. Still, I enjoyed seeing their show!
I would describe this Doechii show as doing the most. I don’t even mean that in a negative way, it just felt like she had so many ideas and no one said no to any of them. Even though there was the overall theme of Doechii’s Hip-Hop History, it just always felt like multiple things were going on at once, so much so that it was impossible to comprehend it all. And like, Doechii’s music is good enough to stand on its own, you don’t need to be held in the air spread eagle while rapping “Nissan Altima”, you could just do the song with some choreography, if you wanted. And again, this is just my personal opinion, I know many people that love the theatrics. In my book, anyone that makes a storytelling song like “Denial Is a River” a hit song is great. The fact that a song where she talks to her own inner conscious as a therapist has over 350 million streams on Spotify is insane! Even though I thought the show was awesome, I just wish she did less sometimes and let the music speak for itself.
I remember almost a decade ago when Ravyn Lenae was just a talented high schooler on Noname’s Telefone. Now in 2025, she has a top 10 hit and put on a beautiful show back in her hometown! I was a long way back, but there was still a special feeling in the air!
Rebecca Black (DJ)
I didn’t really love the techno type of music that Rebecca tends to DJ, but her taste being really great more than makes up for it. She operates in that space between high quality and semi-ironic music that makes each turn entertaining. For example, she’ll play remixes of people like Björk and Charli, but then have a Crazy Frog remix and end the show with a Careless Whisperer x Gucci Flip Flops mashup. Is it objectively great, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that it was pretty entertaining.
I love how over the top the show is, especially with all the signage poking fun at religious protests. It’s something that you can’t help but to smile and laugh along to. She also did a lot of the songs that I wanted to hear, especially the remix version of “Friday” that I’m sure she’s tired of doing. But there were also songs like “Crumbs” and "Sugar Water Cyanide” that are undeniable bops. I’m not going to drive to Chicago or anything to see her again, but seeing someone turn universal hatred from the internet into a full on career making good music is a heartwarming story.
Isaiah’s catalog definitely carried this show. It looked like they had barely rehearsed and were picking out songs on the fly, which would be fine if there wasn’t a minute or two break between each song where he would then go back and talk to his DJs. As for the performance itself, it was pretty straightforward. Not great, but not bad at all. I just love his music, especially Cilvia Demo, so seeing him perform some of these songs live was pretty sentimental!
Out of the three electronic acts from the UK I saw this weekend, Overmono was definitely my favorite! They were genuinely fantastic when it comes to DJ’ing and playing music that all fits together well, I just wish they played slightly more of their own music.
This was a pleasant surprise! I don’t know much about Naomi Scott, only that she’s an actor who is starting to do music. She put out one single last month, and apparently has some songs from movies that people were excited for. This set consisted of that single, one older song, and the rest were unreleased songs from her upcoming album, and it sounded fantastic! They sounded like pretty accessible, airy R&B cuts that could easily crossover into the pop playlists. It’s hard to really talk about because as far as I know, not only are these songs unreleased, but this is also her first ever live concert under her own name. The acting and singing ability from her movies definitely carried over though, as she carried herself nicely, especially when a good portion of the crowd seemed disappointed she wasn’t doing the songs from the movies. Still, I thought this was a great show, and I’m definitely looking forward to her album now!
I mean, Durand’s voice is pretty elite, there’s no doubt about that! His confidence is infectious, so much so that even the frat boys that were around me were clearly starting to become fans. His catalog is deeper now than when I saw him at Bonnaroo last year, so seeing him perform these new songs was nice! Hopefully he continues to put out awesome music and gain more fans, because he’s a super underrated artist!
What a way to end the festival! While I ended up being what felt like a country mile from the stage, it was still tons of fun to see one of the biggest pop stars in the world in person! Her brand of semi-ironic and crass humor comes through well in the show, and I especially loved the 70s-styled advertisements that guided the show along. She didn’t sound otherworldly, but she’s clearly a good singer. Ending with “Espresso” was definitely a great way to end the festival, and I do still think that’s a perfect pop song (fight me)! She also brought out Earth, Wind & Fire, which was definitely a welcome surprise! While the show wasn’t incredible enough to make me fight her fans for tickets to another show, I’m glad I got to experience it once.
I’m still a little bit conflicted at myself that I left early, because Clairo was putting on a beautiful show! Don’t get me wrong, I still saw 2/3rds of it, and I did leave to see Doechii, another huge artist, but Clairo’s show just felt right. Even though I didn’t know all of the songs she was doing, the show felt so calm and peaceful. Granted, I wasn’t in the front battling with the k-pop stans waiting for Twice, I was just in the back vibing with myself. Still though, I’m glad I got to see most of it, because she sounded great!
Glass Beams
This was one of the best surprises of the festival! I expected them to be a slightly worse Khrungbain, but they ended up being so much more than that! If I was to keep the Khrungbain comparison going, instead of the soloing being from the guitarist, the soloing here is more on the synths and rhythms. There was one point where the drummer was soloing over this blaring, aggressive synth melody that was downright incredible! It’s definitely one of my favorite musical moments of the festival! While I wouldn’t have considered myself a big fan beforehand, I’m now excited to follow them on their journey!
Mk.gee
There’s no one quite like Mk.gee. When you hear a Mk.gee song, you immediately know that it’s him. His combination of guitar wizardry, psychedelic sounds, and pop-sensibilities make for a unique sound that people like Bon Iver and Justin Bieber have taken notice of. The show was no less unique, with there being everything from a five-minute ambient song to a monumental wall of sound of guitars and electronics. He also did “Rockman” twice, which was interesting, but I’m glad he did so the set didn’t end early. I also appreciate how it was at night, so they were completely silhouetted on stage with the backlight. It helped add to the mystique of Mk.gee. I don’t feel like I missed anything by choosing Mk.gee over any of the other headliners on Saturday, he was fantastic!
Now, aside from the fact that it seemed like he was on autopilot, the show was awesome! Tyler’s discography is probably my favorite of anyone that played the festival, and having a new album come out less than two weeks before the show made me extra excited to see what he would do. I was hoping that he would be invigorated with new music being released, but instead, you can feel that he’s done 80-ish shows in 2025 already and maybe feels overscheduled at this point. It seems like a well-oiled machine was running as usual, and maybe that’s also because I have Tyler quite a few times. Still though, I know this is coming off as negative, I loved the show! Look at where I ranked it! I have just seen Tyler do better before, so I’m not over the moon about it like I probably would’ve been if this was my first time seeing him.
I’ve seen JPEG three times before this, but this was the first time that he had an actual band with him! I actually think it helped elevate these songs, especially with his newer material and how it contains a lot of guitar! A song like “Sin Miedo” or “Protect The Cross” with the blaring guitars was only elevated onto another atmosphere with the live guitars! As with his other performances, he still rapped all the words without a backing track, which is always nice to see a rapper do. He also ran around the stage like a maniac, as usual. I don’t know, his show was just so much fun, and the band made everything sound just that much better!
This was just as awesome as I hoped! Now, the one negative I’ll say is they didn’t play one of my favorite songs by them “I Checked Your Cellphone”, but I understand why once I realized they currently have a replacement drummer, as their normal drummer is pregnant and on leave. Besides that though, the entire thing was sick! Their quartet makes some of the most authentic punk music I’ve heard in a long time, and they kept that energy when performing live. The lead singer is also learning English, so she did most of the speaking in-between songs. I liked how they mentioned Chappell Roan’s iconic Lollapalooza performance from last year, as that seemed like it was the main reason they knew what the festival was. And in reality, they are easily one of the most traditional Lollapalooza-sounding acts on the lineup. They’re such a sick band, I hope they come to Wisconsin at some point!
Yeah, ISOxo only continues to get better! I listened to his and Knock2’s music a lot the past year or two, so I was taking a bit of a break before this festival set, and I forgot how much I actually do love it! His brand of EDM is right up my alley, and no matter if he plays something new or not, it always fits the set! I do know every little turn and twist in most of his songs, so I did appreciate that he played a fair amount of new music, including his new “Levels” remix! This set was just an hour of pure energy, so much so that I almost missed the top set of this festival in order to see his cohort, Knock2, close the stage afterwards. I hope some of the new songs he played actually get released soon!
Yeah, this was as great as I hoped! While she has done a lot of festivals and shows this year, it didn’t feel like she was burned out. It felt like every person was singing along to every song, which is something that hasn’t happened for pretty much anybody I’ve seen at a festival. I also got the feeling at the show that Olivia wants to be more of a rockstar at this point than a popstar. Don’t get me wrong, her rock songs still aren’t all that aggressive, she’s not going to turn into Metallica or anything. If we look at the rock songs she did do, a lot of them had extended outros where the band would jam out that the pop songs did not have. She also continued her tradition of bringing out older rock artists she grew up on by bringing out the band who played her first ever concert, Weezer! They did “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So”, and while the songs were clearly out of Olivia’s vocal register, it was a wonderful moment to be a part of! While her voice was great on either sound, it fits the sarcastic, lighthearted rock songs even better! Olivia has been one of the best pop artists to come out this decade, and I think that she can continue to level up even more with this next album!
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