The next day was the official start to Lollapalooza, Thursday August 3rd, 2017. I took the L down and arrived a little before noon. I had to get our Thursday tickets and then find the kids I sold them to. After a little bit of confusion at the ticket booth, and a little bit of waiting, I got the Thursday tickets, fo free! We had already received our free 4-day tickets in the mail earlier that week so we had those ready to go. The tickets were pretty cool, a nice colorful cloth wristband that once you tighten you can't get off. After some more confusion, and searching through a mass of people, I found the boys, and got them their wristbands. One of the kids tightened his a little and we had to really pull on it to get it on his hand. The cops saw us doing this and came over to check out what was going on. Not even in to Lolla yet and the cops are on to me! I had not eaten yet this day, so I went into Potbelly to get a sandwich before heading into Lollapalooza. After eating A Big Wreck, I walked over and headed into Lollapalooza. There were 8 stages, 1 being a child's "Kidzapalooza" so basically 7 stages to choose from. I spent most of my time over the next 4 days at Grant Park, Lake Shore, Tito's, and Bud Light stages, where the rock/indie/alternative bands were playing. I saw a couple of smaller artists at Pepsi Stage, saw 10 minutes of EDM music at Perry's Stage, and didn't make it to the smallest stage, BMI. After breezing through security, with poncho, map, schedule, and water bottle in hand, I headed toward Grant Park & Lake Shore stages as I planned to spend most of my day there. To make this go a little quicker, I am going to list out each artist that I saw that day, and any important events that occurred around those sets.
August 3rd - Thursday - (Day 1 at Grant Park)
White Reaper at Grant Park Stage - First show at Lollapalooza! Was able to get pretty close for this Punk band. The video screens at this stage are amazing.
Hippo Campus at Lake Shore Stage - Young band from Minnesota that had a pretty big crowd. Enjoyable Indie music.
Temples at Grant Park Stage - What year were these guys formed? They look and sound straight out of the 1970s. No surprise they are out of the UK.
Paper Diamond at Perry's Stage - Was at this stage and show for maybe 10 minutes. Too many high school kids everywhere. Told too many times to get my "mother f#%king hands up by the DJ. Too few people performing and just one guy behind a computer . Too many kids laying on the ground passed out from drugs/alcohol. Did not return to this stage all weekend. No surprise but I ran into a few of my high school players around this stage. Peep the photos.
The Drums at Lake Shore Stage - Indie rock band that I only caught about half of their set since I made the mistake to check out Perry's stage.
Liam Gallagher at Grant Park Stage - Don't know the name? Lead singer of Oasis. He looked so angry when singing, and must have been because he played 3 songs, then walked off stage and didn't come back. His band awkwardly left the stage after about 2 minutes of playing instrumentals until they realized he wouldn't be returning. At least I saw him sing Morning Glory. What a chump. I was also bumped into repeatedly by some Indian guy who was clearly drunk/high and kept smiling at me trying to get me to dance or something. I kept giving him a thumbs up. At least he offered me some weed, a better guy than Liam.
George Ezra at Lake Shore Stage - Rachel gets to the fest after work for this one. He is a solid singer who despite his young looks has a very deep warming voice. Another musician from the UK.
Cage the Elephant at Grant Park Stage - By far the best show of the day. Incredible energy and stage presence. The lead singer bounced around in a purple dress, promoting equality and love for all. The lead guitarist would go into the crowd and play amongst the people. Turns out those two are brothers from Kentucky and they are bringing back Rock'n'Roll. They absolutely killed their set and I forgot how many good songs they have. Do yourself a favor and check this band out if you don't know them. Added this band to my "must-see" list when they come back to Chicago.
Spoon at Lake Shore Stage - Only knew about two of their songs, "The Underdog" and "Hot Thoughts" but they put on a solid Indie show.
Muse at Grant Park Stage - It rained the entire time Muse was on the stage. Luckily we had our ponchos! After 15 minutes of watching Muse, we decided to head over to Lorde.
Lorde at Bud Light Stage - After grabbing a beverage in the pouring rain on our walk over, we made it just in time for Lorde to say, "I'm so sorry they're making me leave the stage because of the storms, I'll be back!" Unfortunately she never came back and it started to downpour. Our ponchos were of no use anymore.
Leaving Lollapalooza - This was an absolute disaster. We almost made it to Lorde and then began our march out of the fest. As it poured and poured, we waited to get out like herded cattle heading to slaughter. Entirely soaked, I figured at this point I would skip the aftershow I was set to go to. Once we were out we headed to the "L." After waiting about 30 minutes and missing two entirely packed trains, I decided I was going to go to the aftershow I had tickets to since we weren't going anywhere. Rachel took the L back 4 stops to the Chinatown stop and she jumped on an empty red line back the other direction. I headed to Reggie's.
Cloud Nothings at Reggie's (Aftershow) - I got to the show right at 10pm, which is when I thought the opener was to come on. Unfortunately I had to wait another hour for them to come out, but I did find a seat in the balcony to rest while waiting. A metal band called Oozing Wound from opened up. It was way too metal for me, but I still watched the entire set. Finally at midnight, the Cloud Nothings took the stage that had a sewer drain in the middle of it. I had front row seats to this heavy rock set which I thoroughly enjoyed. After their set, I took the L home and was in bed by 2am. Solid first official day of Lolla! Check out the photo & video from the day below.