Lollapalooza 2013: An Overview

After a 2 hour flight delay I rushed from O' Hare to my downtown hotel room and straight to the gates of Grant Park to make sure I didn't miss any of the bands I was ready to see. Needless to say, I may have been a little eager. 2012 was my first year at Lollapalooza and to say I had a good time is a bit of an understatement. From the second that Jack White's Sunday night set at Lollapalooza 2012 was over I knew I had to make this into an annual trip. Spending time in the beautiful Chicago summer weather with 100,000 of your newest friends, eating signature Chicago food such as deep-dish pizza and Rainbow Cones, and discovering new artists as well as hearing from your favorites is a pretty awesome way to spend 72 hours.

Lauren's Lollapalooza 2013 Schedule

Friday
Deap Vally
Jessie Ware
Band of Horses
Queens of the Stone Age
Frightened Rabbit
The Killers

Saturday
Planet Hemp
Reignwolf
Matt and Kim
Ellie Goulding
Heartless Bastards
The Lumineers 
Mumford & Sons

AFTERSHOW @ Schuba's Tavern with Pujol, SKATERS and the Orwells

Sunday **My favorite day of the festival**
Rivals of the Peacemaker
The Orwells
SKATERS
Alex Clare
Wavves
The Vaccines
Vampire Weekend
Phoenix

Best Up and Coming Band(s): Deap Vally and The Orwells

I just could not choose. I started listening to Deap Vally about a month ago and they are two rockers from LA who have a great set of songs. My favorite being "Bad for My Body" which now has an awesome video. They got the first day off to the best start and got me into the festival mood. They are touring with Queens of the Stone Age and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club later this year so I am hoping to catch them at some point on the east coast. 

Also, the Orwells kicked ass on stage. They are made up of 18 and 19 year-olds from Elmhurst, Illinois which made the show even more fun because they have plenty of local fans. Even though the band was at the 1:00pm time slot everyone was into the band, fronted by Mario Cuomo who has a fascinating presence on stage and clearly captured the audience. Here is on of my favorites: "In My Bed".They even closed their set with a cover by The Stooges. **See more on their after show concert review later this week**

Best Headliner: Phoenix

I really like listening to Phoenix so I knew they would put on a great show, but they went above and beyond. The show was amazing! They are the perfect mix of indie rock meets pop meets dance music. The crowd was loving it and unfortunately the end of their set meant the end of Lolla, but it was okay because it was a high note to end on.


All in all I had an amazing weekend at my second trip to Lollapalooza. This is slowly turning into an annual tradition and I hope that I can make it again next year. The dates have already been announced, August 1-3, 2014, so mark your calendar and now you only have 359 days to countdown to one of the best weekends of the year.