Austinist on the Road: Lollapalooza Day Three Highlights

Mustering up our last reserves of stamina, we headed to day three at Lollapalooza around 1 p.m. Now based in Brooklyn, Car Stereo (Wars) had quite a posse in tow and assisted by MC (and Austinite) Neiliyo, he ushered in an afternoon dance party with the intro to Def Leppard's "Rocket." Neiliyo was at his charismatic best, jumping on the speakers and jumping down to the photo pit, eventually inviting many in the crowd to join the dancers already on stage. The unyielding Sun might have deflated a few but the majority of the audience sweated heartily to remixes, samples, and mash-ups of everything from MGMT to Joy Division to Daft Punk and bits 'n' pieces of the themes from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Ghostbusters. And Michael Jackson. Plenty of Michael Jackson.

Snoop Dogg by Dave Mead

The Perry's stage at Lollapalooza is a truly unique spot for DJs and dance-friendly artists to make their mark and our own Austin City Limits Music Festival could perhaps use a (tented) area for a similar experience. And while we're talking ACL Fest, we have to mention that the central media area at Zilker Park is definitely much preferred to the location at the very south end of the park at Lollapalooza. We wouldn't call it laziness, maybe comfort is the right word that caused us to watch sets on the south side of Grant Park for the large part during the three days. The free water supply, casual snacks, and the promise of pizza so generously supplied each day by the SPIN tent had us anchored to the busy press oasis' vicinity and as the festival drew to an end and exhaustion set in, its location probably factored in us taking in performances on the Chicago 2016 stage by Snoop Dogg and The Killers as opposed to Lou Reed and Jane's Addiction's efforts on the Budweiser stage.

The masses that had gathered for Snoop's set rivaled Tool's haul the night before in terms of numbers and they had their arms swaying in unison as soon as The Doggfather appeared. "Lollapalooza if you've got some weed, blaze that shit up" was the first of many, many audibles. Snoop's cohorts backed him up ably on vocals and it was amusing to watch them instigate the fans with new requests aplenty -- it started with "everybody say oh-oh" and "everybody say Snoop Dogg" and continued throughout the set. "Everybody say bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay." "Everybody say I wanna get f*cked up." They had a precursor for almost every song.

Snoop was at his best, showcasing his fluent, flawless rhyming skills in his usual laid back manner. He paid tribute to Tupac Shakur, covering "Hail Mary" and "2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted" and included a brief rendition of House Of Pain's "Jump Around." "Gin 'N' Juice" was arguably the cream of the crop although a brief excerpt of "Nuthin' But A G Thang" another choice moment. After an hour of flowing medleys, the troupe departed after performing a revised version of the Steam classic -- "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Snoop Dogg" being the only way to title it.

The Killers by Cambria Harkley

Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. had spent some time satisfying many of the media tent's inhabitants just an hour ago but they seemed fresh and charged as The Killers tore into "Human," the lead single of their new album Day And Age. And that was just beginning of a stellar set of the Vegas band's undeniably catchy pop songs. Couples kissed, buds high-fived, girls swooned, and almost everyone passionately sang the words to anthems like "Somebody Told Me," "For Reasons Unknown," and "Bones." A violin infused version of "Smile Like You Mean It" was one of the highlights and Flowers made time to tell a few stories, reminiscing about the day he connected with guitarist Dave Keunig and first heard the riff for "Mr. Brightside" before the band delivered arguably their biggest hit in fine form. The encore contained cult favorite "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine" and "When You Were Young" and closed out three draining days, but three days of amazing live music at the beautiful setting that is Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Next stop, Zilker Park.

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