Lollapalooza Festival 2018 : The gold nugget Kaleo

I spent the afternoon at Lollapalooza Festival in Paris this Saturday the 21st of July, where I literally attended one show after the other ! I barely had time to run from one stage to the next between performances, but it’s a proof that it was worth it since I was able to see six artists perform (I could have stayed longer but I was way too tired after more than six hours standing in the sun…). I didn’t really know much about this festival, which originated in the US and organized its second edition in France this year, but the lineup made me want to give it a shot. The lineup planned for the french festival Rock En Seine really disappointed me (you have a hard time finding Rock music even though it’s in the name of the event…) and Lollapalooza seemed to be in the same spirit, but better (the lineup made me think of old editions of Rock En Seine). Overall, everything ran smoothly and it seemed well-organized, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the festival which is actually very family-friendly with a kidzapalooza stage reserved for children, and you could notice a lot of families there. I was also surprised by the number of foreigners (british, american, italian, spanish…) which is probably because the festival is internationally renowned and there are only two European versions (Paris and Berlin).

I started the afternoon with Scarlxrd that I was honestly VERY curious to see live. Scarlxrd is a british 24 year-old who began as a youtuber then turned to music, first in a rap rock band then as a solo act in 2016. How should I say… his style, it’s never been heard or seen before. This guy more or less created his own sound, his own universe, his own character…and it’s clearly not for everybody. His musical style is qualified as « Trap Metal », that is to say a mix of Trap (electronic hip hop music to which he ads very fast, loud and saturated bass kicks) and Metal (mostly screams), and it is something ! The style is a bit to much for me but I’m still intrigued by the globality of what he was able to create. Scarlxrd seems to ba a lost character in a post-apocalyptic world, dressed in black combat clothes from head to toe, he always wears a mask on the lower part of his face which adds to the dystopian and suffocating atmosphere of his videos and music. In reality, we can assume that he also wears it to hide the white stain on his chin with which he used to characterize himself as a youtuber (a part of his career he’s not particularly proud of apparently). It’s with his track « HEART ATTACK » that he broke through and the video quickly became viral, but he’s been incredibly productive since he started in 2016 with the release of no less than six full-length albums. His concert was consistent with his universe, completely crazy ! The energy he delivers is impressive and the crowd was loving it (it was still pretty weird to see pogos and mosh pits with hip hop music as a background !). I had no idea how popular he was in France but he clearly has fans who dig the movement !

The band that I wanted to see most at this festival was Nothing But Thieves and I had been waiting for an opportunity for a long time. However, I was a bit disappointed because some technical problems made us wait for half an hour standing in the sun and forced the band to cut their set in half (oh the frustration…!). I still really enjoyed the concert and the singer’s voice met my expectations, even if the highs were sometimes covered by the excessive volume of the bass guitar (fallbacks of the technical problems…?). The band really tried to make the best of the time they had and to keep a good atmosphere but the frontman didn’t seem to be feeling great, probably partly because he was annoyed at the situation and he also seemed to suffer a bit from the heat. It’s always hard for a growing band to evaluate their foreign audience, and there’s a tendency to assume it’s almost non-existent or weakly engaged, which is usually false. The singer seemed to worry about the impact of the technical issues on their image (especially since they were announcing a new date in France) but the public really tried to express that we were fans whatever happens. In any case, they announced their upcoming return at the Bataclan in Paris !

I then took a little break for the performance of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club which is less my style. I slowly made my way to the stage making a stop at the merch stand to see if there were any cool shirts (it wasn’t the case, I’d rather buy merch that I really like somewhere else, even though it can be nice to have an official shirt from the festival). I listened to BRMC sitting from afar, the music was pretty chill in a very classic Rock style, the members are actually not so young anymore and seemed to be addressing a slightly older crowd. Overall, they weren’t very chatty but I noticed a woman on the drums which I thought was pretty cool. I mostly enjoyed when they played one of their most famous tracks « Spread your love » towards the end of their set (is it a rule at this festival to play the most famous song at the end ? Because I didn’t get a single exception…)

When BRMC played their last song, I was already in place for Kaleo, an Icelandic band that I had never really heard of but whose famous song « Way Down we go » I had already heard before. I thus listened to a few songs in preparation for the festival and I really liked their Blues Rock, kind of country style that makes their sound so original ! I might as well say that their concert knocked me out, I was completely hypnotized by the singer whose Blues voice is out of this world (and who’s easy on the eyes as well, let’s not kid ourselves). We were literally transported to Tennessee for an hour and we were even treated with some perfectly executed harmonica solos as the sun was starting to lower and a cool breeze flowed in the air… It was the perfect setting ! Kaleo is definitely THE discovery of this festival for me.

I then made my way to the last show of the day for me, which was Bastille ! I’m not that big of a fan since their style is very Pop but I really like some of their songs, and if only to hear « Pompei » live it was worth it ! Their performance was really good, and I really liked the singer’s personality who’s actually very chill and down-to-earth, almost a bit awkward, which I didn’t expect. He talks to the crowd as if he were talking to his friends, explaining that he’s a « shitty dancer » and that he looks ridiculous but he’ll feel better if we dance with him. He also made real efforts to speak french which is always nice. We all patiently waited for « Pompei » until the last minute and it was really epic when the song resonated in the audience.

To conclude, I’m really happy with this first Lollapalooza, the price was really worth it since the timetable was really well organized and the performances were great in spite of the issues with Nothing But Thieves (these things happen…). It really makes me want to come back next year !

PS : I think we had a comment from almost every artist about winning the world cup, which never failed to get a strong reaction, so that was also pretty fun.

Here are some clips I was able to film during the day : :