There Are Some Actually Great Indie Acts That Will Be There, But So Much Garbage, Plus I Don’t Even Know What…All For The Low, Low price of $400+
Lollapalooza in recent years has gone full blown mainstream with their headliners and has probably appropriately expanded to multiple genres, rap, dance, country, alternative, etc. But for a purist of an indie/alternative festival, Lollapalooza is certainly not that (arguable if it ever was).
This year’s 4-day lineup was just announced and it brings up a lot of mixed emotions. For one, the headliners are pretty much what you’d expect. The sort of fictitiously indie, but very much hardcore mainstream.
I have always enjoyed The 1975, but honestly snooze on the rest of these. Red Hot live on a big stage does not necessarily excite me in 2023, Kendrick and Billie Eilish, although I can occasionally dig it are two of the most overrated artists of the last decade. Kendrick is regularly anointed as the best rapper of all time and honestly in about 2013 this became a popular opinion and nobody’s really effectively pushed back on it.
Lana and Odesza are both snoozes and I honestly had to look up who Karol G (Colombian pop singer) and Tomorrow X Together (k-pop boy-band) were.
The rest of the lineup is where things truly go insane. It’s a mix of unheard ofs, pretty big pop stars (Carly Rae) and rappers (yatchy, Pusha T), old alternative acts (30 Seconds to Mars – Leto, buddy, just hang it up already, Portugal. The Man), plus Yung Gravy and Lainey Wilson. I’ll give some respect to having everyone (and I mean everyone’s taste) included here.
But despite a multitude of “why would I pay to see this” there are a lot of indie acts represented here that are of actual good quality, and not really darlings of music journalism or the internet.
The Backseat Lovers have had a huge couple of years, Alex G is loved by his fans, add in Mt. Joy, New Jeans, Spacey Jane, Sincere Engineer, Arlie, Husbands, Giant Rooks, EKKSTACY, and more than a few others, now I can start to see a crypto-lineup that I could get behind.
The good news is, if you want to hunt and peck the stages for all four days to see some great artists you actually like, and tolerate what your friends like in between, GA tickets are currently on sale for a total price including taxes and fees of around $420 (nice.)
Honestly for four days and that many bands, it’s really not that bad of a price in 2023. Accomadations and traveling, plus food and water is really where you’re going to bankrupt yourself in Chicago. Chicago – the home of the $13 Old Style.
