Things did not exactly go as planned at Chicago's Lollapalooza on Saturday as the festival had to be briefly shut down and evacuated when heavy storms rolled into Chicago. At around 3:30 p.m., festival organizers announced they would suspend the massive event in light of National Weather Service reports of severe thunderstorms. Attendees were instructed to move to pre-determined evacuation zones. Luckily, three hours later, the event was back on, but not without some musical casualties: performances by Alabama Shakes, B.o.B., Temper Trap and Neon Indian were canceled, while others were pushed back a few hours or shortened.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Despite a little bit of chaos, Red Hot Chili Peppers closed out the main stage with an inspired set of classics on Saturday night. The band opened with the new tune "Monarchy of Roses," and also offered "Snow (Hey Oh)," "Under the Bridge," "Can't Stop," "Throw Away Your Television" and the two-song encore of "Brendan's Death Song" and "Give It Away." Other acts on Saturday included EDM artists DJ Avicii and Calvin Harris, who both had the crowd jumping and dancing, and a more mellow R&B set by Frank Ocean. fun. was the group that re-opened the festival after the storm, and frontman Nate Ruess got the audience re-energized with "One Foot," "Why Am I the One?" and "We Are Young." Franz Ferdinand also brought the energy and played career highlights like "Michael" and "Take Me Out," plus a cover of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" before concluding with a drum solo.
On Sunday night, Jack White closed out the festival with a two-hour, career-spanning set that culled songs from his many different bands. White blasted out of the gate with his recent single, "Sixteen Saltines," and also played White Stripes tunes such as "Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground," "Ball and Biscuit" and "Seven Nation Army." He offered his song from the Danger Mouse collaboration Rome, called "Two Against One," as well as The Dead Weather's "Blue Blood Blues" and The Raconteurs' "Steady As She Goes." Also on Sunday, the crowd saw an eclectic lineup featuring Brooklyn indie rockers White Rabbits, blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr., ethereal band Sigur Ros and the reunited At The Drive-In, who treated the audience to cult-classics like "Arcarsenal," "Napoleon Solo" and "One-Armed Scissor."
Black Sabbath and Black Keys were the headliners of the opening night of the festival on Friday. The elder statesman in Sabbath gave the crowd a string of classic hits like "The Wizard," "N.I.B.," "War Pigs" and "Iron Man," while the considerably younger Keys performed their own, more recent hits such as "Gold On The Ceiling" and "Lonely Boy." Other highlights on Friday came from Passion Pit, DJ/producer Bassnectar, Seattle-based Folk band The Head and the Heart and Brooklyn singer Sharon Van Etten.
Lollapalooza also announced that it will travel to Tel Aviv, Israel in 2013 for an event at Yarkon Park from August 20-22. Israel will join Chile and Brazil as the third international location for the festival, in addition to the U.S. version in Chicago.