My favorite set of Lollapalooza happened on Saturday when Atmosphere played in front of the majority of the attending audience.
Although I can think of few ways worse to see a concert than at 2:30 in the afternoon, outdoors, in 90-plus-degree heat, Atmosphere was able to make the crowd of 30,000 (?) feel somehow intimate.
Running through a set of material from When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, along with some of the duo’s older, more hip-hop-orientated songs, Slug amused the crowd with his normal dry banter (spouting “trying to find a salad” instead of “Trying to Find a Balance”) and getting the audience members to throw their squirt guns in the air.
As Ant DJ-ed the set with his trademark Steven Seagal-esque ponytail and cigarette dangling from his lips, Slug pointed out that despite the moody, genre-bending set list, the crowd still came to party — that “we drop a lot of dotted lines” to enjoy a concert like this.
Atmosphere is an act that helped validate Lollapalooza 2009. Its music, rooted in underground hip hop, now veers strangely into moody rock / R&B. There was a complete lack of stage show (save for a few puffs off a smoke machine), no costumes (Slug was wearing his typical straight-from-the-gym outfit), no guest appearances, and no radio singles to close the set.
And yet the performance felt special, unique, and worth suffering the blazing afternoon sun and enormous crowds — and that is what the money-minded folks behind Lollapalooza should be focusing on: creating rare, memorable performances rather than disposable outdoor parties.
Chris Force is the founder and editor of ALARM Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter.