20-21/07/2019

Lollapalooza Paris 2019

Hippodrome Paris Longchamp, Paris

by OndaRock Staff

Four stages: two "Main Stages", an "Alternative Stage", plus a fourth named after the Festival's founder, Perry Farrell. Location: the Paris Longchamp racecourse. The event: the third edition of the French version of the famed Lollapalooza, the Festival created in the 90s by Farrell himself, conceived in the United States as a travelling tour and transposed into Europe as a fixture held in several major cities on the continent. Let's start from the end: 11:50pm on Sunday 21 July, a touch early for an event of this scale, but right on schedule the Strokes take to the "Main Stage 1", putting the final seal on a rich two days in Paris.

The New York band showed up in great form for the French date: in just over an hour they ran through many of their classics, from "You Only Live Once" to the controversial "New York City Cops", and after around fifteen songs closed the show with the first hit of their career, "Last Nite", from the unforgettable debut "Is This It". A short set, as is their habit, but one that thoroughly satisfied the more than 90,000 spectators who packed the Hippodrome this weekend. Particularly striking was the upbeat attitude of Julian Casablancas, never so chatty and sharp. The son of the founder of the Elite Model agency held the crowd's attention by joking around with the band: "are you ready?", he asked before almost every song, or forcing the other famous offspring, Albert Hammond Jr, to improvise unlikely musical numbers about the Ville Lumière. Julian also had no qualms about lobbing provocative remarks at the audience, like when he asked, amused, "I ran into Chris Martin on the streets of Paris today, but I didn't say hi! Did I do the right thing?"

Before the Strokes, Sunday's bill was headlined by Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals, who warmed up a crowd already sweltering from the unusually high temperatures. The American bluesman's flawless performance closed with an extraordinary cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". At the same time, on the "Alternative Stage", Scotland's Biffy Clyro were playing - and deserved, given there was room for it, a less conflicting slot. The Kilmarnock band, led by singer Simon Neil, delivered their usual sweat-and-power-soaked performance, standing out as one of the best acts of this edition.

After the Scots, Manchester's The 1975 took to the "Alternative Stage", but couldn't quite shake off a vague "boy band effect", brought on by their rather slick sound and a crowd of screaming teenagers. Between hip-swaying and languid expressions, singer Matthew Healy wouldn't have looked out of place alongside a Robbie Williams or a Gary Barlow.

In the afternoon, attention had already been drawn by Shame, who went on at 4pm sharp, a timeslot that somewhat penalized the effective English rock band.

The Festival's first day, on paper the weakest in terms of line-up, opened for us with Ghali's 3pm performance, just to throw a bit of Italy into the mix. But in the afternoon stretch, it was Tash Sultana's 7.30pm set that really stood out. The Australian multi-instrumentalist captured the crowd's attention with her stunning voice and her ability to move effortlessly between guitar, trumpet and percussion. After her, it was the turn of the Festival's founding father, Perry Farrell. The singer of Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros, still in great shape, performed with his new creation, the Kind Heaven Orchestra, a supergroup with an album produced by Tony Visconti and vocals from his stunning wife Etty. A theatrically-staged performance that reached its peak with a deeply passionate kiss shared between the Farrell couple. Closing out Saturday night in style were American duo Twenty One Pilots, followed by Martin Garrix, who kept everyone dancing until half past midnight.

The Festival's organization was flawless, with set times respected to the second and around 50 artists on the bill spanning a wide range of musical genres, from rock to pop to hip-hop and electronic music. A nice touch was the "Lolla Chef" initiative, through which a number of young French chefs presented their signature dishes at very affordable prices. If we really had to find a flaw, it might be a line-up not quite living up to the prestige of a brand like Lollapalooza, which carries with it an imagery of far greater weight. But perhaps in a few years we'll be here praising the merits of this edition, since many of the names on the bill have everything it takes to achieve great artistic results.

Above: Perry Farrell (photo by Pier Paolo Campo)

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by OndaRock Staff, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

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