LIVE REVIEWS
Tyler the Creator performs at Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 30th, 2021.
Sacha Lecca for Rolling StoneIt’s been a long 16 months without in-person concerts and festivals, and as Lollapalooza returned for Day Two at Chicago’s Grant Park on Friday, attendees and artists alike were all still feeling their way into the new normal. While official attendance numbers were not made available, the grounds did not appear to be at its typical 100,000-person capacity. Though it was busy and packed tighter near stages (and it got more crowded as the day wore on), there was still a decent amount of space away from the front of stages to socially distance and maneuver around the park, a welcome respite while in the midst of a pandemic where Covid-19 case numbers are once again rising.
Masks were required on the honor system for those who were unvaccinated (and could be obtained for free at the fest), though very few people were seen wearing them on a day that coincided with Chicago health officials recommending universal masking indoors following the uptick in Covid-19 cases nationwide. On Friday night, the festival tweeted that beginning Saturday, masks would be required in indoor spaces on the grounds.
While fans were reacquainting themselves with how to navigate crowds, the year-plus spent away from the stage gave artists plenty of time to reflect. Earlier in the day, Grandson encouraged fans to be kind to those around them. “You have no idea what that person has been through,” he said, and Giveon reveled at the opportunity for his first-ever festival performance. By nightfall, Tyler, the Creator contemplated how far he had come.
“I was gross,” the rapper said thinking back on his come-up. “I was nasty as fuck” and “ugly” he recalled. But, he surmised, a decade after his debut studio album, Goblin, dropped, he was “super proud” of where he’s arrived. “Massa” addressed his transformation with his grooving flow building grittier as the song progressed.
Tyler has had a fascinating and stunning metamorphosis, from an irascible figure whose early depraved lyrics and antics were polarizing, to the sophisticated and charismatic artist who commanded the stage with ease as he danced, affably shared stories and set different tones for the eras of his career, via lighting, background and clothing changes.
Tyler the Creator performs at Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 30th, 2021.
Sacha Lecca for Rolling Stone
His previous turn at Lollapalooza in 2018 found him admonishing the crowd for not forming a proper mosh pit, but even then his more thoughtful side had already emerged with the release of Flower Boy the year prior. This time around, he served as headliner and his ascent was well-deserved. Having released two accomplished albums since (2019’s Igor and Call Me If You Get Lost, which arrived in June), that material, coupled with songs from Flower Boy, showcased a progression from his early solo albums and Odd Future days with more personal, heartfelt lyrics, while incorporating the best of his techniques and style he’s honed through the years.
This year, he showed up onstage as a bellhop while pushing a full baggage cart. He lightheartedly searched through the luggage to change out of his uniform into something more leisurely before launching into “Corso.” Along with his top-billing came bigger production, which included a prop boat that rocked along with his more foreboding fare.
His penchant for juxtaposing vulnerability, such as on Call Me songs “Wasyaname” and “Sweet,” against going hard AF, were on display, between songs and also within them, such as during “New Magic Wand.” For the latter, he donned the blonde bowl-cut wig and suit from his Igor era and also delivered “I Think” and “Earfquake” from that LP later in the set.
But before digging into material from his recent past, he dedicated his first run of songs to his latest acclaimed LP. “Uh OK, I guess you like that shit,” he commented, feeding off the crowd’s hands-in-the-air approval, before saying that he had some other songs to deliver. “I’m gonna run through them now.” Flower Boy fans were treated to a tender “See You Again,” “911” and “Boredom” — while written before Covid, they resonated in the longing and loneliness that befit the times, as well as the frenetic “Who Dat Boy.”
He explained that Flower Boy was after his “ugly phase,” but for his old-school fans, he also dropped a “select few” early bars, including Goblin‘s “She,” “Tron Cat,” “Yonkers,” and Wolf‘s “IFHY,” “Bimmer” and “Tamale.”
He capped off the night with the one-two punch of “I Thought You Wanted to Dance” and “Runitup,” a song tailor-made for an uplifting field-wide sing-along.
“We ain’t nothing to you, but we something to them,” he rapped on the confident closer. “When you in your room and you starin’ at the ceiling/Dreaming, I want you to know there’s no ceilings/I want you to notice that feeling/I want you to go for it/I want you to reach with no fearing.”
If you told early vehement detractors who witnessed early chaotic, petulant Odd Future shows that within a decade they may become fans, it’s likely they would’ve balked. But Tyler reminded critics that there can be redemption following youthful ignorance, something for which most of us are not exempt. Deciding to own it and coming out a better artist is a revelation.
Tyler, the Creator Lollapalooza 2021 Set List
1. “Sir Baudelaire”
2. “Corso”
3. “Lemonhead”
4. “Wusyaname”
5. “Lumberjack”
6. “Massa”
7. “Sweet”
8. “See You Again”
9. “911”
10. “Boredom”
11. “Who Dat Boy”
12. “She”
13. “Tron Cat”
14. “Yonkers”
15. “Bimmer”
16. “Tamale”
17. “IFHY”
18. “Igor’s Theme”
19. “I Think”
20. “Earfquake
21. “New Magic Wand”
22. “I Thought You Wanted to Dance”
23. “Runitup”
LIVE REVIEWS
Arriving at The O2 for the first night of Radiohead’s London residency, we walk in under Stanley Donwood artwork lining the walkway and the lines of the band’s bleak modern chant “Fitter Happier” printed on a huge banner hanging from the ceiling of the former Millennium Dome. The moment instantly brings back memories of walking into Oasis’ Live “25” tour earlier this summer. This is the other major rock return of the year and the atmosphere carries a different kind of excitement, yet the intensity feels just as real. Instead of bucket hats and throwing drinks into warm air, we have cold weather and a slow shuffle through the night to gather in the dark. Toniiiiiight, I’m a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
It almost feels unreal that nine full years have passed since Radiohead’s last album, the rich and sorrowful “A Moon Shaped Pool”, and that they have not toured since 2017. In between, we have seen several side-projects, including Ed O’Brien’s overlooked but inspired solo run as EOB and the way Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood nearly recreated Radiohead’s spirit under a different name through the sharp jazz-rock of The Smile, as well as a wave of controversy.
After performing in Tel Aviv in 2017, questions grew louder about the band’s connection to Israel as the horrors of the genocide in Gaza intensified. Attention landed on Greenwood’s collaboration with Dudu Tassa, an Israeli musician who has played for the IDF, and on Yorke’s later comments responding to criticism. The guitarist had joined anti-government protests in Israel, where his wife is from, and the band recently made their views clear again by speaking out against Netanyahu’s regime, insisting that music should be something that unites people from every culture. That idea guides the show tonight, where there is no sign of protest or boycott.
The audience surrounds the stage, which sits in the center to create a more personal and absorbing feeling than most massive arena shows ever manage. A flickering vocoder opens the room and builds tension before the band walk out and jump straight into old-school territory with the raw guitar gloom of “The Bends” opener “Planet Telex”. It is one of many choices designed to thrill the crowd from a group not always associated with this kind of approach, and the packed venue screams back “everything is broken. why can’t you forget?” as a shared release against everything falling apart in the world around us.
With a “busking approach” guiding the tour, the band rehearsed more than 70 songs and have performed around 43 so far, so this is not the predictable hit conveyor belt of Oasis’ shows. It feels refreshing to never know what is coming next. The setlist leans heavily on the treasures from “OK Computer” and “In Rainbows” and gives equal space to the once-dismissed but now appreciated “Hail To The Thief”. It creates a kind of Radiohead-style hit parade, without “Creep” of course, and includes the occasional glammed-up oddity to let the show breathe.
There is the roaring political fear of “2+2=5”, the huge and aching sweep of “Lucky”, the pulsing electronic rush of “15 Step” and the joyful sing-along of “No Surprises” anchoring the early part of the performance. This section also includes “Sit Down. Stand Up.” with a new soft happy hardcore ending, “Bloom” from the fragile “The King Of Limbs” that now carries a brighter neon energy, and “The Gloaming” flowing into “Kid A”, giving the night a moment to sink before everything intensifies again.
There is not a single chance for a toilet break from that moment onward. From the gentle pain of “Videotape”, to the wild three-part surge of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” into “Idioteque” and “Everything In Its Right Place”, to the guitar-driven “In Rainbows” songs and the massive first-act finale of “There There”, every moment lands exactly how a Radiohead fan would hope. The visuals also look spectacular.
Then we reach the reward of a seven-song encore that reads like fantasy on paper, complete with the newly viral “Let Down”, a playful return to “a song we wrote on a freezing cold farm in 1994” with the indie powerhouse “Just”, and the huge final blow of “Karma Police”. This show becomes the cinematic and artistic contrast to Oasis’ carefree chaos, capturing that feeling of “standing on the edge” and letting everything wash over you. The entire night carries a fierce energy and a well-judged sense of scale, offered with warmth and intention, and Yorke leans fully into his rockstar presence as the band rotate around the stage to engage each part of the arena. For a group that once cringed at the idea of “arena rock”, no one performs it better. A new album and another night like this would be welcome as soon as possible.
‘Planet Telex’
‘2 + 2 = 5’
‘Sit Down. Stand Up.’
‘Lucky’
‘Bloom’
‘15 Step’
‘The Gloaming’
‘Kid A’
‘No Surprises’
‘Videotape’
‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’
‘Idioteque’
‘Everything In Its Right Place’
‘The National Anthem’
‘Daydreaming’
‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’
‘Bodysnatchers’
‘There There’
‘Fake Plastic Trees’
‘Let Down’
‘Paranoid Android’
‘You and Whose Army?’
‘A Wolf at the Door’
‘Just’
‘Karma Police’
