In its second day, Lollapalooza, Chicago’s giant music fest, finally revved into high gear, by spoon with concerts, Phoenix, and Slightly Stoopid. But it was three aging punk rock acts that ended up stealing the spotlight AFI, Social Distortion and, of course, Green Day. These mind Lollapalooza's big three called early days, starting as a relatively small alt rock festival in the early ’90s, before ballooning into the massive multi day, multi stage event that has now completely taken over Chicago’s sprawling Grant Park. These were yesterday’s three defining acts, and oddly enough, their sets shared a number of similar traits shameless pandering to the crowd, some self indulgent nostalgia, overt political content, showy production values, and some transcendentally amazing moments.
AFI
AFI
The Band Also Known as A Fire Inside kicked off the retro punk festivities with an hour long performance of their classic mid ’90s hits and a bunch of tracks off their most current album, Crash Love. Their perform more current songs watching them, like new single “Medicate,” it’s fascinating to see how far they’ve come from their garage band beginnings; they’ve now fully immersed themselves in the glam-y “horror punk” aesthetic. Wiry frontman Davey Havok, dressed in black slacks and an untucked white Polo shirt, didn’t play an instrument, instead prancing around, pirouetting, and twirling the mic stand like a baton. The guy can rock. Just watching AFI perform there's a kinetic pleasure.
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