Two weeks ago, the iconic festival Lollapalooza was hitting the city of love and baguettes, and lucky for me, all the artists I wanted to see were playing on the Sunday, no clashes - as far as festivals go, this is pretty unheard of.

The festival in itself was a nice and frankly refreshing experience for me. I am so used to going to metal/alternative festivals that I forget I have a music taste outside of the pages of Alternative Press and Metal Hammer. I have a love of pop music, and pretty much of anything that makes my heart beat a little faster, whatever the genre. I often have the thought of pushing myself outside of my alternative/emo comfort zone and go see different artists live, and it was great finally taking the plunge with Lollapalooza - even though, I can't lie, I don't think I would have made the effort if it wasn't for my boys in Donny B. You can't really take the emo out of me.

Obviously, when a festival has the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lana Del Rey headlining, the atmopshere and crowds are going to be different from affairs fronted by Enter Shikari or Biffy Clyro. The audience was more diverse and, at times, I could see all the festival clichés you might read about in fashion magazines or blogs. The weather forecast rain but I have seen more people donning floaty dresses and flower crowns than wellies and raincoats. I know many people were attending for the name more than the music. Still, I had a great time - if you forget about the toilet queue.

As I said before, the main reason why I found myself in the Hippodrome of Longchamp was my boys in Don Broco. They have found themselves featuring on three different French festival line ups in the space of a month (an exceptional feat when it comes to bands I like), and I couldn't really miss one in my almost-hometown. The sun is still shining when they take the Parisian stage and, as always, they do it with flair, a whole lot of style and boisterous tunes ready-made to wake everyone up. They have a fair amount of fans in the crowd and the number will only grow during the set. On that Sunday morning, while they had the tough task of opening a stage closed by the likes of Lana Del Rey, they grabbed people's attention and refused to let it go. Their summery, stupidly catchy tunes have that power, too - just thinking about it sends Superlove spinning in my brain.
Don Broco showed Lollapalooza what they were all about and delivered an impressive performance - as always, really.

Next up on the second main stage was Charli XCX. I had seen her live before and all three times, I had been impressed by her seemingly neverending energy. The first time I have seen her, she was supporting Ellie Goulding in a rather small Parisian venue, and four years down the line, she has had multiple hits playing on the radio and television and has become able to sell out fairly big venues all by herself. Her set is just that : a collection of hits. Even if you were not a hardcore follower, you would still know most of the songs she was playing as they all are extremely popular. It's been almost a week and I'm still trying to understand why I've burst into tears when she sang Doing It, but, you know. Overall, I've had a blast.

(She's just released a new song entitled Boys and the music video has Frank Carter in it, so I suggest you watch it all now)

The next artist I wanted to see started three hours after the end of Charli XCX's performance, so I sat down with a friend and watched whatever was on offer on the two main stages - a complicated concept. I didn't know Walk Off The Earth and even though I am always a sucker for a good cover, I found it hard to get into what they were doing. By the time they burst into a rendition of Adele's iconic Hello, I had had enough.
I only heard bits of Editors, but it sounded catchy and enticing enough for me to want to give them a post-festival listen.


Everyone knows my music taste usually revolves around the alternative rock universe. I love my pop music and have seen a bunch of DJs live, here and there, but I mostly let it all happen by chance. This is probably the reason why, in my twenty-seven years of life, I had never seen a rap performance live. I have no problem with rap per se - it's just such a different universe from mine that I don't know where to start. Where's my "Rap for beginners" playlist?
I decided to watch French rap outfit IAM. For those who don't know who they are, they have been around and famous for three entire decades and have released eight albums, two live albums and five greatest hits albums. Upon talking about them with my brother, he told me that they could easily sell out stadiums. That's how famous we're talking about. I knew a couple of tunes, so I decided to see them, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. At first, facing a band in which four people had a microphone and no actual musical instrument could be seen was a strange concept, but once I got over my confusion, I could appreciate the performance for its worth. It was good, the level of communication between crowd and band was unreal and I'm pretty sure they won at singalong of the day. 10/10, would bother again, would maybe pay for it next time.





I headed back to the main stage for legend Liam Gallagher. I have always loved the music he did with Oasis, to a point where I can't even remember how or when I started listening to Oasis - it feels like it was always there, always a part of me. I couldn't see myself missing Liam playing, and it was a wonderful set, so honest and beautiful. I think one of my favourite things about him is how he is such a no-nonsense kind of person, the kind of man who has no problem telling what he thinks straight to your face, and then, he just picks up an instrument and plays some wonderful and sensitive songs that tug on your heartstrings. This contrast is everything. He will say that because he came all his way, he's going to treat us to Wonderwall, as if he's doing us a huge favour by simply giving us the time of day, and then he goes and breaks my heart with one of the most beautiful songs ever written. If I ever needed some proof that Liam Gallagher is a legend, I had it.





I think I have been in love with Lana Del Rey's music and universe since I first heard Video Games, and seeing her live was a dream of mine. It was a thing I never, ever thought would happen, and a week before Lollapalooza, I was listening to her songs, thinking that she would be in front of me and I would still refuse to accept it was happening, for real. I wasn't far off the truth - it's been almost two weeks since the festival and I'm still debating whether I dreamt that absolutely gorgeous hour and fifteen minutes of delicate, intricate, unique pop music. Lana Del Rey's performance was absolutely magical, every song felt like a moment suspended in time, something unreal and dreamy, like everything around you stopped, if only for three minutes. She is not the kind of performer who takes up a lot of space, per se - she does not dance, she is not loud, she is not eccentric, she is pretty quiet, almost shy. Somehow, her presence turns out to be huge, she shines so much in all her delicate way. She is beautiful and glamorous, talented and a true icon. Every song stole my heart, but the real winner was, of course, Video Games. The studio version still gives me goosebumps, six years down the line, and the live version brought me to tears. Seeing Lana Del Rey live was a dream, and the reality lived up to my expectations.






My evening was closed off with alternative-rock legends Red Hot Chili Peppers. I am not going to lie, I was so overwhelmed by the prospect of seeing Lana Del Rey and so excited to see Don Broco again that I had kind of forgotten they were playing. The greatest thing about this toned down excitement, how casually I walked near their side of the main stage is that I had so few expectations and was completely willing to be swept off my feet - which I completely was.