Lollapalooza Day 1: McCartney Holds His Own Among Rising Stars

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Mega-music festivals have created lofty expectations of late for surprise guests or unannounced collaborations, such as Madonna at Coachella. But that kind of buzzy moment typically isn’t a part of Lollapalooza, the annual three-day festival in Chicago’s Grant Park. When you put together the kind of lineup Lolla did for this year, however, you don’t necessarily need big guests – not when in the closing hour of Day 1 you have rising pop superstar the Weeknd, EDM king Kaskade, and Sir Paul McCartney playing simultaneously.

Related: Lollapalooza ‘15 Breakout Acts: Day 1

The evening had its share of highlights, but any night that closes with tens of thousands singing “Hey Jude” typically and understandably gets remembered for one spine-tingling moment.

That being said, there was one very special collaboration on Lollapalooza Friday, when Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard joined McCartney for a rousing duet on “Get Back.”

Yes, the first day of the event was a top-heavy one, with the Weeknd drawing a decent crowd for his 75-minute, 15-song set that included the current smash “Can’t Feel My Face,” as well as his renditions of hits he’s had with others, like “Remember You,” with Wiz Khalifa and Ariana Grande’s “Love Me Harder.”

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Likewise, one fan could be overheard saying, “Holy s—, that is crazy,” as they walked by the flashing red lights and billowy smoke coming from Perry’s stage (named for Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell) as Kaskade worked the crowd with a healthy mix of heavy beats and lush, atmospheric female vocals.

And while he didn’t get the record-breaking crowds he had at Coachella this year, the grassy area that stretched out in front of his stage was still packed to the end – all the more impressive given the competition in his time slot.

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To no one’s surprise, the biggest crowd of the three headliners on day one was where it belonged, singing along euphorically as McCartney and his stellar band brought rock history to the fans stretched back as far as the eye could see. From the opener “Magical Mystery Tour” all the way through the “Golden Slumbers” medley that finished Abbey Road and closed out this more than two-hour set McCartney, who said to the crowd, “We’ve been looking forward to coming here, and we were right,” displayed his mastery.

When you can draw on a catalog though that allows you to close with a combination of “Let It Be,” “Live and Let Die,” and “Hey Jude,” you can expect nothing but ecstatic joy from fans. Just based on the catalog alone McCartney is as safe a festival headliner as there is out there, but as he continued to speak to the crowd throughout the night, and threw in numbers like the lovely piano piece “Hey Valentine,” he showed he is not out there just to be a golden oldies machine, but a compelling artist for today.

In that respect, impressively, McCartney felt very much in his element alongside so many great young acts like blues star Gary Clark Jr., the high-energy jamming of musician’s favorites the War on Drugs, the pop energy of Borns, and the bluesy rock of Alabama Shakes, who also drew a massive crowd to their own set Samsung Galaxy stage before McCartney’s epic closing set.

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