Yeasayer – 4:00 PM – Budweiser Stage

Playing to a crowd eager to finish the festival weekend strong, Yeasayer got the audience moving with feet-moving hits “Ambling Alp” and “O.N.E” from February’s acclaimed release, Odd Blood.

Chiddy Bang – ???? PM – The Music Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel

A quick lunch break to the tunes of hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang – complete with an awesome cover of MGMT’s “Kids.”

Frightened Rabbit – 5:00 PM – Sony bloggie Stage

Blazing through “Nothing Like You” early in their set, Scotland’s much hyped indie-rock quintet Frightened Rabbit communicated with the audience as if everyone was high school friends.  ”This song is about fighting a shark or fucking someone – I haven’t decided yet,” joked singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison, before breaking into “The Wrestle.”  The band pulled out all of the stops, including the gentler, acoustic “Poke” and crowd favorite “Swim Until You Can’t See Land.”

Flosstradamus – 6:30 PM – Perry’s

Chicago’s very own DJs J2K and Autobot rocked the crowd at Perry’s, Lollapalooza’s outside electronic music area.  Mixing house, hip-hop, and electro, Flosstradamus seamlessly cut between tracks and samples, keeping the audience dancing for the whole set.

The National – 7:15 PM – Playstation Stage

Always slickly dressed, the National played to a huge crowd, ready to hear tracks from recently released High Violet.  Singer Matt Berninger crooned in his signature baritone through “Mistaken for Strangers” and “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” and jumped into the crowd to sing directly to the audience – literally.  The National brought out a guitarist from the Arcade Fire to help on “Anyone’s Ghost,” and the band ended their set with a rousing finale of “Terrible Love.”

Soundgarden – 8:00 PM – Parkways Foundation Stage

It seemed fitting that alt-rock giants Soundgarden would reunite for a headlining Lollapalooza slot – singer/guitarist/rock legend Chris Cornell joked about how he’s played the festival so many times during its early 90s incarnation.  Cornell was energetic, but the rest of the band seemed…well…old.  But Soundgarden still sounded great – Chris Cornell’s vocals were razor sharp, and the band played hits spanning its entire career.  Luckily, however, no Cornell/Timbaland collaboration material surfaced during the set.

Arcade Fire – 8:30 PM – Budweiser Stage

Playing songs from just released The Suburbs, one of Canada’s greatest exports – the Arcade Fire – brought its enthusiasm and charisma to close out a great festival weekend.  Ending with an encore of “Wake Up,” the thousands of audience members yelled along with the band to the song’s sweeping chorus, bringing everyone together for an incredible, final Lollapalooza 2010 moment.

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Several months ago, I heard perhaps the best MGMT Kids Remix available and began to wonder if there was more to a group named Chiddy Bang than a millisecond of humor.  Since then, the group has released multiple tracks that have made me ashamed of my initial inclination.  Most recently, the band’s drop of “The Swelly Express” adds credulity to The Cool Kids Postulate: Suburban youths with a good education in rap history and a beat machine can flow with the best of them.  With the artful production of Xaphoon Jones, who may be best known for his breathtaking Kanye/Radiohead/Lupe, Passion Pit/Beyonce/Biggie, MGMT/Bob Marley mash-ups, and the lyrical mastery of Chidera “Proto” Anamege, the Philly group fills that niche of talented, well-swaggered, and youthful rap.

Get “The Swelly Express”

Hear “The Swelly Express”:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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