Ah, Day 4: when your sunburn is peeling, your blisters have blisters, and the greasy food has eaten away at both bank account and stomach. In any year, attending a four-day music festival can cease to be a privilege and instead feel like survival horror. But that’s doubly true during pandemic-era Lollapalooza, where every crush of the crowd could’ve brought the wrong particles wafting towards your lungs. It would have been easy to check out, pack up, and go home. Some good fucking music made that impossible.

The 2021 festival ended with a walloping set by one of the most iconic rock bands of their generation, Foo Fighters. Some would argue that the Foos have over 200 great songs, while some might say four, and that’s pushing it. But all must admit that their live presence is undeniable. Dave Grohl’s ferocious intensity can turn any old tune into a banger, and bang away they did in the closing headlining slot on Sunday night. It was a performance that those in attendance won’t soon forget.

The second headlining slot featured more drama off-stage than on. DaBaby was ungracefully yoinked after a relentlessly homophobic campaign this past week. He was replaced by Young Thug, whose own time was covered by Chicago’s G Herbo.

Elsewhere, the final day of Lollapalooza boasted notable performances by Modest Mouse, Brittany Howard, and BROCKHAMPTON. If you so desire, revisit our recaps of days 1, 2, and 3, and check out the biggest moments from Day 4 below.

Princess Nokia Surfed the Children

Princess Nokia called her fans the ‘children,’ and something about her track “Tomboy” had the kids acting up. As she rapped about “my little titties and my phat belly,” a mosh circle swelled, and the MC announced she would be joining them. She hopped off the stage and — with the help of an obliging crew — leapt into the pit and crowd-surfed. It was the climax of an engaging set, with a fun visual palette of rainbow-brite bikini tops and tiny streams of bubbles. — Wren Graves

G Herbo Showcased Chicago’s Hip-Hop Past, Present, and Future

For a guy who wasn’t even officially on the schedule until late last night, G Herbo wasted no time establishing himself among the best of the festival’s hip-hop undercard during his pinch-hitting 4 p.m. set at the T-Mobile stage. “Raise your hand if you love wordplay and lyricism and real rap music,” he asked the sizable crowd before delivering just that with energetic performances of tracks like “Gangbangin’,” “Ridin’ Wit It,” and “Bi Polar.” In addition to showing off his own sizable talents, G Herbo also drew connections between Chicago hip-hop future and past, welcoming West Side drill act DCG Brothers for a performance of their song “Mmhmm” and bringing out surprise guest Chance the Rapper for his stellar feature verse on their viral collaboration “PTSD.”

Brittany Howard Can Breathe Fire

The stale atmosphere of the Petrillo Music Shell has swallowed many a fine artist, but Howard doesn’t exhale normal air. She ripped through “He Loves Me” by dueting with her own guitar — perhaps the only performer who can keep up. And during the rendition of “Stay High,” the crowd tried to imitate her firebreathing vocals by sending smoke signals into the air. But she didn’t emerge from the Shell entirely unscathed. Her backup singers were inaudible, and the dull acoustics robbed her dynamism by muting her quieter moments. But when she reared back and let it rip, she could singe eyebrows ten rows deep. — Wren Graves

The Front Bottoms Took a Rare Festival Encore

Favoring an anxiously verbose strain of emo that feels like it was created in a lab at Warped Tour HQ, New Jersey’s the Front Bottoms are exactly the kind of band that commands a small-but-fierce crowd when exposed to the wider festival ecosystem. That was true today, as singer Brian Sella showcased his Weakerthans-with-ADHD-instead-of-depression sound on tight renditions of “Twin Size Mattress,” “Lone Star,” and more. The true believers at the front of the Lake Shore stage got everything they asked for, and to a rare extent for a festival of this size; after the band departed at the end of “The Beers,” Sella returned for a seemingly impromptu encore, strumming out an acoustic take on 2011’s “Father” until he was swallowed up by the chasmic sounds of Modest Mouse the next stage over.

Rico Nasty Called the Girls to the Pit

Rico Nasty has a hell of a scream. Her vocal chord-shredding howls sent shivers through the Grubhub crowd, which extended all the way out of the trees and joined with the lines for the food stalls. “Let It Out” banged, and the crowd went nuts for a solo rendition of her collaboration with Doja Cat, “Tia Tamera.” At one point she called out, “I wanna see an all girl mosh pit. Fellas get out of the way. Now, ladies, have you ever wanted to smack the shit out of somebody?” The resulting roar could be heard in Indiana. “I wanna see you go crazy,” she screamed, and as “Smack a Bitch” played, the pit obliged. — Wren Graves

Modest Mouse

There’s a certain expectation during some festival sets: If a band has one particularly recognizable hit, chances are they’ll save it until the end to encourage the crowds to stick around. Such logic doesn’t apply to Modest Mouse, who unceremoniously trotted out 2004 breakout single “Float On” just 15 minutes into their set. When they weren’t treating their most popular song like a new-album bathroom break, the Washington indie rock vets delivered a workmanlike performance that prioritized cuts from their actual new album The Golden Casket. True to the band’s polarizing live reputation, the set wasn’t without its idiosyncrasies; at the end of The Moon & Antarctica favorite “Paper Thin Walls,” the band left the stage with 15 minutes to go. Was this their weird way of forcing an encore of their own? Well, no. “I am not good at clocks,” frontman Isaac Brock admitted when the band returned to the stage. “We have more time!”

Band of Horses Scored One for Festival Camraderie

As the sun fell all the way behind the MIchigan Avenue skyline, a familiar feeling descended upon Lollapalooza. It was the evening of the last day, a time to take stock and catch breath and meet up with companions before the final headliner of the weekend. That sense of festival camaraderie found a perfect soundtrack in the laid-back countrified indie rock of Washington’s Band of Horses. As the crowd swayed, chatted, and finally remembered to take some group photos, singer Ben Bridwell led his band through the big sentimental mixtape sounds of “Is There A Ghost,” “No One’s Gonna Love You,” and “The Great Salt Lake.” It seemed like those feelings of nostalgia and togetherness were even being felt up on stage. “This is the 30th anniversary of Lollapalooza! My first Lollapalooza was in ‘93, in Raleigh, NC,” Bridwell said as he introduced bassist Matt Gentling, “and this guy was playing at it.”

Introducing BROCKHAMPTON Starring Joba

#Brockhampton #Lollapalooza2021 pic.twitter.com/q8tQydBWEu

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— Paul (@GaVaHokie) August 2, 2021

If you entered Sunday’s performance with no knowledge of the rap boy band BROCKHAMPTON, you probably thought it consisted of Joba alongside a surprisingly large number of hype men. The group was without Ciarán “bearface” McDonald, who wasn’t feeling well; and during bearface’s many hooks, Joba shouted along, head-banged, and enthusiastically twerked. Ahead of the set he dedicated the performance to his late father, who passed away in September, and surely his dad would’ve felt honored. Joba looked resplendent in a bottle blonde mullet, and his energy was matched by no one, with the occasional exception of human cannonball Merlyn.

As for Kevin Abstract, he tweeted later that he’d lost his voice after the first song, and he seemed happy to cede the stage. Without a strong presence from their usual leader, the band’s focus sometimes wavered, leading to awkward situations where, for example, one MC would call for the audience to wave while another tried to open up the circle. Inevitably, the eye returned to Joba. The highlight came during his performance of “WHAT’S THE OCCASION,” which served as a heartrending meditation on grief. “Reach to the sky for God,” he said. “Reach like God exists!” For one moment, everyone became a believer. — Wren Graves

EarthGang: Love and Thunder

On a warm, cloudless night, peals of thunder rang out as thousands of feet leapt in unison. In 2021, the Grubhub stage was the festival’s best: compact enough to keep the energy boiling, but large enough to host a few thousand friends. And judging by EarthGang’s performance, the rap duo have a lot of friends. That comes from a long career of interesting collaborations, which they showed off on songs like the Dreamville cut, “Down Bad.” Towards the end they brought out Rico Nasty, who sounded half-fried but did her best to howl with the best of them. EarthGang closed with a preview of their upcoming album Ghetto Gods, and the debut performance turned out to be a powerful exploration of racism in America. — Wren Graves

Young Thug Was Late But at Least He Wasn’t Homophobic

Young Thug started 20 minutes late, but at least he didn’t insult audience members for no reason. He barely interacted with the crowd, but at least he didn’t spew hatred and misinformation. He wore an unseasonably puffy winter jacket — denying himself the pleasures of Chicago in the summertime — and for a headlining performance on the festival’s closing night, he didn’t muster much spectacle. But at least he wasn’t a bigot. Lollapoolza only needed Young Thug to not be DaBaby, and he succeeded. — Wren Graves

Foo Fighters

Back in October, we covered the Foo Fighters’ livestream benefit concert from the shuttered Roxy in Los Angeles. At the time, frontman Dave Grohl made a promise during the show’s at-home singalong of “My Hero.”

“I know it seems embarrassing, but you can only imagine what it’s like being on the stage pretending like there’s people here,” Grohl said at the time. “Let’s share a little bit of this awkward energy together. Because, someday? Someday, we’re gonna be doing this face-to-face, motherfuckers.”

For those in attendance at Lollapalooza 2021, someday came today. Was it too soon? We’ll know soon enough. As voices around the country decried the festival as a potential superspreader event in the COVID-19 pandemic’s new, more uncertain second act, the Foo Fighters took the stage in front of a mammoth crowd of fans content, for tonight, to celebrate the victories rather than worry about the possible losses to come.

How did the band react to the occasion? By showcasing the qualities that led them to become the (somewhat improbable) biggest working rock band in America. After kicking things off with a touchingly spare rendition of “Times Like These”, Dave Grohl and company dedicated the next two hours to releasing their pent-up performance energy and (crucially) having fun doing it. Sometimes, this took the form of feral extended jams that turned otherwise anonymous late-era songs like “These Days” and “No Son of Mine” into whirlwinds of energy. Other times, the band explored the playful side of cover songs; tonight’s crowd saw a funky cut from the band’s new Dee Gees project, drummer Taylor Hawkins’ vocal take on Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” and a duet of “Nausea” by seminal California punk band X between Grohl and his daughter Violet.

“We’ve got 235 songs,” Grohl said early in the night. “Y’all wanna hear 235 songs?”

The answer, of course, was yes. It was an honest and impossible desire, just like an in-person singalong at the Roxy was back in October. Tonight, Grohl made good on his promise from last autumn, leading a cascade of voices on “My Hero,” and “The Best,” and all of the other big, earnest hits. Finally, we were all face-to-face again; to the folks in Grant Park tonight, that was something worth singing about.

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