As audiences watch a black and white screen of a group of friends sitting and sipping on wine, they may forget for a moment that they are currently in attendance of Chicago’s most famous music festival. However, as soon as the floating vocals and swinging drum beat start up, they are transported back to the Bud Light stage watching Clairo perform “Second Nature.”
“You have no idea how much it took for us to get here today,” Clairo said. “We were on a plane that boarded twice and deboarded twice and then we took another plane, and then we got here one hour before we were supposed to go on stage.”
From her effortlessly calm and collected performance, the audience would not have been able to detect any travel-related stressors.
Clairo took a step back in terms of performance elements where many Lollapalooza performers take that step forward. She forwent flashy visuals and instead relied on her natural ability to create a cozy vibe with simplistic black and white video of just her and her band on stage.
One of Clairo’s strengths is being able to take a simplistic melody and beat and absolutely transform them into a unique entity that has the ability to captivate even large festival audiences.
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This was exemplified as she performed “Softly,” with its jazzy bass lines cutting through the soft lo-fi background instrumentals and laying a solid foundation for her sliding vocals to settle into. Festivalgoers responded to this display of pure talent by swaying with the beat and singing out the lyrics alongside Clairo.
“How many of you are on drugs?” she asked. “Be honest. Well, can you still dance if you’re on drugs, is that okay?”
Clairo prefaced “Add Up My Love” by requesting even those on drugs dance to the song — and for good reason. In typical Clairo fashion, this song highlighted one instrument in particular, the drums. As the drummer tapped out a syncopated rhythm, the audience quickly started swaying and tapping their feet to the beat despite the lyrics describing lost love.
As soon as she fell into a familiar rhythm of playing her relaxed discography back-to-back, she took a brief interlude to surprise the audience.
“Okay, Chicago so, I think today’s a good day for me to bring out some of my friends,” Clairo said. “Okay, let’s start the song. Where are my friends?”
Out ran Claud, Josh Mehling and Noa Getzug who with Clairo comprise the band Shelly. They all hug and several audience members could be heard saying “aww” at this display of supportive camaraderie. With them all on stage, Clairo performed one of Shelly’s 2020 singles, “Steeeam,” an upbeat-sounding love song with hidden undertones of loneliness.
As she starts to wrap up, Clairo pulls out all of her most popular hits to deliver a truly memorable ending to a uniquely simplistic set. The audience takes on a new life as the chords to “Bags” start to ring out. The song heightened the energy, especially as a saxophone took on a powerful and gritty solo that contrasted poetically with the soft guitar constantly strumming in the background.
“That was pretty sexy Chicago,” Clairo noted after the song’s conclusion.
She then moves into “Sexy to Someone” and “Juna” which again wows the crowd with a saxophone solo that is quite uncommon at a festival like Lollapalooza.
Ending on high-energy, Clairo shreds out “Sofia” and positive energy seems to dissolve throughout the crowd as they collectively start to dance around and sing along with the singer.
This performance goes to show that there is art in simplicity and Clairo has mastered this almost as effortlessly as she floats around the stage while singing.
