This year marks the 20th anniversary of Chicago’s annual Lollapalooza music festival. In the heat with a surprising lack of overwhelming humidity, one would have found themselves in an ocean of hipsters and eight stages to choose from on August 5th. At around five o’clock Gold Motel failed to show up to their intimate performance at the Toyota tent, half an hour late and still not arrived, I ventured to the BMI stage to witness a set by Pete Wentz & Bebe Rexha in their new project Black Cards. Their show began with two dancers in tight black clothing donning wolf head masks. While Pete’s main position in the band is supposed to be the bass guitar, his time was spent as follows: 85% dancing on stage while Bebe sang, 10% doing synth, and 5% stage diving into an unsuspecting and unready crowd that struggled to catch the man. A highlight of the show included Bebe pulling a Superbad Fogel-looking boy from the crowd to serenade while she danced and sung “Summer Nights” and “Club Called Heaven”. Black Cards’s show eventually turned into a very crowd interactive performance. By that I mean they eventually had half the crowd on stage with them in a giant dance party. Following Black Cards was OK Go on the new Google+ stage where the members were dressed in coordinating suits in red, blue, green, and yellow. Other than the distracting bodily odored man in front, the set was decent and included a song featuring “bells created by God” that was a very soft song with traits of a lullaby. “Here It Goes” was played midset, followed by a massive departure of the part of the crowd that was only staying for that song being that it was the only one they’ve heard from the band. Second best known hit “This Too Shall Pass” was performed second to last. The hardest decision made at the first night of Lolla arrived when the time came to pick between Coldplay on the Bud Light stage or Muse on Music Unlimited. We chose to pull the half-Coldplay, half-Muse routine. We stayed much longer than intended in anticipation for Chris Martin & Co. to play their new song “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”. After staying for much longer than half, there was some serious hauling done in order to catch the last few minutes of Muse’s set on the opposite side of Grant Park. In comparison to other festivals, Lolla is going head to head with Kevin Lyman’s Vans Warped Tour. The crowd was surprisingly polite, and no one over the top aggressive (unless highly intoxicated and provoked). One fan stated that “it’s one thing to see Lolla on TV, but it’s another to be there in person because the energy and feel of the atmosphere gives you chills.” Having the beautiful backdrop of the sun setting on the city skyline behind the stages, Lollapalooza is the epitome of Chicago. Check out the final day of the festival on August 7th.