The 2023 edition of Lollapalooza Brazil began last Friday, the 24th, on a blazing sunny day in São Paulo. Unlike last year, when the festival indirectly invested in rock with pop acts , this year the focus was on attracting large crowds with pop and rap artists, leaving rock and even metal acts scattered throughout the three-day event lineup.
The festival, which has previously featured Foo Fighters and even Metallica as headliners in its editions in the country, opted to give more space to indie and alternative rock, genres that are characteristic of the event, with Modest Mouse and Mother Mother among the highlights, but continued to cater to audiences of heavier music: it was the punk band Rise Against that closed the night for those who enjoy loud guitars and fast lyrics.
Wikimetal 's coverage Renan Facciolo 's photo gallery below.
Modest Mouse braves scorching heat at Lollapalooza.
At 3:50 PM, Modest Mouse arrived with high energy on the Chevrolet Stage with their colorful and danceable indie rock, a perfect soundtrack for the show under the scorching São Paulo sun that afternoon. Their privileged position, right in front of the sun, did not go unnoticed by vocalist Isaac Brook , who thanked the audience for watching them anyway.
The fans arrived at the last minute, probably due to the tight schedules between acts on other stages, and seemed unenthusiastic at first, but soon the growing crowd on the hill behind the stage erupted with enthusiasm befitting the sometimes sunny, sometimes frenetic sound of Modest Mouse, and after 30 minutes, the band's set seemed to escape the effects of the high temperature somewhat.
Formed in the early 1990s, the American band recently lost its drummer and founding member Jeremiah Green, who died on December 31, 2022, at the age of 45, from cancer.
Mother Mother makes a flawless debut in Brazil.
Announced in early March to complete the Lolla lineup on Friday after the cancellation of other acts, the Canadian band Mother Mother brought a more intimate, yet irresistibly groovy, indie sound to the Budweiser stage at 4:55 PM, in a flawless debut in the country.
With dense bass and electric vocals from Jasmin Parkin, Molly Guldemond, and Ryan Guldemond—the singers alternating on keyboards and the latter also playing guitar—the group won over a large audience and coordinated the fans well, getting them to jump and clap along to the rhythm dictated by a dirty guitar and strong drums.
Between catchy choruses and the band's great stage presence, Mother Mother also delivered an impressive cover of Radiohead Lollapalooza Brazil lineup . "We're from Canada and you guys are amazing. This is our first time in Brazil, thank you for welcoming us to this beautiful country," said Ryan.
Rise Against is isolated, but makes the stage seem too small for so much energy.
The biggest highlight for fans of heavier music that day was Rise Against, the band responsible for closing the night on the Adidas stage at 9:15 PM.
Just like Alexisonfire in last year's edition , Rise Against was an act with great potential to attract larger audiences, but their position in the lineup left the punk rock band completely isolated, competing solely with Billie Eilish , a pop phenomenon that Brazilian audiences have been waiting years to see live for the first time.
The whole magical and challenging aspect of winning over new fans at festivals is undermined by the logic of isolating heavy music names like this. As vocalist Tim McIlrath explained in an interview with Wikimetal : “I’m always excited to perform for different types of music fans, we’ve been on the road for 20 years. We always want to see new faces.”
But none of that deterred the band's loyal fans, who showed up in a frenzied crowd, already chanting "Rise Against, Rise Against" before the lights went out announcing the show at 9:15 pm, with enough power to fill the entire Interlagos racetrack if necessary.
While singing an acoustic version of “Swing Life Away” alone on stage, the band's frontman joked with a fan at the barrier. “I'm going to slow down because you need a break. You and I both need one,” he said with a laugh.
Loud and boisterous, the Americans delivered a balanced setlist of beloved classics and tracks from their , Nowhere Generation , making the stage seem small for the explosion of energy and powerful connection with the audience, from those friendly conversations between the frontman and the crowd, calling on the audience to be present "right here, right now," to Tim climbing onto the barrier to reduce the distance between them and the fans.
The frustration of seeing a band with such a captivating performance isolated from their own audience at a festival of this scale can only be alleviated by the sight of fans dancing in the back of the crowd or jumping near the barrier. There, Rise Against was family.
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