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Mates of State, MGMT Keep Lolla Rolling Late-Night

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One of Lollapalooza’s added bonuses: The entire city embraces the festival, and many of the Lolla bands play late-night, intimate sets, keeping the party long after Grant Park’s 10 P.M. curfew. So, while celeb, er darlings, Lindsay and Paris watched Samantha Ronson spin at Crimson after Radiohead wound down at the festival, other partiers seeking more conventional entertainment found their way to the Double Door for Mates of State and MGMT, playing an afterparty presented by Bud Light, C3, and SPIN.

Husband-and-wife electric-pop outfit Mates of State employed accompaniment from the Oakland-based string duo Judgment Day, morphing the usual twosome into a quartet for the evening. Rummaging through their catalog they pulled tracks from earlier albums, including crowd pleaser “Ha Ha” off Team Boo. Before calling it a night — to make way for Brooklyn’s MGMT — Mates whipped-out keys-heavy “The Re-Arranger” from this year’s Re-Arrange Us.

Rolling onto the stage a little after midnight — a week removed from their massive free show in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park — electro-psych-rock jammers MGMT kicked-off their synth-a-licious set with “Future Reflections.” Vocalist Andrew Vanwyngarden seemed oblivious to most everything as he swaggered around the stage in a tranced state of what appeared to be musical euphoria. Matching and then transcending the auditory experience of their breakout summer hit, Oracular Spectacular, the band unleashed melodious excellence with “Weekend Wars” and “The Youth,” bringing day-one of the Chicago musical extravaganza to a psychedelic and extravagant end.

Check out page 2 for photos from last night’s show.

Mates of State / Photo by Karen Chan

MGMT / Photo by Karen Chan

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