Joe Keery is back in Chicago, and he feels it.
The actor and musician – known for his role as Steve in “Stranger Things” and the Hit Viral “End of Beginning” – was welcomed with a huge swarm by Chicago Love while he and his Djo group have softened in their Friday evening set before a swept crowd of thousands of people who made the southern end of Grant Park on the second day of Lollapaloza.
Although in large part a solo project, Djo Friday was a group of seven, each member individually heading on the T-Mobile scene, starting with a slow instrumental interpretation of the Kraftwerk-Esque album from Djo’s second album in 2022, “Decid”. “”
When Keeery went on stage, high cries rang through the crowd while some fans were heading forward – clearly indicating that it was not only a mass of people waiting for Olivia Rodrigo, the headliner of the day.
Bringing down a hollow body of Gibson, Keery led the group in “Glow” of 2022, a piece of optimistic jangle evoking the Zanness of the early 80s of Devo. At that time, a curtain behind the group fell to reveal what seemed to be a giant silver ball in the form of “Cloud Gate” – launching what would be an hour’s love party between Keery and Chicago.
“You don’t play, guy!” Keery told the crowd, seeming to go by fans’ energy.
He finally lost the green buttoned shirt that corresponded to the first light show show. Now in an adjusted white tank top, Keery, 33, has shook his signing mop and caused a constant flow of fans.
Keery and Co. blocked a list of songs from his latest version, “The Crux”, April, including “Link”, “Basic Beals” and “Charlie’s Garden”.
For “Charlie’s Garden”, the group struck a more baroque-pop sound and the Beatles, underlined by a Drumset from Ludwig and a pre-recorded message from the co-star of the holder of Charlie-Keery, Charlie Heaton. Fans have raised their photo phones in the hope of a cameo. The trumpet and producer of Chicago, extraordinary Nico Segal, appeared on stage, offering a masterful solo “Penny Lane”.
A few moments later, Keery had a drink, came out on the podium and sat down to face his group with a look of disbelief. He finally lying down and looked at the sky, seeming to take everything – before climbing to take a camera hung on the live flow from the scene. Keery led to his group’s camera, before turning him on the crowd, as if he needed to share what he was going through with everyone.
“Play on this scene with you means the world for me – it’s something I never thought of being able to do,” said Keery, before his next song, “Chateau (Feel Good)” of his debut in 2019, “Twenty Twenty”.
At the time, the native of Massachusetts and the Alum of the 2014 Depaul University had just decided to leave his beloved Chicago for Los Angeles and a career as a full-time actor, leaving close friends and his group, post animal. Standing to this precipice would light its greatest song, “End of Beging” in 2022, which catapulted the spotlights last year via social media, accumulating more than a billion flows on Spotify.
But before Keery launched into the song that the fans claimed to hear, a Supercut of Auto-Shot sequences of these formative years of Chicago appeared on video screens. He said to the crowd: “I wanted to make this song about you.” The home films of his friends and former group comrades flashed on the screen, some of whom were with him on stage, notably Teddy Matthews, of Chicago Indie Mainstay Slow Pulp, and Post Animal’s Wesley Toledo and Javier Reyes – who will both get their moment Lollapalooza when post -animal plays on Sunday.
While Keery scratches on a Starburst Gibson Acoustic, a sea of the camera phones is mounted and some fans jumped on the shoulders for a better view. A thousand choir met the voice of Keery, surrounding: “And when I am back in Chicago, I feel it, another version of me, I was in it”, while Golden Hour hit the misty horizon.
Keery closed the set with the call for tenders, “Back on you”, joined by a real chorus, The Uning Voices Chicago, formerly the Chicago Children’s Choir. The director of choir, Josephine Lee, led the young members, who sang angelically, “go home, my friend, I remember who you are, who you are” – marking the end of a sacred return.
List of Djo sets Lollapalooza 2025:
Runner
Darkness
Link
Basic being basic
Charlie Garden
Rock
Gap smile
Château (feel good)
Potion
Delete ya
Egg
End of start
Back on you
