Bishop Briggs Brings Her Dark Side to Lollapalooza

The sound of a deep, low hum emanates from the stage, very powerful and intense and yet it courses through you, vibrating sound waves flowing through the audience and then, Bishop Briggs makes her way on stage.

The overpowering sound now drown out by the screams of excitement now that she has arrived. The sound continues and becomes the base of her opening song, Dark Side and the crowd gets louder with excitement as she sings the words, ‘Welcome to my dark side’…

Approximately one hour earlier, we had just conducted our interview with this fine singer/songwriter of many genres and influences and I had to make my way from the press tent (near the Grant Park stage) all the way down to the Pepsi stage and through a thick, and I mean THICK crowd that was enjoying Mura Masa.

It looked bleak as I saw just how far I might have to see Bishop Briggs from, but this 48 year old man is a determined one to see a performer whose music inspires and with whom he sees such a bright future for her in her career. This crowd was so large, people even climbed the trees, but I swiftly followed the flow of others who made their way closer as other people were leaving.

I believe I got about 50 feet to the stage by the time Mura Masa completed their set and I wished I had been able to see the whole set actually, it was some incredible music with very beautiful vocals. From this point, I was able to get to about, what would be 6th row center, nice.

The crowd was heavily into Bishop’s music, as she made her way from side to side, jumping and stomping while pumping everyone up with her energy.

Her vocals, spot on with her songs on her EP with slight deliberate variances to accentuate the intensity of the moment (as was the case with Wild Horses) and to rile the crowd up further were powerful and emotional, yet still retained a softness that embodied the essence of who she is. She captivates with her raw, soulful power, commanding your attention to her talent and then whisks you away with her sweet emotional side.

Some of the other songs in her set were, ‘Dead Mans Arms’, ‘The Fire’, the non-EP tracks ‘Be Your Love’ and ‘Pray’ and [I believe] a new track called ‘Hallowed Ground’? All songs in her set were performed tightly with her band, stomping precisely and emphatically with the accents of the drums and ebbing and flowing ‘like a river’ through the emotional currents of her music. The keys and guitar provided a lush atmosphere that Bishop soared out from and shined within.

This is still only the beginning of Bishop’s shining moment; we’re still looking for her first full length album to be produced yet, so she is a performer you will most definitely be hearing a lot of in the very near future! She’ll be back here in Chicago on November 11th at the Riviera Theatre with Bleachers and you can get tickets here: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1529855?utm_medium=bks

During her set, she stated that it was her dream to play Lollapalooza and I consider myself thankful to have seen her this early in her career because it won’t be long before she’ll be coming back on one of the headlining stages, wait and see and I predict it will happen!