Empire of the Sun Start a Rave at Lollapalooza

It only took 24 hours for someone to upstage Lady Gaga's costumes from Friday night. Enter Australian synth pop duo Empire of the Sun making their Lollapalooza debut on founder Perry Farrell's stage Saturday night. Helmed by Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore, Empire of the Sun's set turned into Lolla's biggest -- and most unexpected -- rave with the audience decked out from head-to-toe in neon glowsticks and people walking through the crowd offering up "rolls."

Steele kept the chitchat simple since, after all, he sings lyrics like, "Don't want to talk. All I hear is noise," on the group's single 'Standing on the Shore,' which kicked off the dance party Saturday night. But trust us on this one, the outfits were loud enough channeling a Cleopatra-meets-MC Hammer-meets-genie lovechild. Later Steele donned a black jumpsuit lined with white fur that looked like he had stolen it from 'The Neverending Story' wardrobe room. The band's dancers changed between abstract, bird-like creatures, swordfish-beaked horses and Japanese geishas. Visually it was on par with a Fever Ray concert, except a lot more fun to dance to.

Meanwhile on the fest's main stage Green Day rocked out to songs -- 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams,' 'Nice Guys Finish Last,' 'Holiday,' 'St. Jimmy,' 'When I Come Around,' 'Brain Stew' -- from their two-decade career. They also covered Guns N Roses' 'Sweet Child O Mine,' invited fans on stage -- nothing out of the ordinary for a Green Day show -- including a kindergartener and later a teenager to sing the lyrics to 'Longview.' While the Bay Area pop-punk rockers continuously set off fireworks, their two-and-half-hour set was easily upstaged by Empire of the Sun's. Others at the fest were also rocking out to the sounds of Phoenix, who played the Budweiser stage at the same time.

The nebular electronica of Empire of the Sun didn't stop once during their all-too-short one hour set. 'Half Mast,' 'Walking on a Dream' and other tracks from the band's 2008 debut of the same name made up the entirety of the set that was forced to end when it went five minutes past the 10PM festival curfew.

'Thank you, and respect from the Empire," Steele told the audience before exiting.

Watch Empire of the Sun perform 'Standing on the Shore' at last night's show:



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