Lollapalooza 2011, Sunday: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

On Sundays we take our time. We brunch, we sleep in, we don’t change out of our pajamas all day. Such a weekly holiday deserves a special soundtrack. The kind suited for lazy afternoons without deadlines, basking in the sunlight on our stoops. 

So Pains of Being Pure at Heart couldn’t have been dropped into a better time slot. At 3pm on a blazing Sunday afternoon, Pains launched into “Belong,” with luminescent guitars cloaked in a hazy timbre.

At first blush, it appeared their crowd was a bit disinterested, with most of it hanging back in an odd formation. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that everyone was just clustered onto the odd bits of dry land among stagnant pools of sandy water left from the morning’s rain. 

The lineup built excitement over time, moving from new  songs “Terrible Friend” and “Heart in Your Heartbreak” (which garnered lip-syncing from the audience) to older singles “Come Saturday” and the wordplay-heavy “Young Adult Friction,” which got people dancing—impressive in the extreme heat. The latter recieved the loudest applause yet, especially during a grooving bass solo.