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- September 26, 2021
Nation of Language starts the Day 2 with they’re own take on on the 80’s kind of rock band sound with synths, a bassist and an very active frontman singer who was leaving it all out on the floor. His melodic shouts accompanied by the aura and rhythm behind the synths and the bassist though started with a small crowd had a lot of curious eyes join in and listening and a few songs in, were totally invested.
Chiiild has a huge live band complete with a tambourine, drums, synthesizer and bass and guitar on stage, his country twang unusual from a project out of Montreal Canada! after the second song he started talking to the crowd about tough times that segued in to a slower song talking about just that. in between songs he spoke to the crowd that hints at technical difficulties happening back stage as Chiiild continued to perform. A lot of artist like to get the crowd full of energy and worry about a lull but Chiiild was comfortable with a low energy song in to a ballad and the crowd paid attention. Onstage he was relaxed, almost low energy but his voice was so moving that he made it seem effortless. 20 mins in to the set he explains to the crowd that the group is just “winging” the entire set making it more impressive that it sonically connected as it did. Once the issues were dealt with, the percussionist and keyboardist, in combination with Chiilds sultry vocals brought that deep funk in the “The Best Ain’t Happened yet”, “Pirouette” and “Weightless. After that string of strong performances they had the crowd in a trance before ending with sleepwalking that was very thematic as to how the music video plays in reverse ending with what people expected Chiiild to begin the show with. Talk about putting that work in overdrive in the 4th quarter!
The very first thing you hear from MUNA is the positive energy they exude. Its an electric, full of life performance jumping around rocking reminiscent of the ACDC videos you may have seen, all while the lead singer gyrates like Mick Jagger. With Kate (the singer) rolling on the floor while the band is rocking around together to “Number One Fan”, it felt like a band with pure chemistry, headbanging and all. While also doing vocals she also played guitar for softer tracks as the rest of the band harmonized, and even when singing about somber things the purely good feeling you would get is an incredible feat to accomplish. While playing a newly released song the day before, “Silk Chiffon” they shouted out the LGBTQIA community to an excited crowd that rocked with them the entire way through. You couldn’t leave a MUNA concert without feeling so much better about everything in life, a more positive outlook.
The Brothers Macklovitch put on a clinic in terms of house music and the crowd was paying attention. Every song flip, every song switch, was met with an intense glee with crowds jumping in unison and a sense of togetherness that hasn’t been seen out of crowd thus far. Outside of the a few of the remixes of one of their tracks, the entire set was in rhythm and the crowd acknowledged and moved in time.
Cordae stepped on stage to a hungry crowd, who jumped with him before he stepped on stage, as he began rapping to one of his songs, and halfway thru the live band came on accenting the impact of his raps. As he introduced himself, he slowly transitioned that in to a rendition of “My name is” by Eminem, with an acapella verse of really tight triplet multi-syllables at the end of it. As his first show in 2 years he was bringing as much as he can, asking people to high 5 each other, before going in to another string of songs. Slowing things down he talked about touring with Juice Wrld when they had very little money, explaining ” that he would never step on this stage without honoring his “brother” Juice Wrld” and played “Lucid Dreams” that had the crowd in a frenzy. Running with that energy he opened up a circle pit to “Broke as Fuck” that was so rambunctious he played it again so the crowd could continue to mosh. Half way through the crowd chanted his name as he decided to play a snippet from an unreleased track, putting on an incredible show!
Govball severely underestimated Megan The Stallion, placing her so early in the lineup that even though she was at the NYC govball stage ( roughly the largest stage) the crowd stretched to the vip skybox a football field’s away, and to the edges of sounds between the competing stages. What she played regardless had men and women turning up. The group of dancers each with their won personalities only gave to women empowerment and confidence. “Big Ol Freak”, “WAP”, “Simon Says”, “Thot shit”, “Do it on the Tip”, the catalogue is keeps going and Megan Thee Stallion could do no wrong, front to back the crowd was feeling themselves the entire performance.
Amine’s first time on stage in a year and a half, what made Amine’s group so unique was that they weren’t primed to make the ground shake, asking people to jump “when the beat drops” it just happened organically. they did that on their own. That’s a real testament to his music and it’s connection to his crowd. Always keeping the crowd actively participating with a call sign (A: “You’re beautiful. C: ” I know!”) going straightforward affirmations along with the music he’s making. He also played an unreleased song that was almost D&B/Garage in sound while rapping in his signature Amine style to an incredible reception.
Starting a bit late with the crowd not minding, trying to catalogue every A$AP Rocky song and feature would need a book to keep track, but his energy was huge opening up a moshpit after the first song, in a complete mask and American flag cape, yelling so hard, that he had to bring out his albuterol inhaler during the set. Him playing L$D to visuals that was quite an experience. A$AP Rocky put on a performance, throwing love to the late A$AP Yams and playing A$AP Ferg’s “Plain Jane”. An incredible way to end day 2.
