Two days of Made in America is always a lot with which to contend. The Jay Z-curated Live Nation event is dozens of bands and DJs on
five differently located stages and something near 130,000 attendees
mulling about in varying degrees of odd fashion choices and bad
dancing. Now, add teeming rain and mud to the festival equation (the
Saturday portion of MIA), and you had a muck that, though inconvenient
to anyone who wore pants below the knees, was actually thrilling.
The
mud paste Saturday may have even been more hilarious and fun than the
dry, sunny Sunday that followed along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. That
way, if the bands were boring (and some were), you could either flap
around in thick, murky water or watch men and women with buckets on
their heads (in tribute to DJ-producer Marshmello) do the splashing.
Here’s a list of highlights and
lowlights.
The Good
Celebrity sightings: if you were in and out of MIA’s VIP areas during the weekend, you got
an eyeful of several 76ers, including
Joel Embiid (who, on Saturday, was
spied watching
Migos in the crowd), two Fox 29 morning show hosts (
Mike
Jerrick,
Alex Holley), and two top Philly rappers (
Chill Moody,
Meek
Mill, the latter of which appeared on stage with Jay Z during Hova’s
finale). Rumor had
Sasha Obama somewhere in the MIA crowd (hey, she popped up at Lollapalooza), and it was no guessing game as to where
Jay Z’s wife, Beyonce, or their children were this weekend. Bey, Blue Ivy and the twins Rumi and Sir were spotted in a secure area watching
Cardi
B on Saturday and
21 Savage on Sunday. Jay also gave a birthday shout
out to Beyonce during his set, urging the crowd to sing “Happy
Birthday.”
Little Dragon: The Swedish electro-dance quartet fronted by Bjork-like singer (and
dresser) Yukimi Nagano seemed to surprise the entire audience with its
theatricality.
Cardi B: It’s not enough that the doyenne of “Love & Hip Hop: New York”
had the song of the summer with the woozy “Bodak Yellow.” The
Trinidadian-Dominican-American princess just happened to be the queen
of Made in America as its most anticipated act. And she didn’t
disappoint. The haze and rain was miserable, but B was a trooper,
sashaying and bouncing across the stage in a bedazzled silver dress during an altogether too-brief set. Always leave them
wanting more.
Green Velvet:
The Chicago DJ-producer also known as "Cajmere" has been making the most
treacherous, humorous minimalist house tracks since the 1990s, and
continued doing so during his militaristic set on the EDM stage. This
was a lesson in how real house music gets done. Funnily enough, later
that evening, a friend shared a Green Velvet Tweet about an audience
member who thanked the mohawk-ed DJ for playing “The Percolator.” GV
had to laugh because he wrote and played that song, but still remains a
secret to many.
Migos: MIA’s best rap set next to
Run The Jewels (
see Brian Hickey’s story) and Jay’s Z came from the bold, bristling Atlanta duo who, by
set’s end, seemed annoyed that the audience wasn’t paying attention.
Marian Hill:
Known as the spare electronic duo behind that Apple AirPods ad (their
song “Down”), Philly-raised Jeremy Lloyd, Samantha Gongol and Steve
Davit could be this generation’s slower, spaced-out Thompson Twins.
Jay Z: As the fest’s finale, Hova was a most casual – yet still dramatic closer. Rather than jump out of the gate with pounding, blaring hits,
he came out to the strains of dancehall reggae, swaying Jamaican flags
and the syrupy, introspective “Bam,” accompanied by
Damian Marley. That
song, like a surprising handful of tunes, was from Jay Z’s heralded
recent release “4:44,” and Made in America was its first public airing
in the States. Though the inclusion of the confessional “Marcy Me,”
“Caught Their Eyes,” and “The Story of O.J.” slowed the momentum of his
set, Hova took the risk, and included the alongside the hook-laden
"Empire State of Mind,” a thrashing “Dirt on My Shoulder” and a tribute
to his fallen friend and collaborator,
Chester Bennington, with
“Numb/Encore.” Only Jay Z could stand next to a 100-foot tall metallic
Jeff Koons dog assemblage, and outsize such staging. Along with his "Happy Birthday" shout to his wife and some weird, fatherly words to the
mosh pit, Jay Z gave stage time to Meek Mill and sent blessings to the
hurt in Houston. “We hope you can hear us, Houston. You in our prayers. We with you H-town.”
Japanese Breakfast: Philly’s Michelle Zauner usually makes an icy brand of atmospheric
electro-pop on albums such as the aptly-titled “Soft Sounds from
Another Planet.” On stage at Made in America, she decided to strap on a
guitar – the fest’s true missing element – and turn some of the most tender, depressing songs
about death and loss into sturdy, stringy, contagious jangle pop.
The Bad
21 Savage:
What should’ve been a triumphant set of hardcore tech-rap wound up
something listless, overly voice processed and ultimately tired. "21 Mild," though, just doesn’t sound right, so, stick with the name.
J. Cole: The first night’s headliner came out strong and ready for drama with
an orange prison jumpsuit, a jail’s stage motif and “For Whom The Bell
Tolls” with its lyric, “I see the rain pouring down,” that signaled the
next in a series of downpours. After that rough-voiced first song, he
was nothing but dull.
The Chainsmokers: The only thing more annoying than this EDM-pop act’s records was this
stage show – one that was originally planned as a headlining set. Too twee and childish for even the youngest of
their fans, singer Andrew Taggart and the other guy minced through an
hour-plus set that was damper than the still grassy knolls of the art museum.
