The second annual Sweetlife Festival, put on by Sweetgreen, was full of energy this year. Unfortunately, the rain and the cold did affect the excitement of many viewers — the likelihood of leaving one’s personal cuddle corner in order to explore the food options or the different stages was significantly lowered by the weather. Also, a few popular opening bands (such as U.S. Royalty and Fitz and the Tantrums, or Explosions in the Sky and Delta Spirit) were scheduled at overlapping times, so fans were not able to see both bands perform. Despite this bout of inflexibility, the headlining line-up all took place on the main stage with no competition (and therefore tons of people).
The first performance on the main stage was the band “fun.,” which began at 12:30, before the rain. The band tried valiantly to get the crowd excited, but listeners seemed unenthusiastic, that is until the band sang their sky-rocketing (and unbelievably overplayed) hit, “We are Young.” Overall, it was a fun (tee hee!) performance, and I commend the band for taking on the task of warming up the crowd.
Then, Fitz and the Tantrums (FATT) took the stage. FATT was easily the highlight of the festival, but that’s coming from a relatively biased reviewer. However, no matter who the listener was, everyone could tell that this band has some of the most talented members in the entire music industry. FATT seamlessly engaged the crowd further in the festival, in preparation for the headlining acts of Explosions in the Sky, The Shins, Kid Cudi and Avicii.
As with most concerts, the perception of the experience varies directly with the familiarity with the bands. For example, The Shins were very good, but if I had known more of their songs, I’m sure I would have enjoyed the performance more. The same goes for Kid Cudi — he was an excellent performer, so I enjoyed his presence, but at the same time, there were only a total of two songs that I could really get into. Cudi assumed that the audience knew more of what he called “the classics” — his songs from 2008– which I’m sure several fans appreciated, but unfortunately I was not one of them.
Finally, house sensation Avicii came on stage, who turned out to be a Swedish-prep-school-looking kid with a laptop. I have never been very enthusiastic about house music, and I hate to say that this performance did not change my mind. I enjoyed the dancing and the energy, which is a product of any live music show, but I was continually puzzled at why all those in the audience were so obsessed with this DJ (though, admittedly, he was pretty attractive, in a Nordic-douche-y way). The highlights of his “performance” were when he played remixes with songs that actually have words, which were easier for me to enjoy. It’s possible that the true cause of all the screaming and cheering for this boy was a lot of mind-numbing drugs, but I am not in a place to judge people’s music tastes — I apologize for not understanding the hype. Feel free to explain it to me one day.
