Pages

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Panorama New York City 2018, Day 2 at Randall's Island Park

Weather conditions improved significantly at Panorama on Saturday, but much of the field was muddy and mushy, discoloring many white sneakers.

Cardi B was originally one of the scheduled artists, but she cancelled several weeks earlier in expectation of the birth of her child. Lil Wayne was booked as her replacement, but half an hour after his scheduled set time, promoters announced on the large video screens surrounding the stage where he was to appear that his performance was cancelled due to a weather-related flight delay. Many in the massive crowd that awaited him subsequently retreated to the second stage to see St. Vincent rock.

St. Vincent was perhaps the most rocking performance on Saturday. Annie Clark seemed to have a never-ending supply of her signature Ernie Ball guitars in every color -- blue, orange, pink, white, yellow, black -- did she play a different-colored guitar on each song? Clark closed with a partly a cappella version of "New York," injecting seemingly impromptu mentions of East Village locations including St. Mark’s Place and Veselka and pointing out that nothing rhymes with those names.

SZA was recovering from a vocal cord injury and reworked some of her songs to refit her new range. There was more drama, however. She revealed to the audience that she just went through a break-up. It seemed like everyone in the audience said "Aw."

Both Lo Moon and Cloves performed earlier in the day and played a second set later in the early evening at the Bud Light Dive Bar. Lo Moon's second set included an instrumental cover of Peter Bjorn & John's "Young Folks," prompting some in the audience to assist with vocals. Cloves closed with a cover of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You."

DJ Champ warmed the audience for Gucci Mane, but power failures led to silence several times. "We can't be having that with Guwop, now!" Champ told the stage hands, who scurried about trying to remedy the issue. Later, Gucci Mane invited his wife, Keyshia Ka'Oir Davis, onstage for a cameo, and the sound problems returned. Fans called requests, until Mane responded with an a cappella version of his 2009 hit "Lemonade."

Moments before Janet Jackson started singing, the audience heard audio reports discussing racial injustice, white supremacy, and domestic terrorism, while the names of unarmed black men killed by police were posted on the screens next to the stage, concluding with the declaration that “WE WANT JUSTICE." Jackson then sang a deep cut from three decades ago, the appropriate "The Skin Game (Part 1)." Later, she sang "Together Again" while old photographs of a younger Janet with her recently deceased father and photographs of her late brother Michael were posted on the screens. After the song, she spread her arms wide, then pointed to the sky and said, "I miss you -- both of you.” One question, though: how was it possible for Jackson to dance such elaborate routines so heartily continuously through her show and still sing without losing her breath?

Japanese Breakfast, Pvris, Sigrid and Jay Som were among the performers who also performed on Day 2.
DJ Riobamba
Lo Moon
Jay Som
Cloves
Sigrid
Pvris
Japanese Breakfast
City of the Sun
St. Vincent
Floating Points
SZA
Gucci Mane
Janet Jackson

1 comment: