LIVE: Aokify America Tour - 10/18/13 @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
Photos by Joy Asico (joy@chunkyglasses.com / www.asicophoto.com)
“Turn up” - 2013’s operative term in this trap rap-laden year in electronic dance music - could not have been a more apropos concept as Steve Aoki, Borgore, Waka Flocka Flame, Pharrell Williams and more played to a chilly, yet enthusiastic and three-quarters filled crowd at Columbia, Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion this past Friday evening. The unseasonably cold weather, however, proved only to be one of the best judgements regarding the effectiveness of EDM in being able to reach, engage and excite Generation Y. As well, in bearing witness to two of the most zeitgeist defining artists of this next generation - Waka and Pharrell - create impeccable synergy with the crowd present, the concert succeeded in defining the shocking, yet developing-into-tolerable guidelines of an era where rappers are the new rock stars and EDM provides the recklessness of rap for a next-level age.
There’s nothing more disarming than checking one’s phone to note that the temperature outdoors (adding in a wind chill factor) is well under 50 degrees, then noting onstage that Borgore is DJing as two pole dancers sensually cavort in front of a crowd of teenage revelers. Upon taking into consideration the less-than-optimal conditions, the pole becomes sexually disambiguated, and the pole artists become brave athletes. Their soundtrack included tracks like the unearthed zombie remains of post-electronica era Euro-borne hardstyle of “Wild Out,” the Borgore produced track that Waka Flocka performed live during the set, and the dubbed out bass of tracks like proto-”crazy Miley” peak-hour banger “Decisions (Bitches Love Cake)” wherein Miley Cyrus is on the hook sensually proclaiming her love of confections. Yes, Israeli-born current Los Angeles resident Borgore is known as a “bad boy” of bass music for his twin loves of sexuality and absurdity, but bad meets evil when the guy is out there DJing heavy bass for kids while sexually suggestive imagery flashes on the screen behind him and pole dancers are possibly freezing while half-naked. From rocker Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his cousin to rapper Eazy E receiving oral sex in “Automobile,” there’s a certain veneer of sleaze to pop music that Boregore embraces that, while disturbing, is begrudgingly acceptable.
Click to see the rest of the gallery (Photos by Joy Asico)
Similarly inappropriate were the easily somewhere between 14-16 year old girls onstage twerking to southern trap legend Waka Flocka Flame’s strip club anthems “Round of Applause” and “No Hands.” However, he had just left the crowd wherein he told the throng of teens and twenty-somethings following him throughout the crowd the “shoot their guns in the sky” to “shoot at the stars.” Somehow, there’s a balance that’s created there, as well as being the closest that the Brick Squad leader’s ethos built from the lessons of drug dealing will allow him to get to Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40 message of hope of yore - “keep your feet on the ground and keep shooting for the stars.” A mix of Baptist minister, street hustler and Henry Rollins, Flocka’s in a delightful league all his own.
Continuing the theme of delighting in potentially inappropriate material, Pharrell’s year at the top of the Billboard charts has been built off of singles discussing inebriated and drug addled sex, as well as the joys of love-making sessions at sunrise. However, Pharrell Williams is easily one of the most charismatic performers of all time and quite possibly the world’s favorite hipster. Furthermore, his charm feels like the blending the sleaze of “Sexual Healing”-era Marvin Gaye with a disarming and endearing humanism similar to Katy Perry singing “Hot and Cold” to Elmo on Sesame Street. As well, in including his guest appearances like Swedish House Mafia’s “One” and rapping tracks he produced like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and Nelly’s “Hot In Herre,” he truly made a case to be a first-ballot Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
Headliner Aoki’s set feels less like EDM DJ set and more like pop cultural performance art. Yes, the four-on-the-floor beats kick like broncos at a rodeo, and the car alarm noises, bright synths and blinding lights feel like Vegas goes festival. However, Steve Aoki’s a punk rock frontman at heart, and introduces new tracks with a distinct lack of mixing at the start of his set. As well, by the time the ten foot tall robots with the CO2 guns disengage from the booth, the giant A-O-K-I letters descend from the sky, and yes, he throws the sheet cake at the kid celebrating his birthday, the music is as much absorbed as the lights and the experience.
After four freezing hours in the woods, absorption - especially of the heat of a throng of people experiencing an extraordinarily absurd showcase of temporal extravagance - is key. As well, enveloping oneself in the ultimate experience highlighting the changes that Generation Y brings to the fiber of American life is to turn up and understand and accept the unique notions governing these progressive times.
Let them eat CAKE!