Blog

LAKE BUENA VISTA — You may not be able to put faces to the names Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo just yet, but with their recent success – attaining double platinum status for single “I Love It,” while having song placements on video games and television shows, there’s no way you can go anywhere without hearing or seeing something connected to the Swedish DJ duo, Icona Pop.

After a year of performing on different festival sets throughout the world, the group have finally netted their well-deserved, first-ever headlining tour in America.

Electronic dance music (EDM), hip-hop and rock are just a few of the genres you can hear at the festival-like, all girl “Iconic Tour,” presented by TIGI Bed Head, which made stops in Florida this past weekend.

A mixed crowd of guys sporting the “Macklemore haircut,” hardcore rave fans, and toddlers whose bedtime is generally around the time the show started, filled the House of Blues Orlando Friday night, to see the “Iconic Tour” featuring Icona Pop and friends.

Sultry redhead – Hjelt took the stage sporting a black and white, Judy Jetson-based, Spice Girl-influenced one piece costume, with the Icona Pop DJ Booth behind her resembling the Star Trek Auxiliary Control Center and her best friend, Jawo, on the other side.

It’s great to see how far the duo has come in such little time — rewind to December of last year, when Icona Pop made their Orlando debut opening for “The Lonely Hearts Club Tour” where they had to cram all of their laptops and mixers onto a foldout table, limiting their movement- having to wrap the microphone cord up and swing the remainder of it over the table if they wanted to move from one side to the stage to the other.

“On this song, I’m going to sing this together with you guys,” Hjelt said in her thick swedish accent before getting into “Girlfriend”, showing off her vocal strength as the crowd recited the lyrics in perfect cadence. Whether it was Aino – playing the electric guitar, or Hjelt- singing, neither member just sat around and watched sharing the spotlight evenly as they rotated back and forth between their midis and laptop setup.

The energy was off the Richter scale from the moment the ladies shot on their black helmets and performed “Manners”, completely from behind their DJ booth, to their final song – performing summer hit single “I Love It” – in the middle of the stage with brews in hand as the ladies provided the perfect pre-game event for anyone who was going out afterwards to further enjoy their night.

While the crowd could not recite the groups newer material off their upcoming album, This Is, as well as they could with some of the duo’s older and more popular songs, it did not stop them from enjoying the concert during songs “All Night” and “Light Me Up” as they danced and kept their hands waved high in the air during the entire performance.

Between their singing, dancing and electrifying light show, Icona Pop managed to transition their studio sound into a live set. The duo is truly talented and appeared to be enjoying themselves the entire night which transitioned well into the crowd, hosting the prettiest party I have ever been to.

Both supporting acts were very multifaceted and set the tone early. Los Angeles-based rapper Sirah opened the show singing a mix of pop and EDM jingles, which some of her newer fans know her for, but also managed to fit in some of her earlier hard in your face rap records, showing love to her underground hip hop past. Don’t let her petite size fool you, the wild-hair MC has a very strong presence demanding you tune into what she is saying.

K.Flay took the stage next and was just as fun. Between the head bashing, fast rapping, and live beat making – K.Flay’s set was all over the place yet she managed to keep the crowd engaged the entire time. From the time she hit the stage, sporting her black jeans, black leather jacket, and black sleeveless “Black Skinhead” t-shirt- it was evident that female producer/rapper had no mindset of winning a fashion contest instead was just there to rock out. While K.Flay proved she could cross over into multiple genres, it would have been nice to see her focus on one specific style giving fans who may not be that familiar with her music the opportunity to get a general feel.

Whoever said girls can rock out as hard as the guys must have never seen these ladies. All the ladies are fun, talented and exciting- bringing different elements in their set to combine for one great night. The “Iconic Tour” is hardly underway and I would suggest everyone to go check it out, as it is an event that the whole family could enjoy.

T.Y. Moment of the Night

It’s good to see supporting artist support – adding onto the bill and not just acting as a slot filler until the headlining act is ready. Sirah and K.Flay we’re dope on and off the stage interacting with fans concluding their set. Instead of listening from the back of the stage, both artist and their crew went into the crowd and watched as fans alongside of their supporters. K.Flay got so turnt up from Icona Pop’s performance that she decided to partake in the crowd surf.

Photos from the Iconic Tour

By OBK

In support of their latest album “Forever Halloween”, rock band The Maine made their way to Orlando for the “8123 Tour”; alongside fellow rock band bands and good friends A Rocket to the Moon, Brighten, and This Century.

It was a busy day for the rock group out of Tempe Ariz., who recently left their major label deal to work independently under management company 81 Twenty Three — hosting a free acoustic performance earlier in the day at Park Ave CD’s where they did a meet-and-greet before they had to attend their first interview on the day. (Be on the lookout for our interview with the group coming soon.)

With only a few dates left in the North America segment of the tour — it’ s like God knew how sad the band was joked lead singer John O’Callaghan — noting the rain was symbolic that god felt the same way as the band. This storm did not stop fans from showing up early as the line to The Beacham was wrapped around the corner an hour before the venue doors opened.

Although this was the first time the band has played at The Beacham, they were no strangers to the cold building catching a RX Bandit show the night before.

Decked out in a white “I Met God, She’s Black” tanktop, front-man O’Callaghan took the dark stage unannounced; alongside best friends Jared Monaco and Kennedy Brock – guitarists, Pat Kirch – drummer and Garrett Nickelsen – bassist with the band’s signature “M” illuminated in the backdrop behind them. Wasting no time getting into newer material the band opened up with the cheerful upbeat pop-rock single “Love and Drugs ” which brought a plethora of energy to the crowd.

The lively ninety-minute set which contained songs dating back to their major label debut album (Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop) kept the crowd singing the entire performance. While the group performed mostly high energy tunes that allowed the crowd to dance and wave their hands high all night, they found time to slow things down — a solo performance from O’Callaghan and his keyboard of emotional “These Four Words,” provided the song with a more sentimental feeling after hearing it live.

Although I did not know much of the opening acts, they were not too shabby. Unfortunately it was my first and last time seeing A Rocket to the Moon perform live in Florida as the group will be disbanding. The pop-rock band treated their set as if they were the headliners to a sold-out hometown show, jamming out from start to finish once they fixed their technical errors (which I will discuss later).

T.Y. Moments of the Night:

1. During the performance of one of the group’s earlier songs, “Count ‘Em 1,2,3,” O’Callaghan did something truly amazing and left the stage to perform the entire song in the midst of his young female crowd. “Put your f*ckin’ phones in your pockets,” he ordered the crowd, informing them that if they wanted to watch it again they could view it on YouTube later — telling them to enjoy the moment for what it was at the time. (Unfortunately everyone did not listen and two young ladies lost their phones in the rage-fest.)
2. Following The Maine performance of “Like We Did,” O’Callaghan informed the crowd they could be anything they wanted if they believed before the three supporting acts joined the band on stage and helped the group perform fan favorite “We’ll All Be”, to end the show. As Kirch hammered away on the drums and other artist played their instruments crazily — Nick Santino (A Rocket to the Moon ) and Joel Kantitz (This Century) each sang a verse before everyone gathered to scream “potato” ending the show on a high note

Nothings Perfect:

1. I don’t know if the sound guy lost his notes or A Rocket to the Moon did not make the rehearsal — the fact that the crowd had to wait for nearly 30-minutes(not counting the 15-minutes it took for the group to take the stage after the previous act) and watch the group do their mic-check in the middle of the concert. We came to see you perform not tune your instruments — ain’t nobody got time for that.

Conclusion:

The Maine have grown up over the years and so have their fans — following the concert it’s worth noting that the band’s following truly appreciate their new sound as they applauded just as loud during newer songs if not louder. The group performance flows based off audience participation as they are aware of what’s happening around them make each show very personal and memorable. From the teens on the stage floor to the parents on the balcony level, it’s safe to safe everyone enjoyed themselves at the “8123 Tour.”

Photos from the night

ORLANDO- With age comes years — with years come experience, and with experience comes maturity.

If you were to ask Mac Miller how is life treating him he would probably respond, “three years ago to now, it’s just not the same,” as the Pittsburgh MC looks to sonically attain equal if not greater commercial success with his newest album Watching Movies with the Sound Off as he did with his debut project, which became the first independently-distributed debut album to top the charts in over a decade and a half.

Since then Miller has not stopped building his brand; obtaining his own reality show with MTV — Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family, improving his production skills producing records for multiple artist and starting his own record label, REMember Music, named after a friend of his who recently passed away.

A rap show that contained a lot singing packed the Hard Rock Live Orlando; as a diverse crowd made up of hypebeast, teens, hipsters, and soccer moms came out to do something crazy with Miller and friends last Saturday for the “Space Migration” tour.

(Photos from the night)

As the lights dimmed, smoke rose and intergalactic intro music played aloud in the background; all that could be seen in the crowd were cell phone lights as everyone waited for the Most Dope front man to appear.

“When I say Mac, you say Miller!” chanted his DJ before dropping “Loud” — the hit single off the Macadelic mixtape — as the Pittsburgh MC appeared out of darkness sporting a purple and white bandana to coincide with a crispy white tee and pair of purple jeans as he steam blasted from out of the front of the stage. (In the words of Miller’s good friend Schoolboy Q, it’s safe to say the young artist is “eating” as the 21-year old was decked out in gold from his neck to his wrist.)

Many artist change clothing during their sets, Miller took it to another level switched stage designs. For the first half of the show, he was was backed by hype man — Tree Jay and DJ-DJ Clockwork, providing a party type atmosphere performing fast raps songs dating all the way back to his “K.I.D.S” mixtape as he energetically moved from one side of the empty stage to the other.

Half way though his act Miller seemed to calm his performance down as he sipped from a cup of Jameson, performing in front of candles, a star spangled banner and a trippy light show which created a psychedelic vibe as he and band — The Internet made songs like “Objects in the Mirror” and “REMember” sound more sentimental than they already were.

T.Y.’s Moments of the Night

1. Chance the Rapper a.k.a. Mr. Acid Rap is a fan favorite however a photographers worst nightmare; the young charismatic artist does not stand still. Chance has the stage presence of an artist who has been in the game for over a decade; blending rock band stage tactics into hip-hop performance is truly something worth viewing. In his 30-minute set, Chance performed songs from both his projects “Acid Rap” and “10 Days Off” keeping the crowd engaged throughout the entire performance proving he is one of hip-hop’s finest “Juke” dancers. Although he is new to the music scene, there were a good amount of Chance followers in the crowd reciting his music.
2. Miller showed off his musical skills in true Woodstock fashion. At one point during the show he took his guitar and began playing it behind his head alongside the band. However he did not stop there, following the play of a sample “How Does it Feel” by D’angelo on the keyboard; he broke into an acoustic performance of “Youforia.”

Nothing’s Perfect

1. Missed first two opening acts due to Universal Orlando security at City Walk which sucked because I was really interested in seeing Vince Staples perform. After a 10 minute delay the front gate eventually got in contact with dispatch who relayed the same message I gave to the rent-a-cops when I first got there.
2. The Internet’s individual performance was bland. Syd the Kyd is a great singer however I don’t think she knows that. At times it was hard to hear her as if she was not singing in the microphone. Would have been great to see her test her vocal range more or the band experiment with some new sounds during their own set and not when they were just backing Miller.

Conclusion

Very compelling show. Whether “hip-hop heads” like it or not the genre is moving in a new direction. Fans are looking for artist who can take what they are doing in the studio and transition it over to the stage. Miller and friends truly provided an out of the world experience anyone could enjoy.

By OBK