Concert review: Skrillex entertains colorful crowd outside at Stage AE
Skrillex performs Tuesday night at Stage AE in Pittsburgh.
Jason L. Nelson
Skrillex performs Tuesday night at Stage AE in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH — The guy in the full-length squirrel costume was the standout, though two dudes dressed like bananas and another as a pink Power Ranger also made a lasting impression.
A young woman in an illuminated tutu swirled merrily, as school-age bros in basketball jerseys hopped ecstatically amid one of the most colorful crowds ever at Stage AE for Tuesday’s outdoor season finale starring dubstep deejay Skrillex.
Many fans wore wool or fur headgear — part fashion-statement, part necessity on a 48-degree night with just enough rain to splotch your smart phone.
Not counting pre-show whining on Facebook, I didn’t notice any complaints about the show being held outdoors in autumn conditions, as 3,400 or so fans danced the night away to the bleats, beeps and beats churned out by the twists of a wrist from the 26-year-old, six-time Grammy-winning Skrillex.
Alone on stage, bouncing atop a platform maybe 10-feet tall, the reigning king of electronic dance music deejayed a nonstop party that kept fans’ arms in the air like they didn’t have a care with few vocal cues required from the long, dark-haired and bespectacled maestro, who resembles “Stand by Me”-era Corey Feldman.
Trying to explain to the uninitiated what makes Skrillex the top-gun of his genre might be like trying to inform someone who only sips wine at weddings why a $23 bottle tastes better than a $7 one; or telling a person who avoids jazz why a Miles Davis album is cooler than those from most jazz cats.
I won’t pretend I’m an authority on EDM, though there’s just some sort of staccato squelch Skrillex produces that pierces through his other metallic and robotic blips and thumping bass beats that keeps things interesting.
Skrillex added popular samples to his mix, such as Calvin Harris’ “Summer;” fellow EDM stars Disclosure with Sam Smith on “Latch;” and the Buckwheat Boyz’ viral smash “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” accompanied by its video of a dancing banana.
Originally announced as an 18-and-older show, then lowered to 16-and-up, Skrillex threw a few bones to those of us in the audience who no longer get carded, including samples of the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” and House of Pain’s “Jump Around,” which earned some of the night’s highest hops and loudest cheers.
Granted, they had been dancing for nearly 90 minutes in the dampness, though audience reaction was milder than what I would have expected when Skrillex stood at the highest point of his platform and mimed the actions of an orchestra conductor as the programmed sounds of John Williams’ “The Star Wars Theme” filled the air. If today’s teens are the first generation not obsessed with “Star Wars” than I heartily salute them.
And I’m fine with them elevating Skrillex to stardom, though I wished the acclaimed EDM artist would have engaged his audience more interactively. Shrouded in dark lighting and limiting his banter to run-of-the-mill pronouncements, I didn’t get much sense of his personality.
If those Skrillex fans really want to witness an amazingly memorable, pop-culture drenched dance party they should check out Pittsburgh’s own nationally known deejay Girl Talk at his all-ages show New Year’s Eve inside Stage AE. By night’s end, many of them would end up on stage dancing with Girl Talk.