Chainsmokers’ Big Gig show predictable, uninspiring
Anyone with a ticket to the Chainsmokers at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater at Summerfest Tuesday night still got to see a fireworks show.
Along with the fireworks, there were actual fires, blasts of smoke, streams of confetti, retina-blurring lighting, spastic animations, brain-numbing predictability and very bad singing.
To be fair to the inescapable EDM pop duo of Drew Taggart and Alex Pall, the Chainsmokers’ live show Tuesday was superior to what was on display at the Rave last fall.
That stale concert was the same show repeated every eight to 10 minutes, complete with timed table leaps and recycled animation. That could explain why a few sections on the amphitheater hill were largely empty Tuesday for its return Milwaukee appearance.
Now, in the wake of an arena tour, plus further Billboard chart domination with “Paris” and “Something Just Like This,” the Chainsmokers have a far more sophisticated, albeit equally dumb, stage setup.
The fire didn’t just float up to the sky; it waved around people. There were streamers early in the show, and bam, pop, streamers again near the end.
There were just enough twists and turns — including actual band performances for songs like “Young” and “Honest,” from debut album “Memories ... Do Not Open” — to give off the appearance of variety. Same with the animation, although it was uninspired, cycling through dancing skeletons, dancing food, dancing red solo cups, variations of the Chainsmokers logo and so on.
The EDM blitzes were painfully predictable though — 30 seconds of simmer, 10 seconds of build, 20 seconds of bass spasms, repeat, repeat, repeat. And the remixes of their own material were cheap and lazy, simply dialing up the BPMs to mark the climax for “Like This,” for instance.
The crowd, though, didn’t seem to notice or care. It had to be a forgiving bunch to pay money to hear Taggart sing live. He remains one of the blandest voices to hit big on pop radio, and live Tuesday, he even had the nerve to sing Halsey’s part during “Closer.”
But the Chainsmokers’ most audacious move was its sloppy and noisy homage to the exceptional EDM duo Daft Punk. That’s like Michael Bay paying tribute to Stanley Kubrick. The Chainsmokers may recognize greatness, but the duo is far from it, and unlikely to ever achieve it.