PANORAMA LIVES UP TO ITS NAME
A new festival from Coachella masterminds Goldenvoice took over Randall’s Island Park in New York this weekend. Panorama kicked off its inaugural threeday event with performers spanning genres. USA TODAY’s Patrick Ryan shares some highlights.
KENDRICK LAMAR TRIBUTE
Continuing his reign into 2016 with four Grammy Awards and a No. 1 album, untitled unmastered, the hip-hop heavyweight didn’t disappoint Saturday in his twohour headlining set, which leaned less on his socially conscious
To Pimp a Butterfly and more on old favorites including Backseat
Freestyle and A.D.H.D. for his “Day 1 fans.” Along with tipping his hat to Prince, whose face was projected onscreen during Swimming Pools (Drank), Lamar also alluded to policeshooting victims Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, speaking before his rousing Black Lives Matter anthem Alright. “Right here, right now, we going to celebrate life,” he said. “We going to celebrate the lives of the victims that passed these past three weeks.”
SUFJAN STEVENS’ ‘ADZ’ ERA
The genre-busting singer/songwriter was a dazzling weekend highlight with his kaleidoscopic headlining show, which pulled less from last year’s heartbreaking masterpiece Carrie & Lowell and primarily from his breathtakingly out-there The Age of Adz. Changing in and out of costumes that included feathery angel wings, a balloon headpiece and disco-ball-plated vest, Stevens flitted around the stage with a group of neon-clad dancers and singers, whose backup vocals lent an almost church-like feel to anthems Too
Much, Vesuvius and Chicago. The Olympian, 25-minute Impossible
Soul was the unrivaled standout, with Stevens at one point busting out Auto-Tune, quipping, “I’m trying like Kanye West.”
ARCADE GETS POLITICAL
The Canadian alt-rockers played their first U.S. show of 2016 on the Panorama main stage Friday night, working their way through a sprawling two-hour set that pulled heavily from 2013’s Reflektor and their Grammy-winning
The Suburbs, and culminated in a lively, three-song David Bowie tribute with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. But it was frontman Win Butler’s profanity-laced tirade against Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump that earned some of the biggest cheers. “Donald Trump will (expletive) never, ever be the president of the (expletive) United States of America,” Butler said.
DJ KHALED’S STAR POWER
Khaled packed hundreds of fans into the festival’s smallest venue Friday night. Although the show’s more than 20-minute delay earned boos from the crowd, people quickly forgot the uncomfortable conditions when Khaled took the stage — throwing his shirt into the audience, posing for Snapchat selfies and crowing about the “major keys” to his success. After teasing surprise guests throughout his hour-long set, Khaled handily delivered with exuberant assists from T.I. ( Bring Em Out, Live Your Life), and Fat Joe and Remy Ma ( Lean Back, All the Way Up).
LINDSEY STIRLING LIVE
Stirling has translated a YouTube following into a successful music career, which she has supported with multiple albums and tours through the years. Performing late afternoon Friday for a decentsized crowd, the violin virtuoso pranced her way through a string of viral hits, including her epic
Roundtable Rival and icy dubstep mashup Crystallize.