Music festivals have now been put on hold for the foreseeable future. Festivals left and right have been cancelled this year, with only a couple of the biggest ones trying to delay in case they are allowed to hold it. But without a vaccine, it’s hard to imagine 100,000+ people being on a polo field in the California desert at Coachella, or in tents in the woods of Tennessee at Bonnaroo. Luckily for us listeners, artists are finding virtual ways to put on performance. The undefinable duo, 100 gecs, were able to do just that by throwing a festival in Minecraft.
Being a part of a Minecraft festival is nothing new for 100 gecs, but throwing it was. Their first ever performance was last year at the Minecraft Fire Festival last year, an event made to spoof the infamous Fyre Festival. The festival had over 50 artists performing and a whole city built to walk around in, but now 100 gecs have grown from an extremely niche group, to an underground phenomenon selling out shows across the country.
Their 2019 album, 1000 gecs, had slowly gained praise from listeners and critics alike. The album appeared on many best of the year lists, and was even chosen as the best album in 2019 by VICE and The New York Times. This album is not for most people though. Most fans will even admit that they didn’t like it all at first listen. It’s something that has to grow on you. It’s best described by John Caramanica of The New York Times, “The sound of internet splatter.”
The album has elements of hip hop, pop, dubstep, metal, ska, electronic, and experimental music. But the most influence comes from a genre called nightcore. Nightcore is just music sped up so the vocals become high pitched. It is mainly used in dance music to help make the songs more danceable and fun and has become a staple in live electronic music. This element of danceable and high pitched vocals is extremely evident in 100 gecs music.
100 gecs musical style is transferred into the entirety of the festival. Many of the other artists have direct ties to 100 gecs. Charli XCX and Dorian Electra have had multiple songs produced by Dylan Brady, one half of 100 gecs. Dylan also has a label called Dog Show Records that 100 gecs is signed to, and both other artists on the label appear in the lineup (Alice Longyu Gao and Gupi). Laura Les, the other half of 100 gecs, brought in producer umru as well. Other big names include Cashmere Cat and Benny Blanco, who have collectively produced over a dozen number one songs, including Teenage Dream, Senorita, Diamonds, and many more. Kero Kero Bonito is an experimental indie pop group that has gained a cult fanbase. A.G. Cook is the founder of PC Music, which is one of the most influential record labels in electronic music today. Needless to say, the lineup was full of quality and influential artists.
The world itself that the festival took place in was extremely detailed and featured a plethora of places to explore and find references to 100 gecs. One example was a giant rat with a sign that says Rat Fucker, which relates to the song/video of the same name released not long ago. The rat even had gigantic claws because of the Charli XCX song called Claws released the day before produced by Dylan Brady. Fans could’ve spent hours in the art exhibits and exploring the world before even making it up to the stage.
The stage was set up similar to small clubs in real life. If the stage was in real life, the room would’ve held 200-300 people instead of the thousands that were on the server and the 11,000+ that were watching the livestream on their youtube channel. It’s not really possible to dance in Minecraft, so the audience and the artist on stage would just be jumping all around nonstop. It was a really interesting experience to watch a rave try and happen in Minecraft, but the communal experience of all these people with their characters doing something together was something I haven’t experienced online before.
The sets themselves were more or less DJ sets, as it’s pretty much impossible to actually perform in Minecraft. Every set was different, but they all carried extremely high and danceable energy. 100 gecs played almost all new material that sounded more nu metal influenced. Charli XCX played some remixes of her songs (including a mashup of her song Vroom Vroom and the meme classic, Crank That) and unreleased material, including the fan favorite, Taxi. Other highlights include Dorian Electra using Lil John ad-libs everytime they switched up songs, and Cashmere Cat going instantly from Cotton Eye Joe to Lil Uzi Vert’s You Better Move.
Overall, this is as about as good as virtual shows are going to get. It may not have had the insanely high budget of the Travis Scott fortnite event, but it didn’t need that. It brought over 10,000 people together in a shared interactive experience with new music and worlds to explore. The last and maybe most unique aspect was how the artists were interacting with the fans. All the DJs, including Dylan and Lara, were just walking around the world as their characters and you could interact with them the same way you could any other random online person. On one hand, it’s just unique that artists walk around the show they just played, especially headlining artists. But on the other hand, it shows fans that artists are just people. Some fans tend to look at the artists as more than people, and seeing them playing the same game with the same character as you really shows that. The online experience allowed them to interact with their fans more, which is what I think will become special with these virtual shows that will start popping up.
Comments