Photo Credit: Allen Halas
What do you do when you have four NBA championships, an MVP award, eight All-NBA first team selections and a slew of hundreds of franchise investments around the country? You DJ at Summerfest, naturally. That’s exactly what DJ Diesel, better known as basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, did on Friday night at the Miller Lite Oasis.
While this could easily become a diatribe about the role of a DJ or the novelty aspect of modern electronic music… I know. It’s fairly unlikely that Shaquille O’Neal spends his hours meticulously adjusting the sound of snares in Ableton, or even leisurely thinks about the latency on the newest edition of Pioneer CDJ turntables. There were occasional tweaks made from the stage Friday night, but nothing resembling turntablism from the basketball great. However, The Big Aristotle does have a history in music dating back to his playing days in college, and there’s at least a genuine appreciation for the power of what music can do to a crowd that was on display Friday. At purely face value, you have to respect that, and dammit, it was pretty fun.
Photo Credit: Allen Halas
Shortly after official DJ of the Milwaukee Bucks, DJ Shawna, finished her opening set, Shaq and his crew made their way to the Oasis stage to keep the party going. Surrounded by a metal truss holding his turntables, adjusted for Shaquille O’Neal’s height of course, the 15-time all-star soaked up the roar of the crowd upon his appearance. Then, with the first of many fist pumps, a thunderous amount of bass rattled the stage. Assisted by a hypeman that would occasionally work the crowd, there was energy to the mix of songs, which would incorporate everything from ‘80s classics to Nirvana. The majority of the set centered around hard-hitting EDM, getting a mostly younger crowd moving and banging their heads along the barricade.
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Atmosphere is everything for an EDM show, and DJ Diesel was certainly aware of that. All of the bells and whistles that are now commonplace in festival sets made an appearance, with steam cannons, confetti, and video screens featuring trippy variations of DJ Diesel’s name flashing around the Oasis. Every bit of stage production elicited a roar from the crowd, as if it was the first time they’d seen the tropes in action. Nonetheless, the combination of pulse-pounding beats, wild special effects, and Shaquille O’Neal’s mere aura made for a party that you’d be hard pressed to forget. While it may not have been the choice of an electronic music purist, Shaq and his crew certainly know how to have a good time.
