Photo Credit: Allen Halas
For a myriad of reasons, Summerfest 2021 had felt unusual to say the least heading into Friday night. That changed, however, with a packed house at the Generac Power Stage, chanting for rapper G-Eazy and dancing along to the sounds of Milwaukee’s DJ Devest8 in the buildup to the headlining set. Once he emerged from the pre-show darkness into the spotlight, there was the ever-familiar roar that reminded you that live music is back in full force, and G-Eazy was ready to make the most of it.
In the course of about an hour, there was very little stoppage, as the Bay Area rapper rattled off a slew of tracks to get the crowd going. While initially positioned at a central mic stand to speak his peace, he quickly abandoned it within the course of two songs in order to pace the stage with a calm, confident demeanor. Rather than showing the concert on the screens at the renovated stage, visuals of California flashed on either side of the rapper. All eyes were on the stage, and deservingly so.
2017 hit “Boss Tycoon” was the first song to elicit a big response from the Summerfest crowd, and an early appearance by featured rapper Kossisko, who is signed under G-Eazy. The set later included a small medley to showcase Kossisko’s work, as well, including collaboration “Running Wild (Tumblr Girls 2),” marking one of the rare times that things slowed down. It would pick back up quickly, with cuts from his The Beautiful & Damned project that had fans remembering how to bounce and balance on Summerfest bleachers.
Photo Credit: Allen Halas
G-Eazy and his crew certainly knew how to get a crowd to react, and that was on full display Friday, with the show’s fair share of cheap pops. The rapper managed to substitute “Wisconsin” into his bars regularly, and countdowns with EDM-style steam cannons were commonplace. At one point, a rapid-fire barrage of featured verses made it into the set, with Post Malone track “Same Bitches” garnering a big reaction, as well as a verse over the beat to current pop mega-hit “Astronaut In The Ocean” by Masked Wolf. While pacing the stage, G-Eazy made a habit of grabbing fans phones, recording a short video of himself rapping to the crowd, and tossing the phones back. Every time it happened, the crowd ate it up. It felt like there was no extra effort that needed to be emitted from the stage to keep the fans going.
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Towards the latter half of the show, the most well-known material came out, naturally. G-Eazy did manage to bring some new music to Milwaukee, however, with the recent announcement of a new album later this month. He performed a new single, “Fathful,” which was so fresh that he admitted he was still learning his lyrics on the song. Before closing out the night, he also sprinkled in a new collaboration with Demi Lovato, with the screens showing mock headlines of Lovato’s recent drug addiction-related issues. It was somewhat of an unusual move, but again, most of the eyeballs were directed center-stage. The promotion for the album wasn’t done, however, as he instructed the crowd to chant “September 24,” the release date for the new project.
Two big hits with major fanfare closed out the night. “No Limit” featuring A$AP Rocky and Cardi B got the biggest reaction of the night, with a microphone being directed down to a female fan to rap Cardi’s explicit guest feature. She may have been starstruck. “Still Be Friends,” a collaboration with since-cancelled artist Tory Lanez and Tyga was the closer, complete with the full singalong treatment. Timing out at right around the hour mark, the night was wrapped with no encore.
As G-Eazy was quick to point out, the night was a celebration of being able to enjoy music with one another again, as has been a central theme of many Summerfest sets this year. He certainly brought the party, and before you knew it, it was time to go home. Sometimes, the best parties go that way.
