Photo Credit: Allen Halas
The intersection of pop punk and hip hop is becoming ever more trendy, but amongst the crowd of young acts looking to merge the genres, none do it with the intensity of KennyHoopla. The Cleveland-born, Wisconsin bred act proved that on the opening afternoon of Summerfest, as he looked to live out his own alternative rock fantasy camp in his festival set Thursday.
The past year has been a rollercoaster ride for the hybrid artist, who rose to fame online and ultimately garnered the attention of Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker. Much of the set list Thursday consisted of tracks from their joint project Survivor’s Guilt: The Mixtape. With a DJ on one side of him and a live drummer on the other, there was a visual representation of the worlds colliding, with KennyHoopla in the middle, though he didn’t remain stationary for long at any point in the show.
The crowd at the recently renovated Generac Power stage seemed to grow exponentially as each track from Survivor’s Guilt blared through the speakers. KennyHoopla’s stage presence was magnetic to say the least, walking the front speakers and jumping into the crowd as much as possible, with and without the microphone.
Photo Credit: Allen Halas
That being said, there were some moments were Kenny and crew’s greenness showed. Prior to the set, the soundcheck from the DJ consisted of the backing tracks for the show, which can put a little bit of a damper on the full performance minutes later. There was also a battle between KennyHoopla and the front monitors of the Generac stage, as his mic cord often got tangled around them with his frequent movement throughout the stage and crowd. Attempts to rectify the situation resulted in squelching feedback. Nevertheless, KennyHoopla endured, and remained intensely energetic throughout.
There were also some humble moments in the set, a welcome sign from a new act that is just starting to garner a buzz. There were moments of gratitude as the crowd chanted Kenny’s name, with the young artist appearing to take it all in. He also made mention of being in Madison years ago, broke, hoping for moments like Thursday afternoon. His set proved exactly why they were deserved.
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