Photo Credit: Allen Halas
Chiiild
A moment of serenity in the middle of three weekends of non-stop music is hard to come by. For alternative R&B act Chiiild, though, peace moves with them wherever they go, providing soulful, chilled out sets on the festival circuit. The emerging band opened up the headlining portion of the night on Friday at the Miller Lite Oasis, winning over a contingent of fans in the process.
For what ended up being a chilly afternoon under the Hoan Bridge, Chiiild had plenty of warmth to their 6 p.m. set on Friday. Walking onstage to a smaller crowd, many of whom were either surfing from one stage to another or simply holding a spot for headliner Cordae, the band approached their set with the same mellow energy as if they were playing to thousands of people. With a dominant low end, the drums and bass provided a near-constant thump that drove the roughly hour-long set, with lead singer Yontatan Ayal doing the heavy lifting of getting the crowd energized.
Getting the people moving wasn’t necessarily the motive, but certain tracks were more successful than others in pulling in new fans. Much of 2021’s Hope For Sale comprised the setlist, with “Eventually” being the first song that got a reaction, thanks in part to an especially funky bass line. Multi-instrumentalist and singer Lyon Malyon played her role especially well, alternating between a violin, keys, tambourine and backing up Ayal when need be, harmonizing on “Gone” and “Weightless” to add an extra layer of tranquility to the tracks. Slowly but surely, a crowd would edge closer and closer to the stage, with some people sitting down getting up onto the bleachers. The band were certainly making some new followers out of those who happened to be passing by.
Ayal would navigate the crowd with a light-footed approach by design, seemingly letting the music take him wherever he needed to be. While he would occasionally call for the crowd to get up and make noise, he mostly interacted with the rest of the band, drifting back and forth between the monitors, the drum riser, and the front of the stage. Things would escalate, though, on the upbeat “Sleepwalking,” which saw the band at their peak. They would bring it back down near the end of their time, though, with the slower “Lotus,” leaving on a quiet note.
While learning the ropes of the festival crowd, Chiiild were in a great place for a growing band on Friday night. With no sound bleed interference, they were able to make a local debut that captured the true essence of their sound. By the end of their time onstage, their crowd had at least doubled in size, accomplishing the true goal at hand. Chiiild will be back in Milwaukee in a much larger capacity, but the fans who saw them on Friday evening will undoubtedly remember the more intimate experience.
