Panorama continued at Randall’s Island Park yesterday with another diverse lineup. After the great success of day 1, Panorama chugged along with some incredible performances from Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals and The National, as well as an explosive set by hip hops brightest shining star, Kendrick Lamar.
The day started with a smorgasbord of up-and-comers, with Caveman, Museum of Love, Horse Meat Disco, and Oh Wonder all putting in impressive early performances. However, the real meat of the day started around 4pm. Tokimonsta definitely threw it down at the Parlor stage, while Foals showed their live prowess on the Panorama main stage. Foals turned in a particularly impressive set, as the British indie/dance rockers showed just why they are so huge over in Europe. When you headline Glastonbury, you learn a thing or two about playing at a festival, and the band showcased their fun, dance-rock vibes to a blissed out audience, even with the oppressive heat.
After Foals, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals took the Pavilion stage, and they lit the tent on fire with their super high energy. Anderson .Paak himself was brilliant, moving between rapping and crooning and playing the drums with power and confidence. The set seemlessly moved from hip hop to jazz fusion to r&b, and it’s easy to see why this group has been featured on so many festival lineups this year. Anderson .Paak was so excited to play in New York, he made several mentions of how much he loves playing there, and showed a playfulness with his band that most band leaders can only dream of. The future is bright for Anderson .Paak, and we can’t wait to see what he has in store moving forward.
The Lab is unlike any art installation ever presented at a music festival. We learned all about it when we interviewed the project’s curator, Justin Bolognino from META.is, and it certainly did not disappoint. With a huge line out the door stretching across the festival grounds, The Lab has proven to be a wild success at Panorama. It has several interactive pieces to explore, ranging from a giant inflatable piece that is hooked up to a moog synthesizer to a pinball machine hooked up with sensors that react as you play the game. The most impressive part, however, was The Dome, where viewers were encouraged to lay on the ground and look up at a huge IMAX-esque screen with an unbelievable, out-of-this-world video experience that needs to bee seen to be fully understood. Do what you can to make it into The Lab before the festival is over, as you won’t find this experience anywhere else.
Back at the Pavilion, Flosstradamus absolutely threw it down during their set, mixing hip hop, trap, and dubstep to create an extremely fun experience for Panorama. Flosstradamus aren’t necessarily breaking any new ground with their music, and they played a lot of other people’s songs during their set, but their penchant for turning dumb songs into festival bangers and their love for marijuana had the crowd going wild for the entirety of their set.
The National took the stage to huge anticipation, and were met with wild applause after each song. The band is only playing a handful of tourdates this summer, and, without an album of originals to plug, turned in a career-spanning set. The band turned in a perfect sunset-set, and really picked things up towards the end with passionate, rocking versions of “Mr. November” and “Terrible Love”.
Kaytranada had a high-profile set that most people couldn’t even get into. Issues getting into the tiny, enclosed Parlor tent were an issue yesterday for DJ Khaled, and the same problem prevented several fans from being able to see the highly anticipated set by the Canadian DJ. For what it’s worth, people who were able to get in were raving about the high energy set that featured material from the artists celebrated debut album 99.9%.
Finally, the day came to a close with an epic set from Kendrick Lamar. Taking the stage with his impressively jazzy band, King Kendrick worked through tracks from all three of his albums. Mixing in classics like “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Swimming Pool (Drank)”, and “m.A.A.d. city (part II)” with newer tracks like “untitled 07 | 2014 – 2016”, and “For Free?”, Kendrick never slowed down, constantly keeping the energy high and engaging the crowd. A particularly jazzy take on “These Walls” was perhaps the highlight of the show, while mega hit “King Kunta” took the crowd into the stratosphere. However, it was the set-closing performance of “Alright” that really impressed, with Kendrick referring to all the violence in the world and letting everyone in the audience know that things would be ok. The crowd knew “Alright” was coming, and started chanting the song’s “We gon’ be alright!” refrain even before the song started. The chant turned into a call and response between the left and right sides of the audience, leaving Kendrick in awe before he started the song proper.
Kendrick was a fitting way to end a strong second day of Panorama. The festival concludes today with sets from Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Run The Jewels, Grace Potter, Holy Ghost!, Sia, A$AP Rocky, and a huge homecoming show for LCD Soundsystem!
Photos by Chad Anderson. Full gallery:
