John Mayer, Owl City Dazzle Lakewood
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[email protected] Technique Entertainment Editor: Zheng Zheng 15 Assistant Entertainment Editor: Friday, Entertainment Patricia Uceda September 10, 2010 John Mayer, Owl City dazzle Lakewood Photos by Jarrett Skov / Student Publications Concert fileinto intothe theseats seats and and spread spread their their and the easily digested pop both full-volume into his music. the audience, which he did fre- John Mayer and Owl City blankets on the lawn. The venue musical acts offer ultimately can Dressed simply in cargo pants quently. was open air with a covered sec- speak to fans of the other. and a solid grey t-shirt, Mayer Mayer performed a number PERFORMER: John Mayer, tion immediately in front of the Adam Young of Owl City jammed. Although suffering of songs, both singles and album Owl City stage. Several large fans cooled played guitar and sang for the fromform a back injury, Mayer was tracks. None of the songs were LOCATION: Aaron’s the thousands under the roof, duration of his set. He did not still able to excite the assembly. too obscure; there were always Amphitheatre at Lakewood moving the heat, humidity and have much to say and did not Considered a “singer-songwrit- a number of fans singing along. body odor around. connect with the audience. The er,” Mayer is foremost a guitar Although the show was DATE: Sept. 8, 2010 It was a warm evening as the marathon of songs was not nec- player. “John Mayer,” he introduced sun started to set when Owl essarily exhausting, but it was His string plucking and fin- his band and gave them all time OUR TAKE: ««««« City took the stage promptly at rather dull. gers strumming is truly great,great. to show off a little. During the 7 p.m. Seemingly meant for the The only saving graces were andAnd hehe doesdoes notnot trytry to hide it ei- improvised instrumental inter- ByBy Chris Chris Ernest Ernst night with panels of stripes made the visualizations, which played ther. Nearly every song was lon- ludes, Mayer would play along Staff Writer of screens and stage lights, Owl only intermittently, and Adam ger than the album version be- with a ukulele or guitar with a City did not make much impact Young’s youthful, persistent en- cause Mayer would improvise a band member playing a sopranosax, an- The hundreds denied entrance while fighting the sun for domi- ergy. Owl City finished with the section in the middle of the song, othersax, other guitar guitar, or drums. or drums. to John Mayer’s impromptu con- nant illumination. By the end well-known “Fireflies,” exciting sometimes for minutes at a time. After thethe lastlast song, song, the the unsa un- cert at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, of the set, thethe sunsun hadhad dimmed,dimmed the crowd withwith somethingsomething familit was- Mayer would work his magi- satiatedtiated clapped clapped their their hands hands, and which was announced via Twit- and the full effect of the intricate iar.familiar with. cal hands and cast a spell without stamped their feet and shouted ter only a few hours beforehand, dance of lights brought the audi- Overall, there was plenty of words. These interludes were the for more. Mayer and his band had a second chance to see the ence’s attention to the performers energy onstage and true fans of best part of the show. did come out for a one-song en- Atlanta-based singer-songwrit- onstage. Owl CityCity likelygleaned wanted exponentially exponen- Although not originally from core, much toto thethe delightapparent of thede- er perform. On the night of It still seems odd that an elec- tiallymore morefrom thefrom show. the show. Atlanta, Mayer moved here to spectators.light of the spectators. Wednesday, Sept. 8. John Mayer tronica music “project” would After a short intermission, start his music career. He played Although Mayer is not much headlined Aaron’s Amphithe- accompany a singer-songwriter the lights suddenly extinguished local venues around town, in- of a showman, his sheer skill and ater at Lakewood with Owl City who dabbles in rap and blues. and a discerning eye could make cluding Eddie’sEddie’s Attic, Attic, before before he kooky wit keep the audience in- opening the show. The semblance of a band that is out figures filing onto stage. The gainedhe came international to international attention. atten It- terested and entertained. The During the Owl City open- really just one person is the oppo- screams were deafening and wastion. obvious It was obviousthat Mayer that enjoyed Mayer show probably ended too soon ing, tardy concertgoers, who site of a man who is accompanied louder than those for Owl City. beingenjoyed back being in Atlanta;back in he Atlanta; said as for some, but it’s always best to made up about 90ninety percent percent of the of by a band. As odd as it may seem, Without any introduction or much.he said Hisas much. enjoyment But it waswas also leave a party while having fun, thefinal final audience, audience, continued continued to fileto there were plentyplenty ofof fansfans ofof both,both preamble, John Mayer launched obvious when interacting with something Mayer clearly knows. 16 • September 10, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT Shwayze entertains, Lil’ Jon disappoints crowd Concert Facebook, we can put it on flyers, Social Studies Tour we can have banners, posters, but if students aren’t paying attention PERFORMER: Lil Jon, to the advertisement we do, we Shwayze, Kelley James can’t put it in their face anymore,” LOCATION: Parking Lot W21 Gamble said in response to com- ments that the event wasn’t well DATE: September 2, 2010 publicized. The night opened up with Kel- OUR TAKE: ««««« ley James, an acoustic artist with a flair for freestyle rapping sponta- By Kumar Thangudu neously during his performances. Contributing Writer “People always ask me what are my favorite cities and Atlanta’s Kelley James, Shwayze and always on the top of the list. For Lil’ Jon rolled through Tech last me...I’ve always been influenced Thursday, Sept. 2 for a free con- by hip hop.....I really respect the cert in the Howey Physics parking scene,” James said. lot sponsored by Muscle Milk and It’s clear that James, arguably Oakley. the least known among the three It was organized by the Stu- part act, has developed a burgeon- dent Center Programs Council ing fan base at Tech. After the (SCPC). Many students heard concert, James played a packed of the concert only hours before late night session at fraternity Phi it began. The day of the concert, Delta Theta. Muscle Milk aggressively adver- Next up was Shwayze, a tised the event by giving away free west coast hip-hop acoustic Photo by Josh Sandler (left), Joey Cerone (right) / Student Publications t-shirts and Muscle Milk drinks. group made up of Aaron Smith Shwayze (left) and Lil’ Jon (right) entertain the students last Thursday night behind the Physics At quarter intervals through- (“Shwayze”- rapper) and Cisco building. The free concert was sponsored by Muscle Milk and Oakley. It was organized by the SCPC. out the concert, Muscle Milk was Adler (producer, musician and still giving away drinks up until songwriter). just put out the music for free, and mixtape entitled Love Stoned un- a highly talented studio producer, the end of the concert. The group had the crowd jump- I’m sure that pisses them off, but der his name Aaron Smith four but a lackluster live performer. “[My committee and I] worked ing with shirt throwing, sweat that’s what we do at the end of the days later on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Ben Townsend, first-year ARCH directly with Muscle Milk and filled, feel-the-bass, stage jumping day, we want the kids to have the Last up was Lil’ Jon, the Atlan- major, said“It was kind of a lame Oakley to bring the tour to cam- antics and the duo was rapping on music, especially the college kids ta based producer, rapper and DJ. DJ set, I expected more.” pus.... [SCPC is] all about bring- top of eclectically gathered music [or] Georgia Tech or anywhere. Unfortunately, this finale proved Perpetually a producer and en- ing events to campus,” said Scott samplings. Shwayze commented We know a lot of kids download to be bittersweet. Many Tech stu- trepreneur, he owns businesses in- Gamble, SCPC concerts com- on the nature of the industry by the music for free so instead of dents came in droves to see Lil’ cluding CRUNK!!! energy drink, mittee chair and fourth-year ME talking about his recently released trying to fight it, we give it to Jon’s performance, but it ended Little Jonathon Winery, his own major. free mixtape. them for free, so they can come to up being just a few minutes of line of Oakley sunglasses and a “That’s one of the problems “As musicians, we’re constantly the show and sing along with us,” hearing him DJ. It was clear that Smyrna recording studio. Asked that’s always faced students... we making music, but because of the Shwayze said. the audience was disappointed as what’s next, Lil Jon replied “Just do our best to get out as many labels and all these things some- Shwayze stuck it to the man many began pouring out of the doing these records, working hard students as possible, but it comes times it takes a long time for the and put his money where his concert soon after. on the album, blowing the album to a point where we can put it on music to get out.