As my first festival ever, I was extremely excited to attend the re:set concert series in Chicago! It was in Riis park, which I’d never heard of before, in a cool area of the city. I went with my friend, Padraig (aka Gig,) and his friend Charlotte. Although the festival featured many esteemed artists like Dijon, LCD Soundsystem, Steve Lacy, and James Blake, we were mainly there for the coveted Clairo and Boygenius.
For those who don’t know, Boygenius is a 3-member band made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. They formed in 2018 and released an EP, but have gotten more hype since their debut album, The Record, was released in late March of this year. Although I saw Phoebe live last year, which was honestly an amazing experience and one of my favorite concerts, I was excited to see them as a band and hear their new tunes live. I’ll try my best not to fiend over Julien Baker in this blog, but oh my god, she was amazing. Her voice was literally ethereal and they all sounded incredible together; the harmonies were insane. I think my dad would’ve loved it, to be honest.
My personal favorites that they performed were Cool About it, Revolution 0, $20 (obviously), and Not Strong Enough. I may sound like a local with those song choices, but I knew the words to them best and honestly just thought that they were performed well live.
Going into this concert, I tried to embrace the mindset that I recently realized at the Louis Tomlinson concert, of not trying to get too close/pushy, and that I don’t need to know every lyric. Surprise, it worked! I had a great time listening to some of their songs for the first time, and felt that I was really able to enjoy the music more when I wasn’t stressed about other preoccupations. Although it was a bit hard to see for most of the concert, (everyone in the audience was at least 7 ft tall for some reason) I really enjoyed it and had a great time meeting new people and hanging out with Gig and Charlotte as well. I felt that the environment of the concert was very laid back, positive, and happy; maybe facilitated by the park where the concert was held. Side note, the food was great!
Now for Clairo. I hadn’t expected to know so many of her songs but got really excited when she played North, Alewife, Blouse, 4EVER, Reaper, Amoeba, and Bags. We weren’t anticipating Blouse, so that was a big surprise and I might’ve (don’t tell anyone) cried a bit during that one. She had the softest, most beautiful voice and the instruments that she brought onstage were gorgeous as well. I felt that it was a good mix of upbeat and slow songs, which is also hard to find in her discography. If you couldn’t tell by my song choices, I’m more of an Immunity fan, but I’m definitely going to make an effort to listen to more of Sling after her performance.
Overall, I thought that both performances were great and honestly incomparable, as they were very different. I’m gonna give the experience an 8.5/10!