Gaslamp Killer: Given the exceedingly mainstream acts on Rock in Rio USA’s roster, LA’s Gaslamp Killer is a curious inclusion. His sets can be as dystopic as they are dyspeptic, though somewhere in his mix of underground hip-hop jams, spatial breaks, abrasive turntablism and bass thrash is a party. Those walking over to the EDM stage to see who was responsible for the bombast typically started with quizzical looks that turned into oh-I-get-it smiles when he played something they recognized or sounded vaguely like trap, or when he violently shook his head or made some other silly gesture from behind the booth. His selection skewed indie, as he played darker songs by Run the Jewels, Death Grips and Jamie XX, but he also threw the handbangers a bone by playing an old-school Metallica nugget toward the end of his set. Anyone not a fan by that point became one then.
SpokFrevo Orquestra: Jazz isn't commonly included at American music festivals, and when it is, odds are it's the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. For one of the acts chosen to play the Brazil-themed Rock Street, Rock in Rio programmers went with the versatile SpokFrevo Orquestra, a 17-member big band led by saxophonist/music director/vocalist Inaldo Cavalcante—affectionately known as Spok. Its rise almost mirrors that of the Buena Vista Social Club: an act largely known only in its home country that went on to attain global recognition for how it built upon a regional music style. For SFO, that style is frevo, the dominant folk music of the Brazilian state Pernambuco. During the set, frevo was the base from which SFO added and blended other genres and musical elements, from marching-band drumbeats and horn arrangements—the band literally marched from the festival grounds to the stage before the start of its set—to polka and, most dominantly, American jazz. SFO played like a 1940s big band, with Spok himself taking his solos into bebop territory, while the rhythm section pushed everything along with a discernibly Brazilian heat. Naturally, some were provoked to dance, some even joining a performer dressed in a bull costume. Also predictable: The crowd was criminally small. Nonetheless, despite the sparse turnout and the distractions (one could hear Deftones singer Chino Moreno screaming in the background) SFO still represented a welcome palate cleanser during the riff-heavy day.
Caked Up: This is where I have to knock the locals. DJ duo Caked Up were the lone Las Vegans to be booked for Rock in Rio, slotted appropriately for the most musically aggressive day of the four-day festival. But within three minutes of my return to the EDM stage, both men had already climbed over the booth apparatus and/or screamed into the microphone multiple times, exhorting audience members to jump and scream despite the fact most of them were doing just that. It became clear very quickly that Vegas Banger and Oscar Wylde would much rather spend time atop or in front of the DJ booth than behind it. The music? Mostly trap-by-numbers and dated electro house, all triggered or manipulated by exaggerated mixer-play, and frequently paused so one of the two DJs could scream, "Vegas!! Make some noooise!" If all of that wasn’t tiresome enough, Caked Up threw on A-Trak’s remix of Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Heads Will Roll,” which was grossly overplayed back in 2009. Once I reached my breaking point, I retreated to Sepultura’s Evolution Stage set and watched the Brazilian metal masters (along with guitar icon Steve Vai) pound out a glorious “Roots Bloody Roots”—only after which did I finally make some noooise. To Caked Up’s credit, it had drawn the largest EDM audience up until that point, and when I walked past the stage after the two finished playing, they'd crossed the barriers to talk to and hang out with fans new and old, something I didn’t see any other DJ or musician do at Rock in Rio. Good on them.
