Summerfest 7/3/12: Tiësto & Steve Aoki @ Marcus Amphitheater

After an already hot Brewers game (temperature of 97 in the sun while hanging out in the parking lot), my companion and I made it to the Marcus Amphitheater for Tiësto. I had never seen him before, and I generally like to support acts that don't suck that Summerfest brings in. Tiësto was definitely enough of a draw to earn my extra dollar for the Marcus ticket.  The tickets came out to $28/each, thanks to a web deal that indicated to me that the show was selling terribly.

Sold terribly it did indeed. Most of the second yellow section of the Marcus went unfilled. Only the center five green bench seating sections were occupied. There was plenty of lawn space off to the sides, until, during Steve Aoki, security opened up the gates between bench seating and lawn, thusly making the whole place feel even more empty.

Steve Aoki was the first full set we got there in time to see, and although I had heard he's pretty good, I left only liking about half of his material. Some of his set included stuff that had a harder, grindier sound to it, or was straight up dubstep, which is fun for about four seconds. He was quite lively on stage, making laps a few times, and throwing half-sheet cakes into the crowd (perhaps from Metro Market?) on two separate occasions. The highlight of Aoki's set were, unfortunately, the 9:30 Big Bang fireworks, and a fun, bouncy remix of Kid CuDi's "Pursuit of Happiness."

Tiësto, on the other hand, is a few steps higher on production and professional scale. Lights, a pretty killer LED screen backdrop, and dry ice shooters (like anti-pyrotechnics?) added enough eye candy so Tiësto didn't have to resort to silly laps and gimmicks on stage.

The music was mostly a hit, although I did find Tiësto's routine to become overly formulaic at a few times. He'd play a song with Euro-ish lyrics in the background, build it, drop the bass, then repeat two or three times. Most of the cycles were hits, or badly needed breaks from some hot beats. A rare song in the mix did drag and had me thinking, "Get to the workin' overtime part!"  He dabbled on a few catchy European DJ remixes that I couldn't quite place, and also the hit of the summer that no band or DJ can possibly resist playing, Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know."

Tiësto's productions, however, were pretty spot on. Without having to say so much as a word, Tiësto was able to rile fans into a frenzy with animated projections on the screen behind him, and also below, covering the stage from about three feet and lower.  At times, the projections were amazing complements to the music. At others, they were the main attraction.

Tiësto provided enough of a bouncy, Euro club atmosphere in a large American shed to make everyone care enough that it was probably less than 50% full. Seeing as how his tour is called "Club Life," I'd say he was pretty spot on.  Oh, and PS, these bucket-drummers that play outside of Summerfest for donations are incredible.