Headliners Rae Sremmurd took the stage Saturday night to close Frontier Fiesta, but technical issues plagued its energetic performance.
The hip-hop duo wasted little time jumping on stage to sling water bottles and to interact with the crowd over tracks such as Kendrick Lamar’s “M.A.A.D City” before launching into its platinum single “No Flex Zone.”
The duo then moved into its single “Come Get Her” cutting the mic at points to let the crowd sing the hook. However, sound cuts became more frequent in the performance until it cut to complete silence during “No Type.”
“It seemed like their bass system blew out or something because all their equipment just went silent,” philosophy senior Brandon Montenegro said. “It was really awkward because the crowd was singing waiting for the song to kick back in but it never did.”
After several minutes of silence the crowds’ singing waned out. The duo rebutted by speaking to the crowd about politics until technical difficulties resolved.
Within several seconds of the next song, the sound from the stage cut out again. Undeterred, the duo continued performing on stage while waiting for the sound to come back.
The duo eventually moved on from the track signaling the crowd to throw their cups and shirts in the air for their next song, “My X,” which was performed with little to no technical issues. After the song, many in the crowd began leaving the concert.
After performing one song with no technical issues, Rae Sremmurd went back to play “No Type.”
Crowd reactions were mixed, but despite sound issues, there were many students like biology freshman Dorothy Nguyen who were still pleased with the performance.
“Everyone had really good vibes that night,” Nguyen said. “I wish they could have stayed longer.”
Rae Sremmurd tried as hard as they could and brought a super energetic performance but these sound issues were a real shame, and detracted from the act. These same issues were on hand at the Lupe Fiasco/Wale show a few months back. The Student Program Board, if they are the ones running this, need to get their act together before musicians gate wind of how sloppy UH’s tech people are, and refuse to come perform here.
When the PA was working right it sounded AWESOME/ Let’s hope that these issues get worked out.
The sound issues killed Frontier Fiesta for me, especially since my boyfriend was performing.
A good crowd couldn’t be entertained by the low volume and no bass system they had going on during the rap live shows.
The racist techs just don’t like rap, that’s all.
They turned off the subwoofers & everything else during Generation Y Records (a hip hop collective), they turned the volume so low people past the second row could hardly hear it. I asked them what was going on and they said they weren’t allowed to turn it up, bullsh*t. As soon as that rap performance ended, this EDM DJ came & they blasted the speakers & bass as loud as it could go. It was so loud you could hear it very loudly across the street.
There were no technical difficulties with that DJ, but there was at least three f*ck ups during the GYR live show.