Day two of Firefly Music Festival (June 16) in Dover, Delaware, carried on without a drop of rain — much to everyone’s surprise. Early sets from indie rockers like Judah & The Lion and Animal Years warmed up the crowds, while hip-hop acts Sir The Baptist and Lil Dicky offered some variation before the rock-heavy evening sets from Weezer and Twenty One Pilots.
Read the best of day two below.
Sir the Baptist’s Dig on Gucci Belts
“I ain’t here to say, ‘You ain’t got my Gucci belt,’ because I ain’t got one either,” Sir the Baptist tells the crowd during his midday set — a possible dig at fellow Chicago hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper (who is set to headline on Saturday). Chance and Sir the Baptist share a common mission in their music “to build a community” and promote positive values. Throughout Sir the Baptist’s high-energy set — he threw in “What We Got” and “Good Ole Church Girl” early on — he sprinkled in social commentary about the violence in Chicago, making his “goal to change hip hop” crystal clear.
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Banks’ Compelling Stage Presence
Banks sauntered on stage cloaked in a black veil. “This is crazy, it’s my birthday,” the now 29-year-old told the crowd who exploded in cheers. Banks filled her set with favorites like “F–k With Myself, “Gemini Feed,” “Waiting Game” and more. All the while, she and two expressionless dancers delivered isolated, in-synch moves from head tilts to shoulder shrugs that at times channeled Lorde. Banks rarely, if ever, cracked a smile (even though it was her bday) and rather maintained her stone cold appearance, especially when she requested all phones be put away “to be with me in this special moment” before she dove into “Better.”
Weezer Turning Back Time
Weezer transported the festival right back to the early ’90s from the moment the rockers stepped on stage — and the band’s voices have held up just as well as its hits. Weezer hopped around from all its albums, though weighed heavily on tracks off the Green Album, starting off with “Hash Pipe” and later going into “Thank God For Girls,” “Island In The Sun” and “King Of The World,” in which frontman Rivers Cuomo rocked the same regal crown and robe he wore in the song’s music video. That wasn’t the only prop Cuomo brought out, as for “Beverly Hills” he donned a festival sombrero. Weezer tossed in “Back to the Shack” off its 2014 LP, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, as well as a couple covers — OutKast‘s “Hey Ya” and Mike Posner‘s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” — before ending with a burst of confetti for Blue Album track “Buddy Holly.”
Twenty One Pilots’ Ability to Do it All (Especially Hating on Coachella)
A projector flashed a dramatic and low-quality video of a Godzilla-like creature tearing through Coachella on a screen that concealed the Firefly Stage from the crowd — it ended with a sign that read Coachella bursting into pieces. A few songs into Twenty One Pilots’ headlining set, vocalist Tyler Joseph revisited the video by stating: “It’s not that we don’t like Coachella, it’s just that we can’t stand it. We’d rather take Firefly anyday.” The duo offered no further explanation, and moved right along with its crowd-pleasing set.
The two did much more than simply play its hits — “Fairly Local,” “Heavydirtysoul,” “Heathens,” “My Ride” and many more made it on the set list — they made sure to provide constant entertainment. Drummer Josh Dun back-flipped off the piano, at one point stripped down to just shorts, and later drummed from a makeshift platform held up by the crowd, while earlier in the set Joseph reminded the crowd of Father’s Day (on Sunday) and welcomed his own father to the stage (who put on his son’s red beanie) and danced around while “All I Do Is Win” blared from the speakers.
Elsewhere, Joseph mentioned meeting Weezer backstage (who had played the Firefly stage prior) and brought out friends Judah & the Lion (the first act to play the stage on Friday) for covers of Chumbawamba‘s “Tubthumping” and House Of Pain‘s “Jump Around.” At one point, he too had the crowd prop him up as he sang the fitting lyrics to “Holding on to You” — truly giving his all to the densely packed field, just as he promised he would.