Last Wednesday, I traveled by train for a three-night summer trip. Inspired almost solely by a limited-edition Frank Ocean performance, the trip sent me to Manhattan, over 200 miles away from my hometown.
Friday was the day. July 28th: the day I had a (very often changing) schedule for since January, when it was announced that Frank Ocean would be performing at Panorama Festival at Randall’s Island Park in New York City. The two days preceding the festival’s first day (and my only day, as I had only bought a Friday ticket), were filled with ordinary- yet crazy to someone not from New York- activities, including Broadway plays and Times Square travels. So, I find it okay to skip right to Friday’s activities.
It was 10:00 A.M. when I got to the line of the festival’s eastern entrance. The gates, while originally supposed to open at 12:00 PM, opened around an hour later, spiking the anxiousness of attendees waiting. These people waiting, as I somewhat expected, were not in line early to catch the early performances of Working Women or Marcus Marr (for the most part), but rather were motivated by getting Frank Ocean or Tyler, The Creator merchandise bright and early. Posts online on web forums such as Reddit’s r/FrankOcean, which warned festival-goers of the limited availability of Frank Ocean merchandise, pushed people to try and be in the first few hundreds of people trying for the merch. I was one of these people.
It was actually around 12:50 when I got in line for merch at the designated “Blonded” tent. As it turned out though, being near the front of my security line at the venue’s western entrance wasn’t, well, “front-enough”. Nearly three hours later, however, I reached the finish-line, and received my form to fill out what merch I wanted. Because I was with my mother, I was able to fill out forms for both a long-sleeve t-shirt that I brought and a short-sleeve t-shirt that the tent would provide. After the day’s first long wait, I rushed to The Parlor in the middle of the Park, where “Grunge&B” (a genre that they call themselves) duo THEY. would be performing.
THEY.
My day’s first performance was definitely the right one to get the festival hype going. Before I had learned that THEY. would be performing at Panorama, I was already a big fan. Having listened to their debut album Nu Religion: Hyena since its release date in February, I made it a must to see these guys live. The duo, whose performance included album cuts such as “U-RITE”, “Back It Up”, “Motley Crew”, and “Dante’s Creek”, as well as R&B covers, exceeded my expectations, even as a big fan. Over a 30-40 minute span, the two members, Drew Love and Dante Jones, went back and forth on stage, getting involved with the crowd and keeping them jumping all the while. The performance was not only made by the great live voice of Drew Love, but also, if not more so, the production of Dante Jones, which made for a hype atmosphere and shaking venue.
Vance Joy
Now- the original plan was to see THEY., chill out for a while, see Isaiah Rashad, see Tyler, then watch Solange and of course, Frank, on the Panorama Stage. However, after seeing THEY. and getting a bite to eat, I saw that the catwalk that Frank would be performing on was getting a little bit crowded. So, what did I do? I did what any Frank fan would do. I was able to get a spot to the left of the catwalk’s ending, directly facing his piano when looking to the side. I needed to make sure the spot was good as I would be there for the rest of the day (and I was there the rest of the day). When I was able to find the spot, Vance Joy was performing on the main stage ahead. Because I was not planning to see Vance Joy, I was not too familiar with his work- but I did know that his name sounded familiar. This familiarity’s reasoning came to light when the singer/instrumentalist was handed a ukulele and started performing former hit “Riptide” (a song that I actually very much enjoy for a borderline radio song). I was not a pronounced fan before the performance, but afterwards I can say that I am. First two performances of the day were 2/2, and I became a fan of an artist I wasn’t a fan of before. Maybe this waiting for Frank thing wasn’t gonna be that bad.
Future Islands
The day’s third performance was when my pre-Frank jitters began. When Future Islands came on, it was around 5:10 the first hour or two of waiting by Frank’s stage were knocked off. Having only heard two or three songs from Future Islands’ most recent album beforehand, they were the wildcard of the day. The songs performed during this timeslot were not my cup of tea; I can say that without hesitance. However, to their credit, the band’s lead singer, Samuel Herring, performed with an extreme amount of passion (and intensity). Again, not something I would listen to, but at least the dude put his heart into the performance and made it worthwhile.
MGMT
It was around 6:40 in the day when psychedelic rock group MGMT came on stage. I was actually pretty excited for this performance, being a casual fan of their hit songs and a couple of their albums. Right when they entered Panorama Stage, their presence was felt. All with crazy outfits and cool looking synths and guitars, they looked like, well, how someone would think MGMT would look solely based on their music. The performance’s aesthetics were actually a major part of their whole performance, as theyhad crazy, colorful, sometimes even cartoonish visuals playing on the stage’s big screen the whole time to support their setlist. “Weekend Wars” and “Time to Pretend” were easily highlights of the set, alongside two more familiar songs, “Kids” and “Electric Feel”. Overall, MGMT gave a great performance and their set was even cooler than I expected.
Solange
By the time Solange’s delayed performance started, the sky was dark and the crowd was Frank-ready. By all means though, Solange was not an appetizer for Frank. I must start this section by stating that A Seat at the Table was number 7 on my “Best Albums of 2016” list. This album placed Solange as one of my favorite singers, although being more of a recent fan I’m not too knowledgeable on her career’s beginnings and older material (working on it). Her sets prove that she is not just a singer, but a performer. Rather than singing stoically through a one-hour set, Solange utilizes her band/orchestra and backup dancers to create an artistic atmosphere that brings her music to life. The first few songs she performed, all plugged straight from the first-quarter/half of her aforementioned 2016 album (“Rise”, “Weary”, “Cranes in the Sky” before she took a brief interlude to perform songs from outside the album just to resume back later to other album tracks such as “Mad” and “Don’t Touch My Hair”), were enough to draw the audience into her delicately choreographed performance. At certain points towards the performance’s ending, tens of people dressed in orange clothing similar to Solange and her marching band came to the stage epicly playing trumpets right to Solange’s voice that could be heard across the Park. The performance struck me as one you’d see at the Grammys.
Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean at Panorama. Photo Credits to StereoGum
It was time. Watching Frank’s crew even set up his catwalk stage was something amazing to witness. The whole thing looked like they were creating a movie set (well, they actually might have, considering Spike Jonze has been filming Frank at the other festivals as well as this one and rumors of a movie have been going around). When the crew was done setting everything up, the crowd was awakened by the venue’s lights turning off and Pretty Sweet blaring through the speakers. As this happened, it was almost like the whole park paused to look at greatness. After Pretty Sweet ended and the lights were fully turned back on, Frank appeared on stage with the backing of “Solo” playing. I, as well as the others around me, instantly began to realize what was actually happening. Frank was there. Right in front of us. Five or six rows back, I started to think that maybe all of the day’s waiting was worth it; 11 hours later, I was in front of Frank Ocean. The set was filled with Blonde and Endless tracks (as well as Thinkin ‘Bout You from Channel Orange). There were some exciting outliers throughout though, such as a relatively new (for all we know) verse used to introduce “Self Control” and an extended version of “Good Guy”. By now, we know that Frank loves changing the melodies or structures of his songs for live performances. One of the most unique ways he displayed this love was by performing “Thinkin Bout You” over a J Dilla instrumental. The song, actually to my surprise, fit perfectly over the instrumental and sounded great.
Panorama Setlist, posted on r/FrankOcean by user maxliu8
Throughout the night, Frank interacted with the crowd some, as well as himself or his “imaginary friend” as he called his headpiece. Everything with the performance was right. I thought he sounded even better live than he does in CDQ for some songs (Lens and Biking come to my mind). Even the outfit (specifically shirt) he was wearing was awe-inspiring and loved by the crowd. All I know is that I’m grateful to have seen a legend right in front of me performing, and that the three day trip and long, dehydrating wait was worth the end result. The performance was something that will stick with the crowd, and me, forever.
EAR FOR THE BEAT 