Re:SET Concert Series came to Columbus this past weekend. The concert series is a tour, consisting of three days and 12 total acts in each city.
Friday started off with performances from Bartees Strange and Dijon who established a more chill atmosphere for the first day of performers. Clairo continued this with her set consisting mainly of ballads. She brings a presence to the stage that feels confident and grounded, yet light. Boygenius picked things up a little more with their performance. Even the energy could be felt from their slow ballads. By the time they got to some of their more upbeat hits, they were screaming, running around the stage, and delivering monumental vocals and instrumental performances. Theirs was arguably the most electric performance of the weekend.
Saturday saw performances from L’Rain, Jamie XX, and Idles, finishing with LCD Soundsystem. English punk rock band, Idles, came out swinging (literally). The performance was nothing less than chaotic but in all the ways you would want a punk rock band to be. This day featured a giant disco ball in the middle of the stage, dropped down to provide and shimmering backdrop for Jamie XX and LCD Soundsystem. LCD Soundsystem finished out the evening with a stage completely packed full of electronic equipment.
Sunday was the final day of the festival. Storm warnings threatened the festival, so performances were moved to earlier in the day. Foushee performed first— she thanked the crowd for showing up early for her. Toro Y Moi and James Blake followed who also brought a more chill performance. Steve Lacy finished off the evening. He performed a good mix of slow jams and upbeat hits like his song ‘Bad Habit.’ During the set he brought out Fousee to perform the song that they have together and “Steve Lacy” (a lookalike from the crowd) to sing ‘Bad Habit.’
Overall Re:SET brought out some really great acts. The model for a traveling lineup like this is unique, but it was done well. The lineup chosen was solid from start to finish and did have more of the feel of a “concert series” as opposed to a festival. The whole thing was on one stage and there were four acts per day, but this led to less burnout than the size of a usual festival. Overall a great experience and it will be interesting to see if they come up with another lineup in the future. I would definitely recommend catching one of the dates if they do.
