Take JNCO jeans, cheerleader outfits, cat ears, kimonos, Renaissance Faire gear, Hatsune Miku wigs and a Sonic onesie. Throw in some beats that are physically impossible NOT to dance to, and lyrics that are a perfect middle ground of euphoric nostalgia and an existential gut punch, and you've got a PORTER ROBINSON show. And Arizona couldn't seem to decide if they loved it or hated it.
Arriving at the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre to find a whole entrance shut down immediately felt...off. There was clearly a mass of people queuing up and slowly making their way in, but it didn't feel like a concert was about to take place at the venue. If anything, walking into Talking Stick felt like going into a scaled down version of Halloween Horror Nights (which honestly would be a really cool experience. Get on it, Talking Stick!).
After getting over the eerie feelings from the very under capacity venue, it was showtime. Not one to attract a normal crowd, opener ERIC GEORGE LOPEZ better known as ericdoa welcomed the opportunity to lean towards the unconventional. He performed the majority of his set while either lying or sitting down on an air mattress placed center stage, and to complete the vibe of his "room," the setup even included a table, a chair and a tv screen that faced the audience displaying images ranging from “Call of Duty” gameplay to nature videos, to ambient artwork, to...Lois and Chris Griffin.
Part way through, he acknowledged the backing track of sound effects that had been playing throughout his set thus far, thanking his engineer which prompted an absolutely unholy sound effect solo. Nearing the end, he revealed that the imagery was in fact acting as a visual cue for him, and their return to deers in the woods meant it was getting close to his time to wrap up. Before he departed, though, we got a deep fried cover of “A Thousand Miles” by VANESSA CARLTON which even included a cameo from PORTER ROBINSON himself!
Honestly, the real hero of this first set had to be the air mattress. I fully expected it to be at least starting to die midway through the set by how much was happening on it, but it truly stood strong. Unlike another inflatable friend later on in the show.
ROBINSON's stage was already larger than life before anybody even emerged, already sporting a GIANT inflatable cat (INFLATABLE. Cat.) and a cityscape complete with a functional billboard. In addition to being a perch for ROBINSON to occasionally perform from, the billboard was utilized to display lyrics and music video snippets along with an occasional feed from the venue's cameras.
To top off his stage theatrics, ROBINSON split his time with the audience into three distinct "career-spanning" setlists for his three studio albums–“SMILE :D,” “Nurture+,” and “Worlds+”–diving into cuts from each. Fuck “Spitfire,” I guess.
Oddly, despite the performance going incredibly hard from beginning to end, people seemed to be exiting periodically. Some even before ROBINSON's first set was even finished. Those that at least stayed through the “SMILE :D” set were in for a huge treat when ROBINSON asked the audience to please put away their phones and not record the next song before jumping into a mind-blowingly good cover of “Kids" by MGMT. The set closed out with a modified ending to “Russian Roulette” consisting of a text to speech voice comically announcing the end of the “SMILE :D” set as well as poking fun at the cliché of announcing the name of the city the show is in to incite a response from the crowd.
Those who stayed through “Nurture+” admittedly didn't have anything extremely notable happen in comparison. Not to say it wasn't an extremely energized and enjoyable set. ROBINSON and his band just sort of...you know, did what they do, and they did it well. While wrapping up, however, ROBINSON asked the audience to make sure nothing happened to his pet cat Paws.
The fear set in. Our dear Paws was clearly going to be in danger. Arizona is a firearm happy state and Chekhov's Gun was on stage loud and proud.
Paws began being deflated as a crowd of stagehands surrounded the grotesque corpse while it piled upon itself. The crowd began booing to no avail. The crowd then started a "PAWS!" chant, but the body was unceremoniously dragged off stage despite the pleas and jeers.
At this point in the performance, I suspected that ROBINSON may very likely have been assassinated by the same powers that took Paws from us with the performer being replaced with a robotic clone. That's the only explanation I can fathom as to why the man that asked us to protect his beloved cat would NEVER MENTION THE FACT THAT PAWS WAS MISSING FROM THE STAGE UPON HIS "RETURN."
“Not Porter Robinson” finished the last of his three sets with what appeared to be a bunch of touch sensitive lights in a half circle that he began "playing." I'm not sure if the lights and sounds were actually triggered by his hits or if it was all rehearsed and pre-programmed, but it was impressive either way.
To close out the night, after several minutes of the crowd insisting on an encore (and clearly seeing that nothing was being broken down or moved from the stage yet), the billboard lit up. Rin, the animated character from ROBINSON and Madeon's top hit “Shelter,” appeared with a controller in her hands that began controlling the aforementioned light instrument playing the immediately-recognized opening notes to “Shelter.” As the band returned and asked the crowd to go wild, those who remained absolutely obliged.
Leaving the stage one more time, the possible robotic clone of ROBINSON appeared with his iconic wings and cap from the “Cheerleader” music video; another smash hit notably missing from the “SMILE :D” segment of the night. Considering how much of the audience was dressed in cheerleading uniforms, it was no surprise that the crowd managed to surpass their excitement levels they exerted for the first encore.
Unfortunately, even though ROBINSON had at this point been replaced with a robotic clone fully capable of performing all night without stopping, the mission had been accomplished and the target was assassinated (RIP Paws).
We do not know what further commands could be programmed into the robo clone, but you can join the investigation by attending one of his upcoming shows on his world tour. Please attend at your own risk, and remember that we do not know the true scope of its mission. For your assistance a full gallery of photos from this show is available here.
This article is dedicated to Paws
RIP Paws 2024-2024
You will be sorely missed, and deserved better.
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