Photo courtesy of billboard.com
Skrillex led one this year’s Bonnaroo Superjam with deft hands, creating such a smooth blend of various artists jamming together that all future Superjams will surely be trying to live up to this one. There were three Superjams total at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this year, with Skrillex as the first EDM producer to lead one. True to form, all three were filled with enough star musicians, wonders and surprises that nobody, not even the performers, really knew how the jam sesh would go. The result was a truly live marvel of an experience you definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on. The EDM Superjam kicked off on Saturday June 14th, at 12:00 am and raged hard until 3:30 am.
Those performing hailed from various bands spanning the decades from the ‘60’s on up to present day. Guest and surprise guest artists, including Janelle Monáe, Lauryn Hill, A$AP Ferg, Warpaint, Zedd, The Doors’ Roby Krieger, Mystikal, Damian Marley, Thundercat, Big Gigantic, and Cage the Elephant’s Matt Schultz, managed to collaborate a show that was relevant to a younger audience while still paying tribute to music legends of the past, covering songs of stars such as Michael Jackson, James Brown, Technotronic, David Bowie, Notorious B.I.G., Rocky, Bob Marley, and many other greats.
Throughout the show, Skrillex was mostly content inviting his fellow musicians to take the stage and perform their numerous covers, along with the occasional original song. All the while, Skrillex was jumping between table and guitar (sorry, no spaceship this time), sporadically adding his signature bass drops to the guest artists’ songs. The show reached its high point, making the audience lose it when Cage the Elephant’s Matt Schultz joined The Doors’ Robby Krieger on “Break On Through (To the Other Side)”, with Skrillex channeling Jim Morrison on guitar.