The Great Milwaukee Summer is HERE! Your guide to what you'll be doing, where you'll be drinking, who you'll be hearing and how you'll be getting a sweet tan this summer is on OnMilwaukee. The Great Milwaukee Summer guide is brought to you by Geis Garage Doors and Peoples State Bank!
Saturday night at Summerfest was the hottest night of the 2024 festival run, and likely the most crowded as well.
A big contingent of Saturday night's crowd flooded the Generac Power Stage, with a trio of big hip hop acts taking over for the night. Milwaukee's own SteveDaStoner, fresh off of his recent “free concert” pop up with Ludacris at 3rd Market Hall, kicked things off, followed by rising Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug. Key Glock would headline, with a crowd that extended to the edges of the Generac Power Stage footprint by his scheduled 9:30 p.m. set time.
The bumped up headliner slot may have been an effort to control crowd flow, especially as the massive crowd would file out for the night later on. However, he wouldn't actually hit the stage until 10 p.m., following an opening set from his touring DJ to get things going. Without much fanfare, he walked onstage and rapped through a handful of tracks from his 2023 “Glockoma 2” project. The crowd was fired up, bouncing along to every beat that rattled the Generac sound system.
From a production standpoint, Key Glock brought all of the infrastructure of a major headlining act. His set featured a riser and ramp in front of an LED screen, and your standard issue giant faux ceramic bust of his head positioned at center stage. If you're wondering, yes, lasers did shoot out of the statue’s eyes. It was actually fairly similar to the giant skull, laser-firing sculpture that Travis Scott floated across the stage at his Fiserv Forum stop on his most recent tour. EDM-style steam cannons went off at will, and six backup dancers would pop up sporadically depending on the song, either doing a choreographed routine, or simply twerking on their own while Glock rapped. It felt deserving of a headlining act, if not just a touch over-the-top for the Oasis.
All of the production in the world, however, couldn't circumvent that Glock’s 40-minute performance was brief by Summerfest standards, and eventually lost its steam. While the set included plenty of his own material, including "Ambition For Cash" and "Die Trying," it was largely improvised, with Glock asking his DJ what he wanted to do next several times throughout the night. About 10 minutes into the set, he told the crowd that they were finally warmed up, and it was time to start the show. Occasionally, he'd tell his DJ to “play that old Glock” and he'd drop a track from “Glockoma.” While he could rap whatever was coming next from the turntables, a feat easier said than done with an extensive catalog, it lacked direction, and it seemed like Glock's interest with his own music waned.
Midway through Saturday's show, he would pay tribute to his cousin via marriage, the late Young Dolph. He'd do that by playing full Dolph songs over the sound system, four of them to be exact. That included his biggest hit “Preach” and “100 Shots.” This is where things began to turn. While the crowd was certainly into the songs, the full tracks ran on, and eventually Glock wasn't performing as much as he was just taking in the tracks. When he returned to his own material, including tracks from the “Dum & Dummer” tapes he released with Dolph, he seemed preoccupied during his own performance. He never truly lost the crowd, who were ready to rage at any moment, but he never really got back to the levels of hype that he came out with.
After 40 minutes, and just a bit of confused discussion at the turntables, Glock and his team walked out, with one associate carrying a red duffel bag. His DJ would continue for about three or four songs after the headliner left, with the house lights at the Generac Power Stage on and fans filing out. If you include the DJ sets, fans got about 75 minutes of music on Saturday. However, almost half of that didn't feature Key Glock on stage, and four of the songs while he was there didn't feature his actual performance. It felt underwhelming, given that his crowd was massive, and eager to party as hard as possible if provoked.
When he was onstage and focused, Key Glock showed all of the potential of a stadium-filling rapper with loyal fans. There certainly seems to be a lot invested in his live show. However, when that focus was gone, as it seemed to be on the back half of Saturday's set, it felt like a wasted opportunity. Hopefully it was just an off night.
