Looking out on a sea of neon lights, Binghamton University students came prepared for the electronic beats of Pretty Lights and Big Gigantic last night.
The original lineup for the Homecoming weekend concert included rapper Wale, but he cancelled early yesterday citing an illness that didn’t allow him to travel. In response to the surprise cancellation, Big Gigantic and Pretty Lights extended their set lists.
According to Catherine Cornell, Student Association vice president for programming, Big Gigantic played for one hour instead of 45 minutes and Pretty Lights played for two hours instead of 90 minutes.
“Both acts really picked up the slack,” Cornell said. “Big Gigantic even [improvised] some of their set, which is definitely impressive.”
Even with the necessary venue change from the Events Center to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena because of flood evacuees that were housed on campus until Wednesday, the concert ran extremely smoothly, with Big Gigantic starting at 7:30 p.m. on the dot.
Taking the stage in cargo shorts, T-shirts and sunglasses, the electronic duo played a thrilling set. Shifting from typical house beats, to dubstep, to harder drum and bass, Dominic Lalli rocked it on the saxophone while Jeremy Salkin hit the drums hard.
After a brief intermission, electronic DJ Derek Smith, commonly known as Pretty Lights, hit the stage at 9:18 p.m. He opened the show with his new hit “I Know the Truth.”
“Yo New York, ya’ll in the mother fucking spot,” Smith screamed. “Let’s get this started right, get your hands in the sky.”
Playing crowd favorites, Pretty Lights went through an array of heart-pounding dubstep, to a mix of electronic beats fused with old school rock, ’70s disco and top 40’s hits like “Rhianna.”
About 3,700 tickets were sold prior to last night’s show but, according to Cornell, approximately 4,000 people were in the arena.
Dani Ben-Moshe and Lindsay Blackman, both undeclared freshman, said the show lived up to their expectations.
“The lights were exhilarating,” Ben-Moshe and Blackman said. “We can’t wait for the next BU concert.”
Cornell said the Student Association Programming Board is still looking into bringing another act to campus this fall. She said their sights are set on another concert.
“We’d like to bring a rock act, but really all depends on the basketball team,” she said. “If they win then we can’t use the Events Center later in the semester.”
Even with the last-minute cancellation of Wale and the change in venue, a vast majority of students felt the concert was definitely worth it. Cornell agreed that the show exceeded any thoughts she might have had.
“After being faced with so much adversity everyone on staff just did such a great job,” she said. “Even the new freshman helping out had almost no training and were really awesome.”