Skrillex Brings the Heat During Wild Head Trip Festival Set

Skrillex’s Head Trip set took a while to become the show it could be. The sound issues were frustrating for some, the visual presentation was unusually sparse beside the weekend’s other major performances, and the opening stretch sometimes struggled to deliver the impact that his music demands. By the end, though, he had found the groove and he was the Skrillex we all know and love.

The circumstances were awkward before he started. Saturday’s lightning evacuation had moved Calvin Harris onto Sunday’s bill, and the revised timetable reduced Skrillex’s scheduled slot from 90 minutes to 75. That put a great deal of expectation into a tighter window. Problems in the early part of the performance made the compression more noticeable: with this much music still to come, there was little room for a set to spend time finding its footing.

A few days after the set, Skrillex acknowledged the experience publicly on Twitter. “My deepest apologies for my set and sound at head trip,” he wrote, later adding, “No excuses.” The trouble was uneven across the field: some areas got a muddy, distorted mix, while others sounded much better. That made the performance a wildly different experience depending on where you stood. 

The lack of video visuals made the performance feel even more exposed. There were lights and pyrotechnics, but almost none of the screen-led spectacle that the enormous stage made possible. That spareness can work beautifully for a DJ whose music contains as much detail and surprise as Skrillex’s. When the sound is struggling, however, there is less for the show to lean on. Here, the presentation placed an unusually heavy burden on the music to carry the entire experience.

But it eventually did. “Bangarang” and the Jack Ü material offered contact with the early hits, while the wider selection reflected the restless producer behind the more recent records. He ended in spectacular fashion and all was forgiven. You could even make the argument that the last 20 minutes were the highlight of the weekend. It was that good and had everyone’s ears ringing ahead of the pop-virtuoso Calvin Harris up next.