As the crowds settled into the Kaleidoscope Music Festival in Emerald Meadows on Friday in anticipation for the headliner, Bassnectar, rap artist Schoolboy Q and punk rock band The Thermals drew in some decent audiences of their own.
Once word started spreading through the grounds of Kaleidoscope that Schoolboy Q was playing at 7:30 pm, people started hovering toward the main stage. Hair-blowing hip-hop music started blasting from the speakers and Schoolboy Q came out, ran his hand through the fans in the front row, and took a half lap around the stage.
Before he started rapping his first song, Schoolboy Q yelled at the crowd to put up “threes,” and everybody put up three fingers. After his first song, he claimed to the crowd that one of his favorite shows was played at WOW hall and that his favorite football team was the Oregon Ducks.
The crowd blew up in bouncing excitement when Schoolboy Q decided to rap over Kendrick Lamar’s “maad City,” however his choice of rapping over Lamar’s lyrics was not well received by some fans.
“I thought it was chill that he was playing Kendrick’s song, but it was kind of wack that he was rapping over Kendrick’s verses, because Kendrick’s way better,” said festival goer Maxwell Chalmers. “No offense to Schoolboy Q, I love Schoolboy Q, but he shouldn’t rap over Kendrick.”
Some members of the audience who were not familiar with most of Schoolboy Q’s music were disappointed at the crowd’s response to the show.
“I’m kind of sad. I wish everyone was more like hyped up, more energetic, everyone seemed pretty chill. I’m sure it will get better as the night goes on,” said festival attendee Mara Rennie.
After Schoolboy Q’s performance, as the majority of Kaleidoscope goers were getting primed for Bassnectar, a punk rock band from Portland called The Thermals played in a mosquito-filled stage in the back woods of the venue.
The three-person band passed around a beer on stage as they played, and a small following of loyal fans crowded the stage in adoration.
One fan traveled all the way from Tacoma, Wash. to see The Thermals play with tickets that he won on the band’s Facebook page. He thought they played a great set, but was disappointed with the showing of fans in attendance.
Bassist of The Thermals, Kathy Foster, thought that the reason for the small crowd was that Kaleidoscope is not necessarily a rock and roll venue, but she enjoyed the show nonetheless.
“It’s just a weird, freaky hippy festival, which is not something we usually play, so that’s different. I think we stand out here because I don’t think there’s that many rock bands playing. Seems like it’s mostly electronic and hip-hop and dance stuff,” said Foster. “I always like playing smaller shows. It just feels like we’re all together-one party.”
There are sure to be more hidden gems such as The Thermals as Kaleidoscope continues into the weekend.