The Best Gov Ball Performances (That I Saw)
Judged by a man who was at varying levels of sober throughout the weekend
Hello everyone, I’m back from my weekend journey to New York City, where the Governor’s Ball Music Festival was taking place. I return a new man, with a new phone and with far too many hours on the road to his name.
It has been a very busy last week for me, with some of the busy being extremely fun (the festival), and some of it being very not fun (previously mentioned driving/phone issues, coming home to a dog sick with some sort of stomach bug). Because of that, I am making this Thursday post nice and easy, while also allowing me to have one last flex about this.
Here is the full list of who was at Gov Ball this year, with the exception of Migos and Roddy Ricch, who did not show for… varying reasons. (Lil Wayne also did not show despite being named as Migos’ replacement. He was replaced by A$AP Ferg.)
Now, the performers circled in green are everyone that I saw enough of to form an opinion on. That’s the list we are working with. Yeah, I didn’t see two of the headliners because Gov Ball scheduled Flume and Playboi Carti at pretty much the same times as them, not cool.
I’m going to talk about my 10 favorites from Gov Ball, but first, an honorable mention. That belongs to Ferg, who showed up on day-of notice and put on a pretty damn good show, properly hyping up a crowd that expected to see Lil Wayne. Enjoy the bag that you were likely given to be there, you deserved it.
10.) Joji
Only got to see a portion of his set because he started during the back half of Denzel Curry, but Joji was excellent from what I saw. He also had my top song of the entire weekend for me with his performance of “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK,” which culminated in the audience belting the chorus.
9.) Aly & AJ
This was the first set I got to see all weekend, and I made damn sure I got to New York in time for it. For those unaware, Aly & AJ released an album last year that was a masterpiece in creating good vibes. That came through live, and was an excellent start to the trip.
8.) DUCKWRTH
This is the only artist on the list that I didn’t anticipate enjoying beforehand. I didn’t know much of anything about DUCKWRTH’s sound before the show, and I really enjoyed everything I heard. This was a nice one to sit in the back for, beer and food in hand. Lovely experience.
7.) Kid Cudi
The only headliner I actually saw was excellent, and only falls this far down on the list because of my own shortcomings. Listen, it was the first day, I was overly excited and was running on low sleep, so I was not as… able to enjoy the show as I should have been. And still, it was delightful, thanks a ton to Cudi’s upbeat demeanor. He didn’t play “Day ‘n’ Nite” though, which was a shame.
6.) JPEGMAFIA
My second time seeing Peggy was just as good as the first, even if the audience wasn’t quite as electric. JPEGMAFIA has such a specific energy to him, and I love that he doesn’t have a DJ, making it seem like he’s just picking songs at random on the laptop he brings out. The energy was there x1000, and just being able to see “HAZARD DUTY PAY” live made it all worth it.
5.) Japanese Breakfast
I would have paid top dollar to just see Japanese Breakfast play her newest album front to back, so this was always going to end up high on the list. She was incredible, and it was a true joy to listen to her after loving “Jubilee” so damn much for the past year.
4.) J.I.D
I knew I liked J.I.D, but this show made me realize that I love J.I.D. He was, flat out, one of the best performers of the weekend, completely delivering in song after song. He performed every track I wanted, including his verse on “Down Bad,” then ended it with a bang by performing “Stick” and bringing out Kenny Mason. This show rocked, and really set the tone early for Sunday.
3.) Flume
The top three could really be 1a, 1b and 1c. They were the clear-cut three favorites for me.
We will start with Flume, whose music is built to close out a festival day in spectacular fashion. The whole performance felt like one big, incredible song with the way he transitions through them, and there were still clear highlights. Bringing out MAY-A for “Say Nothing” and Tove Lo for “Say It” were terrific, and I loved hearing “Sirens” live as well. This was such a blast of a show, and it was great to see everyone dance like total idiots the entire time.
2.) Denzel Curry
Denzel is my favorite artist of anyone here, and my god he was better than I could have ever imagined. Opening with “Walkin” and going through his gigantic list of bangers across every album was so, so good, and the crowd matched his energy the entire time.
1.) Playboi Carti
Coming in, I knew I had to see Playboi Carti live. There is a certain mystery to him, and I knew his fans would show up and bring the heat as long as Carti brought it back. This was our last show of the weekend, it lasted 40 minutes, and it was 40 of the most relentless, energetic minutes of my entire life.
My friend and I were not toward the front of the audience, we were not near the front. And yet, even near the very back, it didn’t feel like a single soul was ready to just calmly listen to this man, who was on top of some mystical mountain we could barely see.
This show went so hard I lost my phone and never found it. My guess was that it was crumpled to bits by the crowd after falling out of my pocket. This show went so hard that now, looking back, I regret nothing. These 40 minutes came and went in a blur, but what an unbelievably fun blur it was.
Thank you for indulging me on this very selfish post. On Monday, we start Big Ten team previews. I can’t wait.
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