As an unc who's been going to Skrillex shows for years, he's never been big on visuals. I've seen him more in clubs than festivals. Surprise appearance at GTA at the Palladium forever ago. Surprise set at the Do Lab at Coachella. Saw him with Jack Ü, which was a bit more visual heavy, but maybe that was the project with Diplo.
One thing I'll always remember: it's always been about the music. Sonny would literally light up a cigarette and drop bombs with no visuals, just pitch black. That's the Sonny I remember.
And that's the Sonny I got at Head Trip.
I know he tweeted an apology about the set. The sound issues weren't on him. That was the festival's end, and there was a delay before his set too, so it's not really all on him. But the comments I'm seeing about his song selection? That's a different conversation, and I think it's coming from a specific place: the casual fan, or the one stuck in the 2010s era, who was there for the big room sound of Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia.
From my perspective the selection was great. Visuals I didn't mind none, especially having seen him before. He's not visual reliant. I was just locked into his song selection and all the ID's we got, and I loved it.
It was for sure in my top two sets of the week. Obviously. I'm a big Skrillex fan and I'd been dying to see him, it had been almost a decade or more.
I honestly didn't expect a bunch of visuals with him. It would possibly take away from the music. Yes, it was a detour from everyone else on that lineup, but with Skrillex you're just gonna get all killer no filler. He used to tour with the Mothership and big production back in the early 2010s, but this past decade, as he's redefined himself, it's been less production heavy and more music heavy. And we know he's actually DJing and picking songs live, not playing predictable prerecorded sets. If any DJ is gonna play whatever they wanna play, it's him, and he definitely played to this crowd.
True Skrillex fans were happy. If you're a casual who expected it to just sound like what you think Skrillex is, you didn't get that. That's more of a you thing than a him thing.
I think he destroyed it. Visuals were fine. I will never complain about a chance to see the GOAT himself live.