Headliner Illenium brings winning pop-EDM mix to Summerfest's amphitheater

In the early days of the 21st century, an electronic music subgenre known as dubstep began to take root. Within a decade it had virtually dwarfed all other types of EDM in popularity. It became stale, predictable, unrecognizable from its roots.

All it needed was a bit of pop music and a lot of advancements in video technology.

Thursday night at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, Illenium (Nick Miller) combined the sensibilities of an old-school rave with modern pop hooks galore into a multisensory feast, and he didn’t skimp on the bass drops.

Illenium isn’t strictly dubstep; he merely borrows those dynamics for his live presentation. As far as anyone could tell from his studio albums and myriad remixes, he’s just an astute producer with an ear for a beat and a hook.

As a performer … that assessment holds up, although he crossed the pop-EDM line constantly at Summerfest. He was at the command of a formidable multimedia force that an mp3 couldn’t hint at. Miller had his rig spread across the thinnest possible table, allowing an immersive visual experience to engulf him.

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He wasn’t the only human onstage, either. Early on, guitarist Taylor Dearman got treated to some incredible real-time interactive digital animation on the peripheral video screens, and throughout the night violinist Bonnie Brooksbank took the spotlight, although her instrument didn’t cut through the mix as clearly as the guitar, unfortunately.

The bass-drop Interlude of “Feel Something” was an early climax, the synth and laser attack approximating a dystopian warzone. Between the frenzied multicolored beams and frequent flame gusts, it was a far cry from the peace-and-love rave parties of the ‘90s.

Not that there weren’t peaceful moments. “All That Really Matters” brought the intensity down for a bit, although the visuals continued on a thoroughly agitated journey. Any lull in intensity merely primed the crowd for another build.

The massive video screens and pyrotechnics may have been the visual stars, but even when reduced to its bare-bones white light scheme, the design was thoughtful and evocative. The bass pulsing through to the bone and the heat from the frequent bursts of flame completed an absolute sensory overload. (The smells were…about what you’d expect at an outdoor summer concert anywhere.)

“Not Even Love” highlighted a buoyant stretch of ‘90s Euro-disco-inspired fantasia; a remix of “Life in a Northern Town” would have fit right in as the retro bliss party raged.

With the lawn empty and the bleachers about three-quarters full, the crowd was small yet mighty, and a palpable swell of emotion went through it at Illenium’s arguable breakthrough “Hold On,” but that was nothing compared to the deafening singalong during “Good Things Fall Apart.” It felt like a mid-‘90s Dave Matthews Band concert. Sure, all the vocals the entire night were prerecorded, but not the people belting it out from the crowd.

The early goings of the evening barely hinted at the excitement to come, but kudos to opening act Midnight Kids (Kyle Gerard) for getting the party started early, even though his performance amounted to little beyond letting the pop tunes play. He did spin a new remix of “My Own Advice” by Alana Springsteen, who’ll be playing this same stage on Saturday.

With barely a pause in between, Disco Lines (Thadeus Labuszewski) emerged and carried on in similarly unremarkable fashion, but less pop, more techno. Thus far stage presence had amounted to lip syncing and taking swigs of White Claw — until a heavily remixed "Techno & Tequila," when the onscreen visuals combined with the stuttering bass blasts in a more deliberate mind-altering effort as darkness started creeping over the grounds.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Illenium brings winning pop-EDM mix to Summerfest's amphitheater