A&O Productions and Dance Marathon raised more than 900 dollars at their spring benefit show on the Lakefill featuring Best Coast and Baths, according to A&O and Dance Marathon representatives. Proceeds from the donation-optional event, which attracted over 450 attendees, will go to the as-yet-unannounced Dance Marathon 2012 beneficiary.
“We didn’t have any expectations because it’s the first time we have had an event like this,” said Maura Brannigan, a public relations co-chair for Dance Marathon. “We mostly just focused on the community that bringing A&O and DM together would create. It’s two of the largest organizations on campus, so we were excited to get that started.”
The event, which made its Lakefill debut as the Norris East Lawn undergoes post-skating rink construction, kicked off with Baths (also known as Will Wiesenfeld), whose brand of glitchy, fragmented electro found its groove as it evolved into more four-to-the-floor beats toward the end of his opening set.
Bundled-up headliner Best Coast’s drew most of its material from its almost year-old debut, Crazy For You, whose combination of surf rock, pop punk and girl group influences earned the album a spot on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2010 list. But the band’s setlist also rightfully leaned on a handful of the group’s earlier singles and EPs tracks, several of which were recently featured on Best Coast’s Daytrotter session, including set opener “Wish He Was You.”
Night time at the Lakefill is a far cry from frontwoman Bethany Cosentino’s Los Angeles home (“It’s really hard to make guitar chords when you can’t feel your hands,” she quipped at one point), but Best Coast’s music showed it holds up quite well when stripped of its usual sunshine context. “Sun Was High (So Was I)” and setlist rarity “Over the Ocean” — both not on the band’s debut — were appropriately subdued in the setting.
After the relative non-events that were breakthrough single “Boyfriend” and a new song, whose oohs and repetitive lyrics sounded right at home in the Best Coast catalog, the band found momentum with a three-part finale: “When I’m With You,” non-album track “Something in the Way” and an extended version of “Each and Everyday” brought the crowd’s energy to its peak. Best Coast’s upbeat songs of summer may not have been able to transport Northwestern students to warmer and happier places, but even with dreary Chicago spring weather it seemed like there could be no better place for a free Best Coast show than on the Lakefill with a crowd of college kids eyeing the end of the school year (and Dillo Day) – even if Cosentino seemed displeased to break out the layers in May. Beach party it was not, but campfire mosh pit it could easily have been.
“It was a really open environment and people could come and go,” said Elsa Stahura, a co-director of promotions and public relations for A&O. “We called it one of the chillest shows between the act and the venue. People were chilling out on their blankets. It was a wonderful vibe.”
Full disclosure: Maura Brannigan has contributed to North by Northwestern in the past.