Under the lights of The Canopy Club on Saturday night, Cheat Codes delivered an entirely average performance for a crowd that had been waiting for hours.
The audience started small but gradually grew throughout the show. Those who arrived at the beginning of the set, however, were in for a long haul.
Cheat Codes is an EDM pop trio from Los Angeles founded in 2014. The group consists of lead vocalist Trevor Dahl, Kevin “KEVI” Ford and Matthew Russell.
The group is known for remixing popular songs. Their breakthrough track, “Sex,” is a remix of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex.”
Fans waiting in the audience expressed excitement ahead of the group’s performance.
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“I really love their song, ‘Never Love You Again,’” said Nathan Baker, Champaign resident. “It blends a country vocal with EDM production really well, and I really like it.”
The group had three DJs opening for them — Vorborg, PIN4P and 404.
“(I’m) not really sure who the openers are,” said Tyler Dehart, Bloomington resident and another fan of Cheat Codes. “(I like their) remakes of classic songs.”
The show began around 9 p.m. with Vorborg taking the stage in a storm of noise and lights to energize the crowd with remixes of popular songs.
After Vorborg finished his set, which took up the show’s first hour, the crowd was sufficiently warmed up and ready for the main act.
This is when PIN4P took the stage and delivered a performance that hardly distinguished him from Vorborg. If anything, he had less energy. Vorborg jumped around the stage, but PIN4P looked barely engaged with the audience.
After another hour, the audience cheered for Cheat Codes to come out. This is when 404 leaped onto the stage and announced it would be yet another hour before the group would arrive, expressing that he would have to suffice until then.
He went on to play yet another unoriginal and uninspired set of remixes that did nothing to make the wait any more tolerable.
While there were still members of the audience who danced along, energized by the music, more than a few people exited the club around this time.
At midnight, Cheat Codes finally arrived onstage to the cheers of the crowd and began to play their set, but by then it was too little, too late.
The group hardly interacted with the audience until half an hour into the show and barely spoke to them afterward.
“Thank you all so much for being here tonight,” Dahl yelled. “We are family tonight. Have a good time.”
The group played remixes of popular songs like Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” and Hozier’s “Too Sweet.” Some members of the crowd were excited, but most people hardly danced along.
Cheat Codes hardly did anything to distinguish themselves from the openers. They performed with only slightly more energy and offered no increase in showmanship or quality from the previous three DJs.
The group tried to have fun with the audience by throwing out glow sticks and blowing bubbles, but it didn’t stop the crowd from dwindling as the final set continued.
The trio finished with a remix of their song “No Promises,” featuring Demi Lovato, after an hour and a half on stage before bidding the audience goodnight.
“Thank you so much for being here, we appreciate you guys,” Travis said to a sparse crowd, closing off a disappointing night for fans and visitors alike.
