Many artists experience stage fright, but Dominic Fike confessed he was particularly nervous ahead of his Lollapalooza appearance, having not in about three years. By listening to his songs alone, festivalgoers would be none the wiser to Fike’s fretting.
Fike opened strongly with “Westcoast Collective,” a song off his 2018 album “Don’t Forget About Me, Demos.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve performed any music,” Fike said. He confessed to doing a quick jaunt in Canada the day prior, and after reviewing footage from the concert, made it a goal to slow down his following performance.
“I’m going to take a deep breath,” Fike said. “I know it’s not common practice at these festivals, I know that everyone here is drugged up, had a little bit of alcohol, you’re waiting on Sabrina Carpenter … but yeah, I want you guys to be here with me and I want to sit and connect this time, I just want to sit in it, whatever the feeling is.”
In moments like these, his performance felt very unpolished and rambly, his monologues often continuing on without any clear direction.
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After talking about slowing it down, Fike transitioned to strumming an acoustic guitar and started to play “Phone Numbers.” However, almost every hit he played was punctuated by a speech, making his performance feel like a half-concert, half-podcast.
“This next one I really like, it’s not one of mine, but it’s never been more relevant,” Fike said. “It’s never been more appropriate to play such a song. This is a song…” Fike cut off and switched to talking about a girl he formerly lived with who would listen to Coldplay often.
He then launched into a rendition of “Yellow” by Coldplay. Unfortunately for Fike, the audience was the loudest while singing this song, most likely due to its widespread popularity.
Fike’s musical talent and vocal ability were overshadowed by his frequent interruptions to the set, and it never really felt like he got into a groove. To further add chaos to his performance, Fike chose quite an interesting way to wrap the set.
He disappeared off stage while the screens displayed, “Quiet please, baby on stage.” Festivalgoers murmured their confusion, which only intensified as the seconds dragged by without any movement.
All of a sudden, the screens turn back on to show that there is in fact, a baby on stage. Along with the baby, there was also a toy microphone, piano, drum set and guitar. Fike used the toy piano and microphone to perform a song that was indistinguishable due to the quality of the microphone.
At the songs conclusion, Fike took the child — which many audience members presumed to be his son — and walked off the stage. Fike did not return. The screens flashed with “No, Thank You,” and the crowd looked at each other in confusion, wondering if that was really how he was ending his performance.
What Fike lacked in engagement, he made up for in consistency, since his entire performance lacked a clear direction or focus on his music.
