The Canopy Club ends Summer Camp Music Festival with Summer Camp Cool Down

“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” Ben Kohler, also known as DJ and rapper “Banko” for big room hip hop duo Kyral x Banko, said to his audience. “Let’s go!”

The Canopy Club hosted the Summer Camp Music Festival Cool Down concert Saturday night as a way to officially end the Summer Camp Music Festival which took place in Chillicothe, Illinois, from Thursday, May 22, to Sunday, May 25. The Cool Down event started at 10 p.m. and featured musical artists Adamosity, Krucial and Kyral x Banko.

Kohler and Collin Burdick, also known as “Kyral” and DJ for Kyral x Banko, are both University graduates. They said they were happy to be back performing on campus.

“It’s always good to be back at Canopy Club,” Kohler said before the show. “The owners and management said, ‘We feel like we’ve nurtured you guys,’ which basically is true, since our biggest shows started at Canopy.”

Burdick agreed that being back at The Canopy Club felt like home.

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“It’s like our home turf,” Burdick said. “It’s more of a family vibe over there.”

Kohler and Burdick performed at the Summer Camp Music Festival this year and they described the opportunity as life changing.

“It was the craziest thing ever,” Kohler said. “We played after UZ, who is one of my biggest inspirations as far as hip hop and trap music goes. But it was wild.”

Kohler mentioned that there were about 1,000 to 1,500 people at the event, making it their biggest show yet.

“We definitely didn’t expect it to be that packed,” Burdick said. “A big show here at Canopy is like 500 people, so this was double or triple the amount of people.”

Although the duo is back in Champaign, before the show, they said the atmosphere of the Cool Down show would be very different from the Summer Camp Music Festival — more like a bar show.

“Not like a festival,” Burdick said. “It will be a lot of our friends there, and a lot less pressure too.” Burdick said.

The concert took place in the front room of The Canopy Club on the small stage with Adamosity starting the show off at 10 p.m. The audience was small, with only a small amount of people sitting at the bar and tables. Although small, the audience bobbed their heads to the electronic music filled with drops. Adamosity also incorporated rap music into his beats, such as Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.”

The red lights shining from the back of the stage glared down on the DJ as he continued to play his set until he ended at 11:10.

“Enjoy,” Adamosity said to the audience as he finished his show. Looking to the next performing artist, Krucial, he said, “It’s all you, bud.”

Krucial, continuing the flow of electronic music mixed with rap, moved to the beat of his own music through his set.

“He’s a great DJ,” Kohler said. “He never misses a beat.”

The artist switched between slower R&B and hip hop songs to more upbeat songs, such as Justin Timberlake’s “Senorita.”

The audience remained small as Krucial performed.

“I don’t care how many people are here,” Kohler said. “If there are only four people, I want to make sure that those four people are having a good time. That’s all that matters.”

As Krucial’s set started to come to an end, Kyral x Banko started setting up to perform on the stage. Kohler and Burdick said their set would be different from the other two artists who played at the Cool Down show.

“This kid raps,” Burdick said looking at Kohler. “That’s the biggest difference. We try to keep tunes fresh and play stuff people haven’t heard.”

“We try to step out of the box,” Kohler said. “In EDM there’s so much cliche, and we always just try to bring a breath of fresh air.”

Kyral x Banko’s set began at 12:30 a.m. and had a deep, loud bass to their music. Kohler and Burdick danced and jumped to the beat of their set and interacted with the audience.

“Put your hands up,” Kohler said, pumping up the audience. “I want to see everyone’s hands up. Let’s go!”

More people started to fill the front room, and attendees filled the front of the stage. People began to dance and jump to Kyral x Banko’s music. Kohler started giving shout outs to his friends in the audience.

After a few minutes of straight music, Kohler prepared the audience for what was coming next.

“I’m Banko, and I like rapping,” Kohler said.

Kohler began to rap and freestyle, to which the audience reacted by bobbing their heads and dancing.

As the Cool Down show came to an end, the audience slowly started to filter out of The Canopy Club.

“They throw a nasty set,” one audience member said to his friend on their way out of the club. “That was a good time.”

Christine can be reached at [email protected].