8 acts to catch at Rock in Rio this weekend — VIDEO
May 15, 2015 - 4:16 pm
Hello Rock in Rio Week 2, goodbye mosh pits.
After a hard-hitting opening weekend, the festival returns with a more pop-centric lineup this go-round.
Here are some of the acts you won’t be crowd-surfing to over the next two days:
- Taylor Swift. She was a little bit country, but Taylor Swift has left Nashville, Tenn., behind for New York, recruiting Swedish pop-kingmaker Max Martin to make her latest tunes sparkle and shine like the Big Apple skyline come sundown. It wasn’t a big departure, really — a stray fiddle in the background of this song or that does not a country artist make. Still, Swift’s not-so-swift move from precocious Music City darling to music industry prime mover has been something to behold, even if it has left her former country peers choking on her gold dust. Shake it off, Nashville, shake it off.
- Bruno Mars. It almost feels weird to note that Bruno Mars will soon be back in Vegas, when in many ways it feels like he never left. After his extended residency at the Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan, which ran on and off through 2013, Mars sightings have become as much of a local fixture as Vince Neil’s near-weekly opening of some new business venture (coming soon to Mesquite, Neil’s Waffle and Tattoo Emporium!). It makes sense for the R&B revisionist to have found such a steadfast audience here, though: He’s an old-school showman in a city built on the shoulders of such gents.
- Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran’s tunes can be so sweet, starry-eyed and earnestly romantic, sometimes you wonder if he dots his ‘i’s’ with little hearts. Got to give the guy credit, though: Few dudes could stand onstage alone, keeping the beat on an acoustic guitar, while rocking sold-out basketball arenas right up to the rafters with hip-hop-influenced pop that his female-heavy fan base treats as a blown kiss aimed in its direction.
- John Legend. Leave it to John Legend to bring some suave, cerebral cool to Rock in Rio, where he’ll register like ice cubes splashing into a warm drink. Even during his impassioned material, Legend performs with preternatural ease and uncommon grace, a man in true command of his voice and his emotions who’s skilled at making you lose your grip on your own.
- Charli XCX. Conjuring up the sass like a sauna does sweat, this 22-year-old British spark plug had a hand in two of the biggest, brassiest, you-go-girl hits in recent years: Icona Pop’s “I Love It” (which she sang on and co-wrote) and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (on which she delivered its earworm chorus). On her second solo record, “Sucker,” she keeps the ’tude coming with playfully tart electropop that glitters like the nail polish on her fully extended middle finger.
- Empire of the Sun. Yeah, Cirque du Soleil made an appearance at Rock in Rio, but for sheer flamboyance and bright, pupil-contracting visual overload, that troupe is in danger of being outshined by this Sun. These Australian electroglam peacocks connect the dots between Queen and Daft Punk and then color in those dots with bright blue eyeliner.
- Joss Stone. She sings barefoot, but Joss Stone is no nouveau flower child; she’s a soul throwback with a voice as powerful as the emotions she sings of. At 28, she’s already six albums into her career with her seventh due in July. Her new one’s called “Water for Your Soul,” aimed to cool the throats of those thirsting for another big gulp of blue-eyed soul.
- Jessie J. A quick rundown of the guests on the star-studded mulligan stew that is Jessie J’s latest album, “Sweet Talker”: Ariana Grande, De La Soul, 2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj and violinist Lindsey Stirling. That’s a disparate bunch, and “Sweet Talker” reflects as much. On it, Jessie J drapes herself in one different musical style after the next even though few seem to fit her as snugly as the hot pants she sports on the album sleeve.
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Rock in Rio
Friday-Saturday
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