A lone American flag waving in a cavalcade of fist-pumping students served as a reminder that Sunday’s Juice Jam was not only a day for remembrance, but a celebration as well.

The concert kicked off with a DJ set from Chiddy Bang producer Xaphoon Jones, who acted as an impromptu emcee for the day. Cranking the bass, Jones stepped behind his laptop to play some remixes while his partner, Chidera ‘Chiddy’ Anamege, prepared backstage.

‘Now that we’re done raging,’ Jones said to the crowd before taking a seat behind the drum kit for the duo’s opener, ‘let’s rage even harder.’

During an improvised freestyle session, students in the crowd challenged the group to include everything from Aaron Carter to jean shorts in a short rap. Anamege roused the energized crowd of students, many decked out in patriotic clothing, into raucous cheers of ‘USA’ after including a rhyme that mourned the loss of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The duo ended their set with two fan favorite singles, ‘Truth’ and ‘Opposite of Adults,’ and left a good impression with freshman Joelynn Frascatore, an undeclared student in the College of Arts and Sciences.

‘My mind was blown,’ Frascatore said. ‘It’s amazing to just be in the front row for Chiddy Bang, but I caught one of the drumsticks Xaphoon threw during the encore.’

Following Chiddy Bang’s set, representatives from University Union and Better Together, a newly created service organization, announced that more than $30,000 had been raised from ticket sales to combat hunger in the Horn of Africa.

The thumping bass grooves and chatter of excited students came to a halt for a brief moment of silence to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11. After respects were paid, the stage equipment was shifted in anticipation of the first of two headliners.

With the drum set shunted to the back of the stage, Swedish DJ Avicii took the stage with just his laptop, turntable equipment and a stack of white towels. Met with the loudest reception of the day, he quickly began his 2.5 hour set, equipped with a choreographed lights show.

‘Avicii’s set was really long,’ said Adam Larsen, an undeclared sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. ‘But it was really good all the way through. I’m a big Avicii fan, so I enjoyed the whole thing.’

The set balanced original songs with recognizable remixes, including Coldplay’s ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ and the Killers’ ‘Mr. Brightside.’ Avicii finished his entire playlist in one continuous standing, taking no breaks between songs. By the time Avicii walked off the stage to the cheers of fans, everyone in the pit was soaked in sweat from nonstop fist pumping and crowd surfing.

‘I was so tired after Avicii finished, but it was so worth it,’ Larsen said. ‘I had wanted to see him perform live for the longest time, and it was awesome getting to experience his performance today.’

Splitting the headliner bill was Atlanta rapper B.o.B, whose set required a full band setup. To keep the audience from growing restless during the necessary stage preparations, Jones carried his laptop onto the stage to play some more remixes.

During an elongated sound check, chants for B.o.B to come on stage slowly subsided as a synthesized fanfare flooded from the speakers. Running onto the stage, the rapper finally joined his backing band and a pair of camouflage-clad dancers and launched into his opening track, ‘I See Ya.’

Despite a mass exodus of audience members after Avicii’s set, the rapper’s set was lively as he interacted with the crowd by encouraging everyone to sing along to Bruno Mars’ chorus on ‘Nothing on You’ and stage-diving twice during ‘Beast Mode.’ The rest of his setlist also included fan favorites ‘Magic,’ ‘Don’t Let Me Fall’ and ‘Airplanes.’

Before leaving the stage, B.o.B gave a short tribute to the heroes of 9/11 and, in an interview after the show, reminisced about being in the seventh grade during the attack and not knowing what was happening.

With the stage lights darkened and the band exiting stage right, the crowd began to clamor for an encore, which B.o.B gladly obliged, debuting a new song titled ‘Strange Clouds’ from a yet to be named upcoming album.

‘Syracuse,’ he said, ‘let’s get this new song trending on Twitter. I know you’re the best party school, so let’s make some noise about it.’

B.o.B closed his set with a cover of indie-pop band MGMT’s ‘Kids,’ picking up his electric guitar to play the last song of the night. Slowly, as the instruments were shuffled off the stage, Skytop Field cleared out.

Students left for the parking lots in a buzz of satisfied excitement, leaving the venue with one last moment of silence to respectfully remember the reason for the benefit concert.

ervanrhe@syr.edu

Published on September 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman