What We Can Learn from “Square Garden,” the 100 Gecs Headlined Minecraft Music Festival
The perfect internet experience for the perfect internet band: what “Square Garden” meant to listeners and what online concerts mean for the future.
Written By Glenn Rodgers
Photo courtesy of Exclaim!
It takes one glance at Twitter to realize how ready people are to get outside and attend concerts again, amongst other things. However, with the unknown future of the coronavirus and its long-term impact on public spaces, artists have taken it upon themselves to provide music fans at-home concerts. And that’s how I, and many others, ended up seeing 100 gecs and Charli XCX live in concert for free on the video game version of Legos, Minecraft.
Minecraft concerts existed before quarantine. Renditions of Coachella and spoofs on the Fyre Festival have found their way onto Minecraft servers for a few years now, but their growing popularity is new. As a result of the quasi-lockdown many of us find ourselves under, they’ve become more prevalent. Some of these standout shows include the American Football headlined “Nether Meant,” 100 Gecs and Charli XCX’s “Square Garden,” and the recently postponed “Block By Block West” featuring Pussy Riot and Idles. These events tend to be free, but normally support a charity with donation-based fundraising, with Square Garden supporting the nonprofit Feeding America. But don’t let the name fool you — virtual concerts are nothing like the real thing.
Photo courtesy of Genius
Square Garden took place inside of a tree, instead of its namesake stadium, but it also didn’t have any lines or ticket prices. Though most of the night was spent in sensory overload (not entirely different from an in-person concert), it’s unlikely that any listeners will ever be as close to the barricade of a Charli XCX concert again. The concert was an unparalleled experience, giving people all around the world access to the same show. Though Charli’s vocals weren’t really live, besides the occasion yell to the crowd, she did take song requests, cutting a song halfway through due to the chat being spammed with requests to play “Taxi,” her famously leaked but still unreleased track.
Unlike the strictness that tends to accompany live sets, “Square Garden” felt a bit less serious, and the musicians seemed to lean into the playfulness of the experience. The chat eventually got repetitive and overwhelming, but it allowed direct communication with the artists without interrupting other peoples’ experience. Every band got about the same set times and the same stage setups, and every attendee got roughly the same view. Of course you need wifi to attend, but that’s less of a barrier to access than live concerts.
Square Garden wasn’t 100 gecs’ first Minecraft festival. The band was actually first conceived around a set for Minecraft festival Coalchella, and that’s why it was so satisfying to see them perform. 100 gecs is the perfect internet band, and their music translates well to the online gaming platform. During the first half of their set, the musical duo hopped around the stage with diamond swords to unreleased music, with the crowd favorite being a ukulele track about buying Hot Topic T-shirts. Simply by the growth in number of viewers at the beginning of 100 gecs’ set, it was clear that this was their scene. Even witnessing the chat go crazy over new music leaves a rush of excitement, a different kind of intimacy than you might find at a normal concert.
Among Minecraft music festivals, the past few weeks have been huge for online concerts, with the announcement of Travis Scott’s and Fortnite’s “Astronomical” collaboration and the explosion of Instagram Live sets. These have proven to be fruitful combinations, with Scott seeing a 26% streaming raise directly after the announcement. To say whether or not online concerts will continue after real venues open up is up for debate. The Travis Scott x Fortnite collaboration succeeded mostly due to their prior name recognition and scale, but it’s likely that musicians will continue the trend of live streaming due to these newly-formed habits. In terms of Minecraft music festivals, our eight-bit character will never replace us, but for most who attended Square Garden, this won’t be their last virtual festival.