Fire & Brimstone – ILLENIUM, SVDDEN DEATH, and Others Pack the House at Merriweather Post Pavilion

Live band brings a new element to ILLENIUM’s self-titled album

ILLENIUM and friends made their way to Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday for one of the last US tour stops on the ILLENIUM Live tour, which kicked off in late May of this year.  Along with an impressive production, the EDM artist brought along a live band to perform his latest album, made up of his close collaborators and supporting acts.

Nick Miller (ILLENIUM’s given name) put his newest, self-titled album on display this tour.  He describes it as a ‘prequel to the trilogy’, a reference to his first three albums ‘Ashes’, ‘Awake’ and ‘Ascend’.  This prequel maintains the Phoenix symbolism around his work and represents a time before his breakout success, when he struggled with addiction.  A futuristic, 30-minute animated video titled “Skyfall” accompanies the album, and references elements of his own life, possibly including the video’s protagonist who is addicted to ‘substance’ and eventually comes clean.  He credits music with helping him stay strong in his recovery, having recently celebrated being 11 years sober.

The night opened with singer-songwriter Annika Wells, a long-time collaborator of ILLENIUM, and the self-proclaimed “chick who sings Crawl Outta Love”.  You’ll recognize her vocals on some of his other songs, (like “Nightlight” and “Sad Songs”).  Along with Bonnie Brooksbank on Keys, she played some of her own pop records “Love Sucks” and her recent single “Crying Over You”.  The support continued with DJs set by producers William Black and SVDDEN DEATH, both heavier dubstep artists who got the crowd ready for Illenium as the sun went down.

ILLENIUM’s production was one of the wildest I’ve seen in recent years, including impressive lighting, lasers, fireworks, and confetti cannon shots, all starting within the first 10 minutes of the show. And as you would expect with ILLENIUM’s Phoenix persona, there was fire; huge bursts peppered throughout the show, as well as a ring of fire that surrounded the band at times.  Screens behind the stage played clips of the animated “Starfall” movie, which accompanied the performance happening onstage.

While seeing large EDM acts touring or at festivals may have all these production elements, this show’s embrace of live instruments put it into a different category than a static DJ set. ILLENIUM entered the stage with a guitar around his neck, performing the newly released “Shivering” before going into a mash-up of others off of the new album.  A full band accompanied ILLENIUM, composed of album collaborators including Taylor Dearman (guitar), and Said the Sky/Trevor Christensen (Keys).  Annika Wells reentered the stage for a cover of Halsey’s “Without Me”, “Crawl Outta Love” and others, while Bonnie Brooksbank brought out the electric violin during a performance of “Worst Day”.  Overall, the inclusion of the live element led to an elevated performance and exposed the performing artists’ multi-faceted musical talents.

The end of the US leg of the tour is near, closing out on August 4th in Toronto at Veld Music Festival, before heading out to Europe and Australia in the fall.  You can also catch ILLENIUM at one of his Vegas residencies later in August/September and can find the self-titled ILLENIUM on any major streaming platform.

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see. 

Links: 

Illenium – https://www.illenium.com/

SVDDEN DEATH – https://svddendeath.com/

William Black – https://williamblack.com/

Annika Wells – http://www.annikawells.com/