Saturday, Sept. 28, concluded with a traditional Highlander experience featuring the Associated Student Program Board’s (ASPB) annual Block Party. In anticipation of the fall concert, the initial lineup elicited mixed reactions from the student body, with some taking kindly to the announcement while others pushed back over social media. Bringing together a variety of performers, the prelude set before the opening artist was hosted by DJ LIWAG, who also played during the intermission of sets. The featured artists commenced with the indie-pop-influenced band Cherry Blonde, contemporary R&B singer RINI, well-known EDM artist Kai Wachi, and the headliner Blxst, whose suave blend of Hip-hop and R&B closed out the night.
The marketing for this year’s Block Party relied heavily on inspiration from the online game Grand Theft Auto, which was well-received. The event’s promotional artwork embraced the hyper-realistic caricature style with warm, vibrant colors in uneven box frames. Aside from the theme being unmistakably visible in ASPB’s social media, the only real indicators that stood out at the event were illuminated neon palm trees, a few speed limit signs, a Hollywood sign and the Santa Monica Pier backdrop, iconic landmarks in the game.
Line
Eager to explore the grounds that this year’s Block Party had to offer, experienced and new concert-goers of ASPB events were in line hours before the expected start time set at 4:00 p.m. Interviewing the first student in line established that students began arriving as early as 1:00 p.m. Despite a rough wait for those benefiting from early admission once the gates were open, this wasn’t the case for everyone. Correlated with the arrival time, those getting there around 2:45 p.m. held a placement at the halfway point in line, while those who arrived closer to the start time were at the end. Following the established line formation from past events, the line started at the lawn space between the Student Success Center and Sproul Hall; it then curved towards the courtyard of the Humanities and Social Sciences building, ending in front of Hinderaker Hall.
Slightly off schedule, the check-in and brief security screening process started around 4:07 p.m. Following the clear instruction of ASPB personnel to enter in order, attendees entered calmly. Since gate crews were efficient with bag checks and getting people past the metal detectors, students rapidly accessed the venue.
Merchandise
Teased days ahead of the event, the released merchandise proved to be a starting point for those entering the concert grounds. The promo tent located at the HUB lawn was crowded with people aspiring to get a hold of exclusive t-shirts at a limited capacity count of 500. Promptly dispersed after over an hour, many flaunted their success by wearing the t-shirts over what they had on.
A last-revealed surprise on ASPB’s instagram story that a few students got to acquire at the same tent, were the customized trading cards illustrating the official Block Party announcement poster with one of the lineup artists covering the other side. This small souvenir of memorabilia was especially welcomed by first-year students marking their first concert memory and by fourth-year students making the most of sacred time.
Amenities and Activities
ASPB offered a plethora of well-liked activities incorporated in past events, consisting of access to a photo booth, caricature artists and airbrushed tattoos. Well-received, the lines to these services were in constant rotation for the duration of the event. The excitement for these activities didn’t diminish with hourly check-ins on the line progression demonstrating it to remain the same. With an influx of students interested in the variety of stations, ASPB personnel were bound to cut off the lines by assigning someone as the last person nearing the event’s closing time.
Some unique local small business stands were located on the right side. One vendor was a shop named Crochet Classicz, who had a beautiful array of hand-crafted crochet goods, garnering a lot of attention. The setup of tables created a circular walkway exhibiting distinctive crochet hats, headbands, scarves, knitted gloves, earrings, keychains and clothes. One buyer of a crochet sweater expressed that she appreciated being able to shop for items that align with her interest in learning how to crochet. Successful with crochet aficionados, the second vendor’s shop, Rooted in Love, was there for the plant lovers.
Food Trucks
Keeping Highlanders well-fed, the “food oasis” ranked first in popularity, where lines remained unrelentingly long for the duration of the event. Aligning with most food options at festivals, trucks available consisted of Burning Buns, Daddy’s Best Froyo, Frankie’s Frozen Treats, Fuego Me Up!, MK’s Kitchen, Pucker Up Lemonade, Red’s Pizza, Salvi-Nation Truck, The Big Easy Sandwich, The Rush Coffee and Unique Fettuccine. Catering to various culinary palettes, those with dietary restrictions or selective taste would inevitably find a suitable option.
In accordance with the high heat temperature near the time of entry, the free water refill stations were operating efficiently throughout the day. There were no visible disruptions to the order of things, as personnel monitored that movement ran seamlessly. Beverages and refreshing menu items were also big hits and indicators of the need to cool off under the scorching sun. A crowd favorite was the mangonada from “Daddy’s Best Froyo,” although marked above average in price, the quality seemed to be worth the cost for many buyers.
Artists’ Performances
During pauses in between performers, the DJ and the host of the event, LIWAG, was up on the stage mixing some hits. He played “FE!N” by Travis Scott twice, as well as some phonk to get the crowd going. Many people in the audience seemed to vibe with LIWAG and his smooth transitions, as seen by many folks in the crowd doing the “frat flick.”
Soon after, Cherry Blonde, an indie-surf artist, came on stage dressed in brightly colored clothing and, to everyone’s surprise, no shoes. His strong fashion choice made him stand out against the stage’s background, and if anyone still wasn’t able to see him, the large monitor aired his performance — a new feature of Block Party this year. Cherry Blonde rocked the crowd with his band and was the only artist at this Block Party with a live band, which was well-received by the far and few of the crowd that decided to watch his set. The only person he introduced from the band was his old roommate and guitarist Will. Cherry Blonde jokingly quoted the iconic vine, “And they were roommates.”
Cherry Blonde sang in falsetto during a few of his songs, but the microphone didn’t pick him up all that well. The drums were especially loud and overtook his voice at times. Unfortunately, during songs where Cherry Blonde was encouraging the audience to dance, barely anybody was even bobbing their heads to the beat. He didn’t seem to let this discourage him, though, doing his little dance anyway and telling the crowd, “Thank you, guys, for coming out early … I’m stoked to be here.”
Cherry Blonde covered “Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae and an alt-rock rendition of “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan. The crowd sang along to these popular hits, and he did very well with no voice cracks during both, unlike a few of the other songs he performed. Along with these covers, some of his unreleased works were included in his setlist alongside his first release, “Knocked Down,” and songs “Lonely, An Old New Friend,” “Lights, Camera, Action, Pose,” and “Stone Cold Killa,” which will drop on Oct. 9.
More people joined the stage once a hype man and DJ announced Rini would be coming on next. Rini described himself as an “r&b-slash-alternative-slash-pop-slash-rock” artist, and listeners believe he has a similar sound to the likes of Prince, Miguel and Usher. Despite being seen as a one-hit wonder due to getting a large following from his song, “Your Favorite Clothes,” he played many hits that got the crowd waving their hands and clapping along, such as “Miracle” and “Matter To You.” Rini also beautifully displayed his falsetto and belts through “Your Ecstasy” and “Scars.” The latter song had a really cool vocal doubling effect as well. He had no band, even though a few of his songs likely would have hit harder with a live band.
Rini’s crowd work was the best out of the artists that performed. He constantly pointed out fans in the crowd and made jokes that definitely made him seem way more comfortable on stage than the previous artist. A moment that got the whole crowd laughing was when Rini agreed with a shirt he saw in the crowd, laughing out, “I love ABGS, too.” Additionally, he shouted out his heritage, asking, “Anybody from Manila? Manila boys — they got swag for real,” before performing “Strawberry Blossom,” where he sang, “Flower killer / I am the thriller from Manila.” To give more kudos to Rini’s comfortability and crowd work on stage, when he performed “My Luv (feat. Bibi Bourelly),” he half-jokingly encouraged the audience to confess to their crushes right then and there if they haven’t already because it would be the perfect song to do so.
Rini’s second to last song was the aforementioned “Your Favorite Clothes,” but it did not exactly meet expectations. It was a bit too quiet, and the backing track was too loud, almost singing over him. People didn’t seem to vibe as well as expected either, as people singing along could not be heard from the back of the crowd. His last song was about long-distance relationships, called “Far Away,” which had young Justin Bieber energy. Although Rini played his most famous song, the audience was still a bit disappointed that he didn’t perform popular tracks “Meet Me In Amsterdam” and “Aphrodite.” He ended his set briefly stating, “UC Riverside, thank you so much … for being such a vibe … I’ll see you again soon.”
Performing before the headliner is a tough act, but DJ Kai Wachi did not disappoint. He had a loud opening with a moon appearing on the big screen. One of the first things Kai Wachi yelled into his mic when he got onstage was, “I heard you guys like f*cking raving!” at which point, the crowd roared back at him in agreement. He had a fog machine that shot bursts of fog into the air, which definitely hyped up the audience. There were even some items being thrown into the air, such as toilet paper. The crowd put their hands up, head banging on the barricade to the crunk beat drops, so much so that security had to tell them to calm down. Security was definitely more controlled over the crowd at this event, having a pit in the middle to discourage moshing as well as keeping a close eye on all of the attendees from the other side of the barricade, shining a flashlight at them if they were misbehaving. The screen was showing different clips of animated skeletons, and Kai Wachi sampled the siren sound from “The Purge” for a song, both of which added to the dark atmosphere that was casted over the stage after the setting sun. All the “rave baddies” were out, and “UC Raver-side” definitely lived up to its expectations during Kai Wachi’s set.
The headliner, Blxst, opened his set with a monologue before pulling up in a groutfit and a green hat — his three dancers in toe wearing the same outfit. He seemed to be going for a car mechanic concept, which fit in perfectly with the GTA theme of Block Party.
Blxst was the only artist with dancers, whom he seemed very close to, bantering with them on stage. The dancers were popping and locking on the makeshift stairs and loft in front of the screen on stage.
Many casual listeners may expect Blxst to be more of a rap-heavy artist due to his popular song “Chosen (feat. Ty Dolla $ign),” but he was singing — and singing live — for every song. His set list included “Dance With The Devil,” a collaboration with Anderson Paak, “Overrated,” “Forever Humble,” and “Every Good Girl.” He was the only artist that night that was louder than the backtrack.
Although some of the audience were unfamiliar with Blxst’s discography, they still cheered along and danced to them. Although many people decided to leave early to beat the crowd’s rush, Blxst still put on a great performance that was enjoyed by many at UC Riverside.
Reception and Interviews
From early impressions to event day responses, the overall consensus was that while Block Party didn’t meet all interviewees’ expectations, they made the best of their time there. Despite subtle comments on many being unfamiliar with the artists performing and the loss of carnival attractions, there was still a lot of enthusiasm from some attendees. One group of freshmen commented that there aren’t a lot of upcoming artists, which could be the reason for an underwhelming lineup compared to previous years, making a more logical deduction. Another group of seniors commented that although this lineup didn’t stand out compared to other ASPB concerts, they were looking forward to the communal and festival vibes, ready to enjoy the last Block Party of their college years.
Verdict:
Despite mixed reactions to this year’s Block Party, it is undeniable that the event delivered an enjoyable experience for those focused on connecting with friends and celebrating the start of the year.
