The Chainsmokers started 20 minutes late at their NASCAR Chicago Street Race show — but at least they finally got their second chance. The chart-topping EDM duo was scheduled to headline last year, but the notorious deluge of 2023 delayed those plans until 2024. The duo returned Saturday with a solid bang (and a new EP, “No Hard Feelings”) as the glorified DJ set seriously challenged the decibel levels logged on the racetrack earlier in the day.
The producer/remix kings’ unique history with the city goes back even further than the NASCAR event, though. The showman of the group, Andrew Taggart, took a minute to explain after sampling DJO’s “End of Beginning,” with that line about being “back in Chicago."
As he then introduced the Chainsmokers’ hit “Roses,” he shared, “This is always a special [city] for us to play. In 2015 … we had a moment somewhere in this park, playing [Lollapalooza’s] Perry Stage. It was the first big festival that would ever take a chance on us. … We played this song, and it felt like the entire city of Chicago jumped up and down for us. We always say that was the moment we felt like we f- - -ing did it. Thank you for being part of it.”
Unfortunately, the crowd at the DraftKings Stage was a fraction of the size as the NASCAR event struggled to draw a large attendance, at least for its entertainment portions. The Chainsmokers’ 90-minute set was hyped an hour earlier to no avail with a warmup jam featuring DJs along with Chicago sports mascots Sky Guy, Supernova, Southpaw, Benny the Bull and the Luvabulls dance squad; the duo also came out for a photo opp with the entire NASCAR driving lineup for Sunday’s premiere lap, though the moment came off as forced as the overly programmed set that relied heavily on smoke-and-mirror hijinks.
A barrage of air horns, sky-gracing firework flares, fire towers, bright strobe lights, video game graphics and a whole fleet of recognizable samples (50 Cent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florence + The Machine, Daft Punk, Luke Combs) coupled with mind-shaking bass were all great diversions from the fact that, live, the producers’ strengths are manipulating machinery and jumping around trying to get the audience to follow along.
“I don’t care if your parents are here, we’re having fun,” Taggart shouted, as his other half Alex Pall bled the sound into the next song as some in the crowd heeded the message while others remained static, even as they unleashed their latest big-league collaboration, with Coldplay on “Something Just Like This.” Their eternal hit “Closer” fared a bit better to end the set.
The Chainsmokers’ appearance at the Street Race falls in a line of off-center bookings for the EDM stars this year as they branch out; the list also includes earlier appearances at the country-heavy Stagecoach Festival in California and the Kentucky Derby late-night events in the spring. Now that NASCAR’s Street Race performance finally came to fruition, eyeing Lollapalooza again would be their next natural return to Chicago.
