This year’s HARD Summer lineup was chock full of attention-grabbing back-to-back action, but perhaps none more highly anticipated than the synergy of RL Grime and Baauer, who took to the mainstage in tandem on opening night.
For 75 minutes the two blitzed through a jam-packed DJ set of hits and hidden gems that left no room for downtime. Never losing step with the crowd, it seemed as though thousands of fans hung onto every word they could possibly belt out from start to finish.
The two trap dons didn’t hesitate to inject their biggest tracks with singalong style qualities in a slew of fierce live edits. Baauer’s “PLANET’S MAD – DOOM INTRO” fused with Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” in a seamless twist as RL Grime’s “Core” was woven in to the incantations of Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.” The two swept into the final leg of their set with a future bass style remix of Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti’s raucous single “Miss The Rage,” a track which is already showing signs of being a festival favorite in 2021.
Of course there were a trove of new IDs dropped, a promising sign suggesting that we’ll be hearing more of what the two have each been cooking up in the near future. It’s especially optimistic given the two just dropped their first collaboration in nearly eight years, “Fallaway,” the leading track of their set.