In Review: Biig piig at Wicker park music fest
Photos by Maggie O’Connell
The first time I heard Biig Piig was when her song “Feels Right” came up on my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. I immediately fell in love with her chill, yet groovy sound and needed to hear more. When I found out that she would be performing at Wicker Park Fest this summer, I was ecstatic to say the least.
At roughly 7:15pm, Biig Piig and crew ran out on stage beginning the show with “This Is What They Meant.” Not only was the crowd enjoying the live show, but most people who passed by the stage couldn’t help but stop as they were mesmerized by her lively performance. I think the best word to describe the set was magical. During her performance, the sun was setting, bodies were swaying, and heads were bopping. The band had a synergy that was so infectious; watching and hearing them perform all together just made sense.
Jessica Smyth (Biig Piig) got her start in 2017 with a single called “Crush’n” where she sings with an R&B style over a chill Lofi track. While that sound is still evident in her recent music, I would say that it has evolved to be a bit more upbeat and electronic. This could be heard in the second song of the set called “Don’t Turn Around.” The song has a contagious beat, layered with synth and guitar. Both Smyth and her backup did their fair share jumping and dancing across stage to the point that made me wonder…how do you move around that much and still manage to sound better than the studio recorded music?
They played music perfect for closing your eyes and swaying, like “Perdida,” a song that I would describe to be an electronic ballad, half sung in English and and half in Spanish. They also played songs to amp up the crowd and urge them to get rowdy, like “Switch,” where Smyth had the crowd part down the middle to open a pit. I think that “Switch” was my favorite song to hear live. The crowd got super involved and shouted the lyrics “then your love took it from me,” which launched the song into a bass driven bridge that made it impossible to stand still.
It really makes a live show worth seeing when an artist makes it apparent that there’s no other place they would rather be than on stage at that moment. Smyth finished every single song with the biggest smile that I had ever seen and out of breath from simultaneously doing high kicks across stage and singing. She is the kind of performer that I see and makes me wish that I was in a band.
Nearing the end of the performance, Smyth took a break to introduce herself and her band. She expressed her love for Chicago and her love for making music in the most genuine and inspiring way. She then said how grateful she was to be able to tour, giving us a word of advice that “if you are thinking of making music, just do it.” The London singer started writing music in her bedroom, unsure of her place in life and going through some dark times; it is making music that shifted that tone and completely changed her life. She told us not to be afraid of our creativity and to put our art out into the world, whatever that may be.
Biig Piig had an electric performance, the kind that left me thinking about it for days after. The kind that made me go through all her discography as an effort to feel the way that I felt hearing her music live.