For a concert that’s been pockmarked by spurts of rain in recent years, the only precipitation at Juice Jam came from perspiration in the pit and the occasional half-filled water bottle flung into the crowd as a makeshift projectile.

Sunday’s concert, which sold out its capacity of 8,500 tickets, featured hip-hop group The Dean’s List, rapper Childish Gambino, electronic dance disc jockey Calvin Harris and uncharacteristically sunny weather. Yet even when a brief swatch of storm clouds floated over the stage during Gambino’s set, the students piled together in the pit for a closer glance at the comedy star turned rapper.

“He’s great,” said Divya Malkani, a junior advertising major. “Heartbeat is my favorite song of his.”

Donning a jaunty black beanie, Gambino stormed the stage with his touring band for a performance of “Outside,” the opener from his debut, full-length album, “Camp.” Emotively flailing his hands and gesturing for the crowd to sing the track’s chorus, Gambino idly chatted up the crowd between songs.

“You’ve got some pretty girls here,” he said to a roar of love-struck shouts.

He rattled off a clip of hits in rapid succession, including “Fire Fly” and “Freaks and Geeks,” while his lyrics flashed by on the LED screen, serving as the backdrop of the stage. His touring band flaunted its versatility: Musicians who played guitar for songs like “Heartbeat” picked up violins for “All the Shine” and “L.E.S.”

Gambino showed flashes of his comedy styling, engaging the crowd in witty banter from making a roll call of girls in attendance to draping a plain white T-shirt over his head for an a cappella, freestyle rap, featuring the line, “I go too H.A.M. at Juice Jam.”

“I’m looking at the crowd, and it’s like, is there grass here?” he asked.

He wrapped up his set with a smattering of tracks from his latest mixtape, “Royalty.” Steve G. Lover, who contributed a few verses to the mixtape, joined Gambino on stage for songs like “One Up” and “Unnecessary.” Fans got a closer look at the rapper when he wandered by the barricade to sign a few autographs before retiring to his tent.

“He was amazing,” Malkani said. “The set was so good and he put on an awesome performance.”

After Gambino’s exit, as the crew put together the stage for Calvin Harris, University Union concert director Ken Consor announced that $1 from each of the tickets sold would go to support victims of the July 20 Aurora, Colo. movie-theater shooting. The crowd erupted in cheers.

Prior to Gambino’s set, The Dean’s List opened the show, with rapper Sonny Shotz lamenting his decision to wear a black shirt onstage.

That offbeat, often deadpan humor pervaded The Dean’s List’s high-octane set. At one point, Shotz laughed after telling concertgoers to take out their lighters for a song.

“Never mind, it’s daytime. Put the cellphones away,” he said with a chuckle.

A few new tracks from the newly renamed group, now officially known as The King’s Dead, also made their concert debut. This included “Sour Apple Rich Girls,” a track from their upcoming album, “Jerusalem,” and gave the group’s concert guitarist a chance to wail.

“We’d just like to move on from some of our old songs,” DJ Mendoza, the Dean’s List producer who perched behind his laptop for the set, said in an interview before the show. “We really like playing new songs live.”

Although the headliners didn’t premiere any brand-new songs, their mixes of fan favorites and deeper cuts kept the party going.

Harris’ setup mirrored Kaskade’s from Block Party 2012: Both had a jumbo-sized DJ stand equipped with video screens. The DJ, who wore only one headphone over his ear, quickly announced himself to the crowd before dropping a reverberating electronic beat.

“If you’re feeling good right now, I want to see your hands up,” said Harris, wooing the crowd with a thick Scottish accent.

The DJ didn’t engage verbally with the crowd much, instead preferring to let his mixes do the talking. He scripted the crowd’s movements, orchestrating timely handclaps and fist-pumps, while bouncing back and forth behind the booth. The audience worked themselves into a euphoric frenzy. Most of the crowd piled on top of each other; others spread further apart to dance in small groups.

Though Harris’ set was heavy on his own chart-toppers, including Rihanna collaboration “We Found Love,” he spliced other artists’ hits into his set list, weaving

in Swedish House Mafia’s “Save the World” and Daft Punk’s “Around the World.”

His interactions with the crowd were sparse, though he’d quickly pause songs like “Feel So Close” and lyrically challenge the audience to take over singing.

“Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and take care of yourselves,” Harris yelled over the crowd.

After his farewell, he continued playing for another 15 minutes before winding down his pulse-pounding beats. Students shouted for Harris to continue even after he stepped off stage.

Like Harris’ extended outro, the ninth-annual Juice Jam felt like a concert that none of the 8,500 attendees wanted to leave early.

Published on September 10, 2012 at 1:08 am

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman