Potawatomi Casino Hotel hosted Snoop Dogg on Saturday night, in the first installment of their outdoor “Amplified” series. The temporary venue on the casino’s west side (pun intended) had a full festival-style setup, and a bona fide living legend of rap to kick down the doors. If you were there, you were in for a treat. If you weren’t let’s blaze through the high-lights:
1. Snoop the showman
Whenever Snoop was on stage on Saturday night, his presence lit up the Potawatomi Casino Hotel crowd. He was going to be Snoop no matter what, grooving to every drop from DJ Green Lantern while Grand Theft Auto-style animations of burning cars in Compton lit up the stage. He smiled from ear to ear, decked out in a shirt with his own face on it and embroidered with Death Row Records logos. The show, of course, also featured a sextet of pole dancers at various points, money guns spraying cash in the air, a pair of male backup dancers, and smoking leopard-like mascot that bared resemblance to a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. You know, standard issue stuff, really.
2. He brought the family with him
It would have also been easy for Snoop to simply show up with a DJ, play the hits, and Cripwalk his way out of Milwaukee onto the next town. Instead, he flipped the format of a conventional show to give everybody some shine. Rather than a standard opening act, DJ Shawna kicked off the night with some music to set the mood. Then, Snoop hit the stage for a few of his biggest tracks, acting as a first set. Midway through, he ceded a large chunk of time for a nearly 15-track set from Tha Dogg Pound, smack dab in the middle of his show. The night would also feature two Snoop-assisted appearances from The Lady of Rage, including a performance of her hit “Afro Puffs,” as well as Kazakhstani q-pop group KeshYou, who have a track featuring the boss Dogg coming soon. All in all, Saturday’s show clocked in at around two hours total, with no shortage of material.
3. Snoop through the decades
The dilemma for Snoop Dogg and crew, really, is a good one to have. Multiple generations have been entertained by the Doggfather at this point, but no matter what era of Snoop you knew best, he touched on it with a career-spanning show. Certified banger “The Next Episode” kicked things off, but musically, he would go everywhere from “Doggystyle” cuts “Lodi Dodi” and “Murder Was The Case” to his appearances on Katy Perry’s “California Girls” and Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.” There was a heavy presence of early g-funk, especially from Tha Dogg Pound, catering to an older crowd, but if you only knew his pop cuts, you’d still get that as well.
4. Tributes to fellow legends
As much as the night was about Snoop Dogg, he also took some time to make it a celebration of classic hip hop, as well. Someone definitely tipped the boss Dogg off that he was in Wisconsin, which meant including House of Pain’s “Jump Around” in the set. There was also an early tribute to Eazy-E, with “Boyz-N-The-Hood” dropping around the opening slew of hits. Of course, the crowd popped for “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” featuring Tupac, and there was even an inclusion of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize” with graffiti images of Snoop and Biggie on the LED screens. It would have been unthinkable in the mid-90s.
5. A successful first show for Amplified
A first run for any venue will come with its kinks, usually. In pretty much all regards, though, the concert experience itself was a win at the casino on Saturday. While general admission tickets were sold out, there was still ample space for crowds to move on Saturday, and the sound at the temporary, festival-style stage was on par with any of the big venues in Milwaukee. A beer garden and several merch stands, as well as a row of food trucks kept fans in the outdoor venue without having to run back to the casino floor. While yes, Potawatomi Casino Hotel has plenty of live show experience with the former Northern Lights Theater, an outdoor event like Saturday presents an entirely different set of circumstances, all of which were handled well.
Potawatomi Amplified will continue next month with the recently announced Tejano Fest, a two-day affair featuring several Latin artists hitting the outdoor stage. Stay tuned to OnMilwaukee for more updates on Potawatomi Amplified and be on the lookout for their third concert announcement.
