I was a big fan of Lenny Kravitz back in middle school. And what I mean is I listened to Fly Away on repeat while playing Beetle Adventure Racing on the N64, and I played that shit often. That’s a fan when you’re 13.
When I saw him on the lineup for Kaaboo, I was pretty set on going, but Jimmy Buffett sold me… My Uncle is one of the biggest Parrotheads on the planet, or at least Minnesota, so I had to see what Jimmy was all about.
Lenny Kravitz and Jimmy Buffett weren’t the only two the lineup had to offer. Kaaboo 2016’s long list of talent stretches from Hall & Oates and Macy Gray to Aerosmith and Ludacris, none of which played together.
The comedy was right up there too, but there was one thing missing for me. The electronic acts. My almost perfect lineup was about 20 miles South of Kaaboo, one year ago in San Diego at CRSSD fest, and this electronic lineup looked nothing like it.
There was one producer I wanted to see. Even though he produces a lot of pop vocals that aren’t for me, with over three hundred tracks on SoundCloud, RAC had a handful that I liked, especially that Zee Avi remix. Beautiful voice.
Outside Lands 2016 hosted my long awaited show from The Knocks. I had a run in with one of the members, Patts, on my blog almost six years ago and it was a major influence for what I do on here now.
He didn’t like what I had to say about Chiddy Bang’s remix of The Knocks ‘Dancing With the DJ’ and told me “if you don’t like it don’t post it.” I get what he was saying and as much as I stand by my words, I haven’t posted a single track I haven’t liked since (maybe one). I don’t give a fuck about music I don’t like (fuck might be a little harsh).
Their performance may not have been the highlight of OSL (he’s next), but it was so much fun to party with The Knocks & friends in the sun at Golden Gate Park. And they played all the hits, ‘Comfortable’ being one of my favorite dance songs of all time.
Kaytranada ditched out on me and the rest of the crowd in two different locations. Once opening for Disclosure at The Greek in Berkeley and the other this past year at Symbiosis. Finally, I got to see him live at Mamby, the festival’s second year on Lake Michigan in Chicago.
My expectations weren’t too high for Kay. My favorite producers DJing live haven’t been anything phenomenal at festivals in the past and going in with high expectations is a recipe for disaster (see Mayer Hawthorne). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well he kept the crowd bouncing.
Bass is what gets people moving. I’ve seen plenty of it, but Kaytranada live was the most stark example. When the bass wasn’t bumping the people weren’t bouncing. Get that signature kick in there and Kaytranda has the crowd in a jig. Guess this is why house music and its many iterations are what we love to dance to most. Except Bill Withers, of course (soul music) […]
First off, these festivals with acronyms for names leave little to the imagination, which doesn’t make it easy to remember. I got BFD mixed up with TBD with the promoter and I feel like a dipshit. As I should. Always good to start off with a little humility.
BFD, or as I recently found out its full name, Big Fucking Day, leaves a lot more to the imagination and is Live 105’s annual summer festival at the Shoreline in Mountain View. The show had three stages this year: the main stage, one for local bands and a tent for the electronic acts. Of course I was there for The Offspring, not really, I was there to see TOKi. And Joywave.
The amount of music going on in a few small areas around Austin, supported by all the music tech that’s trying to help it flourish, makes SXSW the place where my two loves come together. Quite literally this year with my job and this blog. Both helped me find places to go and people to do it with, but SXSW could’ve helped a lot more.
The SXSW Go app could have better helped with both finding and keeping track of events throughout the night and day, as well as finding the people to spend it with – it’s where the future of live music is going. I did find a handful of good performances and the same amount of not so good, but mostly because of the people in Austin and their recommendations. Some seriously nice people.
Here are a few stories I had with them.
I’ve never seen Del live before his performance after the ICBConference last Saturday. I went to Hiero Day last year where I got to meet my favorite right now, Anderson .Paak, but couldn’t catch Del in time.
After seeing Tommy Chong close out the conference, he was a good closer, Del performed a few hours later at Pier 23 Cafe. Actually, like every other damn rap performance, we had to wait for him until the wee hours of the night, but not as ridiculous as the Ghostface-Raekwon show. While waiting for Del to come on, I saw a familiar face waiting around too. […]
Super City 50 was a one night EDM event held the night before Super Bowl 50 at the Oakland coliseum. My photographer bailed last minute, but luckily I had a few friends going. I’ve gone to festivals alone before and it’s one of the easiest ways to find new friends, but organizers could do a lot better job to encourage it.
People will find the easiest way to connect with each other and drugs help out a lot. I saw all sorts of people on all kinds of things and it’s sad to see how much the law contributes in creating an unsafe environment. Laws change slowly, but the festival experience is about to change rapidly. And that change starts online.
We’re all connected 24/7 and using that to start conversations online will help people meet up more easily offline, at festivals. The closest thing I can find to what I’m talking about is Red Bull Sound Select, which is based around a community for curators. The best way to get people connecting around music online, in my opinion.
I went to Treasure Island Music Festival this year to see two performers. I’ve been a fan of Viceroy’s productions since 2012 and was amazed by deadmau5’s live “4D projection” in London around the same time. Unfortunately my expectations were high, which usually doesn’t lead to good things.
A few days before the festival I got a promo email from deadmau5’s team giving us pointers on what we should cover with his TI set. The one thing that caught my eye was letting us know that
deadmau5 is not a DJ. He is and should be referred to as an electronic musician or electronic music performer.
Deadmau5 in’t a DJ. Sure, technically. Funny thing is the day before I read an article on some all about the buzz music blog that deadmau5 got rated one of the worst DJ’s of this year (second behind David Guetta). I think most people consider any live performance by an electronic producer as DJing. And his performance was dated. […]
I only heard about CRSSD fest for the first time last week (actually second, long story) and booking a hotel in San Diego isn’t cheap. Plus flights are ungodly now, so Road Trip! I would’ve given up on this much hassle a long time ago (a week), but look at this lineup.
I’ve gone to a half dozen festivals this year and all of ’em combined don’t add up to what CRSSD has got. Zhu and Bonobo right there makes me there. It’s not really an option after that.
But if you’re not convinced of the lineup yet, check out the playlist we put together. That’s a lot of artists to see in two days. And I usually don’t go to festivals for the music.
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I’ll be driving down from San Francisco Friday afternoon, so if anyone needs a ride hit me up!
The music at most edm festivals mostly miss, but sometimes ya find a hit. Unfortunately that hit wasn’t the music this year at Beyond, but the visuals.
I met with a visual supervisor from the Mad Hatter’s stage and he let me check out what he does at a live set. Let’s just say there’s not much glamour in his performance, but the performance he puts on was breathtaking. Not for the epileptic though. It seems the visualsm from the lights to the costumes and exhibits are evolving quicker than the music at these festivals.
I’m not much for the harder, bass driven music that’s still popular today, if you couldn’t tell yet. So like every year before it I put together a playlist that I’d love to see live (mixed right). The first year I did this was general high bpm dance tracks, but the second year I went specifically for the bass. This year was the best of bass since we started Silence six years ago. It may not be defining what I love now and probably won’t for many years, but it did have its place and may once again. It’s all about soul right now (and has always been).