While I've only been here about 2 weeks on my trip I have observed several things about the Korean society, both positive and negative. Overall my feelings a positive but I felt a list like this would give others a good sense about the country and what to expect if they do happen to visit.
Pros:
Money - The Korean Won not only goes far in this country (a good meal with drink is usually around 8000 won or so, $1 is about 1000 won) but tax is almost always included in prices which are mostly rounded to the 1000. The custom of tipping that we are so used to in the states is also nowhere to be found here, making your money stretch even further. The so called T-money cards which are loaded for transportation are also extremely efficient, Korea is closer to a cashless society than almost any in the world.
Public Transportation - Although not without it's negatives the transport system here is Seoul is amazing. The subway system blows anything else in the states away, it is well organized, super clean, fast, and cheap. Even as a foreigner it is easy to navigate as long as you know where you are going. Also taxis are way cheaper than in the states, I'd say probably half the cost. There is also a massive bus system that goes all over the city and it only costs 900 won to ride in most cases (around 85 cents). The subway system is the best though, it is mind blowing.
Safety - Never have I traveled somewhere, or even lived for that matter, where I felt so safe. While I cannot find exact statistics on it there is no doubt that this is a far safer place than the US. I've heard stories of people leaving their belongings behind in places, even their wallets, and coming back hours later to find them untouched. It probably helps that there are cameras strewn all across the city, but if it keeps people safe then it's hard to disapprove.
Food - While a bit tough on my former vegetarian diet the food here is delicious, interesting, and cheap. It is very meat centric, usually meals consist of some cut of meat which is grilled at the table. With that come side dishes from basic salads to the infamous Korean dish kimchi (a fermented vegetable usually cabbage or radishes). Often the meat is wrapped in lettuce leaves and dunked in various sauces, or in others (as in shabu shabu which I really like) it is cooked in a broth mixed with vegetables. Oh and there's definitely lots of garlic, which I love. Just last night too I had probably my favorite meal at this all you can eat tuna place where they bring you fresh sashimi cuts of delicious tuna. I still eat fish back in the states, so even though this was the most expensive meal I had at around $20, it was probably the most satisfying. While they could stand a bit more variety I definitely think the food here is a major positive about Korea.
Girls - Holy hell there are an amazing amount of attractive ladies in this place. Almost everyone wears high heels and shorts skirts, legs are on full display here. Girls get done up to go just about everywhere, and a part of the scenery I must say it is enjoyable.
Terrain - Even though Seoul is an absolutely enormous city you are never far from nature, as you can see mountainous terrain all over the place. You feel much less boxed in than a city like New York. There are lots of parks and beautiful sites around to see amongst the huge buildings (although I will say the architecture here is rather drab). If you want to see a good view of Seoul and the surroundings check this video I shot up in Namsan tower:
Friendliness - While plenty of people won't approach you being a foreigner that still hasn't stopped a few from coming up just to ask if we needed help (sometimes I must look pretty lost). In some cases if you ask for directions people will actually take you to where you want to go rather than just pointing it out. And anytime you buy something from a store or are served in anyway you are always greeted by a smile. Definitely can't say the same thing for your average convenience store employee in the states. Also I recently discovered the "information" girls around certain parts of town who are just there to answer questions people (mostly foreigners) may have about the given area. Does such a thing exist anywhere in the states? Maybe but not as prevalent at least.
Bath houses - Pure relaxation and comfort, althougt surely not everyone's cup of tea. Jimjilban's are Korea bathhouses where you can go to shower and relax amongst hot and cold tubs, saunas, get a massage and even sleep. Certain parts are segregated by sex because they are fully nude which at first may seem a little weird but when in Rome as they say. After a night of drinking nothing feels better. I've been to 2 different ones at this point, the second one was a lot more involved at had this great heated room with the bed of hot rocks you could lay down on. That was in the coed part, which everyone can go to after the bathhouse and throwing on some relaxing pajama style clothes. And after the hot room hitting a cold room was invigorating. When finished you emerge feeling better than at any other point during the day. It's like a public spa that costs $6, awesome.
Public bathrooms - Koreans probably think nothing of it but living in America so long it really stands out. Why is it so hard to find a public restroom in the states? Even in big cities like New York I don't see them at most subway stops, and almost anywhere you go is for customers only. Sometimes they even say employees only! Here they are everywhere, very easy to find especially if you know where a subway stop is. Maybe it's due to the lack of homeless people of which there are hardly any. Seriously though America should catch up, I guarantee there is a direct correlation between the amount of public restrooms and public urination.
Cons:
No trashcans - I'll start this list off with a small gripe, but what's with the lack of trash cans in this country? People are often encouraged to throw their garbage on the ground because someone will pick it up later. Sometimes your best bet of finding a trashcan is a public restroom. At least when you do find them there's a series with different ones for recyclables and the like.
Substances - I rip on the US drug laws often, but being over here I realize I should feel lucky. Alcohol and nicotine are what is condoned here, marijuana and other drugs are heavily criminalized and looked down upon. I could write a lot about this but it is my belief that other drugs can have much more positive effects on people, their well being and world views can be changed and improved. Alcohol has more negative effects, not saying I don't enjoy them often times but they can not do the good that others can. I can only hope one day this world will wake up and recategorize the dangers of different drugs as the British drug czar famously did in 2009 before he was fired. And Korea is WAY behind Britain in this issue. Plus Soju gives you terrible hangovers. But when that and sub-par beer is all that is readily available people end up drinking a lot more than they should. Korea has a very high alcoholism rate as a result (11th I believe I was told, although I couldn't find exact figures).
No dryers - While it is nice that the most of the small apartments here have their own washing machines it seems that almost no one, even big places, use dryers. Rack drying ruins your clothes, making them brittle and scratchy. And towels are just awful. I guess if you grow up using small rough towels your whole life you don't really mind but man they don't know what they're missing in a big, fluffy towel.
Music - The music here is terrible. K-pop (as Korean pop music is dubbed) is lame and almost all your hear besides American music. Being from the states we are spoiled with musical (and people) diversity, but there is no convincing me their music is good. Derivative and lame through and through. In fact the best song I have found here is a comedy "joke song" called Itaewon Freedom which is pretty good in it's own right. Check it out, but just remember it's all WAY downhill from here:
Public transportation shuts down at midnight - For as good as the public transportation system is here it's a pretty big fail that the subway and buses shut down at midnight. If this happened in New York there would be riots. And even in big cities like Chicago some of the lines shut down but not all of them, they just run slower. Often this means on the weekend people stay out drinking until 6am when everything opens back up. Madness.
Lack of diversity and individualism - This is my biggest knock on Korea. In some ways it is hard to fault a country for being what it is, but never have I visited somewhere in all my life that exhibited such homogeneity throughout their country's peoples as if it was a good thing. People of different nations are looked down upon, I'm all for a feeling of nationalistic pride but here it is very close minded. Some in the US exhibit this trait but I would consider them less intelligent than the average Korean. When I ride the subway here I am usually the only white guy doing so. This is also NOT a country that promotes individuality. What results is a culture of productive followers who look and act alike. There is no real counter-culture here, and that really shows in their music and general attitudes of always trying to act like everything is sunny and great even when it is not. It is then no surprise that Korea has the 2nd highest suicide rate in the world currently (according to wikipedia which places Lithuania number 1 and the US 39 for comparison). When you aren't encouraged to by yourself and feel how you feel it puts great strain on your person. There is immense pressure on school children to succeed, I've heard stories of kids freaking out over getting 98% on their tests because their parents will punish them. That's just one example, and while the US could learn a lot from Korea's schooling system the Korean people could learn a lot from the States' emphasis on individualism and our free thinking society.
While I could probably think of a few more things to add to both sides of this list these are the original things that stood out to me. I also want to be clear that even though I wrote about a lot of negative stuff I still think South Korea is a great country and am very glad I visited. They have done great things with their society, but they could benefit a lot form loosening up a bit and being more accepting of other cultures and ideas. So if you get a chance to visit Seoul and the surrounding areas you should go for it. If you come from the US though you will most likely find a place that is not as different as you would have imagined from the big cities of America, but is lacking in many of the things that makes places like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and even Nashville so great. For now that is all, I'll detail more of my personal experience later but I just felt like writing this first.
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Korea trip part 1
It is something else over here. Tuesday I left Nashville and after nearly 25 hours of traveling I arrived in Korea. The airport I flew into was Incheon, which is a neighboring city of Seoul. Seoul is the capital of South Korea and is the 2nd largest city in the world (or 9th depending on how it is measured concerning the surrounding areas, regardless is is fucking enormous). A couple of my friends who are over here teaching English were nice enough to meet me at the airport and show me the way to the city.
The first thing I noticed was how amazing the subway system is here. It makes Chicago's look like a toy, it's sleek and new and each station is massive. After arriving at my friend JP's place I dropped my bags off and we headed out for some drinks. Alcohol is widespread here, unfortunately the beer they serve on tap here (mostly Cass) is subpar but the Soju runs plentiful. Soju is distilled from any things such as rice and potatoes and has a flavor similar to vodka just slightly sweeter (and less alcoholic at around 20%). It is also cheap as hell, a bottle normally runs between 1000 to 3000 won depending on where you order it (think of 1000 won as $1). Needless to say I got pretty drunk on my first night, especially factoring in the jetlag and lack of sleep I was experiencing.
I woke up feeling a bit woozy, being slightly hungover and on the other side of the world will do that to you. Once we collected ourselves my friend Adam and I (who was also visiting from Nashville) headed out into downtown Seoul to explore some of the sights. We were trying to find this river walk but got kind of lost so we ended up in this temple-like sanctuary with an impressionist art museum in it (I later found out it was called Deoksugung Palace). We wandered around a bit more after that just taking in the views of the city. It is an interesting juxtaposition of a place, this huge city surrounded by mountains and filled with a mix of Korean shops and restaurants as well as Americanized businesses such as 7-11's and Taco Bells.
It was about time to head back and grab some dinner with my friends, and wow here comes the meat. I'm a semi-practicing vegetarian back in the states, I eat fish on occasion but never mammals. Just a personal choice which I may explain more later but here it was clear going that route was not an option. My first major meal consisted of a pile of meat (some cut of pork I believe) which we cooked on a grill at our table. When cooked the meat was wrapped in lettuce leaves and dunked in various sauces with a little garlic thrown in there. And of course lots of Soju on the side. Gambae!
We went out drinking some more after we ate and after a few drinks my exhaustion was really catching up with me at this point. I nearly fell asleep at the bar, so after a bit we grabbed a cab and headed home because we had an insanely busy day lined up for Friday, which I will explain about as well as the rest of my weekend in my next blog entry. I was also hoping to finish my Coachella reports before all this started but I lost a huge chunk of what I wrote on the plane over here for some unknown reason so that's going to have to wait. Not that anyone should care but myself, but I do want to get it down at some point before I get. C'est la vi. I'm in Korea now, for 2 more solid weeks.
The first thing I noticed was how amazing the subway system is here. It makes Chicago's look like a toy, it's sleek and new and each station is massive. After arriving at my friend JP's place I dropped my bags off and we headed out for some drinks. Alcohol is widespread here, unfortunately the beer they serve on tap here (mostly Cass) is subpar but the Soju runs plentiful. Soju is distilled from any things such as rice and potatoes and has a flavor similar to vodka just slightly sweeter (and less alcoholic at around 20%). It is also cheap as hell, a bottle normally runs between 1000 to 3000 won depending on where you order it (think of 1000 won as $1). Needless to say I got pretty drunk on my first night, especially factoring in the jetlag and lack of sleep I was experiencing.
I woke up feeling a bit woozy, being slightly hungover and on the other side of the world will do that to you. Once we collected ourselves my friend Adam and I (who was also visiting from Nashville) headed out into downtown Seoul to explore some of the sights. We were trying to find this river walk but got kind of lost so we ended up in this temple-like sanctuary with an impressionist art museum in it (I later found out it was called Deoksugung Palace). We wandered around a bit more after that just taking in the views of the city. It is an interesting juxtaposition of a place, this huge city surrounded by mountains and filled with a mix of Korean shops and restaurants as well as Americanized businesses such as 7-11's and Taco Bells.
It was about time to head back and grab some dinner with my friends, and wow here comes the meat. I'm a semi-practicing vegetarian back in the states, I eat fish on occasion but never mammals. Just a personal choice which I may explain more later but here it was clear going that route was not an option. My first major meal consisted of a pile of meat (some cut of pork I believe) which we cooked on a grill at our table. When cooked the meat was wrapped in lettuce leaves and dunked in various sauces with a little garlic thrown in there. And of course lots of Soju on the side. Gambae!
We went out drinking some more after we ate and after a few drinks my exhaustion was really catching up with me at this point. I nearly fell asleep at the bar, so after a bit we grabbed a cab and headed home because we had an insanely busy day lined up for Friday, which I will explain about as well as the rest of my weekend in my next blog entry. I was also hoping to finish my Coachella reports before all this started but I lost a huge chunk of what I wrote on the plane over here for some unknown reason so that's going to have to wait. Not that anyone should care but myself, but I do want to get it down at some point before I get. C'est la vi. I'm in Korea now, for 2 more solid weeks.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
A change of pace
Time for a break from the music reports. Things are changing around here, I haven't even really had a good time to finish my Coachella recap, my mind is definitely preoccupied with all the changes taking place in my life right now.
First let's start with something fun. I purchased a new camera recently, a pretty serious DSLR (my first ever) I plan to use both for movies and for photography which I am starting to get more into. It's the Canon 5D Mark II, definitely a big step up from my little point and shoot Canon that I take to shows. Thing is a beast, and it does shoot incredible video but definitely lacks the complete package of a nice video camera. The lack of auto-focus I can deal with in most instances, but not being able to change any aperture or image controls when rolling can be annoying. Also the lack of an articulating screen hurts the overall usefulness of the camera, but I'm still learning. My first video on it is due out soon, May 17th probably, delayed in many parts because my inexperience with the camera (and lack of lenses) really showed in a lot of the stuff I shot. But with a couple of new purchases (most notably my Canon 100mm 2.8 L macro lens, fucking amazing) and some more shoots I'm getting in the groove. Still a big change, but a definite welcome addition to my arsenal. Here are a couple of random photos:
Part of the reason for acquiring new gear was to distract me from the other shifting realities of life. Getting a bit personal here, but I've been dating the same amazing girl for nearly 5 years now. If you know me personally then you know who I'm talking about, if not then you'll just have to imagine. We've lived together in different places for almost 4, the past year in her Mom's house back in Nashville which we were renting from her. Were being the operative word, as currently we are just about moved out of the place. Moving always holds a special kind of suck in life, but never has it been this terrible. For this time the move is taking us to different places. While I'm staying put (for the most part) she's moving to New York for grad school. And while I completely support her choice and the new path this will lead her down I cannot escape the fact of how much it sucks. Distance may be something we need for a while, we have talked about it before, but as the reality sets in it is still very hard to accept.
Which is probably why it's a good thing I've got a lot of stuff going on while all this is going down. I'm about to embark on my most serious travel expedition of my life. It's nothing really that crazy, as I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to foreign travel so it doesn't take a lot to make it a serious endeavor. I will be exploring a new continent and hopefully distracting myself from the tough to swallow changes in life with new experiences. On May 17th I will leave for Korea where I will rendezvous with friends from Nashville who are working there teaching English. I don't even know exactly what I'm going to do, mostly I just hope to see new things and get a different perspective on life. And also to take a lot of pictures, you can bet that beast of a camera is traveling with.
So distractions are in order, I feel if I stick around Nashville right after she leaves I'll be miserable. Better to be moving around. Plenty of that going on, I'm currently in North Carolina with said amazing girl on a mini-vacation before we depart. Then on to Chicago for my brother's graduation for 4 nights. Return on Monday, hopefully wrap up some work which has been hanging over my head for a bit. Then Tuesday it's off to the other side of the world. A definite change of pace this will be.
First let's start with something fun. I purchased a new camera recently, a pretty serious DSLR (my first ever) I plan to use both for movies and for photography which I am starting to get more into. It's the Canon 5D Mark II, definitely a big step up from my little point and shoot Canon that I take to shows. Thing is a beast, and it does shoot incredible video but definitely lacks the complete package of a nice video camera. The lack of auto-focus I can deal with in most instances, but not being able to change any aperture or image controls when rolling can be annoying. Also the lack of an articulating screen hurts the overall usefulness of the camera, but I'm still learning. My first video on it is due out soon, May 17th probably, delayed in many parts because my inexperience with the camera (and lack of lenses) really showed in a lot of the stuff I shot. But with a couple of new purchases (most notably my Canon 100mm 2.8 L macro lens, fucking amazing) and some more shoots I'm getting in the groove. Still a big change, but a definite welcome addition to my arsenal. Here are a couple of random photos:
 |
| macro nail |
 |
| Melba |
Which is probably why it's a good thing I've got a lot of stuff going on while all this is going down. I'm about to embark on my most serious travel expedition of my life. It's nothing really that crazy, as I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to foreign travel so it doesn't take a lot to make it a serious endeavor. I will be exploring a new continent and hopefully distracting myself from the tough to swallow changes in life with new experiences. On May 17th I will leave for Korea where I will rendezvous with friends from Nashville who are working there teaching English. I don't even know exactly what I'm going to do, mostly I just hope to see new things and get a different perspective on life. And also to take a lot of pictures, you can bet that beast of a camera is traveling with.
So distractions are in order, I feel if I stick around Nashville right after she leaves I'll be miserable. Better to be moving around. Plenty of that going on, I'm currently in North Carolina with said amazing girl on a mini-vacation before we depart. Then on to Chicago for my brother's graduation for 4 nights. Return on Monday, hopefully wrap up some work which has been hanging over my head for a bit. Then Tuesday it's off to the other side of the world. A definite change of pace this will be.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Coachella 2011 report: Day 1
Coachella has now officially cemented its place as my favorite (and I think the best) music festival in the country. This was my 6th year attending and looking back it definitely has to be my favorite (2008 is a close second). If you've never been I can't stress enough how much you should if you're at all into the festival thing. Get your tickets early, because it will sell out super fast. It only took 6 days this year and probably will take even less next.
Now in it's second year of using a car-camping system with ins/outs between the festival and camping, as well as making the only ticket available a 3-day pass, it has now attained the all-inclusive festival experience it was lacking in previous years. The stunning setting combined with the top-notch booking spanning just about every genre (still could use more quality hip-hop though) and sprinkled in with beautiful is to me paradise. If you haven't been you really must experience it at least once if you are at all a fan of these types of experiences. Be forewarned though you will need to get tickets early, it sold out in a week this year when tickets went on sale after the lineup was released. 2011 has been the year of the quick music festival sell-out, I would be stunned if Lollapalooza doesn't sell out (lineup comes out tomorrow, look for Young Man on the lineup!) and Bonnaroo most likely will as well. Despite the sell-out this year though Coachella did a fantastic job of dealing with the crowds this year, which got totally out-of-hand last year with some 15,000 people sneaking in or using duplicate tickets. Last year Coachella took 2 steps forward and one back. This year they didn't take any back, and like I said before Coachella officially put itself at the front of the pack of US festivals.
Even though the festival happens Friday through Sunday the journey really begins on Thursday, with travel from Nashville Los Angeles (thank you southwest for the direct flight and 2 free bags, clutch for camping gear) then the drive down to Indio, CA. And a journey it is, meeting old friends and new as we formed the biggest Coachella camping group since I have been going to the festival and finally headed into the camping area. Waiting in line and checking in was a bitch but it could have been worse I guess, took a solid 3 hours to make it to our designated camping zone. After setting up it was basically 5am when we got to sleep, and so began a theme for the weekend of short rests between long days. At 9:30am it's rise and shine, even a good shade setup doesn't keep the heat out. Then you can kind of nap in the shade or the car for a bit, but by noon we were itching to head in and get things started.
Walking in early on the first day early is a unique experience, seeing the grounds clean and empty before they get trampled and trashed by tens of thousands of people. Friday was the perfect weather day, warm but never unbearably hot. First thing we wanted to check out was Tokimonsta, an awesome electronic artist on Flying Lotus' label I had seen at SXSW earlier the year. Her set was a lot of fun and a great way to start the weekend, dipping into samples ranging from Jimi Hendrix to TV on the Radio mixed with laid-back electronic beats. The Sahara tent looked awesome this year, with help from the Creator's Project. Great way to start the weekend.
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears was next, a blues band I knew little about but had been reccomended by a friend. It was a fun show to check for a while, definitely had some James Brown vibes but it wasn't enough to make me miss !!! who was to play during the latter half of their set. We chilled in the back for a little while and headed over to the Outdoor Theater to meet up with some friends and go see !!!
If you don't know about the music/antics of !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) I highly recommend you check them out, a great dance rock band in the vein of LCD Soundsystem but more kooky. The lead signer Nic Offer is a wild character with some of the best dance moves ever. Not in terms of grace or composure but just for pure the inspiration to get down and groovy. This was my 5th time seeing them and they have yet to disappoint, everyone in the crowd was dancing around despite the intense sun beating down on us. You must check out their records and show if it ever comes around you, so much fun.
After the !!! show we needed a slight breather, we wandered around the grounds for a bit to get some food and check out some of the sights. Next on my itinerary was Omar-Rodriguez Lopez of the Mars Volta and At the Drive-in fame. I used to be a huge At the Drive-in fan, a lesser one of Mars Volta but I do really like their first album even still. Seeing this show was interesting as it turns out Cedric Bixler was part of his group, a member of both bands with Omar. It was so tragic when At the Drive-In broke up, they were definitely one of my favorite hardcore bands ever, and this show was in some ways a painful reminder of how much I missed them. The show was at turns brooding, hard, and psychedelic but they just didn't capture the magic that was At the Drive-In or much less the Mars Volta. Still glad I saw them though.
It's kind of unfortunate I had to witness a Skrillex set twice this year, dude is just not a good DJ but his popularity is sky-high. I swear I could do about 80% of the stuff he does "live" and I'm not a talented DJ by a long shot and his song selection was obvious (sorry Warp 1.9 was played out several years ago, much less in 2011). The tent was crowded and hot as fuck but really I was there to see Odd Future next, and give them another shot after the SXSW fiasco I had witnessed 4 weeks earlier.
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. OFWGKTA. Perhaps the most random acronym to have caught on so quick as if late. The stage was set, albeit a bit late and perhaps a tad big (why they were put in the Sahara dance tent remains a mystery to me), but Coachella could have been a ground-breaking show for Odd Future. They've been tearing up the independent rap-scene lately, and they've got a (potentially) long career ahead of them considering not a one of them is even 18 yet. And to be honest maybe that's the problem here, their immaturity shows and not in a good way. The show started out with a bang, "swag" and "golf wang"chants abound as they launched into "Sandwitches." The momentum was quickly lost though as the group struggled to get their rhythm going, it was hard to distuguish who was rapping at times especially when backing tracks could be heard so clearly. I'm sorry but I just can't take any rap show seriously that uses the vocal tracks of the raps played over the live rapping. I don't care who you are, it's just never going to work. We stayed for about half the show and decided to go check out the last half of Cee-Lo's show.
This was probably the most disastrous run of Coachella, as Cee-Lo was a whole different kind of train wreck. Despite showing up 25 minutes into his set he had not even started yet. He did take the stage soon after we got there, claiming that his flight ran late and he had just arrived. I'm sad to say the show couldn't ever really get off the ground from there, he seemed pissed and complained about his early set time. Seems his travel should have been handled a bit better, he knew when he was supposed to play. Of course he still sounded great, but you could tell he wasn't bringing his A game. It got so bad that they even cut his microphone off at the end, which definitely did not go over well as he left the stage while the band continued to play. At least I got to hear him play one of my favorite tracks off his new album:
After Cee-Lo on the mainstage was Lauryn Hill, we scooted up to get a good spot for we had never seen her before. Obviously the woman is a near legend, her work with the Fugees and on her Miseducation album coupled with the mystique of her being so out of the spotlight this decade. I was very curious about what her set would be like, I'd heard both glowing and completely dismissive reviews of her performances, blaming lateness and weird song restructuring as one of the main problems. I will say though I really enjoyed her set, although with the insanely large band up there with her (I think about 18 people!) sometimes I couldn't help but feel they were there to distract from the fact that her voice has taken a tumble in recent years. Granted she was at such a high level back in the day, but the reworking of her songs often sped them up and didn't allow her to vocalize them as maybe they should have been. Still though I enjoyed the vibe, hearing some of her classic tunes was pretty amazing even if they didn't sound as I remembered them.
Next on our list was Sleigh Bells but we had a little time to kill so we walked by one of the tents on the way and checked out Kele, an artist I had never heard of before or at least so I thought. I came to find out afterward that he was the lead singer of Bloc Party, which makes sense but I definitley didn't put together at the time. His vocals were sharp and he sounded really good with his band, soulful rock and roll emanated from the stage and even though I knew none of his work (as a solo artist at least) I was drawn in. Props to Kele, I need to grab his solo album soon. We stayed for a good chunk before we headed to the adjacent tent for Sleigh Bells.
And what a noise fest they were. If you don't know Sleigh Bells I wouldn't be too surprised, because while they've become really popular over the past couple of years (they played Coachella last year too) they still only have one album of material to speak of. A doozy of a record that is, Treats is a whirlwind of sonic ear-fucking with intense, distorted guitar sounds accompanied by poppy vocal stylings. The final product is unique and definitely not for everyone, especially in the live setting, but I was totally enthralled by their show. It was better than their last at Coachella IMO, granted I was way more familiar with their material at this point but I think they were also better at playing it as well.
Next up in the same tent was Cut Copy, and as soon as Sleigh Bells ended we didn't hesitate to move up in the tent and stake out a great spot. GOOD DECISION! Cut Copy fucking killed it. It is hard to put into words how good their show is, the energy and sheer joy through out the crowd was absolutely sensational. Every song was a hit, people were jumping up and down going bonkers and the energy was nearly unmatched all weekend. Check video below for an example. I was sad to have to leave even one song early but we had a date with the Chemical Brothers.
So I won this ebay charity auction that ended just a few days prior to Coachella that included 2 VIP tickets and a chance to meet the Chemical Brothers. I had been eying it for a while and in the closing moments I sniped it for a relatively reasonable price, about what VIP tickets normally go for. And being that it was a charity auction to help out disaster relief in Japan made it all the more gratifying. I can honestly say this experience certified this as my favorite Coachella day ever.
We met up with the label head of Astralwerks who was to have us taken backstage to the Chemical Brothers trailer. I was slightly nervous at the prospect but Glenn made us feel comfortable off the bat, super cool guy. Once both the Chemical brothers had arrived (they're not really brothers) we made our way inside their trailer. They offered us a drink and their whole crew was really accommodating, conversation flowed nicely and we riffed on how much we disliked the Kings of Leon. Seems they were a sore spot for both of us, their crew were described by the Chemical Brothers' as one of the least accommodating they had ever had to work with, definitely a poor representation of Nashville hospitality. And remember these guys have been touring since the 90's, so they've dealt with A LOT of different artists and their respective crews. All in all it was amazing experience, we hung out for half an hour or so and they were cool enough to grant us a photo-op before we went on our way.
At this point we were totally on cloud nine, especially considering we still had some great music to see. We were able to check out a little of the Aquabats which was a great moment of ska-infused nostalgia, but it was a bit hard to focus at the time. I was really pumped about seeing Nosaj Thing next, so after a couple of songs we made our way over to the small Gobi tent to rendevous with our friends.
And Nosaj Thing rocked it, definitely met my expectation which I had raised pretty high after watching some live videos of the guy. His down-tempo vibe really fit my mood and he used a great collection of original music with samples woven into the mix. It was in the vein of Flying Lotus' performance last year, not quite as epic but a very similiar vibe. I particularly enjoyed his mix of Portishead's Wandering Star. A great lead-in for the main act of the night.
What else is there for me to say about the Chemical Brothers at this point? Having seen them play one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen only 3 weeks prior I knew what to expect, and meeting them just moments before cemented my belief of them being some of the best/coolest musicians on the planet. Their show is nothing less than art, it takes you on a journey and everything is crafted from beginning to end. The only thing that kept this show from being quite as epic as their Ultra show was they had to cut it short due to the asshole Kings of Leon crew and the imposed curfew, which luckily they were allowed to break a little. It was unfortunate they had to start about 30 minutes late, and maybe this caused some people to leave early or not stick around for the whole thing. But those who did were handsomely rewarded.
The Chemical Brothers really have tapped into something. They inspire both dedication and joy in their followers. Long-time followers were well prepared and new believers were made as they launched through a collection of tunes spanning many ranges of emotion. At turna joyous, beautiful, intense, awe-inspiring and even at times bordering on frightening, their music careened throughout their brilliant career while back-dropped by some of the best visuals I'd ever seen. So good in fact I've been inspired myself to cut together a full-length video of their set from all the fan videos out there on youtube. Hopefully they do not mind, it is their content but here it is presented directly from the fans' point of view. It's also an excuse for me to relive the experience again, something I hope to be doing for a long time. Check out the first part here, and see also the dedication of some of the audience members who set out to glow the place up. You'll see what I mean:
If you want to check out my of the videos visit my youtube page, and go ahead and subscribe while you're at it. Overall it was a mind-blowing way to end likely my favorite day at Coachella ever, and if you made it this far through this long entry then hopefully you've begun to understand why someone like me would spend so much time at these type of events and even want to create on of his own one day. Hopefully soon that will be a reality and not just a dream. For now though I will continue to experience and write, and the other day recaps should come a bit quicker because there was just so much to say about this one. And it wouldn't have been half as special without the Chemical Brothers as a part of it, so big thanks and love to them. Go get their new album Further NOW if you don't have it. Spectacular.
Now in it's second year of using a car-camping system with ins/outs between the festival and camping, as well as making the only ticket available a 3-day pass, it has now attained the all-inclusive festival experience it was lacking in previous years. The stunning setting combined with the top-notch booking spanning just about every genre (still could use more quality hip-hop though) and sprinkled in with beautiful is to me paradise. If you haven't been you really must experience it at least once if you are at all a fan of these types of experiences. Be forewarned though you will need to get tickets early, it sold out in a week this year when tickets went on sale after the lineup was released. 2011 has been the year of the quick music festival sell-out, I would be stunned if Lollapalooza doesn't sell out (lineup comes out tomorrow, look for Young Man on the lineup!) and Bonnaroo most likely will as well. Despite the sell-out this year though Coachella did a fantastic job of dealing with the crowds this year, which got totally out-of-hand last year with some 15,000 people sneaking in or using duplicate tickets. Last year Coachella took 2 steps forward and one back. This year they didn't take any back, and like I said before Coachella officially put itself at the front of the pack of US festivals.
Even though the festival happens Friday through Sunday the journey really begins on Thursday, with travel from Nashville Los Angeles (thank you southwest for the direct flight and 2 free bags, clutch for camping gear) then the drive down to Indio, CA. And a journey it is, meeting old friends and new as we formed the biggest Coachella camping group since I have been going to the festival and finally headed into the camping area. Waiting in line and checking in was a bitch but it could have been worse I guess, took a solid 3 hours to make it to our designated camping zone. After setting up it was basically 5am when we got to sleep, and so began a theme for the weekend of short rests between long days. At 9:30am it's rise and shine, even a good shade setup doesn't keep the heat out. Then you can kind of nap in the shade or the car for a bit, but by noon we were itching to head in and get things started.
Walking in early on the first day early is a unique experience, seeing the grounds clean and empty before they get trampled and trashed by tens of thousands of people. Friday was the perfect weather day, warm but never unbearably hot. First thing we wanted to check out was Tokimonsta, an awesome electronic artist on Flying Lotus' label I had seen at SXSW earlier the year. Her set was a lot of fun and a great way to start the weekend, dipping into samples ranging from Jimi Hendrix to TV on the Radio mixed with laid-back electronic beats. The Sahara tent looked awesome this year, with help from the Creator's Project. Great way to start the weekend.
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears was next, a blues band I knew little about but had been reccomended by a friend. It was a fun show to check for a while, definitely had some James Brown vibes but it wasn't enough to make me miss !!! who was to play during the latter half of their set. We chilled in the back for a little while and headed over to the Outdoor Theater to meet up with some friends and go see !!!
If you don't know about the music/antics of !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) I highly recommend you check them out, a great dance rock band in the vein of LCD Soundsystem but more kooky. The lead signer Nic Offer is a wild character with some of the best dance moves ever. Not in terms of grace or composure but just for pure the inspiration to get down and groovy. This was my 5th time seeing them and they have yet to disappoint, everyone in the crowd was dancing around despite the intense sun beating down on us. You must check out their records and show if it ever comes around you, so much fun.
After the !!! show we needed a slight breather, we wandered around the grounds for a bit to get some food and check out some of the sights. Next on my itinerary was Omar-Rodriguez Lopez of the Mars Volta and At the Drive-in fame. I used to be a huge At the Drive-in fan, a lesser one of Mars Volta but I do really like their first album even still. Seeing this show was interesting as it turns out Cedric Bixler was part of his group, a member of both bands with Omar. It was so tragic when At the Drive-In broke up, they were definitely one of my favorite hardcore bands ever, and this show was in some ways a painful reminder of how much I missed them. The show was at turns brooding, hard, and psychedelic but they just didn't capture the magic that was At the Drive-In or much less the Mars Volta. Still glad I saw them though.
It's kind of unfortunate I had to witness a Skrillex set twice this year, dude is just not a good DJ but his popularity is sky-high. I swear I could do about 80% of the stuff he does "live" and I'm not a talented DJ by a long shot and his song selection was obvious (sorry Warp 1.9 was played out several years ago, much less in 2011). The tent was crowded and hot as fuck but really I was there to see Odd Future next, and give them another shot after the SXSW fiasco I had witnessed 4 weeks earlier.
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. OFWGKTA. Perhaps the most random acronym to have caught on so quick as if late. The stage was set, albeit a bit late and perhaps a tad big (why they were put in the Sahara dance tent remains a mystery to me), but Coachella could have been a ground-breaking show for Odd Future. They've been tearing up the independent rap-scene lately, and they've got a (potentially) long career ahead of them considering not a one of them is even 18 yet. And to be honest maybe that's the problem here, their immaturity shows and not in a good way. The show started out with a bang, "swag" and "golf wang"chants abound as they launched into "Sandwitches." The momentum was quickly lost though as the group struggled to get their rhythm going, it was hard to distuguish who was rapping at times especially when backing tracks could be heard so clearly. I'm sorry but I just can't take any rap show seriously that uses the vocal tracks of the raps played over the live rapping. I don't care who you are, it's just never going to work. We stayed for about half the show and decided to go check out the last half of Cee-Lo's show.
This was probably the most disastrous run of Coachella, as Cee-Lo was a whole different kind of train wreck. Despite showing up 25 minutes into his set he had not even started yet. He did take the stage soon after we got there, claiming that his flight ran late and he had just arrived. I'm sad to say the show couldn't ever really get off the ground from there, he seemed pissed and complained about his early set time. Seems his travel should have been handled a bit better, he knew when he was supposed to play. Of course he still sounded great, but you could tell he wasn't bringing his A game. It got so bad that they even cut his microphone off at the end, which definitely did not go over well as he left the stage while the band continued to play. At least I got to hear him play one of my favorite tracks off his new album:
After Cee-Lo on the mainstage was Lauryn Hill, we scooted up to get a good spot for we had never seen her before. Obviously the woman is a near legend, her work with the Fugees and on her Miseducation album coupled with the mystique of her being so out of the spotlight this decade. I was very curious about what her set would be like, I'd heard both glowing and completely dismissive reviews of her performances, blaming lateness and weird song restructuring as one of the main problems. I will say though I really enjoyed her set, although with the insanely large band up there with her (I think about 18 people!) sometimes I couldn't help but feel they were there to distract from the fact that her voice has taken a tumble in recent years. Granted she was at such a high level back in the day, but the reworking of her songs often sped them up and didn't allow her to vocalize them as maybe they should have been. Still though I enjoyed the vibe, hearing some of her classic tunes was pretty amazing even if they didn't sound as I remembered them.
Next on our list was Sleigh Bells but we had a little time to kill so we walked by one of the tents on the way and checked out Kele, an artist I had never heard of before or at least so I thought. I came to find out afterward that he was the lead singer of Bloc Party, which makes sense but I definitley didn't put together at the time. His vocals were sharp and he sounded really good with his band, soulful rock and roll emanated from the stage and even though I knew none of his work (as a solo artist at least) I was drawn in. Props to Kele, I need to grab his solo album soon. We stayed for a good chunk before we headed to the adjacent tent for Sleigh Bells.
And what a noise fest they were. If you don't know Sleigh Bells I wouldn't be too surprised, because while they've become really popular over the past couple of years (they played Coachella last year too) they still only have one album of material to speak of. A doozy of a record that is, Treats is a whirlwind of sonic ear-fucking with intense, distorted guitar sounds accompanied by poppy vocal stylings. The final product is unique and definitely not for everyone, especially in the live setting, but I was totally enthralled by their show. It was better than their last at Coachella IMO, granted I was way more familiar with their material at this point but I think they were also better at playing it as well.
Next up in the same tent was Cut Copy, and as soon as Sleigh Bells ended we didn't hesitate to move up in the tent and stake out a great spot. GOOD DECISION! Cut Copy fucking killed it. It is hard to put into words how good their show is, the energy and sheer joy through out the crowd was absolutely sensational. Every song was a hit, people were jumping up and down going bonkers and the energy was nearly unmatched all weekend. Check video below for an example. I was sad to have to leave even one song early but we had a date with the Chemical Brothers.
So I won this ebay charity auction that ended just a few days prior to Coachella that included 2 VIP tickets and a chance to meet the Chemical Brothers. I had been eying it for a while and in the closing moments I sniped it for a relatively reasonable price, about what VIP tickets normally go for. And being that it was a charity auction to help out disaster relief in Japan made it all the more gratifying. I can honestly say this experience certified this as my favorite Coachella day ever.
We met up with the label head of Astralwerks who was to have us taken backstage to the Chemical Brothers trailer. I was slightly nervous at the prospect but Glenn made us feel comfortable off the bat, super cool guy. Once both the Chemical brothers had arrived (they're not really brothers) we made our way inside their trailer. They offered us a drink and their whole crew was really accommodating, conversation flowed nicely and we riffed on how much we disliked the Kings of Leon. Seems they were a sore spot for both of us, their crew were described by the Chemical Brothers' as one of the least accommodating they had ever had to work with, definitely a poor representation of Nashville hospitality. And remember these guys have been touring since the 90's, so they've dealt with A LOT of different artists and their respective crews. All in all it was amazing experience, we hung out for half an hour or so and they were cool enough to grant us a photo-op before we went on our way.
At this point we were totally on cloud nine, especially considering we still had some great music to see. We were able to check out a little of the Aquabats which was a great moment of ska-infused nostalgia, but it was a bit hard to focus at the time. I was really pumped about seeing Nosaj Thing next, so after a couple of songs we made our way over to the small Gobi tent to rendevous with our friends.
And Nosaj Thing rocked it, definitely met my expectation which I had raised pretty high after watching some live videos of the guy. His down-tempo vibe really fit my mood and he used a great collection of original music with samples woven into the mix. It was in the vein of Flying Lotus' performance last year, not quite as epic but a very similiar vibe. I particularly enjoyed his mix of Portishead's Wandering Star. A great lead-in for the main act of the night.
What else is there for me to say about the Chemical Brothers at this point? Having seen them play one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen only 3 weeks prior I knew what to expect, and meeting them just moments before cemented my belief of them being some of the best/coolest musicians on the planet. Their show is nothing less than art, it takes you on a journey and everything is crafted from beginning to end. The only thing that kept this show from being quite as epic as their Ultra show was they had to cut it short due to the asshole Kings of Leon crew and the imposed curfew, which luckily they were allowed to break a little. It was unfortunate they had to start about 30 minutes late, and maybe this caused some people to leave early or not stick around for the whole thing. But those who did were handsomely rewarded.
The Chemical Brothers really have tapped into something. They inspire both dedication and joy in their followers. Long-time followers were well prepared and new believers were made as they launched through a collection of tunes spanning many ranges of emotion. At turna joyous, beautiful, intense, awe-inspiring and even at times bordering on frightening, their music careened throughout their brilliant career while back-dropped by some of the best visuals I'd ever seen. So good in fact I've been inspired myself to cut together a full-length video of their set from all the fan videos out there on youtube. Hopefully they do not mind, it is their content but here it is presented directly from the fans' point of view. It's also an excuse for me to relive the experience again, something I hope to be doing for a long time. Check out the first part here, and see also the dedication of some of the audience members who set out to glow the place up. You'll see what I mean:
If you want to check out my of the videos visit my youtube page, and go ahead and subscribe while you're at it. Overall it was a mind-blowing way to end likely my favorite day at Coachella ever, and if you made it this far through this long entry then hopefully you've begun to understand why someone like me would spend so much time at these type of events and even want to create on of his own one day. Hopefully soon that will be a reality and not just a dream. For now though I will continue to experience and write, and the other day recaps should come a bit quicker because there was just so much to say about this one. And it wouldn't have been half as special without the Chemical Brothers as a part of it, so big thanks and love to them. Go get their new album Further NOW if you don't have it. Spectacular.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Ultra Music Festival Report: Day 3
It's difficult to get to Ultra as early as you want most days, especially when you're on day 3 of such a crazy weekend. Originally our goal was to make it there in time to see !!! (yes that's a band, they're fucking awesome too, say it/search for it like “chk chk chk”) play at 1pm, but when I woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon it was clear that wasn't going to happen. We were slow moving, worn out by the previous two days but determined to make it through the end of the third, something no one has ever had to do at Ultra before since this was the first year it was 3 days.
We did get our shit together and make it in time for the Disco Biscuits, which was crucial because they are one of my host for the weekend's favorite bands. They were a lot of fun, I'm not the hugest Bisco fan but their vibe was impossible to resist in this setting. Accompanied by LEBO doing live painting they definitely brought out something different in the Ultra crowd, more of a normal festival feel than the non-stop rave atmosphere of Ultra. It was a welcome change, we stayed for the whole show and had a blast.
The live stage was simply where it was at today, for me at least although that really was the case most of the weekend. With Crystal Castles being slotted to play next there really was no point in leaving. We made our way up to get a good spot and soak in the craziness that is the Crystal Castles live experience. Fronted by Alice Glass, Crystal Castles has become known for their insane live shows, bright strobes obscuring the view of the band while intense electronic noise pummels the audience and Glass shouts, squirms, throws shit around and maybe sings a little here and there. This was my 5th time seeing Crystal Castles, and they were the same as always. Lots of new tunes mixed with the old and plenty of mayhem thrown in the mix. We didn't stay for the whole show but I heard plenty of my favorite songs, if you don't know what their about I suggest you just check it out for yourself, pretty hard to describe.
We did get our shit together and make it in time for the Disco Biscuits, which was crucial because they are one of my host for the weekend's favorite bands. They were a lot of fun, I'm not the hugest Bisco fan but their vibe was impossible to resist in this setting. Accompanied by LEBO doing live painting they definitely brought out something different in the Ultra crowd, more of a normal festival feel than the non-stop rave atmosphere of Ultra. It was a welcome change, we stayed for the whole show and had a blast.
Next up was Fake Blood, we had a little time to go cool off in the Heinken dome first though and drink a beer and get blasted with some AC which was much needed. Then back to the live stage we went to see one of my current favorite DJs of the moment. Fake Blood was at Ultra last year too, his performance really sold me on his style then and completely cemented him as one of my favorite Djs of the festival. His grimy electro style really appeals to me, big beats with fat drops and great bass lines. I highly recommend you check this guy out if you ever get the chance, or just look up some of his tunes to get a feel.
Steve Aoki was to follow on the same stage, and while I'm not a huge fan of the guy he has a huge following and the energy was off the charts. He isn't the best DJ, in fact artists on his label such as Bloody Beetroots make much better music than he does and he played their shit often. One track he even played twice, the dance floor hit Warp 3.1 (I think that's what it's called), but the crowd didn't care they went off both times. We hung out in the back near the water and got silly, the energy was irrestible and while no one in our group would claim Aoki as a favorite I think most secretely enjoyed it. I sure did.
The live stage was simply where it was at today, for me at least although that really was the case most of the weekend. With Crystal Castles being slotted to play next there really was no point in leaving. We made our way up to get a good spot and soak in the craziness that is the Crystal Castles live experience. Fronted by Alice Glass, Crystal Castles has become known for their insane live shows, bright strobes obscuring the view of the band while intense electronic noise pummels the audience and Glass shouts, squirms, throws shit around and maybe sings a little here and there. This was my 5th time seeing Crystal Castles, and they were the same as always. Lots of new tunes mixed with the old and plenty of mayhem thrown in the mix. We didn't stay for the whole show but I heard plenty of my favorite songs, if you don't know what their about I suggest you just check it out for yourself, pretty hard to describe.
We decided to go check out a little Glitch Mob playing at the Tower of Ultra before the real main act of the evening. I like Glitch Mob's style, kind of like dubstep but it almost predates that in some respects. It's 3 dudes cutting up sounds together, and they earn the name Glitch Mob because it does have a glitchy sound at many times. I couldn't tell who was doing what most of the time, but the crowd was going hard even if everyone in our group wasn't.
We went to check out some of trance at what was the Carl Cox now labeled “State of Trance” tent. ATB was playing at he was doing the trance things, lots of female vocal samples with big buildups to high pitched crescendos. Overall not really my scene, but it was an enjoyable atmosphere and a good warm up for the rest to come. I bailed a little early to go corral some friends and catch one more act before the the highlight of the weekend.
MSTRKRFT was absolutely killing it at the live stage, the crowd was huge and just going berserk. Their hard electro style had everyone moving, each drop met with wild enthusiasm from the large crowd. I wish I could have stayed longer, probably should have left ATB a littler earlier than I did, but luckily I had seen them several times. The energy was awesome and they had the crowd in the palm of their hands throughout. I danced through the crowd to find some friends and lead them back to our bigger group to get ready for the Chemical Brothers, the clear main event of the evening in my mind.
I had been dying to see the Chemical Brothers live for seemingly forever. They were one of the original groups that got me into electronic music, their classic albums Dig Your Own Hole, Surrender, Exit Planet Dust, and Come With Us were all ground-breaking, feet-moving, and just plain amazing. I had seen them play two DJ sets before, one at Ultra and one at Coachella, and while they are definitely masters of that craft (see their album Brothers Gonna Work it Out for proof) it is their live show I had been craving. They have long been known for being on top of the live performance game in electronic music, tying an incredible visual aspect in with their music. Which of course they play live, their rig is enormous and they keep busy behind it at all times.
From the moment they opened with Galvanize I knew why I had been so anxiously awaiting this day. From there it was a non-stop thrill ride through their catalog , all accompanied by some of the best visual work I have ever seen. It is hard to put into words how great this show was, and made even more so by the incredibly large group I was with at the time, definitely the biggest of the week. Many didn't know what to expect and others had seen it before, but nevertheless everyone was floored. I talked to some who had seen the Chems before and they said this was their favorite show they had seen, the hardest and most intense but definitely the best. My amazement was capped off by something I had never seen at a festival before, as this glowing web passed over the crowd when the brothers launched into their epic tune Escape Velocity. I was able to capture the moment on video, but even that and the pictures I took can't do it justice.
The Chemical Brothers are legends, and very much deserved to be closing out the festival. They put on the best show of the weekend in my opinion, and though It was sad to depart the festival it was an incredible way to end the weekend. And luckily I'll be seeing them again tomorrow, and I'm even going to meet them due to some other craziness that I'll have to tell you about later. For now I sign off, and the next journey begins.
Ultra Music Festival Report: Day 2
We were up super late the night before so we weren't in that big a hurry to get to the show, especially because we knew we wanted to stay to the end. Getting in was a madhouse again, although a bit faster this time. Funny enough the first act we ended up seeing was Skrillex, not sure if you know about this guy but he has really caught on in popularity lately. He is also the subject of much ridicule at the same time, Skrillex produces crazy dubstep music that is the definition of love-it-or-hate-it but he is a terrible live DJ. He's relatively new to the scene so maybe he will improve, but this video has already become infamous around the net:
Skrillex and his fans are pretty much the definition of brostep, and if you don't know what that is then good. He does the the crowd going though, just not my type of crowd.
As such we didn't stay too long for Skrillex and decided to make our way to the Tower of Ultra stage to see some drum n' bass. I was definitely feeling the vibe more, dubstep can become tiresome unless it's done really well (Rusko for instance) but drum n' bass is much harder to resist. We caught the very end of Feed Me and saw a good bit of Goldie, neither of who I had heard before but both rocked it. The wind was whipping through the shaded tent which felt incredibly refreshing and energized the crowd. Next up was Simian Mobile Disco, and when it got close to time that became all I could think about.
Simian Mobile Disco is one of my favorite electronic groups ever. I love their sound, but more importantly it is their style and musicinaship in a live setting that really sets them apart. Their tower of equipment is fully visible and you can see them working to make the music. I've always preferred being able to fully realize the talent it takes to create this music, not just play and mix others' tunes. Acts like Orbital, Prefuse 73, Chemical Brothers and Simian stimulate me the most with their live rigs, and if you've got great songs to match then you're golden in my book. Simian did however get stuck with a weird time slot this year, still fully light out playing a little before sunset on the live stage. Last time I saw them at Ultra they closed out the live stage and it was literally seizure inducing (as in I saw a guy drop right in front of me into a seizure and had to help carry him out of the crowd because his fucked up friends did nothing). So really the reduced risk of that happening again and the lack of conflicts at the time made me able to enjoy their set fully and really watch what they were doing.
Not that I understand half of what the guys of Simian can do, but it didn't matter. Their show was banging, they played most of their hits and although it was slightly skewed to their newer album (which is not as good as the first) they made the songs come alive a lot more than on record. An instant highlight for me.
After the show there was some small debate about staying for Boys Noize or heading to Moby, but we decided we wanted to check out the crazy tent and I knww for a fact that Moby was going to destroy the tent. And damn he brought it hard, if you think a Moby DJ set sounds anything like his stuff off Play you'd be in for a surprise. The big beats he was dropping combined with the insane setting of the tent (just look at that thing) made for a completely wild and satisfying set. Props to the diminutive vegan for coming hard with such a large sound. I had to leave before he finished to catch some Cut Copy, but what I saw was more than satisfying.
Our group didn't want to stick around for Deadmau5, who was labeled as the true "headliner" for the day which is pretty bogus considering his body of work, so we pushed our way out of the thick crowd to go see Empire of the Sun. This is a band that's been on the radar a lot recently, their hit Walking On a Dream is known by many and I'm pretty sure has been in commercials as well. I wouldn't say that tune really gives an accurate depiction of their live show, it was a lot harder and intense than I expected. Adorned in some outrageous costumes with even more ridiculous visuals it was probably the trippiest show of the day I saw. The music went through many different movements, sometimes there were vocals and it was more traditionally song based and other times it was straight hard electronica. Discenerning their setup was ahrd sometimes, because often they played with instruments, guitar, drums and keyboards but then at other time it just seemed to be more sequencers and controllers doing all the work when they went deeper into the dance music side of thing. Whatever was going on it was clearly appropriate for the Ultra crowd, everyone around me was loving it. And when they closed with the hit Walking On a Dream the crowd went nuts, a completely satisfying conclusion to their crazy show. I must say also they were very photogenic with the costumes and awesome backdrop they had, so I definitely got some good pictures:
After Empire of the Sun ended I was beginning to succumb to exhaustion from the long day. We hung around the live stage for a bit and I caught the beginning of Sasha's set, which was cool but didn't get me going as much as some shows I had seen of his before. Sasha is another legend of the electronic music scene, often paired with John Digweed they were one of the premiere electronic duos stretching back into the 90s. It's hard to pigeonhole his music into one category of electronic music because he can pretty much do it all, to me it's sort of a best of both worlds mix of house and trance. His set here included a crazy visual setup which was cool, but it couldn't touch some of the legendary shows I'd seen of his before so we I didn't stay for too long and decided to wander around for the final 45 minutes of the day.
As I walked around I could see Deadmau5 playing, his show was in full swing, and it was a MUCH better scene than his disastrous show he played last year at Ultra when the speakers blew and the crowd was a horrendous mess. This time there was actually space to move around and you could hear and see well from the back, Ultra's new mainstage setup really was an improvement over previous years'. I guess though I've grown a bit weary of Deadmau5, his popularity is just so high and I don't feel he brings that much new to the table. His best album Random Album Title seems like a longtime ago and I'm just not that big a fan of his new work. I'm sorry but 4X4=12 is just nothing groundbreaking, for all the acclaim it gets it should be much better. His visual setup is one of the best in the game, but the best Deadma5 shows I saw were in 2009 before he had all that going on and it was more about the music (and better music). So I just kind of absorbed the scene for a bit, the crowd was definitely feeling it and I will say it was fun but still nothing as jaw-dropping as when I first saw him at Ultra in 2009 and he was causing stampedes from twirling peoples brains around so hard. I also wanted to check out some of Claude VonStroke before the evening was over so I booked it over the the Root Dome Society Tent which I had yet to have visited yet.
The scene here was much calmer than Deadmau5, a lot fewer people and a much simpler setup. Claude VonStroke is DJ I only knew a little about, mostly his infamous tune The Whistler, and clearly the Ultra crowd was in a similar mindset because the tent was no more than a third full. He played some cool stuff but the energy wasn't really there, and he seemed maybe like he was a little drunk himself (I definitely caught a sloppy mix into a new tune during his set). I did appreciate the dancers strewn about the stage but I only stayed for a bit and went back to check out the end of Deadmau5 and try and work out my ride situation.
Luckily I ended up catching a ride to and from the festival today from old Miami friends, which was clutch considering my car was still locked up and unmovable just blocks away from the festival. I went to check on it, I had gotten a ticket at this point but it was still there so that was really all I could ask for. My old roommate came and picked me up and we rendezvoused with my other friends and headed home. Another satisfying day in the books, this one definitely much smoother than the last. But still one more day to go...
Skrillex and his fans are pretty much the definition of brostep, and if you don't know what that is then good. He does the the crowd going though, just not my type of crowd.
Simian Mobile Disco is one of my favorite electronic groups ever. I love their sound, but more importantly it is their style and musicinaship in a live setting that really sets them apart. Their tower of equipment is fully visible and you can see them working to make the music. I've always preferred being able to fully realize the talent it takes to create this music, not just play and mix others' tunes. Acts like Orbital, Prefuse 73, Chemical Brothers and Simian stimulate me the most with their live rigs, and if you've got great songs to match then you're golden in my book. Simian did however get stuck with a weird time slot this year, still fully light out playing a little before sunset on the live stage. Last time I saw them at Ultra they closed out the live stage and it was literally seizure inducing (as in I saw a guy drop right in front of me into a seizure and had to help carry him out of the crowd because his fucked up friends did nothing). So really the reduced risk of that happening again and the lack of conflicts at the time made me able to enjoy their set fully and really watch what they were doing.
After the show there was some small debate about staying for Boys Noize or heading to Moby, but we decided we wanted to check out the crazy tent and I knww for a fact that Moby was going to destroy the tent. And damn he brought it hard, if you think a Moby DJ set sounds anything like his stuff off Play you'd be in for a surprise. The big beats he was dropping combined with the insane setting of the tent (just look at that thing) made for a completely wild and satisfying set. Props to the diminutive vegan for coming hard with such a large sound. I had to leave before he finished to catch some Cut Copy, but what I saw was more than satisfying.
Cut Copy has been one of my favorite bands the past couple of years. I remember first listening to their album Bright Like Neon Love, which seems like forever ago, and definitely enjoying their mellow electronic sound but it wasn't until their second album In Ghost Colors that sold me on them. It was a more fleshed out sound, big anthems of feel-goodness which move you both physically and emotional. Their new album Zonoscope came out this year, and while it didn't grab me as much at first as their previous it has steadily grown on me to be one of my favorite albums released this year. I was dying to see them again with their new material, so I was pretty bummed they were matched up against one of my other must-sees, Underworld. Luckily there was time to catch 3 songs, and each of them were perfect. They opened with one of my favorite tracks on In Ghost Colors titled Nobody Lost, Nobody Found and instantly the crowd was connected to the good vibes. From there they played one of their new tunes Corner of the Sky which crescendoed to an amazing finale, something Cut Copy does incredibly well. Their songs lend themselves to the build, and when those big drops hit it's nothing but pure euphoria. As the song ended I knew I would have to leave soon, but the opening chords of Lights and Music required me to stay for one more tune. We danced our asses off and then immediately began to hustle our way to the mainstage for Underworld.
Underworld are legends in electronic music, and have long been a favorite group of mine. Most known for their track "Born Slippy" used famously in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting they've been making great music since the early nineties, and continue to do so as their new album Barking is fantastic. Karl Hyde, the lead singer of Underworld, gives their group a unique energy that very few electronic groups can match, simply because they don't usually have vocalists that can amp up the crowd in the way that he does. This was my second time seeing Underworld, the last being at Ultra in 2008, and as soon as I got there I instantly was ok with having left Cut Copy early. Beginning with their classic live mash-up of Rez and Cowgirl set things off right, their tunes are often stretched out over long periods to build and build into crazy crescendos of energy with Karl running about the stage hyping the crowd up.
The show was a mix of classics including Two Months Off, King of Snake, and the aforementioned Born Slippy, mixed in with a healthy dose of new cuts. I had only heard a bit of the new album but their new songs really struck me, particularly Between Stars and Scribble which I took some excellent video of and I think captures the energy of their show quite well. Karl's enthusiasm was palpable, and their team of producers behind their custom mixing board (Underworld always plays with a custom setup, they don't rock the normal DJ decks that most people playing the mainstage can just switch off on) gave him the music to feed off of. Even though the crowd was littered with Deadmau5 fans, many of whom probably didn't even really know who Underworld was, they were still enthralled. The extended tracks which could sometimes last over 10 minutes built to powerful endings that were impossible to resist. I'm sure Underworld made some new fans at this show, and he sure as hell pleased this old one.
Our group didn't want to stick around for Deadmau5, who was labeled as the true "headliner" for the day which is pretty bogus considering his body of work, so we pushed our way out of the thick crowd to go see Empire of the Sun. This is a band that's been on the radar a lot recently, their hit Walking On a Dream is known by many and I'm pretty sure has been in commercials as well. I wouldn't say that tune really gives an accurate depiction of their live show, it was a lot harder and intense than I expected. Adorned in some outrageous costumes with even more ridiculous visuals it was probably the trippiest show of the day I saw. The music went through many different movements, sometimes there were vocals and it was more traditionally song based and other times it was straight hard electronica. Discenerning their setup was ahrd sometimes, because often they played with instruments, guitar, drums and keyboards but then at other time it just seemed to be more sequencers and controllers doing all the work when they went deeper into the dance music side of thing. Whatever was going on it was clearly appropriate for the Ultra crowd, everyone around me was loving it. And when they closed with the hit Walking On a Dream the crowd went nuts, a completely satisfying conclusion to their crazy show. I must say also they were very photogenic with the costumes and awesome backdrop they had, so I definitely got some good pictures:
The scene here was much calmer than Deadmau5, a lot fewer people and a much simpler setup. Claude VonStroke is DJ I only knew a little about, mostly his infamous tune The Whistler, and clearly the Ultra crowd was in a similar mindset because the tent was no more than a third full. He played some cool stuff but the energy wasn't really there, and he seemed maybe like he was a little drunk himself (I definitely caught a sloppy mix into a new tune during his set). I did appreciate the dancers strewn about the stage but I only stayed for a bit and went back to check out the end of Deadmau5 and try and work out my ride situation.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Ultra Music Festival Report: Day 1
So this is coming 2 weeks after the fact, plenty of time to reflect but still fresh in my mind. It seems all I'm writing about right now is these music events I've been going, but besides that and work there's not too much else to report in my life right now. I've been taking these trips and doing the music festival thing for a while now, starting in 2004 this would be my 38th event if my counting is correct. That may sound excessive, but I plan to keep doing because in many ways this is research. I am definitely going to start a music and arts festival of my own someday, with other friends obviously, and hopefully you'll come one year. Anyway onto my Ultra report, which if you don't know is the biggest all electronic music festival in the US held in Miami, FL every year. Being that I went to school in Miami it is the event I have been to the most. The first year I went it was only 1 day and about 15,000 people came. Now it has expanded to 3 days for the first year ever and was completely sold out, 50,000 people per day. As you can see these events are growing in popularity.
I didn't arrive in Miami until 8am Friday morning, drove all night with some other festival goers I met through craigslist rideshare. It was the first time I had ever done that and it worked beautifully. As such I was glad the first day started at 4pm instead of noon like the other days. We didn't get over there until nearly 5:30, and the line was absolutely insane to get in. Luckily my friends and I did a pretty good job weaving through the crowds of people and we got in within 20-30 minutes, I heard some waited an hour. On the way in my friend was assaulted by a cop for doing basically nothing, a story not really worth going into, so Ultra wasn't really sending out the best vibes as you entered the fest. But we got past the festival security just fine so I guess it worked out. Dude didn't even care I had my camelback full of water.
Walking in I immediately how different the arrangement was this year than any other year. Miami has been constructing a new museum in Bicentennial Park where Ultra is held, and they were dealing with approximately two thirds of the space this year. And I must admit for the most part they did a really good job with it. I thought the mainstage was in a great position that allowed big crowds to gather without too much bottle-necking. There were a couple of unfortunate instances of stairs at the festival, something I've never seen at any before, but other than that they adopted to the terrain really well. Well everything except for the new bathroom situation, but I'll get to the later.
First thing we checked out was Cedric Gervais on the so-called Korea stage. It was an appropriate way to start the weekend, seeing a house DJ who frequents many Miami parties and has become a staple of WMC. Ran into some friends, danced around, mostly we were just pumped for all that was to come.
Next our group decided to check out the mainstage for the first time since Benny Benassi was on. I've seen Benassi a few times at Ultra before, this performance fell in the middle for me. Definitely better than last year, he played less cheesy shit and even dropped some dubstep on us which really set the crowd off. So is the trend I guess, it was interesting to hear Benassi, a long-time house and electro artist, give in to that. But he did it well and the crowd loved it.
I wanted to check out some of the CSS show on the live stage while we had a break, so we decided to check out the live stage for the first time. It was a different setup this year, the stage now faced the water and there was a small hill to the back side, versus in previous years where the stage was . The crowd was relatively small for CSS, and as soon as they started up I sort of realized why. CSS is a very fun group, but their vibe was almost a little too punk for Ultra and their small crowd started to make sense as they played.
I only stayed for a few songs because my friends wanted to wander around, so we checked out the adjacent stage where DJ Icey was playing. Icey has been on the scene a long time, I've even seen him play a show back in Nashville many years ago. He definitley drew the biggest crowd I saw all weekend to the small UMF radio stage, was fun for a bit but we didnt' stay too long.
We wandered around for a bit more and bought some overpriced food (Ultra really fucked people on the food this year, it was at best over-priced and ok and worst a total jack and disgusting). We even caught a little Erasure, I can definitely appreciate Ultra bringing a classic artists like Erasure and Duran Duran but I don't feel the Ultra audience returns the same interest. It was one of the smallest crowds I saw at the mainstage in the peak hours of the night. At this point all I could think about was the upcoming Röyksopp show anyway, so we watched a couple of tunes and headed back the live stage.
I have been a huge fan of Röyksopp for some time now, starting back with their album The Understanding. I had never had a chance to see them live before, so I was super pumped for the show. I didn't even really know what the setup would be, I had watched some live videos before and mostly they consisted of the duo of Norwegian duo Svein and Tjorbjor (awesome names) and guest vocalists here and there. So when they strode out on stage as a multi-piece setup and busted into their hit “Happy Up Here” I was floored. The two main members did most of the work and The crowd blew up along with them, jumping up and down as the lights hit the audience and they launched into their set. Most of the members were costumed, and the feel of the music flowed up and down as they plowed through an all-too-short-set-list but was never anything less than beautiful. The mood was great the whole time, definitely my favorite set of the day. Couple of pics and videos below, but they can only do so much:
Next up at the same stage was Trentemøller, a band I had been hearing a lot about recently, most notably they appeared on my radar ever since Coachella put this insane video of them up on youtube:
What a whirlwind of a show. They started behind this cloth fence-like structure which partially obscured the view of the band, letting the music be heard over any individual performance. The best way I can think to describe their sound is a more upbeat and electronic version of Nine Inch Nails, two parts hard house and one part industrial music. It was spellbinding, the Scandinavian artists were bringing it tonight. Eventually they pulled away the covering and the band became more visible, more people gathering around the stage as they got deeper into their set. I didn't know most of their material but it didn't matter. And when they concluded with Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go! I was compelled to take a video, although the sound didn't turn out that great (I love my camera but the mic sucks on it) so I recommend watching the video above instead to get a feel for the group. The show we saw wasn't quite the same spectacle but nonetheless it was amazing, and I hope to see them again at Coachella.
Once the show ended our group stayed at the same stage to see STS9 next, listening to Miss 9 on the decks in the meantime. I'd seen Tiesto enough and he's not really my thing anymore, plus since he headlines Ultra every year (literally) I felt I could miss him. Granted I've seen STS9 an even more ridiculous amount of times, second only to Miami's Awesome New Republic, and both of which I've lost count past a dozen, but I like their style better especially cause it's 5 of them playing live. And they did not disappoint, from the moment they started the crowd was into it. They careened through some classics that I recognized and definitely some new material I hadn't heard before, the visuals and sound were on point and the vibes were great. Or so I thought.
Unfortunately tragedy struck, some total fucking asshole stole my backpack off the ground while we were partying. I was in a large group at this point and had set my bag down at the edge of everyone, and had my eye off of it for about 5 minutes and some low-life took it. I had my wallet, ticket for the next 2 days of Ultra, and my car keys inside. Sadly this kind of ruined the show for me at this point, I could not enjoy the last 20 minutes while I frantically searched the surrounding area for my (hopefully) discarded bag. My friends tried to help but to no avail, too much craziness going on with STS9 finishing their set. Then I really got angry, and my main gripes with Ultra came into play.
Once the show ended some of us spread out to look for my bag, praying someone had fished whatever they wanted out of it and left it somewhere. I especially needed my keys, I had driven not only me but my hosts for the weekend to the show and was parked at a meter. But as we started looking we were ushered out of the venue, the staff would not let me continue to look for my missing bag. I inquired about a lost and found (not marked on the map) and was told by numerous people that it was near the exit. Just go out and to the left they said, someone will help you. Bunch of liars. I come to find Ultra, which considers itself an elite music festival, doesn't even have a lost and found, much less a staff willing to help its patrons. Ultra often pretends it puts the fans first, but that is a bunch of horseshit. They charge $5 for a small bottle of water, have shitty over-priced food, design the WORST bathroom situation I have ever seen at a festival*, and have the most unhelpful festival staff I've ever encountered. My shit was stolen and every worker and police officer at Ultra refused to help me, much less even just let me look for my stuff.
It's unfortunate that an event that is in some ways so amazing could have such deep rooted problems. I've been going to Ultra since 2004, this was my 8th year, and still to this day I consider it one of my least favorite festivals. Don't get me wrong it's still an incredible experience, especially because the past few years their booking has just been amazing, for the type of festival it is no one has a better lineup. But the way this festival is run is an insult to its attendee, from the sheisty food vendors to the joke of a bathroom setup. We still come though for the music and the people, my friends are what make me come back every year more than anything. And they're the ones who helped me collect myself and make it through the rest of the weekend.
My new friend Matt who could only attend Friday gave me his ticket, an amazing move considering this was a sold out show. We took a cab back and chilled out on the beach for much of the night, contemplating the rest of the weekend. Ultra is a lot of fun but they don't have your back if you get screwed over, that's what friends are for. 2 more days to go.
*Seriously Ultra totally screwed the pooch on the bathroom situation. They essentially had one are of port-o-potties, 2 very long rows with tons of stalls going all the way down. But they made the unbelievably terrible decision to have one opening to get to all of them, and this because a total clusterfuck as people swarmed to get in and out of the same place, just to use the bathroom. People were getting knocked over, some of my friends couldn't even deal with it. It got so bad at one point that I knew I wasn't going back there again unless absolutely necessary. Whoever decided not to open up the area like it had been before should be fired immediately, it was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a professional festival do. 50,000 people come to this thing, come on Ultra if you want to pretend to be concerned about your fans at least give them a place to comfortably relieve themselves when needed. /endrant
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