Most times when we review acts, we get at least a full hour and a half to see how the DJ or act controls the crowd, and takes them through a journey from start to finish. The festival set is an entirely different beast altogether. By the time you leave the previous act that is on the other side of the entire park (I know they do this for timing reasons and noise zoning, but SHEESH), you get maybe 40 minutes left of the set. If you want to catch the beginning of someone, then you’ll have to leave a possibly favorite act of certain DODers before they are over to make it to the next act in time. That is, IF you don’t have to take a pee break, drink break, and are fairly tall that you can see from pretty much anywhere. When you get to the next act, then you have to scope out a decent spot where you can either hear everything well and balanced OR where you can see. There is a very small space in between filled with short sweaty shirtless thrashing fistpumping dudebros.
Needless to say, our first day was spent in sweltering heat, which was a sunny slap in the face from the last few weeks of cool monsoon that hit the city. It was as if someone flicked on a switch and turned Houston back on. However, that wasn’t just the weather, the smiles were back, the spirit returned, and it was apparent on everyone’s face. People wore their Houston shirts with pride, and even some Dallas acts (cough-ST. VINCENT-cough) professed her teenage love for her DJ Screw mixtape. With a full heart, and a camelback full of icy water, we hit the pavement.
Our first act for the day was the one and only fucking Peaches, who, even from the back of the crowd, was amazing. Her outfits were outlandish, her performance lewd, and her control of the crowd was on point. This is a woman that danced her ass off, in, on one occasion, a costume that looked like a football padding set covered in plushie boobs. Whether she was in her golden cape or mono-kini with a scowling face painted on it, she danced and sang and gave 100 freaking percent. She exudes sexy without being feminine, and her every being screams a big fuck you to social norms. Solid performance, and we really really wish we had gotten there early enough to see the beginning.
Next, we caught Odesza. Sort of. We missed about half of their set (I’m a huge St. Vincent fan),and when we were finally close enough to see with all of our group accounted for, it was almost time to walk to Steve Angello, as well as get water/beer and pee. We probably only got about 20 minutes of side crowd viewing. Solid show, but heavy fog machine usage impaired us from getting any more viewing than the occasional top of a head. We can only assume they were doing awesome things on stage from the cheers that did not revolve around buildups or drops. Regardless, the set was nice and chill, glitchy and trippy, and refreshing for the hot ass end of a day.
Somehow we made it to Steve Angello with the entire crew, beers in hand, and with empty bladders, before everything started (in fact, we caught the last song of Mastodon). Steve Angello came on just as the sun was down in clouds of real and sneaky fake smoke on the LED screens. Having not have seen him before, and just knowing him as part of Swedish House Mafia, we had no clue what we were getting into. His dramatic entrance, speaking to the sea of phones enthusiastic crowd seemed on par, but then he smacked us upside the head with a few seconds of Robin S’s “You’ve Got to Show Me Love.” The crowd goes nuts, and my ass was hooked from the get go. He banged out his main solo hits “KNAS,” “Rave n’ Roll” and his remix of “Sweet Dreams” along with other anthems such as “Sweet Nothing” and “Sky Full of Stars.” Of course, he also dropped Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child” and “Save the World.” With every major drop, he was courteous enough to ask if we were ready, to the point where it became comical. Of course we are ready, thanks for asking?
However, this was not the cheese-anthem-fest you are probably thinking despite all of this. There was the SOUND, that big boom sound that we rarely find in anything but banging straight techno, penetrated every bit of the air around us, and shook everything for a quarter mile. It thundered like 1000 taiko drums banging in unison to drive away all the heat and it commanded us to dance, even though we were tired as heck from 9 hours in the Houston sun. When it started to get hot, at every major anthem change, the crowd was shot with 4 huge cooling jets, that were many times accompanied with streamers. My inner 5 year old totally geeked out at the amount of confetti and streamers.
The cheese haters would be more skeptical than I was perhaps, but the energy and crowd control he had was undeniable. Most people like to go to a show, ANY show, to hear at least one song they know, and we have that moment were a thousand individuals are connected by those words and that tune we love. We become part of a strange human electricity thing that simply can’t be explained. Those moments were prevalent, and friends sang along, arm in arm, in this glorious positive vibe. The graphics on the stage were not over-choreographed with the music, mostly just flashing his name, or a close up of him, or showing a rotating statue silhouette. It was only when he closed with “Children of the Wild” that the screens showed lyrics and video along with the music. We get that, it’s the closing song! Great fucking show, we were so pleasantly surprised.
AND NOW, the bits you are probably all dying to know:
How was FPSF in a big parking lot?
The GOOD:
No mud
Real parking
Easier to navigate (larger channels for people to walk from stage to stage)
Quicker to get from one stage to another
Generous bag checkers
No lines
The sweet DUAL mural upon entry
Super sweet upgraded stages
The Bad:
Hot ass concrete
$80 in daily Uber fare
Can’t bike there
No leaving to go to Whole Foods for beer and lunch
The gorgeous downtown skyline was traded for the Texas Medical Center
Those that paid for Fancy Pants had NO line advantage (there was no line for anyone)
No natural amphitheater (I couldn’t see squat half the time)
How was your Saturday there? Leave us a message in the comments and stay tuned for day 2’s write up and photos!
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
