After a very, very long nap, and about a gallon of water, we headed back to Reliant for day 2 of Free Press Summer Fest. Today, we were smarter- we packed our camelbacks to the brim with ice, brought little battery powered fans, and a cooling towel, and wore comfier clothes and shoes. Bring it!
We showed up a few hours later this time, with time to grab lunch at the food trucks, a couple $20 margaritas, fill our camelbacks, and grab a decent spot at the Mars stage to catch Flume. This Australian artist has been on our radio HARD for the last year. His chill and synthy/bassy remix of Lorde’s “Tennis Court” has been on our playlist of favorite tracks for a good while. Needless to say, we were stoked, and he didn’t dissappoint. He dropped several of his remixes, along with our favorite track. We were also actually able to see, which was pretty sweet, but we noticed that he was wearing a BLACK long sleeved button-down. It was hot as balls, and he managed to not faint under the stage lights.
Next, we rounded up the troops, and caught about a good 35 minutes of Major Lazer. We’d managed to miss Diplo the last SummerFest, and we were not going to miss him this time. It was still sweltering, but we pushed our way into the middle of the crowd by the lighting rig. We couldn’t see anything, and we really didn’t need to – the music was BUMPING. We had instant friends in the crowd as we fanned random people, and only once managed to snag someone’s hair (SORRY!!). The crowd was losing their minds and singing along without the overuse of an MC. The team was definitely on their game, blasting some dub, trap, hip-hop, moomba, and whatever else they freaking felt like. At once point, the MC told the crowd to switch places, for the front to run to the back and the back to the front. We ran a bit with the crowd, but some folks were not moving. It was close quarters, and the fear of being squished was really real. Of course, we had to leave about 5 minutes before the end, but we were ok with that, because at least we got to shake our shit to “Bubble Butt” with our new crowd-friends.
We had even less time at Tycho than we intended. After Major Lazer, we were ready to ride some chillwaves, but repeated technical difficulties cut way into the time they had on stage. We sat outside the crowd for 2 songs, while part of the team took a bathroom break. When we regrouped and were about to head in, the top end of the music dropped out. They apologized, and spent a couple of minutes silent while they assessed the situation. When they fired up again, it only lasted a few seconds, before the amps crashed again. Eventually things got up and running, but we only had time for one song before we had to run off to see Skrillex.
I want to start this next section with a disclaimer: I’ve seen Skrillex before. At the amazing Soldier Field in Chicago a couple years ago, we saw him pull a multi-genre set (everything from rap to dnb) in a torrential downpour that was reminiscent of the rave scene in Blade. Wet hair flung around, people screamed and grinded, and we got hugs from people we didn’t even know. Skrillex was actually mixing, and stayed mostly behind his glowy spaceship shaped DJ booth, like some dubby space wizard. It was truly a magical night. Needless to say, I had really really high hopes for this show. I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t a letdown, or that I wasn’t exhausted after 2 booze fueled days in the sun, or that I wasn’t tired of being elbowed and squished. I was pretty much done by the time he came on, but was hoping for a magical set that would a) surprise me with what he played and b) would make it worth it to get elbowed/squished. What we got was an incredibly safe set. It was still hard hitting, energetic, and good. It just wasn’t anything new. He played 50% either his productions (either as himself or Jack U) or his remixes. He spent half of his time in FRONT of the tables, screwing with the fader and the gain, dropping out the highs, and squeaking into the microphone. After about 30 minutes, I left to go find some friends with Skrillex-loving kids that were hanging towards the back. When we found out that they’d left, I just said “Fuck it, I’m going to go watch Weezer.” We caught 3 songs, sang along, and when they ended, walked back to the meeting spot we’d decided on before the show and watched the fireworks that followed a Justin Beiber song. I get that he’s a performer, catering to what drives the crowd wild, but having seen him before, in apparently what was his prime, really left me saying MEH. It’s not that it felt lazy- lazy isn’t the right word- it’s that his show no longer seemed fresh.
What was your take on the show? Are we just being jaded old ravers? Let us know your thoughts.
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.
