Moogfest 2012

It looks like you guys had so much fun!! The pandas look like they were a huge hit.

I can't wait until Craft Mayo starts selling her animal hoods cause I really need a unicorn hood

Also, AC was getting down at Carl Craig. It was an incredible sight.

moog was awesome. all of you people that were there are even more awesome.

I'm not going to lie, I totally thought Moogfest wasn't going to be for me. In fact, originally all I was going to do is go up for the brunch & to visit with board members. Boy, was I wrong. I had an absolute blast. There was not a set that I didn't love. I loved the venues & how can you not fall in love with Asheville. A fun, fun time was had & I will be back next year.

I swear to baby jesus, Friday night was just a perfect, unique chain of events that could never happen under any conceivable circumstances ever again. I'm laughing to myself at things that I can't express here as I type this.

100% next year. I'm sorry Roo, but it'll probably be 3 years in a row no go for me... this just blew you clear out of the water.

I'm mostly saying this because of the lineup... Roo tends to book way too many indie rock and indie folk acts nowadays for my liking, while the acts that I saw at Moog Friday night I expect would be an anomaly for Roo to book. Like, Roo would NEVER book an act like Morton Subotnick... ever. And pretty much anything I would have wanted to see at Roo this year would be easy to catch on tour.

Edit: it really just boils down to personal taste, and when I look at the lineups of the two festivals over the last 3 years, I find far more that I'm truly excited about on the Moog lineups. Now that I've actually experienced it, it seals the deal.

Top five:

1) Black Moth Super Rainbow
2) Four Tet
3) Justice
4) Miike Snow
5) Orbital

I know it's kind of cheap to do since I was only there for one night, but I really think that the shows that I got to see in full (or damn near full) were among the best I've been to. So...

1. Squarepusher (the tweaking he did to the Ufabulum tracks were very interesting and quite surprising, the crowd was nuts, I lost my mind and did serious harm to my body I'm feeling to this second, and that bass solo at the end was beyond incredible. This would definitely fall into my top 15 or so concerts of all time.)
2. Morton Subotnick (I was expecting something very good, if a bit polarizing, but he really pulled this concert off brilliantly. As abstract and hard to approach as his music may be for most people, he really did something special, here. The audience was super respectful and seemed to legitimately appreciate what they were witnessing, which no doubt helped the overall effect of the show to me. Also, the visualizations were awe inspiring. Another top 15 show for me, certainly.)
3. Pantha Du Prince (On a level of actual musical enjoyment, this may have been the best of the night for me. It was so much fun hanging out with the Panda/Inforoo peeps, as well as running into some old friends from high school... his mixing on stage was seamless and the concert was everything I expected it to be. So much fun. Before the festival started, I was saying that I had feeling that this would be the best set I saw all night... in that respect, I guess I saw shows that I liked better, but that's not to say that I liked this any less than I expected. I could see this being in my top 20 shows of all time.)
4. Richie Hawtin (Incredible laser light show... again, his mixing here was expertly done. He knew exactly what his audience wanted, and he gave it to them. A less trained ear could have called his set repetitive, but the subtle layering and progressive nature of the compositions were just very impressive to me. I spent the first half of his set sitting up top watching the lights, then moved down to the floor near the front and observed that lunacy that was taking place down there. Even though I was starting to feel the physical effects of Squarepusher on my right knee and feet, I could not stop dancing... what was originally intended to be a 15 minute stay down at the floor before leaving for the night turned into a 40 minute stay. It was just too much fun.)
5. Blondes (only was in the Asheville Music Hall for about the last 20 minutes of this, but it was sooo much fun... I wish I could have seen more of it, but alas. Not only was it a good house music exhibition, but the events that took place in the AMH were hilarious and amazing. Unforgettable. And FREE WATER!!!)

I ran into Sang, his wife, and EAP on the street on Friday afternoon after getting my wrist band... it seems the lot of them (and others I didn't get to see) were on their way to the L.A.B. brewery. We had just left there not 30 minutes earlier... suffice to say, their home brewed beers were amazing, especially the Black I.P.A. . Definitely going to have to hit that place back up next time I go to Asheville. Also got to eat Mellow Mushroom for the first time, and that was some of the best pizza I've ever had in the south... drinks were a bit too pricey for my liking, but hey I can't really complain. The Mountaineer (motel where we stayed) was an absolutely charming little dump lol. The drunken exploits of the evening in between shows were classic. Cannot stress enough how much of an awesome time I had there.

it was great seeing everyone.

orbital was my favorite set of the weekend for sure.

Abra and I made it back safe and sound. Words will not begin to describe how awesome our weekend was. We were so sad driving back home, but at the same time, we feel so lucky to have so many wonderful people that we can spend festivals with.

Once again, I didn't see a bad set for the entirety of the festival. Now that I am a day away from it, I can safely say that Andy Stott -> Trust -> Orbital is one of the most amazing things that has ever happened in my live music watching career. They were all so insanely good.

I honestly had to do that for the whole festival. Make a gameplan and stick with it.

i miss you moogfest.

I had an amazing time in Asheville this weekend. Every show was just so good, and Moog was put together really well I thought. I didn't get to meet any Inforooer's because of being occupied with my buddies I went down with, and visiting old friends in Asheville. I did see Phi in his suit making his way through the crowd at Shpongle and yelled at him but he was long gone.

Top 5 for me:
1. Four Tet
2. Squarepusher (his visuals and bass literally nauseated me, but I still just loved every minute of it)
3. Orbital
4. Death Grips (what a rowdy fucking show!)
5. everything else =). seriously though, every show I saw was great. Every act seemed to have perfect sound and lighting.