Voodoo 2017: LCD is not EDM (official)

Red Hat.

That was you! That thing seemed to be falling to pieces by the time you grabbed it. I was given one of the flowers wrapped around the mike stands during Brand New's set.

I assume voodoo will be oct 26-28 next year?

No seriously. Are these the presumptive dates i'm booking hotel rooms now

Apologies for the late review, but there isn't much to it. TLDR, I had a great time but did not spend a ton of time at the festival.

Friday:

Melody had to work so we didn't get on the road from Mobile until 4:30pm. Luckily we made good time and made it for LCD Soundsystem. Facing the stage we were to the right and a good ways in front of the tree. It was surprisingly easy to get this spot, we probably could have gotten up even closer but we were happy with where we were. Great set from LCD, sound was loud and clear where we were.

From there we walked over to Prophets of Rage, but we hung out towards the back, but even back there the sound was good and the energy was too. It was a fun set, maybe not the tightest sound in the world, maybe it's a little cheesy, but we all had fun. I also got the news alert on my phone that Mueller indictments were going out Monday right as the set started, which was a cool way to start it.

Back to the main stage for Kendrick, and with a little effort we ended up basically where we were for LCD, with a good bit of room for dancing etc. I've seen Kendrick twice: once right when GKMC came out at Buku a few years back, and once at Roo 2015. The Roo show was better than the Buku show, but the Voodoo show was significantly better than the Roo show. Kendrick has clearly matured as a performer, and he's managed to harness a calm and powerful presence on stage. The show was high energy and fun, but Kendrick was always in control of himself and the crowd. The lighting and skit videos were all good. Sound was reasonably loud, mix was pretty good, not nearly as good as LCD. Having said that, great show, highlight of the day, would see again.

Saturday:

Just hung out around town during the day, started out at Hi Volt for coffee and breakfast with Houston friends and local New Orleans friends, then went to Turkey and The Wolf and got a bunch of sandwiches, they were delicious. That grilled cheese with collard greens is A+.

Went into the festival late, caught the tail end of Illenium which was awful, then caught RL Grime. I was very excited for RL Grime, I'd missed him due to conflicting sets at festivals in the past. All in all the set was a little disappointing. I enjoyed hearing the tracks I knew, but generally he was just up there playing his songs, and come to find out while I really like a handful of his tracks, most of the other stuff I'm not super crazy about. He loaded the end of the set with his poppier stuff, which was a bad way to wrap it up. I'll still listen to certain RL Grime tracks when I'm riding the stationary bike but I wouldn't go out of my way to see him live again.

Caught just some of Foo Fighters, they rock of course but I've seen them so many times before I wasn't super into it. We bailed from the festival about a half hour early to make it to the LCD show on time.

LCD at the Orpheum: the line to get in was backed up all the way into the parking garage and down the opposite block. I've been to the Orpheum a couple times now and have never seen a line at all to get in. My buddy went up front to check out the situation, then called us and told us to come up there. Turns out there was zero line to get into the other door, the door with the line was having issues with their scanner. Moral of the story: don't be a lemming. People (including myself) see a line and just get into it.

We had KILLER seats, second row loge, y'all can see my view on my instagram (@jostpack). There was a DJ playing some cool tunes before, LCD took the stage at midnight. The sound was powerful, loud, the mix as perfect as I've ever heard at a live show. I love that LCD cares about their mix, not only on their records which sound superb but also live. Not enough bands care enough about the overall tone and instrument separation of their sound. Powerful midbass kept the crowd moving the entire show. The new songs blended perfectly with the old, no decrease in energy. It was intense and a hell of a lot of fun. Easily the best show of the weekend.

Back at the hotel went to bed at about 3:30am, baby started crying in the room next door a couple hours later, I got about 3 hours of sleep and woke up with a terrible headache and sinus pain and pressure. Went and got a poke bowl then headed back to Mobile, wasn't anything at the festival that day that was worth me going in feeling like shit. Sorry Post Malone.

Summary: LN Voodoo does logistics well, which is something pre-LN Voodoo wasn't to good at. Sound is generally good, soundbleed minimal. Great food, easy to get around the festival and get good positions at stages. I haven't cared much for Voodoo's undercard over the past 4-5 years, but as long as they keep booking great headliners I'll keep coming back for $100-$150.

Let's get Nine Inch Nails back in 2018!

Aw damn Postjack, did you get your Poke bowl at that place on Magazine?
They are so good. We call them pokemons.