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There was a cold front that came in with a heavy rain in the middle of Aphex. So from like 3-10 pm it was like 60-70~ and then at 1030 it dropped to below 50 and raining Saturday, and then Sunday was 40-60 depending on the time of day with no rain. (i think that's how it all went down. i was in shorts and t the first day and then a full jacket the next)
Sunday wind chill was 20's and 30's. It was fucking cold.
Sunday wind chill was 20's and 30's. It was fucking cold.
That sounds awful.
Yeah it was pretty miserable. That wind was brutal especially because it rained before the temp drop. Going from 70 to 45 in as little as a few hours while you're soaking wet...they don't prepare you for that shit.
I might have just changed my mind. I thought it would still be warm in Houston.
It usually is 80% of the time. It was kind of a fluke. After that Sunday the temp in Houston pretty much stayed high 50s to high 70s the rest of the winter.
Post by Laggy.RETURNS on Sept 21, 2017 10:09:57 GMT -5
I'm more excited by this festival lineup than anything I've seen all year, but really shouldn't go (financially, and all) I really need to be talked into or out of this festival.
Can someone describe this festival to me? The venue? the art, stage and lighting production? The crowd? The overall vibe?
Is it going to be a group of hipsters who don't dance? I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb dancing like an idiot.
I heard people say the venue is terrible and unsanitary, or that the festival was poorly run. Any truth to that?
Really want to see: NIN*, Jamie XX*, GY!BE, Nina Kraviz, Priests (don't know them yet, based on GL's rec), of Montreal, GAS**
*those shows would both be must see's, but I think they're the only 2 artists on this lineup that I've seen before. I'll for sure be at NIN unless it conflicts with Thom or Justice.
**I don't know GAS, but seeing he has something to do with Kompact lets me know I'll need to be there.
I saw GAS this summer at Dekmantel and he's worth seeing. Granted, the conditions were perfect (indoors, everybody meditating to it, enough space for people like me to lie down on the floor) but his ambient music was very soothing. Check him out on Spotify.
I'm more excited by this festival lineup than anything I've seen all year, but really shouldn't go (financially, and all) I really need to be talked into or out of this festival.
Can someone describe this festival to me? The venue? Former post office, the main stage, 2nd largest stage, and smallest stage were outside (that could change a little this year i guess), inside has stage and kind of a warehouse feel the art it was all pretty interesting, the lights/lasers/sculptures/projections are pretty much all over the place and there were times I was off away from everything and would see something i didnt know was there (youtube/google some of the artists), stage and lighting production honestly, nothing was really mind blowing, and the blue stage could use more, but i thought most everyone had something neat (bjork and the daylight performers were really the only ones without) The crowd Everyone was nice, there were people at every set i saw getting down, definitely better than the other texas festivals I've been to, its not all just music nerds either so that's cool The overall vibe? lit
Is it going to be a group of hipsters who don't dance? there will be those people I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb dancing like an idiot. but you wont
I heard people say the venue is terrible and unsanitary, or that the festival was poorly run. Any truth to that? the indoor bathroom situation was a mess and the hallways were dark af but i didn't feel ever like things were being poorly run (except the bathroom). it was their first time having an event at that location, since then they've had more, I expect it to be smoother.
Homerism aside, Houston is a cool city that isn't all oil men and cowboys, and this festival is a nice reminder of that to the world. But it's also not a city like LA/NYC/Chi where its like "THERES SO MUCH TO SEE WHERE DO I START", we have some nice landmarks, some really good museums, a great restaurant/bar scene, but you're not going to feel like you missed out on a ton of history or iconic tourism if you're festing all day. It's a very chill place.
Sunday wind chill was 20's and 30's. It was fucking cold.
That sounds awful.
It was terrible. I was so unprepared. Luckily I was staying with a friend I was able to borrow cold weather clothes from, but even all bundled up my southern blood could barely handle it. I'm going to bring so many unnecessary clothes this year. But the weather should be fine, last year was an anomaly.
I'm more excited by this festival lineup than anything I've seen all year, but really shouldn't go (financially, and all) I really need to be talked into or out of this festival.
Can someone describe this festival to me? The venue? the art, stage and lighting production? The crowd? The overall vibe?
Is it going to be a group of hipsters who don't dance? I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb dancing like an idiot.
I heard people say the venue is terrible and unsanitary, or that the festival was poorly run. Any truth to that?
1) The festival is at the old Barbara Jordan Post Office which is now Post HTX and is a several acre site that probably is more suitable for a highrise. It's a bombed out 30's/40's 4 or 5 story building with some grass areas in front, a stage in the parking lot (where they put down carpeting, but it smells pretty bad) of which the backdrop is the Houston skyline. There's another stage inside the ground floor of the building which was mostly electronic stuff. The art installations are on the ground and second floors. The ground floor was part of an old mail sorting plant so you can imagine that mail jeeps would have moved in and out of there, so it's essentially concrete with concrete pillars everywhere for support. The place is old, dank and a little creepy. At night time, that certainly adds to the mystique a bit.
2) Lighting and production work was mostly outstanding. There were a couple of glitches, most notable for me with Butthole Surfers who I ended up leaving because the sound was so f'd up. But I think that was pretty isolated. The overall vibe was sort of wonderment. There was always something to see or look at that would be in your field of vision. There were lots of generally happy people milling around.
3) The artwork was primarily light installations. You can find most of them online from last year, and you will find it was very forward. Some of the light artists did "live" shows where they would either work with music or talk about what it is they were conveying. You just had to know the schedule which was posted if there are any that you want to see live rather than just checking out yourself.
4) The crowd was incredibly diverse. There were freaks, hippies, art fans, younger, older, straight, gay, etc. Very cool and not what I would consider hipsters unless you consider the diverse people (and many of the best) on Inforoo that love this festival hipsters. I'm too old to be a hipster, and I'm going back.
5) Lots of people danced, lots of people head-bobbed, lots of people stood around. It's a festival. Some of the shows were big dance parties. Others were ambient or whatever and then there was a little bit of slamdancing and crowdsurfing with Lightning Bolt and Travis Scott.
6) The building isn't unsanitary. It's a post-depression era structure that was damp and dank. Apparently a sewer line broke, and there was a leak across part of the parking lot but you could walk over that if necessary. People are bitches and bitch too much. Also, the festival in no way was poorly run. People were pissed off and whining because Group Think took over regarding all the people pissed off that they didn't get to see Bjork VR. Haha, fuck them. I did. And I'm going back. But if I hadn't have seen it, and it was my favorite show by far last year, I'd still be going back. There were some issues with the indoor bathrooms having long lines. People should use f'n port o johns. The ones in the back of the red stage area never had lines while the ones by the Green Stage were often packed. There were times when the lines got really long for the food trucks, but if you caught them early or late or during off times, you could get whatever you wanted. Fuck some whiny bitches.
Sunday wind chill was 20's and 30's. It was fucking cold.
That sounds awful.
I'll say this - I woke up Sunday morning and went out on the balcony of the townhouse we were staying at, and it was clear it would be a brutal day. However, brutal is relative to Southerners like me. Anyone from up north might have had a sweater or light jacket on. I went with layers. Eventually I put my Deep Eddy silk-screened bandana on my face and was fine the rest of the day. Also, when/if it's cold or raining, you can just go inside the building. With the dancing and heaters, there were warm enough areas there where you could take a break from the cold. So I made do. I'm also a whiskey drinker, so that helps too.
I'm more excited by this festival lineup than anything I've seen all year, but really shouldn't go (financially, and all) I really need to be talked into or out of this festival.
Can someone describe this festival to me? The venue? the art, stage and lighting production? The crowd? The overall vibe?
Is it going to be a group of hipsters who don't dance? I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb dancing like an idiot.
I heard people say the venue is terrible and unsanitary, or that the festival was poorly run. Any truth to that?
High level observations about the festival last year:
-Sound at the main outdoor stage (Red) was generally excellent. -Sound at the secondary outdoor stage (Orange) was hit or miss. Sometimes loud and clear, sometimes quiet and muffled. -Sound at the indoor stage (Blue) was a mess. It was loud, but the lower frequencies swallowed up the other frequencies, but at the same time there was very little impact to the bass. I could hear it above any other frequency but I couldn't feel it. This impacted my enjoyment of the acts on this stage. Maybe things will improve this year, or maybe I'll just try and get closer and hope for better sound up front.
-See map tickmark (1) above in the map. There was a terrible and easily foreseeable chokepoint here. It looks reasonably wide on the map, but in reality things were much tighter. Additionally they had cables running across the floor here that were easy to trip over, especially when you were being crushed in a crowd trying to squeeze through. It was really really dumb of them to have art installation D there at all. Hopefully they don't have anything there next year.
-See map tickmark (2) above in the map. Bjork Digital didn't actually back all the way up to the wall as the map makes it appear. There were doors here, but attendees were not allowed to enter and exit the building here. As such the only way to get to the yellow stage was to walk all the way around. Adding a building entrance/exit here would be an easy way to improve flow, and give more exposure to the acts on the smaller yellow stage.
-See map tickmark (DOO DOO WATER) above in the map. Here is where the doo doo water was.
I'm critical in some of the above comments but generally it was a well run festival. Plenty of bathrooms, lines to get in the festival itself aren't so bad. Decent sight lines at the outdoor stages.
Seen: NIN Solange Justice St Vincent James Blake Jamie xx Godspeed Perfume genius Lil b Of Montreal Tim hecker Jessy Lanza Jlin Priests Rabbit and House of Kenzo separately
Holy shit you've seen Hecker before? He is probably who I am most looking forward to. What should I expect?
Saw Tim Hecker this spring. He plays fucking LOUD. Bring earplugs. His show is totally in the dark: no lighting whatsoever. Forget whether there was smoke or not. But he's good. Sit down for it if you can. You'll take it in better versus standing up.
Good post Postjack. The only things I'd disagree with a little was that some of the sewer water running was outside between the courtyard and red stage areas. We were on that side of the blue stage at almost every show we went to. But I guess we weren't far enough up in that room to notice the leak. We were generally along one of the outer columns for the shows we saw inside.
Also, I didn't find this festival crowd to be typical at all. I remember posting last year that the diversity of it was part of what made the crowd better than average. People were just being themselves - white, black, brown, young, middle age, straight, gay, guys, girls, other, etc.
as far as sound on blue, i attributed any issues i had with being far back since it was kind of like a long highway. we got pretty close for tycho and didn't have any issues, got a little further back for arca and i came away not being able to hear.
as far as sound on blue, i attributed any issues i had with being far back since it was kind of like a long highway. we got pretty close for tycho and didn't have any issues, got a little further back for arca and i came away not being able to hear.
I was in the very back for Arca and even there I thought I was gonna lose my hearing.
Also, I didn't find this festival crowd to be typical at all. I remember posting last year that the diversity of it was part of what made the crowd better than average. People were just being themselves - white, black, brown, young, middle age, straight, gay, guys, girls, other, etc.
Gotcha. It's possible I just wasn't paying close attention to the crowd. Often I am solo at festivals so I spend plenty of time people watching, but at D4N last year I had a bunch of friends with me. Regardless I had no issues with the crowd, people were cool.
as far as sound on blue, i attributed any issues i had with being far back since it was kind of like a long highway. we got pretty close for tycho and didn't have any issues, got a little further back for arca and i came away not being able to hear.
Thanks for sharing. I'll just have to make sure I get close for artists on the blue stage I care about.
We drove in on Saturday around noon, and it was a humid, sticky 80 degrees we always knew Houston was. But we heard about, and planned ahead for, the cold front that was coming through that night. So we brought layers and sweaters in our backpacks.
And we needed them. We walked into the Post Office building around 7PM for Tycho and John Carpenter - then walked back outside (fighting through all the people who were holed up and packed at the entry points) to catch Aphex Twin and it was cold. Real cold. We had just missed the freeze-rain that everyone inside was hiding from. But the die-hard troopers who stayed out for Aphex Twin deserved it and loved it.
That night it got to 30 degrees. Sunday was cold but only because of the rough winds. The thing though with this festival? If you want to get away from the weather, you easily can - you have a giant warehouse to walk around and see art and dance to music.
That cold front was an absolute anomaly though. Don't expect that again. But also - don't expect anything with Texas weather. Just plan accordingly.
P.S. - Now for the 2015 fest, the daytime was WONDERFUL. The nighttime - sweater weather. New Order was cold, but we danced around in the back on the cool carpet and warmed up fine. Death Grip and Kendrick? I was down to a t-shirt. It was probably cold, but in the middle of a tight raucous crowd, you're gonna get lots of body heat.
Good post Postjack. The only things I'd disagree with a little was that some of the sewer water running was outside between the courtyard and red stage areas. We were on that side of the blue stage at almost every show we went to. But I guess we weren't far enough up in that room to notice the leak. We were generally along one of the outer columns for the shows we saw inside.
Also, I didn't find this festival crowd to be typical at all. I remember posting last year that the diversity of it was part of what made the crowd better than average. People were just being themselves - white, black, brown, young, middle age, straight, gay, guys, girls, other, etc.
The crowd for the festival was like 99% fantastic. Very chill cool people there to enjoy some great music. However, when I went to Travis Scott, it was like I left the venue and went to a Travis Scott concert. I'm not surprised by this in the slightest, but very different from the rest of the people. Also that crowd was so huge, I was about midway up when Butthole Surfers ended, and by sheer force of the crowd, was swept away for the next thirty minutes. Completely not in control of where my body was going. But the rest of this festival was not like that. Aphex Twin was packed, but everyone still had plenty of room to dance.
