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This is the new map they released today. Reading their twitter, Wharf Stage is essentially the OG Power Plant stage. New power plant stage is roughly where it was last year but maybe oriented a bit differently. VIP stage is fenced behind the very back of the Power Plant stage area. Main takeaway is that it looks like a bunch of the riverfront area along the length of the Float Den back to the old Back Alley area (VIP last year) will be sealed off. That unfortunately takes away a few hundred linear feet of riverside area to chill by. I understand that the wharf is fd up there from the barge wreck, so no fault to the festival or Mardi Gras World. It will probably take at least a year to finish repairs there. Maybe a portion of that might be open to smoke, but it would be a limited area.
Food Vendors have been released. Looks like a few local places mixed in with decent but mostly generic festival caterers. "NOLA Option" on the menu I guess in an attempt to keep it real. Any O'Cajun, Gulf Tacos, Bratz Y'all and Café Dauphine are the only unique ones for seasoned festival goers. This is what we have:
Pizza Nova <-- Generic Festival Staple twitter.com/pizzanovapizza?lang=en Pizza Slice - $7 Personal Pan Gluten Free Pizza - $15 (vegan optional too) Lemonade or Iced Tea - $5 special NOLA All That Jazz loaded pizza slice; King Cake
Any O'Cajun <-- Metairie Catering anyocajun.com/ Crawfish Beignets $6 Crawfish BonBons $7 Crawfish Mac and Cheese $7 BBQ Shrimp Pasta $7 Red Beans and Rice $6 Red Beans with Sausage $7 Smoked Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya $7 3-way Sampler - $15
Choice Burger <-- Maybe local or regional? (have seen before) Classic grass-fed Beef Burger w/Fries - $13 Specialty Grass Fed Beef Burger w/Fries - $15 Cowboy - Pepper Jack, jalapenos, avocado Seersucker - homemade pimento cheese, grilled onions The King - peanut butter, sliced bananas, bacon Fresh Cut Fries - $7 Special NOLA - Muffaletta Burger
Efe's Greek Food <-- Seen around before; not sure if local Gyros - $10 Chicken Pita - $10 Falafel Wrap - $10 Chicken Tender Basket - $12 Special NOLA - Seafood Pita
Bratz Y'all <-- decent local brats place Buku BBQ Pork - slow roasted pork with homemade bbq sauce topped with slaw and crispy fried onions on bun - $9 Berliner Currywurst - grilled smoked pork sausage topped with apple-curry ketchup and crispy onions on bun - $8 Bavarian Salted Pretzel - Fresh baked German style salted soft pretzels w/ spicy mustard dip - $5 Special NOLA - NOLA Schnitzel deed fried breaded pork loin topped with crawfish remoulade slaw on fresh muffaletta bun
Gulf Tacos <-- Louisiana Festival Caterers gulftacos.com/ Shrimp Tacos - 2 for $9 Belly of the Beast Tacos - 2 for $9 Mexican Street Corn - $5 Special NOLA - NOLA fish tacos with fresh local black drum
Café Dauphine (local place) <-- Local African American owned creole place www.nolacafedauphine.com/ Fried Fish and Fries - $12 Chicken Wings and Fries - $10 Bacon Cheese Loaded Fries - $8 Fries - $5 Special NOLA - Buku Seafood loaded fries
Conrdog Inc. <-- Traveling out of Chattanooga, TN www.corndoginc.com/ Corndog (classic, jalapeno, veggie) - $7 Gluten Free Vegan Corndog (classic, jalapeno) - $8 Basket of Tots - $6 Chicken n Tots - $14 Special NOLA - Chicken and Waffles with sweet and spicy sauce
King of Pops <-- Often seen at festivals All Natural Handmade Ice Pops - $4 Special NOLA - Green, Gold and Purple Pop
Two more days! Wharf Stage and Power Plant Stage are up.
Weather looks to be just short of spectacular. According to the NWS as of now, Friday will be sunny with a high of 67 and a low of 53. On Saturday, they have a high of 68 and a low of 58 and mostly sunny. Mostly light winds this weekend of 5mph or so, so I don't know how it gets any better than that in March (unless it was like 5 degrees warmer). Wear sunscreen!
For anyone that missed the Saturday Republic show, it's Gunna, Getter, Rico Nasty, Duskus, Mhadi G and Nameless. I'm not going to this, and it's not likely to sell out. But that should be a fun afterparty.
Freewater named the people they will be bringing to their area for performances. I'm thinking they'll probably bring some of these people to Bonnaroo as well for the plaza they are curating. I only know Malik Ninety Five, but doing DJ Sets are him, K Strikez, Lukrative, Nameless, CRWNS (he's a decent local dub producer); and doing performances are Mhadi G and Jzzle. I'll probably swing by their tent to give them a shout out at some point and meet those guys since I'll probably see them at Bonnaroo again. Also, if you stop by and talk to them, they'll probably tell you if they have any underground shit going on that night.
Hector found another unofficial afterparty being run by Techno Club - Techno Club presents Spektrum featuring My House is Your House Friday March 22 - Chilly Nelson, Heavy Palmz and Javier Drada. This is at 810 South Peters pretty much in the same block as Republic (about a 10 minutes walk from Buku). This goes from 11pm to 5am.
I'll post back on Thursday night or Friday morning with my final anticipated schedule. Looking forward to seeing you mfers there.
Post by priv8snoball on Mar 21, 2019 8:19:47 GMT -5
I know it's a long shot but is anyone selling a VIP Gud Vibrations ticket? I'm looking to trade a GA ticket + Beer money to anyone who wants to downgrade. I can also pay for the whole thing if you're just trying to to sell it.
Sorry, I don't know anyone who got tickets to that one. Everyone I talked to was either doing G. Jones b2b Eprom or From First to Last reunion show. Maybe someone outside the venue will have an upgrade. Thing with being at The Joy though is does the VIP for this show get you anything for a VIP besides lower balcony (poster, meet and greet or whatever)? Typically the Joy doesn't have any value in the VIP except if you want to sit in a front balcony section. You can still go up in the rest of the balconies, but The Joy is best from the floor anyway which is GA. Looks like they kicked the temperatures up to 70 for tomorrow and 72 for Saturday. It's really pretty out today, so yeah, shit's going to be good. I just made my pocket schedule, and it didn't deviate much from the last one. I'd post it to have a reference here, but with the inevitable cancellations due to travel issues and a couple mid-card rappers, I'm going to wait until later or tomorrow morning.
Post by fridakahlo on Mar 21, 2019 19:06:44 GMT -5
We've arrived!! Our AirBnB is adorable. We first stopped by the fest for our friend to get a will call ticket... and LANA WAS DOING HER SOUNDCHECK. I cried. It sounded like a live check. However, I was told that it may have just been a track. (It sounded pretty damn live to me.)
Does anyone have knowledge on if sound checks are actually live? I may have fangirled too early.
Depends on the act. Some people do. Some people have instrument techs or sound crews to do it (obviously not singers). That’s cool if it was live. Also check your pms
My schedule:
Friday The Iceman Special Peekaboo (some Sunsquabi) Toro y Moi Rico Nasty Excision (some Denzel Curry, maybe a second of FFTL dj) 1788-L (10 minutes) Death Grips Kevin Gates (30) Yves Tumor (30) Kidswaste Lana Carti/RL/Claude/charles1st/kero kero bonito AP - From First to Last reunion
Saturday (stc) Thou Papadosio (some Whipped Cream) Earl Sweatshirt Earthgang-J.I.D / Liquid Stranger GRiZ Oliver Tree Doja Cat A$AP Rocky G Jones Suicideboys/Jantsen Dog Blood (some Yaeji) The Black Madonna Mersiv AP- Wakaan Takeover Liquid Stranger b2b Luzcid, Shlump, G-Rex, Esseks, Eazybaked b2b sfam
Looks like a big variety weekend but tending toward the harder shit. I’m happy for what’s ahead. \m/
Expecting that full recap later... also ignore street hustlers in the French quarter.
I’m trying to get there for around gate time. I’ll have a black Saints/fleur de lis cap on, a black all them witches psychedelic long sleeve shirt, a green ACL Fest hoodie and brand new white converses. And shorts. Today is fn awesome outside too.
Fun ass day 1. That much fun should be illegal and probably is. Haha. My only celebrity sightings were partying with Hector and then I ran into J.I.D and told him what’s up and I’d see him today. There were lots of random and wild shows throughout the day. I got there and listened to The Iceman Special. They are a band that’s better to see late night or spun out, neither was the case. It was still pretty decent. Then I went over and caught a few minutes of Sunsquabi. I had planned to split the set with Peekaboo, but I ended up watching Sunsquabi from last year’s red rocks show the night before so I could catch Peekaboo. I thought he was great. Next stop was Toro y Moi which was a little chill but good like he and his band always is. Next stop was Excision. I needed that set to be harder than it was. It was still good but it was a bit of a letdown. Too early I think. I went and watched a few Denzel Curry songs in the middle, and that was a better show in my opinion. I stopped by a few minutes of 1788-L. I wasn’t there long enough to comment on it, but it sounded good. Next was Death Grips. This was a fairly wild show as you’d expect. It was very dark in the Ballroom for that set to the point where I couldn’t even see the drummer. But he was on. Glad to scratch them off the list of want to see acts. After that I went to Kevin Gates. That had the best sound so far and was cranked. I left in the middle to go watch Yves Tunor who performed with another rapper/MC. A big Kevin Gates fan told me that he was annoyed after Kevin got misogynistic. So fuck that in 2019 if true. Went and listened to Kidswaste which was okay if not great. Then we posted up for half of Lana. She was in a shimmering silver dress and boots. She was very talented, and you could tell she sings from the heart and soul. I’d see her again. Next up was a short Rico Nasty set. Thank God she didn’t smack me. Next was wandering between RL Grime and Playboi Carti. Both were decent. We capped the night off with a sold out From First to Last show. That was honestly way way better than I expected. Sonny said they weren’t making any money off the show, they just wanted to do it. Sounded more rock and roll than emo per se. All in all it was a solid day. The Float Den is reoriented perpendicular to the way it used to be due to the damage. So it all pretty much makes sense what they’re doing this year with it.
Looking forward to another whiskey filled day. Haha. Woo
Edit to say ER told me that Barclay Crenshaw was super dope subheadlining for Eprom b2b G Jones after party (said also great)
I started the day off at sludge metal band Thou. They weren’t great or anything, but it was an okay way to start the day. The lead singer was cracking on the crowd with, what is everybody going to Papa Pants? Is that what they call it? Haha. That’s Papadosio you fuck, and if you knew them or who they are, you probably don’t say mean shit about them. It was still funny. Next set was most of Papadosio. They were clean sounding as always, and enjoyable. I broke away to get a free drink at the wharf stage and 10 minutes of Whipped Cream. She is a little generic, but it sounded good. I next made my way over to Earl Sweatshirt. This was the 4th time I’ve seen him, and I had low expectations. However Earl came out and said he was going to rap for an hour, and that’s what he did. He played some new shit, some old shit and dropped a couple OFWGKTA bars too. I was only planning to watch some of this set because Earthgang/Liquid Stranger overlapped and was already a conflict. But I stayed at Earl, and it was my favorite show at the festival itself all weekend. Next I went and caught some of Earthgang. They ruled. Then J.I.D came on and was killer. I was standing next to him at Earl Sweatshirt and toasted him off on his drink. I was surprised he wasn’t just backstage with Earthgang, but those stages are fairly close together. Nice little run of Earl > Earthgang > J.I.D I ended up blowing off Liquid Stranger who is one of my favorite producers to see live. Next up was GRiZ. Set sounded strange from a distance, and I wasn’t even sure it was GRiZ up there at first. Most times you see GRiZ his sets are different. This one was more heavy with some of his poppier shit thrown in. Good show. Next set was Oliver Tree. I’m not a big fan, but I wanted to stop by that for about a half hour. Band was good and so was the sound. Nothing great, but it was a solid schedule filler there. I missed Doja Cat who they said brought out Rico Nasty for Tia Timera. Next up was a bit of G Jones. Sounded fine. I went to see Rocky, but he was 20 minutes late. I can deal with a few minutes, but at a festival your time is valuable. And so I only watched about 10 minutes. Not sure if it ended up good or not*. After that I went and watched some of $uicideboy$ and a little bit of Jantsen in VIP. $B was pretty good again. That’s always going to be a wild show, and it was. I got to Dog Blood and went open minded. Some of it can be a little repetitive but they go very hard. I ended up liking it- particularly the last 15-20 or so minutes. Time got past me, so I didn’t get to stop at Yaeji unfortunately, but I will see her again sometime. Next I was supposed to split The Black Madonna and Mersiv (who I heard was great). But I just stayed at The Black Madonna. It was fn loud as shit and cranking so I stayed there. I think it was a good choice. It wasn’t what I expected at all. Much harder and pulsing. I was on foot so I made the two mile or so trek from Mardi Gras World to The Joy. I got there for the end of Easybaked b2b SFAM. That was a good collaboration - surprised me. G-Rex came out next and was great. He brought out Peekaboo and did Babatude (sp?). Shlump followed him and was the best edm set I saw this weekend. That shit was hard as fuck and kept attacking. Next was LSDream, Brillz’ new project. I didn’t really like the album but the set was okay. Liquid Stranger b2b Luzcid was next. That was great. Finally Esseks came on about 4:15 or so, and we watched about 20 minutes of that before coming home. I’ll post a Top 10 later and some other thoughts. I’m pretty beat down for 2 days. Hahaha
*edit in to say that I doubt it was that good. Rocky did play some old hits later, but I saw a video preceding wild for the night where he tries to hype the crowd up with an “informative” video on how to circle dance. Like come on Rocky, I’m not representative of the crowd but we were moshing and slam dancing a decade before you were born. Most people get it by now.
Yeah me either. Earl wasn’t even top 10 for me coming into the weekend I don’t think. I saw him at Buku twice before, and those were ho hum brooding shows. Then I saw him at Day for Night, and it was okay. He was high and seemed happy at that set. But it was still kind of just whatever compared to what else i saw that weekend. This fucking ruled. Just tons of free styling and flow and then going back to songs not giving a fuck. I don’t listen to earl enough to know almost any of the lyrics, so I can’t recap that show as well as it should be. Hopefully some of it ends up on videos. Speaking of that I’m sure someone will post the doja cat Rico part. E told me he saw all of Doja Cat and it was great. He said she had a good crowd and everyone was singing along. Finished with Bitch Ima Cow. Haha. Sorry I missed that too. As for Rocky, yeah. It was #2 for me coming into the weekend. But I ran out of time. They had the cars on stage so maybe that did take a while? I was in the back and couldn’t see.
Top 10
1A. Earl Sweatshirt
1B. Shlump (hoping he gets a late night set at Bonnaroo)
Post by fridakahlo on Mar 25, 2019 15:46:45 GMT -5
Note to self - never do a 12 hour drive after a festival then have to work early the next day. Yikes.
Now that I have gotten some sleep and have reception finally, here are my top ten.
1. Lana Del Rey. MY QUEEN. Cried multiple times while singing every word to every song. She was so sweet and threw out Mardi Gras beads to her fans. She was much better than I was expecting for a festival set.
2. G Jones. I had a bad experience at his set at Okee last year, so this was my redemption set. He did not disappoint. I practically had to lift my jaw off the floor at several points. Excellent visuals and lighting, and it was more cohesive than last year's set. A lot has to go into making it look great, especially since it's all just black and white. Though, the bass sounded a little blown out? Or was that just me?
3. Getter. I'm actually shocked by this one. Loving the new Visceral stuff. All my friends who like his old (crappy imo) stuff were rolling their eyes, but I had an excellent time as that is more my speed.
4. The Black Madonna. I've never heard of her, but she killed it and seemed to have a damn good time doing it too. Her set was criminally under attended, so I had lots of room to play with my hoop.
5. Toro y Moi. Been meaning to see him for a while now, and it was groovy and nice to listen to while chilling and grabbing a bite.
6. We Came as Romans. Another surprise, as I don't listen to them, but they sounded great.
7. Denzel Curry. Missed him at Okee and he threw the f down.
8. Excision. I've seen him a few times and this was my favorite set of his music-wise, but good lord that sun was obnoxious. Enjoyed it the best we could given the heat.
9. Unicorn Fukr. I liked the beats he was putting out, plus the shade and lack of crowd was a nice break.
10. Dog Blood. They got knocked down major points for being super late, which may or may not have been A$AP Rocky's fault (I think 15-20 mins? Yes, I know Lana was late too, but I'm biased.) Their set wasn't my cup of tea really, or I guess it wasn't what I was expecting. But, I hooped a lot there too so I made it fun for myself.
I missed everyone after Lana Friday night, as we were spent. RL Grime sounded awesome from far away though.
This fest overall was a lot of fun. Saw lots of debauchery, such as several people climbing extremely high stacked shipping containers at NGHTMRE/Slander. Also, apparently someone jumped into the river? And someone else was going around punching people? That's the rumor on the street, anyway.
Not sure if I would do it again. A ticket with no camping + 12 hours driving + a room + ridiculous food and drink prices (seriously, the most expensive festival eats I've ever seen) = a lot of money. However, I had a really awesome experience and saw some incredible, intimate sets I wouldn't have seen anywhere else. Maybe if they have a killer lineup next year... and I run into a bag of money
It was strange as you probably guessed. He had a blonde/goldish wig on and so did his co-rapper. Some dance beats, some industrial, some noise and difficult to really classify. Both of them sang and rapped and it didn’t really sound much like the other 3-4 shows I watched on tv. Definitely was good, and I ditched late A$AP to see it.
Fun. Everyone I know who went all said how fun this year was. Buku is usually fun anyway, but this was kind of an extra fun year and certainly fun by most festival (city in particular) experiences. I was on my own for much of the 2 days and had a blast.
Crowd - Very friendly for the most part. I didn't have any issues with anyone all weekend. I'm sure there were shitheads and obnoxious people as there usually are at EDM and rap shows. I saw a few people on stretchers and guy who looked like he had a twisted ankle at the medical tent. Otherwise, I didn't see anyone fall out though I'm sure it happened a lot of times. A lot of girls dressed up (or down) as the case may be. Skin is apparently in.
Food & Drinks - I drank free most of the weekend, but the whiskey selection was Crown Royal. I'm not a big Crown fan, but I made due. I didn't find the food to be that expensive - at least not what I got. Most of it ranged between 7-12, but I wasn't eating pizza slices or much of the generic stuff that maybe was overpriced. I had fried chicken (Café Dauphine) which was very good. Some chicken and waffles which I thought was not that good but someone else loved it. I did have a generic bowl of lo mein which probably was 7 or 8.
Sound - Sound was random at different stages for different acts . Some of the sound was superior (Black Madonna, Kevin Gates), some was weak, some was probably too loud and some not cranked up enough. I know it's tough in the modern era when everyone is working through laptops, and volume can be compromised from so many different sources. But between C3 and Goldenvoice, there have been too many fuck ups recently at the corporate owned festivals. Nothing at Buku was as egregious as the Deftones at ACL Fest last year or that shitting sounding. But they could have used more consistency, and some sets should have been louder than they were.
Didn't like - Rocks in the main stage/VIP area (swollen ankles). The placement of the Switchyard. It was a pretty cool area, but it was too far away along the flood wall - particularly if you were coming out of the float den. I also hated losing the few hundred linear feet along the side of the float den where you could just chill and stare out over the river. That was beyond the festival's control, but hopefully the dock board can get the wharf and float den fixed before next March. If the Float Den can get back to a couple/few thousand capacity, they could add another 2-3k people assuming they keep everything else as is.
Liked - Fun was what most sticks out to me. I was on a post-partum drain Sunday and Monday, and I'm missing the excitement. I though the lineup was better than some of the major festivals. I thought the artists were appreciative of the crowd and played up to us and not down to us (e.g. Hangout Fest, EDC) for the most part.
I have Jazz Fest, ACL, Voodoo, Bonnaroo and who knows what else this year. But Buku has a special place every year. It's one of the kickoff festivals to the year and is only 2 nights. So it always leaves you satisfied but wanting more. Obviously I have no idea who is playing next year. I did well guessing acts that were due to HL or return for 2019, but I don't know where we are for 2020. Skrillex made his return. Bassnectar made his return. Maybe Deadmau5 or Pretty Lights?
Post by Hector Salamanca on Mar 27, 2019 22:27:37 GMT -5
Alright here is somewhat of a recap:
Friday showed up for Sunsquabi who were a nice warmup for the weekend then ran into Esteban at Toro y Moi - hadn't seen him play before and enjoyed the half hour or so we caught. Definitely need to listen to him more now. Fisher was solid after but nothing particularly mindblowing. Posted up for Denzel after, which was a wild time crowd wise and I hadn't seen him since he put Taboo out so that was good to hear tunes from that after actually having heard them on the record. Death Grips is probably my favorite act to see in music right now so they were almost by default #1 on the weekend and sounded as good as ever. They pulled out Takyon again which I hadn't heard since the first time I saw them in 2015 so that was a highlight. Yves Tumor was weird as hell but in the best way possible - it sounded like industrial glam metal R&B, which doesn't make any sense but that's what we settled on. Caught a little of Lana's set from the back then bounced for Rico Nasty, which was incredibly fun. Super high energy and the crowd was loving it. Decided to do Claude VonStroke instead of Carti since I was pretty worn out from Denzel/DG and apparently that was the right call since I guess he was at least a half hour late and I got the full Claude set in the Float Den which is probably my favorite festival stage of any I've been to. Hit up a random afterparty with house DJs which was a fun time (cheap High Lifes will keep me pretty much anywhere for a while) but we weren't out super late.
Saturday was a later start and we got there for Earl who was pretty great - he did mostly SRS stuff and a couple Doris/I Don't Like Shiz songs each. Will most likely hit up his ATL show in May now too. JID/Earthgang was almost a collab set with the two and JID was way better this time around than at A3C here in ATL last October. He wasn't bad or anything at A3C but Buku was way more his type of crowd. After JID we hung around in the back during Griz, which definitely sounded like a Griz set. Posted up for Rocky after. who was about 20 minutes late so we ditched after about a half hour for $uicideboy$ but I got to hear what I wanted to hear from Testing so I'll take it. Missed him doing the old stuff at the end but I've seen him before and will see him again eventually. $B was pure chaos from beginning to end. They opened with Carrollton which last.fm tells me is the song I've listened to the most in the last 6 months - probably the high point of the weekend for me. Seeing them in NOLA was cool as hell. Dog Blood I thought started a little slow/quiet (granted, we were pretty far off to the side) but picked up after a little bit and was a great lead-in to Black Madonna, who I thought absolutely killed it. Seemed like she tailored her set to the Float Den with a little bit of a heavier/more industrial feel while still sounding like her. Perfect ending to a great weekend.
If Buku keeps putting out lineups like this, I'll keep going back.
Yeah, Toro Y Moi can vary the styles up from time to time (similar, but way different, to Anderson.Paak & tfn). I don't listen to him, but I've seen him and his band a few times now. The sets are usually musically pretty good. Great running into you f*ckers there and throughout the weekend. I didn't have a ranking for Death Grips. It was hard, loud, in your face and shit. But I couldn't figure out where it fit since it was kind of an oddball set, so I only noted it in day's recap. Agree on Yves being weird, and it totally didn't suck. It was kind of a spectacle in a way without all that much prop shit to draw you in. I don't know. I liked it, and I'll see him again. I also agree on Black Madonna. That wasn't what I was expecting, but she brought the heavy goods to that show. I think she caught what the crowd was up to and cranked that shit. I still can't get over how loud it sounded to me. As of last night, there still wasn't anything from her set up on YouTube. Both my phones are so full (as is my icloud) that I can't really record much videos to upload to my channel anymore. I need to get a new phone so I can capture and upload some of the shit I want to see again. I managed about 15 seconds of Death Grips to send to Todd since he couldn't make it. But I thought The Black Madonna was a nice finale to the festival. There were only maybe 100-200 people in the Den for that set which was fine with me. A lot of people blow out before the last show, but there was also the conflict of Louis the Child, Mersiv (where everyone I know was at) and Gunna.
