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you know what? Fine. I’m going to do my review for yesterday right now:
OK, first things first, here’s all the billboard chart watcher/C suite executive bullshit: Four Tet had the biggest crowd that I saw yesterday easily. I do not know why so many 21-year-olds want to watch the guy who made rounds DJ but there you go. Otherwise, because the festival sold out, everybody had a really decently sized crowd for the most part so it wasn’t really easy to get a good gauge on who was the most “popular”. Except for Four Tet. Jesus.
here’s the actual music reviews. I started off with Fcukers, and I really enjoyed them. Like I said the other day, the songs themselves aren’t particularly great I think, but the really heavy use of those really enjoyable 90s basslines and live drumming go a really long way. I stuck around a bit for Snow Strippers, who were truly, absolutely, amazingly almost horrifically bad. I feel bad about going in on artists like this but was an exception (and I generally like the music too). In spite of the fact that she’s dancing around constantly on stage, the lead singer is almost a bit of a charisma void, barely sang at all during the set, and when she did, it was usually not in tune and usually off rhythm. The producer had a lot more energy for some reason I can’t possibly fathom, but his hyperactive persona made the music sound even weirder. I don’t know, man.
Fortunately, though, I left early to duck out for Lava LaRue, who was a genuine delight. She had the smallest crowd easily of the entire day, and I understand why, because chill R&B really does not work genre wise at a festival like this, but she was very good. She has a lot of chemistry with her band as a singer, and in spite of the fact that her supporting players were really really young they were very, very talented and I really enjoyed the songs, even though I wasn’t super familiar with them if they show up at any other Goldenvoice festivals in the near future, I’d recommend seeing her. Peaches was also a total delight, her voice was in fine form yesterday and she had her usual bag of tricks. I’ve seen her do the songs from Rub maybe four times now, but the presentation every time is different in a way that always delights me. I loved her walking on the crowd, I loved the ever-changing political jumpsuits, I loved the inclusion of a couple of deep cuts like “Mommy Complex”. It was great.
But I had to leave early for Jessie Ware. Somewhere in my computer I have my pitchfork review fully written, believe it or not, but of course I fucking love Jessie Ware very deeply. At first from where I was at there was almost nobody in the crowd singing along, but then I left and went over to the sides, and I encountered a very nice lesbian couple who were really into the music and we had a great time singing along with each other. I don’t know if I necessarily want to do a full review of the show right now, just because I know I have a hagiographic review on my computer, but suffice to say that the medley of songs in the middle of the set remains one of the most killer things artist has up their sleeve right now.
I’m going to list a bit of artists I saw briefly and I’ll go through them now - Franc Moody, fine, JPEGMAFIA pretty good with a fascinating choice of Yeezy style silent models as his visual, Floating Points great, Nia Archives great. Soulwax I will talk about another time, I have hashtag Opinions. (Nothing too hot as far as takes go though).
Ok, so. Natasha Bedingfield was goofy but fun. Constantly shouting out her DJ whose name I was totally unable to Google, as well as having TikTok memes behind her when she was playing unwritten were both crazy moves, but I respect that. But my favorite set of the day has to be Deltron 3030. Platonic ideal of an old head rap show: Dell is a really phenomenal live rapper, kid koala is maybe one of the best turntablistd working out there, the graphic novel style visuals were really unique and interesting, and they closed with the Gorillaz song, of course. Really couldn’t ask for a whole lot more than that.
Another crazy opinion: Rufus du Sol was really really good. The Justice style floating lights are really unique to see with an actual band. I wish their music was better but oh well. I then walked into Four Tet, saw the huge crowd, heard the fartiest dubstep, and left. I love Four Tet’s music a lot but his DJ sets are really hit or miss for me and sorry I don’t like the bassy ones. So I moved on to Gesaffelstein. I saw him earlier this month but I was sleepy because it started four hours after I thought it would so I wanted to give it a second chance. I don’t like the new album but…this show was really good! The other advantage of seeing him at a festival was getting to see him with a close-up camera on himself, so I could see better that he was actually playing around a lot with different synths and sample pads and other cool stuff. I wish you wouldn’t try to hide it as much behind his crystals and light shows - he’s clearly a very talented performer of live electronic music and I wish he’d let it show more. But all that being said the neatly lined light show is very geometric and always interesting.
That’s it! See you today! I’m in my cracked as fuck Lingua Ignota shirt lol.
Are there some logistical issues the festival could deal with better? Of course. But wow, that was the best weekend I’ve had in a while. Getting to meet Paul Tollet (yes we talked about Set Time Predictions, which low key made my whole weekend), Anderson Paak, Nia Archives and Jersey all in one day was absolutely mind blowing. Shout out to everyone who made it to the LP Giobbi afters that we threw as well.
Cannot wait til next year!
Top 5: Soulwax Disclosure Justice Natasha Bedingfield (DON’T JUDGE ME OKAY???) Tycho
Controversial take: Saturday was much better than today. Maybe it was me and my hangover, maybe it was the crowd disclosure and fisher brought, but the vibes were different today.
Controversial take: Saturday was much better than today. Maybe it was me and my hangover, maybe it was the crowd disclosure and fisher brought, but the vibes were different today.
I’d argue today was miles ahead of yesterday. Weather really helped
Ben Bohmer and Barry were boring so I told my group we could take the chill route or go rage….
Sammy -> Chase & Status -> Shygirl -> Justice -> Fisher was an insane run
Controversial take: Saturday was much better than today. Maybe it was me and my hangover, maybe it was the crowd disclosure and fisher brought, but the vibes were different today.
I’d argue today was miles ahead of yesterday. Weather really helped
Ben Bohmer and Barry were boring so I told my group we could take the chill route or go rage….
Sammy -> Chase & Status -> Shygirl -> Justice -> Fisher was an insane run
wow Shygirl is dedicated. i just saw her open for Charli in Boston saturday
Controversial take: Saturday was much better than today. Maybe it was me and my hangover, maybe it was the crowd disclosure and fisher brought, but the vibes were different today.
That's funny, I have it the other way around. But, I thought both days were great.
Post by gibsonguy20 on Sept 30, 2024 10:58:40 GMT -5
Portola was fun… I probably enjoyed Sunday more as a whole than Saturday. Sound was definitely louder at crane and warehouse today. Plus I ran into Travelfan at multiple shows!
I walked 54000 steps on Saturday and 49000 on Sunday so my back is going to hate me tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure that is a personal best! I danced a lot and found myself in a good pocket of the crowd for most things where people were vibing and having a good time.
Soulwax Jessie Ware Justice Boys Noize B2B VTSS Horsegiirl
Honorable mention: Jersey, Barry Can’t Swim, and Honey Dijon (who definitely would have been in my top 5 if I was able to stay longer than 30 minutes because the start was bangin!)
Post by travelfan on Sept 30, 2024 11:06:14 GMT -5
This festival is so good. Nothing cohesive and ordered re: my thoughts, just a bunch of random shit.
* Great seeing braundiggity and running into GibsonGuy20 like 8 times in a row * Horsegiirl opening up with My Barn, My Rules after a powerpoint presentation of horse facts sent the crowd into a fucking frenzy. That tent was overflowing and going absolutely crazy. We only saw a few songs before we went to Disclosure, but that was probably the wildest crowd I saw all weekend. My wife and I were going nuts and my brother was like, "what the fuck is this shit?" * Disclosure --> Justice - just so reliably a good time. Amazing crowd, especially for Disclosure - just a sea of jumping humans everywhere you looked when they dropped Insomnia. We saw a tiny bit of Tinlicker after that which was great too. * Pretty Girl is going places. The perfect combination - beautiful music, and she plays and sings so much of it live, and a charismatic personality. Adorable. Not the right stage and time for her vibe but an amazing set nonetheless and she seemed so grateful to be there. * I love Rufus' music unlike a lot of you here, but they are always just a little too mellow for what I want. Enjoyed it, didn't love it. * Four Tet, absolutely insane. * What I saw of Bicep (30ish minutes) was way more fun than their Coachella set was but oddly enough I don't think I head a single Bicep song in that time period. * Snow Strippers is fucking horrible. Like if Crystal Castles fused with Lisa Frank. My brother and I were fascinated and watched them for about 20 minutes just because we were trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. One of the worst live shows I've seen in my life...but, a huge crowd and the crowd at the front was going nuts. * MIA, we watched one song and I heard "Before they cancelled Snowden, they cancelled Maya" and that was the biggest eye roll I've given anyone in my life. * I feel like I have unfairly judged Tycho because I hate Odesza so much and they are kind of similar in genre/era, but my brother is a big fan and I went with him and they are pretty amazing live. * It was/is way more packed than last year. It was painful a bit on Saturday, ngl, with the biggest PITA being getting into VIP spaces but that was fixed Sunday. They never had enough hand sanitizer and paper towels in the portapotties all weekend though. * I love DJ Heartstring. BPM for days with tons of female looped vocals and 90s style piano - in heaven. * Barry Can't Swim went off - was worried that he wouldn't be able to top that Gobi show and in many ways that was a better show just because of the intimate vibes, but there is no way they could have put him anywhere else, his crowd was enormous. * EDITED TO ADD: And Jamie! So fucking good. I did the Jamie --> Natasha --> Jamie run and still got every song I was really hoping to hear from Jamie, absolute vibes.
Post by travelfan on Sept 30, 2024 12:13:34 GMT -5
On an entirely different note my jaw is in so much pain. I am miserable lol. I went through three entire packs of gum last night. After the second watermelon pack my wife was like "just some advice, you might want to switch to mint because your entire lips and tongue are red".
What a great festival. VIP was definitely the way to go, it never really felt crowded, and if it did you could take a few steps back and still have a great view while having space.
I read alot about people talking too loudly during sets for Saturday, but on Sunday I didnt really notice that issue outside of Barry Can't Swim.
"Before they cancelled Snowden, they cancelled Maya" and that was the biggest eye roll I've given anyone in my life. *
I was decently drunk so I forget her exact wordage, but she shouted out both Trump and Kamala for some reason. And it wasnt like a “fuck trump! Vote Kamala!”
It was just… a shout-out lol. We also only saw her for a few mins before bouncing to get a good spot for disclosure.
"Before they cancelled Snowden, they cancelled Maya" and that was the biggest eye roll I've given anyone in my life. *
I was decently drunk so I forget her exact wordage, but she shouted out both Trump and Kamala for some reason. And it wasnt like a “fuck trump! Vote Kamala!”
It was just… a shout-out lol. We also only saw her for a few mins before bouncing to get a good spot for disclosure.
We walked into M.I.A. to kill time before Justice, and immediately when we got there she was like "Now it's time to get political" and it was a collective sigh of frustration from all of us lmao. Just play a banger please!
I think Sunday was the best run of pure fun I've ever had, from Ben Bohmer to Barry to 15 mins of Rebecca to Disclosure to Justice to Fisher to the Ed Banger party (which I thought was insanely good, I danced non stop)
Wanted to go to this for Soulwax, live Disclosure, and a little Gesa/RUFUS but couldn’t justify the price, my friend couldn’t go, and I don’t think my wife would have loved it. Glad everyone here seemed to have fun but I’m taking solace in the reports that it was oversold, low volume (like CRSSD!) and generally bare bones logistics.
Fingers crossed for Soulwax (and Despacio) and *live* Disclosure at Coachella.
CRSSD was plenty loud this year, I definitely needed earplugs. A friend who lives in Normal Heights said he could hear it from his house for the first time.
CRSSD was plenty loud this year, I definitely needed earplugs. A friend who lives in Normal Heights said he could hear it from his house for the first time.
It’s not entirely any artist’s fault, the Braxe + Falcon DJ set was way lower than their one earlier in the day which I wasn’t as much in the mood for, but - and I hate to use this word - the vibes were atrocious lol. A lot of the crowd seemed not into it and it really felt like a lot of people were using it as an excuse to sit and wait outside or do more drugs before heading elsewhere, and TMI maybe but I had to pee so bad and the bathroom lines were impossibly long lol.
was pretty bummed that i missed snow strippers so am selfishly relieved to hear they sucked lol i vowed to not support MIA but curiosity got the best of me (aka shygirl was kinda too shy) and was happy to hear come around and bucky done gun before she gave her weird presidential candidates shoutout and I immediately remembered why i didn't want to go over there
AG Cook and DJ Pee Wee were my unexpected highlights and Justice and horsegiirl were my as expected highlights (:
petition for goldenvoice to bring more of the bratverse to coachella plz
Here's some final thoughts on Day 2.......but first, let's rewind the clock a little bit.
First, Marie Davidson/Soulwax at the Regency. First of all, as someone not from SF, what the fuck is going on with the Regency's announced set times? They said 7:30 Marie Davidson day of so I rushed over to get there (30 minutes earlier than the previously announced start time of 8).....only for her not to start until 8 anyway, where she played for a full hour. (Not that I'm complaining about that, but also I think she might be the only opener I've seen who's ever played for a full hour??) I wasn't thrilled with that, but the show was great, of course. My friends who were with me were really polarized about Marie Davidson, with opinions divided on the spoken word stuff. For me personally, as a longtime fan who's seen her before, I of course love it. This set contained mostly new, unreleased material, along with an especially fun, harder new version of "Work It".
But of course we're here for Soulwax. This was my first time seeing them and the production is absolutely impeccable. The Dewaele brothers come across first and foremost as technicians at heart, with the stage design, lighting design, sound, custom instruments, and choice of additional musicians are all absolutely impeccable. A lot of good live shows, like this one, feel like a magic trick: you see all the individual components up close, but when it's done and you see the final product you wonder "How'd they do that?" But I wondered at a certain point on Saturday after seeing two bits of the show again: do I like Soulwax's songs that much? The answer after listening to them a lot in recent weeks and after seeing the show is "not as much as I thought". And that's fine! There's one perfect singalong moment with "NY Excuse" at the end, and I can spend a lot of the rest of the time admiring the craft that goes into the rest of the material. To that end, one of my favorite moments was when they transitioned from "Here Come the Men in Suits" to the "Work It" and "Too Late Now" remixes - the Soulwax remixes linger in the public imagination for a reason! It's fun to hear their take on others' songs! I know they won't do it, and maybe they shouldn't, but a part of me wishes they'd integrate a bit more of the remixes into the live set.
A side note: I was in a bad mood quite often during this set because there was a guy in front of who was holding up his fan a LOT. I don't mind a fan every once in a while, but this was way too often and way too irritating especially at a show that practically requires you to focus close attention on what each individual musician is doing all the time. Please, do not do that.
Anyway, Sunday!
Made in time to see DJ Seinfeld - he's a resident at Smartbar here in Chicago, but this was the first time I'd actually ever seen him. Enjoyable enough underground house, not much more to say than that! I ducked out early to catch all of Jersey, who was one of my biggest delights of the weekend. Their recorded music scans as a bit earnest post-Fred again.. house, and there's definitely some influence of him in the live show too with occasional MPC noodling. But...weirdly, there's also a lot of Soulwax in their custom vertical synth setup?? The two guys in Jersey work the stage during the set, constantly working with different synths in a way that feels really rewarding and adds a lot of energy to their high tempo sets that even get into breakbeat and gabber territory. (A side note: as Justice incorporates more gabber-like material into their live sets, too, I wonder if hardcore is the next frontier popular electronic music is going to conquer. I sure hope so personally!) A lto of fun.
Was going to walk over to DJ Heartstring but I walked over by the ship tent and saw some of Raf Saperra and was immediately entranced and decided to stick around. There was a lot going on: Punjabi singing! Rapping! DJing hit songs I'd never heard before! A whole dance troupe?!? There was a lot going on (especially for a 30 minute set?) and all of it was really enjoyable.
I stuck around for the Busy P/Braxe + Falcon set and had a blast, a delightful mix of Ed Banger material, some Daft Punk stuff, some Braxe + Falcon stuff. I was less enthralled by the 5 minutes of Barry Can't Swim I saw (nothing against him, it seems fine, just not for me), so I headed over to DJ Pee .Wee. The bit I saw was close to wedding DJ material, which is hardly a bad thing. It's not an easy thing to do, and Anderson Paak does it really well. I couldn't totally tell, but I don't think it was an all vinyl set, so if you're expecting that you might be a bit disappointed - but only for a minute. I was singing "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" with some of the cleaning staff and having a great time.
But I had to head over because I saw Rebecca Black having two male dancers wearing breastplates and I had to check it out. Look, I know: everyone I talked to this weekend assumed I'd be going to Rebecca Black and thought it was ridiculous, but I'll always be a defender. What's curious though is that I've seen her before and this was the best time I've seen her to date? Look, are you going to hear the best singer in the world? No. But was this one of the most purely entertaining sets of the weekend I saw? Yes. Her dancers were phenomenal and had some unexpected moves, including a genuinely impressive part where she laid on both their backs as they walked across the stage, and balances the serious moments of her songs with the comedy you'd at least a little bit expect from someone as self aware as Rebecca Black. She even did a cover of "Deceptacon" that was really good! I fucking loved it. Why not?
But Rebecca Black was only a little campy......and you know what's coming next. That's right, it's horsegiirL time. If you've seen her viral PowerPoint presentation intro, you know exactly what you're getting into: over the top, borderline anarchic glee through all kinds of maligned genres: pop remixes, eurodance, happy hardcore. There's some irony in the presentation, with the constant barrage of large-screen meme visuals, but personally as someone who loves eurodance, I don't seen any irony in the music at all: you can't eat sugar at every meal, but sometimes you just want a bowl of ice cream that has 8 other things mixed inside of it, you know? Huge fan of this, but definitely Not For Everyone.
I stuck around for a bit of Shygirl. I really, really wish this had been a live show - I wasn't as into the Club Shy setup as I thought I'd be, so I thought I'd go scope out what the Robot Bar thing was all about. I wandered upstairs and, totally unbenknownst to me, it was a Daft Punk themed bar, playing all Daft Punk music, with all Daft Punk memorabilia covering the walls. Daft Punk is my favorite artist of all time, so I was overwhelmed when I went in. I stayed for a bit but you can't really spend too much time in there so I ducked out after a while. Before I left, I asked the bartenders if it was a Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville situation with the music playing constantly. He laughed and said it wasn't, so I felt good.
And then, of course, Justice. Before the set, I was walking up to get close, walking over piles of people sitting down, before a guy called out to me: "Hey, you were the guy singing along to Deceptacon at Rebecca Black!" We chatted until the show started and it was really nice. I pointed out the the Venn diagram of people who are into Justice, Le Tigre, and Rebecca Black is tiny and that it was crazy we found each other twice, but at their best that's the kind of nice connection you can make with strangers at festivals. I didn't have as good a view here as I did at Primavera, so I spent a lot of time looking up this time - but it gave me a weird appreciation for how the spotlights work when you're up close at a show like this. The show was pretty similar to last time, though I think they got through the "Justice megamix" part of "Safe and Sound" about twice as quickly as they did when I last saw them? Kind of unfortunate since that might be my single favorite part of this set, but at least it shows there's a bit more spontaneity during this set than some might assume.
And...that was that, pretty much. I went in for as much of Sara Landry as I could see, which was a bit disappointing since I apparently totally missed her dropping Nickelback. I had got a hot dog, went over to 888 Garage, and began the long end of the night. I looked back at some of my videos at Braxe + Falcon and while I don't think it reached the highs of the earlier set, I don't want to make it seem like it was bad - far from it, they even dropped "Intro" so how could I be mad? I didn't stick around for much of Busy P/Boys Noize but I left with at least some level of satisfaction. And there you have it! Another weekend in the books.
Logistical thoughts on this festival: Everything went smoothly with entry again. Security was quick and painless. Crowds were larger than last year noticeably all around but I didn't really feel it as much; bar and food lines were never bad and I can't speak to VIP but I got a decent enough spot for pretty much everyone I wanted to see. Biggest gripe is with GV drink prices as always, but I knew that going in. Biggest issue was cell phone reception - not really an issue I know enough about to figure out an easy solution to, but something they should probably address given how the festival is getting bigger and how they're clearly making a lot of money off of this.
Overall: a great weekend. If I had to do it again, I'd probably skip the late night aftershows lol. Not 100% sure I'll do this again next year mostly because I'm hoping Coachella pulls it off in 2025, but if they pull off a lineup anywhere close to this again I'll be tempted. But, again, I saw Soulwax one day and then Rebecca Black's huge breasted male dancers the next, so the experience was absolutely worth it.
