I’m not going to talk about the DJs because who cares, but here’s some general impressions of the festival itself as compared to previous years:
- Incredibly crowded. Shit’s getting mainstream.
- The dust problem was 100% better. Made did good there.
- Entrance security was a complete joke. Inside the Zoo was stricter though. We saw a couple folks get busted, have their wristbands cut, and get thrown out. Security guy to smoker: “My job is to catch you. Your job is to not get caught.” Another guy upended a girl’s beer because she didn’t have a 21+ wristband on.
- I didn’t care for the tent layout. Being all in a row and too close together made you hear too many things at once if you weren’t right up to the tent. However, I realize the larger tent sizes probably made the old Grove Discotheque (2009)/Sunday School (2010) location too small to use and limited the arrangement of the tents.
- The Garden of EZ was nice, but I liked seeing graffiti artists transform the buses before my eyes last year and the Sonic Forest from 2009 was cool because it was interactive. I was hoping for more stuff like that this year, but it seems like the art really took a backseat.
I also only took about 5 photos this year, as opposed to like 200+ last year. I figured there were tens of thousands of other people per day taking cooler, better pictures and videos, and there would probably be a lot more media coverage, so why bother. I also could’ve easily gotten pics with some DJs, but I hate getting my picture taken and I’m not a fangirl. I don’t do the pics with DJs thing. (Rich has several bad pics of me staring into space as Marcus Schulz stands next to me talking to someone. Heh.)
Rich and I were a lot lazier about trying to see this and that DJ because we’ve already seen all the ones we care about enough times. We sat outside the tents and chilled out with drinks most of the time. We’re old and jaded.
I have high hopes for it this year. As the price increases year by year, so it has improved (maybe not at parity to the price, but it has improved), and I have faith that Made Event will take strides to correct any issues they’ve previously had. Read on for an overview of the festival.
I’ve been having trouble sleeping the past couple days and I woke up in the middle of the night with this song in my head, so now I have to listen to it 100 times to get it out of my head. I like the video, it makes me excited for EZ (though the photos are from Global Gathering 2010 in the UK).
(The only time I listen to the radio is when I’m driving, which is extremely rare since I don’t have a car.)
Or more like Tiësto’s new stuff sounds like everything on the radio. Everyone’s using those saw oscillators or whatever the hell you call ‘em. Dutch house invasion!
I’m really not complaining. So EDM went mainstream. So what? Who cares?
Discussions I found on these sounds, way over my head:
- pop sound sources
- Recommendations For SYNTHs Dance/Electro Current POP
(I was trying to find a non-vocal version of Chris Brown’s “Yeah 3X” when I found those links, ha. Go figure the guy on that forum who knows everything is from NL.)
Which reminds me, a bunch of us went to the Blip Festival a few weeks back and I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard. The headliners were Anamanaguchi, who are kind of big because they did the soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim vs The World, which I, uh, haven’t played, so… I’m a bad geek. :( I enjoyed it, anyway.
One of my favorite old school VG tunes is from Zero Wing. Indeed, the one that gets used (remixed, I guess) in that All Your Base meme… But the original is actually a really good song. Good thing it’s the Level 1 song, because I am really bad at that game.
I enjoy plenty of house, pop, and hip-hop. But when you play that stuff on a trance show just because the songs happen to use some supersaw and other sounds that are typically characteristic of trance… that doesn’t make it trance. It’s not necessarily bad music, it’s just not trance. It’s the current state of pop music.
It’s also what Armin van Buuren likes to play every first hour of his weekly show for some reason. Might as well play Chris Brown’s “Yeah 3X” because it uses one of those trancey wave sounds too! (I actually like the song; I’d like it better if those pesky vocals could be removed.) Or Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love,” which has some supersaw, a classic trance sound.
At least Armin usually puts the blunt down for the second hour… Or maybe he picks it up.
I’m really glad I have the opportunity to visit Vietnam again, but I can’t say I’m not a tiny bit bummed about all the shows I’ll be missing:
March 26 – Tiësto @ Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City
April 1/2 – Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn
April 2 – Ferry Corsten & Hardwell @ Best Buy Theatre
April 9 – Yanni @ Radio City Music Hall
April 11 – Kaskade @ mur.mur at Borgata, Atlantic City
(I also flirted with the idea of attending ASOT500 in Den Bosch, NL, but looks like that’s definitely out of the question.)
Basically all my favorite music ever is coming around the same time and I can’t go. I just need J. S. Bach to come back from the dead and conduct his own concertos for this list to be rounded out.
Hey, jerks, Electric Zoo 3-day (THREE DAYS!!) early bird tickets are still for sale, so grab ‘em while they’re hot. It’s in September. I know, far away. And what’s that you say? The lineup’s not even up yet? Who freakin’ cares, it’s a guaranteed phenomenal show every single time. When it gets closer and you realize you don’t like the DJ’s, can’t make it, or are a lameass, EASY: sell the ticket(s). Yes, it costs an arm and a leg, but it’ll cost more than that if you keep waiting. I don’t want to hear ya’ll bitching when you have to pay a billion dollars trying to buy a ticket the day of because you hemmed and hawed for nine freakin’ months. Fool.
Made Event – Buy them there. And check out some of those other shows while you’re at it (I’ll be at Super8 & Tab).
Last time I wrote about Circus Saturdays at Webster Hall (Sean Tyas was the DJ), I only had a few stinky camera pics. This time I remembered my camera, so here’s some pics from the Guiseppe Ottaviani and Kyau & Albert show last weekend.
I guess the trance movement has pretty much left the Netherlands (Europe) and firmly planted itself on US shores. Which would be fine except I’m going the opposite way. HA.
Also, if I had known the Great Food Truck Race concluded RIGHT IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD, maybe I would’ve held off on going to Chicago that weekend and had a banh mi taco from Nom Nom instead. UGH.
