So I did a day 1 review for Spring Awakening Music Festival for INTO THE AM which you can find on their site but I figured I can't leave out VCH readers from an editorial masterpiece with day 2. The old saying of 'no rest for the wicked' very accurately depicts the limited recovery time between day 1 and day 2 to soldier on and re-start a day full of being on your feet in the hot sun. Some of our crew got more rest than others as they were too defeated after day 1 to go to the Benny Benassi/Mindnight Conspiracy after party (big ups to Jack for being my partner in crime/reporting for the gig at House Of Blues). Nonetheless, at noon as everyone readied their backpacks with water, cameras and glow sticks (hush hush). Before long we're heading across the North State Street underpass to Soldier Field and I am already feeling the heat (I got burnt pretty nicely the day before). So at first it seemed like it would be a long exhausting day; but that couldn't be far from the truth.
As I had suggested to our team, we began our day with Team Bayside High. Despite that rather minimal crowd, the energy these guys exuded with a nearly exclusively moombahton. The other great part is that these two dudes are Chicago born and bred and they really did show so much excitement despite getting such an early set time (which is more than I can say for a lot of the other guys who got early afternoon sets). With everyone who was initially sitting in the back of the tent resting eventually all flocking up to the stage was all the testament anyone would need of Team Bayside High's legitamacy. Playing some big time moombah like Nadastrom's "i!!", Alvaro's remix of "K Le Pasa", and best of all, showing some serious love to Torro Torro playing their remixes of "Squad Up" and "Why We Fwee". Once they had everyone into it was when they showed up two of their big works with their "Rocky Theme" and their remix of the Dick Dale classic "Misirlou" (if only they had done the remix in time to be used in Pulp Fiction). By far they were one of the better acts all weekend.
Deciding between seeing Quintino and taking a breather, taking a breather won as we found a nice shady area by one of the fences. And luckily for me that was where I spotted DJ Thibault having a beer claiming to be, "remedying the festival hangover" after playing on Saturday (which I heard from fellow crowd mates was a great set). It was there that I picked his brain and bit and he told me that he actually enjoys these short 1 hour sets in some ways because as the DJ it is so high paced and you as he said have "no time to groove and mess around". After taking a photo with the bearded man I returned I let him slip back behind the fence into backstage and I returned to my shady grassy knoll.
It was at this point that my friends went from just helping me out to being material geniuses. Our shady knoll turned out to be a prime people watching point and that is exactly what we did as we watched all different forms of festival goers pass by (see Coachella article on the matter). Though the Coachella article does accurately portray the festival goer, they did not have where exactly we can find each of these creatures at a festival. That's where the reporting crew got to work. We created a diagram showing where and who you can find people in different areas surrounding your typical festival tent. When we truly paid attention to our theories it was astonishing how accurate they were. Let me start with the backstage and elevated stage viewing areas: these we declared were saved for the wall street folk of the festival goers or the 1%. Not there necessarily for the viewing superiority (because it isn't), but rather for the ability to demonstrate there power over the earthlings crammed inside the tent. Another key definition we found was it is almost fool proof that we called, "the forest of lost ravers" always was located by the porta-potties. With youngsters and defeated groups would sit hunched over as if there was nothing left in them and they had no purpose (kind of sad stuff). And my personal favorite was the spot on comparison of your typical festival kids to that of the pelicans in Finding Nemo (molly? molly?). A part of me truly worries whether they remember to even enjoy any of the music they paid to see.
After our rest it was Destructo's turn on the decks at the Super You & Me stage. I was really excited to here some funky stuff but I had no idea of what was about to transpire. First coming onto stage wearing a spidey mask playing big tracks like "Rattle" and "Tung" to me insinuated the power of the mask allowing him to do as his record label describes... Hard. The most interesting part to me was when he took the mask off and virtually immediately when into a great long funky groove playing some of his greats like, "Stand Still" and "LA Funky". I was loving but unfortunately the electro-crazed crowd was a little too one track minded for the funk, which upset me and even upset Destructo himself. Jumping on the mic Destructo claimed, "Yo I guess you guys don't know much about funk huh?" Agreed Destructo, I get you bro. Luckily, gracious to follow it with a little "Don't worry, I know you want the hard stuff, I got you". Then returning to the mask his persona and alias switched back to the unpredictable spidey, was when he turned all gauges on full going hard with "Technology" and Alex Metric's "Rave Weapon". I thought it was one of the best sets of the weekend especially the incorporated stagemanship that almost exemplified a story line.
For the next hour our group split up, with the ladies of our group going to check out NERVO and myself and the guys staying to check out Oliver Twizt. I was really excited to see Oliver Twizt, however I was pretty dissapointed with the set as he was totally predictable. Playing Quintino's big track "Epic" was the breaking point for me when we left to go wander around a bit (new festival law: If a guy just got finished with his set 5 minutes ago, you should not be playing HIS track in your following set).
Luckily my wonderful Veronica Cornerstone-esque female reporters came back with some great info on the NERVO vibe during their gig. As every NERVO concert, I heard something that I always hope to hear after anyone spending an hour with the Aussie twins: "NERVO became my new obsession because they were the sweetest and happiest DJ's who only wanted to play for their fans" Beth, interim field reporter of the crew and lovely Chicago native, proclaimed. As simple a requisite as this sounds, it is very true that especially with the problem of the occasional DJ playing a pre-recorded set, that it is becoming more important for me to see a DJ who feeds off the crowd and works with them rather than stick to some sort of schedule of tracks or setlist. Because if that's all you are doing, why don't you just send me your playlist and we'll save each others time? Beth also added, "They were like EDM spice girls... just more blonde and no flop movie included..". Impressive analogy if I do say so myself.
As our group rounded back up together and many rested, I made my way back into the tent for Felix Cartal's set. At first it seemed like a bit of a downer of a set aside from playing his big records, "Don't Turn Off the Lights" and "Black to White". However Felix picked me right back up when he surprised me with some Stuart Price AKA Thin White Duke AKA Jacques Lu Cont when he transitioned into Stuart's remix of John Dahlback's "Take This Thing Back". After that he really picked up his pace closing out with "Cascade". Well done, sir.
Staying at the same stage, we anxiously awaited Datsik to appear. And the minutes that seemed like hours before he came on were all paid in a well worth it form of bass. Opening with "Firepower", it seemed he was demanding the crowd's attention with brutal force. Following that with one of his recent monsters, "Fully Blown", ensured that anyone who came planning to keep a calm and cool manner went right out the window. After those two big boy of tracks, Datsik demonstrated some more of his cocky style hip hop style later on going into his production with Excision, “Swagga” followed by a rendition of the immortal “Gin & Juice”. As tearing of a feeling it was for me, we had to make our way to the main stage to catch Flux Pavillion. Come back to me Datsik, we need you here in Brooklyn... immediately.
And so off we went to Da Main Stage just in time to catch the last minute or two of Carl Cox's set. I was so bummed I missed out on seeing Carl in Ibiza but unfortunately I had family matters to attend to. So at least seeing the last few minutes of his set allows me to claim I’ve witness Carl Cox’s greatness (not really though, I need a full 3 hour CC groove to be worthy). After a warm hug and handshake between Flux and Carl, FP took over with no pause going into his remix with Doctor P of “Louder”. Though it was what I expected what happened later on totally threw me off with Flux as he spun Flosstradamus’ remix of “Original Don” and made sure to place the better part of the song as if to give tribute to Trap music everywhere. After a little “Bass Cannon”, his remix of “Midnight Run”, and “Voscilate”, I was glad to see Flux play his work with Major Lazer, “Mr. Marshall”.
And so then our crew split up again as some went to go see the Super You & Me man himself, Laidback Luke, I was finally about to see Moby. After witnessing the bald headed legend enter center stage, not much more would theortetically need to be said. Anyone who has seen a Moby DJ set all say the same thing: life changing. A few songs in there that I loved but will confess I didn’t recognize. However, Moby did not lose me because of that. The man showed some serious love to Tommy Trash by playing the Trash-man’s remix of his single “After” as well as playing a Tommy original, “The End”. It was surely for the better part a very in-your-face-deep-bass set for Moby standards but he did pull the reigns back in playing some uplifting tracks such as Herve’s remix of “Under The Sun” and Fukk Off’s “Rave Is King”. But before you started to think Moby was cooling off, he came right back with a classic: Moguai’s remix of the Fatboy Slim single, “Ya Mama (Push the Tempo)”. Ending on a groovy, uplifting and soulful high note with the Quadrant mix of “Playing With Knives”, I truly believe I could have gone home a very happy soul.
I refuse to write ANYTHING about Afrojack’s set aside from there was plenty of superior talent even within the SAMF field (cough, Moby, cough) that were more deserving to close out the inaugural Spring Awakening Music Festival. I’m not saying that it was a poor set, but rather that I expected more out of him. Back to the drawing board Mr. van de Wall, you were way better at Sensation Belgium.
Though a part of me was upset about Afrojack’s letdown, it forced me to realize that though the headliners names may be bigger on the flyers, the point of the festival is to enjoy a whole array of music and artists and enjoy that experience of the abundance of amazing talent around you. Tattered and torn I still left a very satisfied and already nostalgic individual.
Big thanks to the crew (Kelsey, Stevie, David, Alec and Jack) again and a huge thanks to the wonderful camerawoman and of many of these pictures and girlfriend, Beth.
And now for the 10 tracks you should know by now as told by the artists of SAMF:
Team Bayside High really made a name for themselves and for moombah at this festival:
A big name in Moombah, Nadastrom, was a big piece of their set and really was great to see these guys demonstrate what moombah was all about:
Speaking of big names, throwing in a Torro Torro remix definitely was a crowd pleaser:
Then finishing off with two of their big remixes I think solidified plenty of new fans for the Chicago moombah duo:
Destructo's set was a real sleeper seeing as not nearly enough people were there to enjoy this guys talents but nonetheless he proved his worthiness:
Felix Cartal... thank you for playing some funk during an electro dominated weekend:
I had to finally confess during Datsik's set that I am now a basshead and I'm not all that mad about it:
Flux Pavillion had a powerful set as predicted and I have a lot of respect for him showing love to the trap game and Flosttradamus:
Moby had hands down the best session of the weekend. Some truly inspiring stuff amongst all the controversy going on today about the image of the DJ:
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