EDC was fucking amazing. One of the best weekends of my life, if not THE best. Highlights were Eric Prydz, Sasha, Carl Cox, and Mat Zo. John Digweed and Jamie Jones were also pretty damn good. The Neon Garden stage was phenomenal, and my only regret is not discovering it till mid-way on Saturday. Smaller stage and almost every single person there didn't give a shit about anything else but getting down as hard as they could. No bros, no creeps, no one crowding your shit. I learned a lot about my music taste and have some thoughts on the EDM culture in the states, as someone who is pretty new to the genre but also a pretty big outsider to the budding bro-culture that's formed around it. I'll type up more when I have time & energy, but just wanted to mention it and sorta remind myself to do it.
As promised, I'd like to go a little into my experience at EDC, my first live event since getting into electronic music sometime last year. As I've mentioned before, I first got into it simply by hearing Avicii and similar types in bars and clubs when traveling. This was around March of last year, and since discovering electronic music, I listen to it every moment of every day possible. I've never felt excited or passionate about music in the almost 30 years of my life until now. As a preface, I'm in a little unusual position because I got into it recently along with probably most other Americans, yet I had been overseas and have been completely removed from the "EDM" culture. I mention this just to provide some context to some of my observations. Anyway...
EDC was perhaps the most fun 3 days I've ever experienced, and it also taught me an extraordinary amount about my own music tastes. Previously I just listened to Spotify radio seeded with a song I'd like, and use that to discover new music. I developed a playlist and when I got bored of it, I'd use a new seed for the radio and find new artists. When I'd find a new song from this thread or something different pops up on the radio that I really liked, I'd use that as a seed to try and broaden the range of what I'd listen to. This kinda put me all over the place in terms of electronic music, but I kind of see a pattern emerging. As time goes on, I find the superstar DJs become less and less appealing. When I meet people in everyday life who I find out are into electronic music, I find myself irritated to hear "oh my god I saw Avicii last month and it was AMAZING!" Araysar, it's your fault. Anyway, on to EDC
Main Stage
I enjoyed Armin's new album. I really liked Hardwell's set and energy from UMF on youtube. I kinda liked that new Avicii song from a month or so back. But everything changed at the main stage. First of all, no one is dancing. I noticed that from the UMF youtube sets I watched: people with their fists in the air, bobbing their head like it's a rock concert, treating the DJ like some superstar. I found it weird but figured when I'm in the crowd, it will be different. But it wasn't. I saw a few acts I liked at the main stage. Eric Prydz was the highlight of the entire weekend for me. His set was amazing, and we were right in the center just ahead of the VIP area, and we had plenty of room to dance. I loved it. Toward the end of the set, the crowd started pouring in because Avicii was next. The bro ratio skyrocketed, and people screaming out "ooh ooh" in that high pitched rhythmic manner did as well (seriously, what the fuck is that sound? It's beyond horrible). We left after Prydz and not coincidentally saw the one and only fight of the weekend from Avicii bros.
Beyond that, every act we saw at the main stage just sounded the same. Like exactly the same. I never realized this before. I wanted to see Tiesto and Knife Party (fuck you, internet friends is the best workout track ever) and other big names. But every one we saw sounded just like the last. The music is based on bass and predictable climaxes. Every song is either slow singing, slow singing, slow singing, BASS BASS BASS BASS, or it is slow music, slow music, faster music, faster music, faster music, dadadadadadada BASS BASS BASS BASS BASS. I always thought dubstep sounded like shit. By day 2 at EDC, I wondered "how is this different than dubstep?" Every song relies entirely on the same formulaic sequence.
In summary, beyond Eric Prydz and a little of Above & Beyond, I didn't enjoy the main stage even a little. Tiesto, Armin, Knife Party, Dada Life, Calvin Harris - they all sounded the same. The crowd was also the worst of any of the stages. No one dancing, bros everywhere, people treating it like a rock concert, etc.
EDM Culture
There are some ridiculously hot girls, and the outfits they wear are unbelievable. I've never seen so many 9s and 10s wearing nothing in my life. It was great for the eyes, but there was something about it I didn't like. I don't really know the reason, but I suspect it's something about the fad-like nature of the outfits and people's attitudes. It seemed like they were there for the drugs and party rather than the music. The other downside is that girls dressed like that attracts the worst humans in the world: bros. Bros were everywhere, muscle-y and dumb, looking to pick up some 18 year old skanks in fuzzy boots and underwear.
Normally it's not my business what reason someone is doing something for. It's their life, I don't give a shit. But when you have people there for the party instead of the music, it does bother me. When I've sectioned off a little 2 square foot space for myself to dance, having dudes who aren't there for the music come crowd my shit is infuriating. During Above & Beyond when there was a slow or quiet part or I stopped to drink water, I had to keep swaying my body just to keep my space. Toward the end (Calvin Harris was next) it became impossible and I just got angry. Fucking fistpumpers, bros, and fuzzy boot skanks. I didn't know you could get fucking furious on molly. That's how bad it was.
(I will give credit where it is due and say that despite this, the people I met were all super friendly, when you bumped someone they'd apologize rather than try to act like a hardass, etc. I'm sure having everyone on MDMA has not a small role in that, but still I'd like to give credit there. )
Music Discovery
The mayhem at the main stage was partially a boon. Thank god for Avicii and Avicii bros driving me off the mainstage, and Bingo Players crowding up the 2nd stage, because without them I wouldn't have discovered Neon Garden until the end of day 3 when Sasha was scheduled. But thanks to them, I found my way to Neon Garden the 2nd night for the last half of John Digweed. When I got there, I immediately felt like I found my home. That was where I belonged. Instantly you could see the difference in the crowd. First off it was way less crowded - you could find a 5 square foot spot off to the side right up by the stage with ease. Secondly, no one was creeping on girls or putting their hands in the air or doing other stupid shit; everyone was dancing their faces off. No one cared about the guy next to them, or about anything else but dancing. Good dancers, terrible dancers, smoking hot girls dancing alone (and being left alone)...it was heaven.
John Digweed was amazing, Carl Cox was amazing, and Sasha was so good that if Yvonne Strahovsky had come up to me during the set and wanted to fuck, I'd have probably turned her down. By the third night, the people I were with weren't really feeling the stage, so I told them to go off on their own and I danced until my legs physically couldn't keep the rhythm any longer. It was so much fun and so intense that the only word I can use to describe it is: cleansed. Like that feeling you get when you are really stressed and have a good run or go to the gym, or are reunited with a lover after weeks of being apart and spend that first night together -- it was like that, but times ten. As if every problem in the world was solved and all your desires were fulfilled. I have never experienced such a thorough, pure joy.
Closing Thoughts, mostly on EDM culture
I left EDC wanting to do nothing but see more shows. Fuck going to bars and spending $40+ a night and having a minimal amount of fun. I'd rather do nothing for 2 months and save that money for shows. I also have mixed feelings about EDM culture. Having come in kind of at the same time, I'm not really qualified to talk shit about it, but I'm not a fan of the skank/bro culture that has developed. These people are there for the party, not the music, and they bring in a taint to the scene that is, to me, sorely unwelcomed.
There is a silver lining to all this, however, that I think shouldn't be ignored. For every 10 bros fist pumping to Avicii, I saw a number of fellow converts at the Neon Garden stage. I saw a fuzzy-booted, lingerie-wearing girl five feet from me on Saturday and Sunday, by herself dancing her heart out. I saw a group of guys on Sunday night at 3am who had just come to that stage for the first time, and one of them yells out, almost as if giving a moral imperative handed down by God, "WE ARE NOT LEAVING THIS STAGE FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT!!!" There were flickers of kinship here and there, undoubtedly drug-induced, as you'd make eye contact with another person and it was almost like you understood each other. "This is amazing, and I love that you are enjoying it just as much as I am."
For those who lament the corruption of their scene, I want to remind you that the popularity also brings with it new converts. These are people that love the music just as much as you, even if they haven't quite found their place. I discovered at the Neon Garden stage something I can't describe. I left a convert, though I don't know to what or from what I converted. There were many there like me, who came for EDC and found a pure, unadulterated love for music and for others like them who share the same love.
It's not my intention to be dramatic. Those are just the pure, unfiltered thoughts of someone who wished he'd discovered this music 15 years ago.
