Show Review: Electric Daisy Carnival 2010, Los Angeles

Fireworks. Pyrotechnic shows. A flame thrower rigged arena. Confetti. State of the art lit up carnival rides. Circus midgets. Fog. and LIL JON! ...Just a few of the spectacles that filled the weekend in Los Angeles at the Electric Daisy Carnival that I had the invaluable pleasure of attending. I have been to some amazing electronic music events in my life...namely being LoveFest of San Francisco, POP of San Francisco, and Monster Massive of Los Angeles, but after going to Electric Daisy Carnival for the first time, I can undeniably concur that this is the grand daddy of them all. Considering that I can't separate myself into 5 and couldn't catch all 5 stages and every set, there is a good recap that MTV news did here. Some of the best moments? Spin did a great job of recapping that here.


Day 1 sets I was able to catch:
Chuckie
Steve Aoki
Dada Life
Swedish House Mafia
Kaskade
Deadmau5

Day 2 sets I was able to catch:
Dada Life
Afrojack
Sound of Stereo
Laidback Luke
Benny Benassi
Above & Beyond
Armin van Buuren

I really can't put into words the experience that I had with this event. But here...

Breakdown:

Crowd - The crowd was insane. Probably too insane. The energy levels were so high and people were so desperate to get on the field they even jumped the fences. With everyone so hype, the DJ's knew they had to bring it and responded well.
Production - On a scale from 1 to 10, EDC gets an 11. This production was absolutely insane. The stages were set up and let incredibly well, especially the main stage. Huge wall of LED lights the size of a building and all the pyrotechnic stuff that went down was really incredible. Rigging the entire coliseum with fire torches, state of the art light shows, confetti shooters, fireworks behind the stage, the trampoline jumpers, acrobats, marionettes, and the circus midgets! Insanity! Plus the rides were rigged with great lighting as well. Added an great sense of carnival theme to it all.
Organization - All things considered with the almost 200,000 in attendance, the event was organized rather well. The stages were separated well, the bathrooms were plentiful, and crowd control was handled decently. Props to Insomniac events for the plentiful staff. The only thing I didn't like was the expensive beer and garbage for food.
Lineup - You will never find a more exciting and big name filled line up at any other electronic music event other than Electric Daisy Carnival. Stellar. Amazing. What else can I say? Plus the celebrity appearances...holy moly.

Rating: This event really smacked me in the face big time and showed me indeed how mainstream electronic music is getting here in the United States. I couldn't believe the world class DJ's and all the surprise celebrity appearances saying that this was the greatest massive they have been to. If anything is for sure, it's that dance and electronic music is here. And it's here to stay. ***** (5 stars).

Scale:
***** - Perfect night. Legendary show
**** - Great night. Very enjoyable
*** - Decent night. Some things were hit or miss but overall fine.
** - Boring night. Not too many enjoyable things at this show.
* - Terrible night. Everything went wrong with this one. Where's the booze?

~M

#MusicMonday: Electric Daisy Carnival Hype

Hey everyone. Considering #MusicMonday is almost over, might as well make this one short and sweet. Typically I have a lot of musical thoughts going through my head and thinking of a lot of different ideas, but at this moment only one thing is on my mind: Electric Daisy Carnival. Even though Drake's album has come out recently and Eminem dropped Recovery today, EDC is my main focus. For those who have no idea about events that go on within the dance/electronic music scene, Electric Daisy Carnival is the biggest event to happen on the west coast. 2 days long, 12 hours each day, and jam packed full of the filthiest beats of house/trance/electro/drum&bass you can imagine. Also did I mention they have carnival rides? Yeah...it has carnival in the name; makes sense. My journey will take me to the heart of LA to witness the craziest spectacle that I will probably experience in the electronic scene unless I fly to Ibiza or go to one of the European festivals like Love Parade or Dance Valley in the Netherlands. Anyways, here are the DJ's that I am thoroughly stoked to see:


Steve Aoki
Deadmau5 (as usual)
Kaskade
Dirty South
Chuckie
Dada Life
Sean Tyas
Afrojack
Benny Benassi
Fedde Le Grand
Gareth Emery
Laidback Luke
Boys Noize
Above & Beyond
Sasha
ATB
Armin van Buuren (the man!)

If you weren't drooling over that then you just don't know whats going on. Did I also mention Spain plays Chile the same Friday that all this mayhem goes down? Brain overload!! Here's to me surviving the next week...

~M

#ThrowbackThursday: Paul van Dyk's "Crush"

I've been doing this Throwback thing for a while now and I honestly believed my concept of "Throwback Thursday" was completely original and unique. I was thinking about getting the trademark and everything. Now I come to realize not only is it not original, it already has it's own trending topic. Epic #fail. Oh well, serves me right for thinking I came up with anything before someone else. Anyway...onto this week's Throwback. Being the huge electronic music lover that I am, I'm really excited to take part in next weekend's big festival Electric Daisy Carnival. Considering how it's the biggest electronic music festival to hit the west coast, all the big power house names flood the line up. However, I am sad I missed last year's because this year my man Paul van Dyk is not making an appearance. And this got me thinking...what a perfect subject for my Throwback this week...


This week: "Crush" by Paul van Dyk

Without a shadow of a doubt my favorite trance song to date. Not only is it my favorite, it is the first trance song I have ever heard. I can't remember exactly what year it was when I first heard this, but I know for sure I was still in high school. I was enlightened to the ways of electronic music by that point, but not anything like this. All my knowledge was strictly to the commercial that hit the airwaves and MTV like Daft Punk and The Prodigy. Seldom I got into things like The Crystal Method but it wasn't until I heard this song that it completely blew my mind on the possibilities of what electronic music could do or sound like. I didn't even know trance was a genre. And when I did think of music like this being played in clubs, it struck me as something I would never like. However, when my friend sent me this song it all made sense. This was electronic music with a story. It has unbelievable build ups, break downs, and feeling. It's almost like the "Stairway to Haven" of trance music for me. I get filled with emotion when I hear this. Talk about a track that's a total crowd controller. When Paul plays this in arenas (which I have had the pleasure of seeing Paul van Dyk live), I know the audience feels it too. Here's to the song that got me hooked on trance for the rest of my life probably.

Take a listen...let your mind be blown. Keep your speakers on high and brains on melt.



~M