It's all over now except for the shouting :) The good news is, it was a great festival. The bad news is -- hmm, I can't really think of anything.
To the average attendee, I would bet this year's felt pretty much like the previous three -- and that is the result of a lot of incredibly hard work. The staging, sound and lighting were all really good and there were few real problems. Things actually ran pretty close to schedule. Probably the two biggest changes this year, both for the good, were the lack of crass commercial hype (OK, Bacardi excepted) and the upgrade of the staging on all four stages: Movement (main stage): a great idea to move it down to the plaza level, it really helped the DJs and musicians connect better with the crowd, and I thought the sound was considerably better overall. High Tech Soul: this was in the small ampitheater area on the north side which had gone unused in previous festivals. A huge improvement for audience seating and the sound was also much better. Music Institute: the tent worked pretty well at enclosing the space and keeping focus on the music, and of course was welcome during the few rainy periods. And four-corner sound made another leap upward in quality. Underground: again, moving from the back (stage right) corner to the center made the performances much more visible and improved crowd circulation. Musically, it's hard to top what we got this year. I found more of sets and live performances perked up my jaded ears than the last couple years. In no particular order of importance, some of my highlights: Buzz Goree/Stacey Hale/K Hand back to back at the MI stage on Friday. Straight up great dance music. Ectomorph live, an even stronger show than they did in Portland Shake shaking the rafters of the tent with a superb funky set ranging from electropop to "Radio Clash" Matthew Dear with a well constructed live set that managed to walk the line between beats and abstraction Stacey Pullen's first hour was as good as I've heard from him in a long time, he really has learned how to move a big crowd (although that tendency kind of took over later in the set) Liquid Liquid was on fire, what a great performance that was, the energy was just tremendous Carlos Souffront/Marcellus Pittman/Norma Jean Bell played three really different and absorbing styles through the afternoon today on the main stage. Marcellus was a fill-in and he played a cool and jazzy set during the rain that kept the energy going. Dan Bell -- a terrific set, just the right balance of classics and new stuff with a steady, unhurried approach And what can I say about Jeff Mills, who just roared after the initial equipment problems. I'll say more about the pre and after parties elsewhere -- let the festival stand for itself. Today may have been my favorite single day of all four years. Total respect to Derrick May and everyone who made it happen. What a blast! phred
