I adapted to the heat and my perennially late-night ways by showing up around 3 each day. So I missed Carl Craig and a couple others who I wanted to see, but also conserved energy in the heat and got enough sleep so that now, after traveling three times zones back home, I don't feel totally wiped out.
Saturday the good ones for me were our own Fred Gianelli's set on the main stage -- maybe not as crackling-hot as the waterfront stage one a couple years ago, but it sounded awesome on the big system. I liked Rob Hood's set but it got samey and so I caught the last hour of Doc Martin who was actually quite good. But Fellefell, er, Felton Howard gets the #1 star for the day for another exceptional set in the Beatport tent (last year I was very impressed by his hour at the Nefarious tent). He built it up and had the place full and jumping at the end. Sunday, Donald Glaude lived down to his reputation and played a pretty darn cheesy set. But Tortured Soul was fun to watch although I was hoping for a bit more improv and jamming -- they seemed to be reproducing what a house track would sound like if a band was playing (which it was), but not so much what a band would sound like playing house, if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, very talented and energetic, despite the heat. Le Petit Orb was quite good although not up to the stellar heights of the two mid-1990s shows I saw. Although Speedy J and Chris Leibing played a listener-friendly set, as with a lot of the live acts this weekend (starting with Matthew Jonson at the opening party at Bleu Friday night) I felt that the approach was too static, lots of well constructed loops but little real development. Rob Acid was kind of interesting, in fact probably the best thing I heard in the underground stage all weekend. Otherwise what I saw there was forgettable. On the whole, Sunday was one of the least interesting days out of seven years at the festival. But then I did miss Josh Wink while we were watching the Orb just yards away . . . Monday made up for it, although it was more a matter of chaining together bits of interesting sets rather than entire solid ones. Adam X was actually really cool with his bondage gear and new industrial sound, dark and glittering. I thought Neil Landstrumm was outstanding in his live set. It was kind of an art-performance concept, like, take every patch and every drum pattern and every melody line you have, match Column A with Tab B and Field C and see what you come up with. But Adam Beyer after that left me cold. Donnacha Costello is someone I don't know anything about but I have a couple tracks, and he turned in a good ambient/techno set that was properly mental. I thought Nitzer Ebb was interesting for about 15 minutes but then all the shouting got boring although the beats were solid; but along with Adam X it was a good day for industrial at the festival at long last. Richie's set seemed more wide-ranging than previous ones but still really didn't lift up. So that was it for me on the main stage; I went and watched Huckaby finish up his set to close the festival. The big gold star for Monday goes to Louie Vega. I've seen him before (at the Shelter, no less), so his mixing style was no surprise, but I was again impressed by his ability to wring the maximum impact out of otherwise fairly tame tracks. He had a little run around 6 pm in the blazing heat that really took off, though, and one of those brilliant moments when he dropped Stevie Wonder (was that "Sunshine in Their Eyes" -- I don't know Stevie's whole oeuvre very well) at just the right time. He was enjoying himself, and stayed on to tag with the Blaze guys. Lots of smiles all around. I felt the festival was well run, so give Paxahau some credit for stepping in and making it all work. But I also had long stretches where the music quality just didn't measure up to previous years. The variety was certainly there, but no simply oustanding performances and a lot of sub-par ones, especially in the underground stage. My big recommendation for next year is to rebalance the lineup with more in-town talent of all kinds. And there sure wasn't much ELECTRO at the fest this year. I mean, how can you even have a Detroit event without it? More about afterparties laterz . . . fh
