Update: My Photo Post and review of the Chemical Brothers Set are now up.
The audible harmony of Chemical Brothers’ ‘”Das Spiegal” flows through my Shure earphones. The feeling of jumping in harmony with a crowd of 50,000 for their performance last night is still fresh. This song will perpetually bring me back to that moment when I danced in unison with a few thousand strangers. Following the show, I hugged a dozen people and a woman my age broke our hug with tears in her eyes and said, “Thanks for being here.” We all were one this weekend.
This is why I attend Ultra.
My first show was in 2004 and I didn’t know any of the artists aside from BT and it opened my eyes to electronic music in a time when most of my music was still Rock and Pop. I think about what my friends and colleagues must think of my going to this festival each year to dance for 3 days straight with a few thousand kids, most of whom are doing drugs and are only there after begging their parents to let them go. In fact, most of the “kids” I saw around the hotels and on flights with me were accompanied by their Moms. I know in my heart that I’m getting too old for UMF. It’s not that I’m 24 because there were plenty of 20 somethings at Ultra. It’s that I’m 24, living in New Hampshire in a cabin doing global project management for a huge company. I have a brand, people who rely on me and those that, for some reason, think highly of me and then to hear that I’m off in Miami for 3 days dancing to techno just sounds weird and out of place. “Really, a rave? That doesn’t sound like you at all!” Well, it’s one weekend a year. Sorry for letting you down.
The twenty somethings at Ultra may be like me but, while they’re there, they have big muscles and tattoos and are more interested in the girls than the music and it’s just weird. I don’t feel 24 when I’m at festivals like this. I feel like I’m 40. I go for the music even though everything about me says I shouldn’t be there.
Ultra “jumped the shark in 2005-2008 to the point where more people were going who didn’t understand the culture of dance music. They went because it was Miami and a friend told them to go but they were there for mainstream artists like Tiesto and David Guetta and they made the experience poor for everyone else. Last year, that transformation was finally at its breaking point when I helped dozens of kids get to nearby EMTs after overdoses and after my white t-shirt was covered in body paint after a couple used me as a wall for their “grinding” and, in a crowd that size, where was I to go? Deadmau5’s show was full of kids looking to mosh and kick ass and the Tiesto show had more ecstasy use than dancing. Last year was hell but, I ignore all of that because the music was amazing.
This year was different.
I saw every artist that was on my list, the crowds were lighter as the attendance was spread over three days, there were dozens and dozens of undercover police officers who busted drug dealers left and right sending them to jail and the result was half as many golf cart ambulances interrupting sets to revive a young boy or girl who had consumed too much “candy”. The park felt larger with stages spread out and tents / domes were twice the size as last year allowing more people to fit in and enjoy the music. Water stations were EVERYWHERE and easy to get to and there was always a person in a yellow shirt nearby to help you if you needed anything.
To top it all off, my favorite artists had longer sets where acts like Underworld was allowed to pay for 2 full hours on the main stage. This meant less movement of crowds like back when they had 30 minute sets and more time in one place.
Ultra 13 in Miami was finally the grown up we all were waiting for and I’m proud of it. The old timers are complaining that food & drinks are overpriced and there’s too much security and too many undercover police and way too many kids but this is a festival going from a burningman-esque beach party in 1999 to a real festival where 50,000+ attendees from over 70 countries come to rock out for 3 days in MIami Florida.
Ultra was all grown up and I loved it!
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I let my mind wander a bit while David Guetta was playing last night as I honestly just can’t get into his music. Yes, I was day-dreaming in a crowd of 50,000 during a laser light show but, after 3 days of techno, you get pretty desensitized to it to the point where you can pretty much take a nap at the festival (which I did on Sunday afternoon on one of the tree-lined hills over looking the bay while the group Cut/Copy played behind me).
I was thinking about this blog post and which musical acts carried the festival and who was the clear winner in my mind weighing in all of the variables such as set times, visuals, audio quality, music selection, mixing, crowd involvement and location (which tent / dome the act took place).
As an example, Will.i.am had a set that happened before the sun went down so visuals were amiss and he played remixes of Black Eyed Peas songs as well as some classic rock songs with autotune applied which absolutely ruined “I had the time of my life” for me FOREVER. The worst part of his set was the fact that he started into his laptop for a full hour mixing without EVER looking up at the crowd and acknowledging their existence. We didn’t exist to him during his set and I have about 40 photos to prove it. Will.i.am not only ruined his time slot but he ruined the time slot for the DJ act after him AND made an appearance during David Guetta’s set where he sang one song and NEVER left until the set was over spending about 10 minutes talking about latino women and how beautiful they were so much that Guetta had to turn down the music to 10% while Will.i.am went on about beautiful women all over the world.
Absolutely terrible. I hope to never see Will.i.am return to Ultra. Embarrassing.
That’s an example of how badly you can screw up a performance at Ultra. My daydreaming about the best of the best was something like this:
BT wins hands down for music and crowd interactions. His UMF Radio Stage performance unleashed something nasty on the crowd with BPM taken to the extreme with a noise level that left me deaf for the next 4 hours. Brian Transeau threw a monster on the crowd and EVERYONE went insane. It was beautiful and he engaged with us and the crowd and BT was vibing off each other. We were all one in a Yin & Yang style of energy transfusion. It was amazing and, when his set finished, not a single person walked away. We all just kept our hands in the air smiling and showing gratitude for what he just unleashed. Brian did another set on Sunday at 1:30PM on the main stage. It was a phenomenal set but scheduling means the crowd was thin and visuals were hard to see. It really changed the dynamic.
Deadmau5 on Saturday’s main stage performance was visually, a work of art. The custom visuals and lights used by the mouse was something like I’ve never seen before. Also, seeing the quality of production from his shows 3 years ago to now and you can really tell how much money he’s making from us :). I think his music is great but he doesn’t break the mold too much in sets. Deadmau5 mostly sticks to the popular tracks with a few variations. The best part about his performance other than the breathtaking light show was Sofi (who sings vocals on Sofi needs a ladder and One Trick Pony (both on his latest album) made a cameo performance and sang live. She was amazing and has a phenomenal voice and the crowd went wild. Also, like last year at Ultra, Tommy Lee played Drums for Deadmau5’s FML and Moar Ghosts n’ Stuff. Tommy Lee did not disappoint.
Tiesto is always fantastic. He’s a talented guy but his formula is wearing on me. Anyone that has been to more than 1 Tiesto show knows what I mean. The lights, the arm motions, the visuals, the fades and high production value is getting old. Maybe I’ve been to way too many Tiesto shows but I feel like it hasn’t changed much in the past 3 years but newcomers always have dropped jaws and that’s all that matters. The guy is #1 in my book, but I’ve seen and heard too much of it. I left half-way through his set on Friday.
Kaskade, in my opinion, is the next generation Tiesto. As much as I love Armin, Ferry Corsten and Afrojack, they have the key ingredients but Kaskade is going to be the next big star. He’s already a star but played a mid-day set on the Ultra Main Stage up from a small stage showing last year. He put out 3 albums in the past couple of years and each is better than the last. Seeing him live was powerful and he has what it takes. I look forward to a huge 2011 for this guy and seeing him headlining Ultra next year assuming Tiesto can’t make it :)
Afrojack was a surprising winner as well. His couple of popular tracks lead me to believe he was just another Guetta but this Dutch producer / DJ blew me away playing 3 sets in one day and each better than the last. They needed someone to fill in and he just got up on stage and started doing damage. What a talented guy and his fans are pretty insane (aka passionate). I know he’s going to have a good 2011.
This was what ran through my head while David Guetta kept hitting repeat on “I gotta feeling feeling feeling feeling feeling” as Will.I.am kept saying “uh huh uh huh uh huh” over and over again. Then, David’s set finished and every single assumption about who was the best performer at Ultra faded away. Chemical Brothers stole the show.
…it’s so good, that I’m going to save this one for another post.
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Ultra 13 in Miami exceeded my expectations. My body feels like hammered steak. I danced so hard but didn’t drink an ounce of liquor and stuck with water and highly nutritious meals the entire time. I got 8 hours of sleep each night and managed to stay alive until the final set.
Will I go next year? IF given the opportunity, yes. If not, it’s fine. That’s how I feel these days. I like the acts and the experience and it’s amazing to be able to attend Ultra for so many years but it is a high price to attend and it’s certainly not a vacation. You should go if you like dance music. You should go if you don’t because it will change how you approach electronic music and the art of it. If I never went again, that would be okay but attending has changed my life and each year, I get to elevate myself to another level. You lose yourself to the music and it takes over.
One love.
Thank you for reading.
PS – A photo post is coming soon.