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Felt Like a Dream – SnowGlobe Music Festival

January 7, 2013 in dubstep, Electronic, Other, Shows by chase | 1 comment

Photo by Drew Levin of Cinesthetics for SnowGlobe

Almost a week has gone by since the smoke has cleared and we’ve all more or less returned to our regular lives from Lake Tahoe, home of what I now consider the greatest music festival of all time – SnowGlobe. Going into the festival none of the people in my crew knew what to expect. We were looking forward to some of our favorite electro pop acts like St. Lucia, with a slight indifference toward the heavier dub acts like Deadmau5 and Laidback Luke.

It’s amazing the difference a few party favors can make. While the ending of the first night consisted of some fantastic trap sets like Dam Funk, the revelation happened at the first after party at the MontBleu Casino. A three punch knockout of Ana Sia, Paper Diamond and Mimosa effectively blew our minds and turned us into bass zombies for the remainder of the fest. The lone exception falls to Poliça, who put on a gorgeous set that felt like an electronic lullaby in the midst of the madness.

Gramatik won our group’s “#1 Act of the Festival” award with a blistering set that featured extremely funk nasty bass dubs and an incredible guitarist shredding brilliant licks over the bass drops. Lost in a trance, we’d occasionally look at each other and laugh, yelling “holy fuck!” and “oh my god!” Madeon comes in a close second, knowing his crowd and throwing in filthy bass drops among his energetic, buoyant pop cuts. The kid may only be 18, but his theatrics and command of the crowd put him in the top tier of current producers.

At this point SnowGlobe almost feels like a dream, it couldn’t have been real. I’m certainly a veteran of the concert circuit but I can say without exaggeration that I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun in my entire life. Came there with people who were originally strangers and left as friends I can’t wait to see again. The sense of community is heightened at this one, ferrying between cabin, festival grounds and casinos in the seemingly never ending search for the perfect bass drop.

Also, I’m sorry for gushing so hard about dubstep. I know it sounds ridiculous but if you take care of yourself at SnowGlobe with the right drugs and the proper precautions, you’ll come out the other side a different person (Skrillex still sucks). Next year can’t come soon enough.

For better journalism and a more detailed rundown of the individual acts (plus pictures!), check out Lauren Lindley’s blog.

Still kicking after two days of SnowGlobe

December 31, 2012 in Electronic, Shows by chase | 1 comment

Madeon owned the crowd at SnowGlobe Day 2

Madeon owned the crowd at Day 2 of SnowGlobe

It seems like a miracle that we’re still alive at this point. Obviously we knew the conditions going into this, but finding ourselves trapped at a casino at 5am with no cab in sight after a fierce after-party featuring Mimosa and Paper Diamond put the final writing on the wall. SnowGlobe is not what you’d call an “easy” festival, but it is hands down the best way to spend a New Years Eve weekend.

The sense of community is overwhelming. While huddled up under a heater next to a fried rice booth on the festival grounds, we met a group of party-goers from Orange County whose feet were as much of ice blocks as ours were. After a joking suggestion, one of them took me up on the offer to hold his feet up to the heater while doing a handstand. Now that’s teamwork.

Jason Huber of Cherub tells me that he thinks anytime you put together a killer lineup, people will do whatever it takes to get to it. And for the electronic music crowd that may very well be the case. With the right cocktail of party favors, the festival becomes a seemingly never ending quest for beats. No one cares if they get bumped by the crowd, they’re all on a massive pilgrimage for incredible light shows and that epic moment, the drop.

And as much as it pains me to say it, I completely “get” dubstep now. It takes you completely out of yourself – a blast of raw, aggressive stimuli. Strangely enough, the ridiculous weather conditions only add to the stimuli because it’s not just the lasers against snowflakes, it’s the frigid cold that keeps you dancing as hard as the beats are and makes the release of the drop even more liberating.

The nonsense of this scene is hilarious when you take a step back from it. At one point we overheard the following exchange:

“I didn’t know Rage Against the Machine could be dubstep!” someone yells. Their friend answers “It’s Deadmau5, of course it can!”

Still, it’s invigorating. We’ve got one last day to go hard at this beast, starting out with the San Francisco native Ana Sia who already whipped the crowd up into a frenzy like a dark witch of bass before the first after party. Chromeo will be closing out the night as the ball drops for us shivering bass heads in South Lake Tahoe. Cross your fingers for our safety, it’s going to be weird. It already has been.

SnowGlobe Music Festival kicks off in the cold Tahoe winter

December 29, 2012 in Other, Shows by chase | 2 comments

The calm before the storm... or the storm before the madness?

The calm before the storm… or, the storm before the madness?

Writing about music festivals is a weird task. Getting pictures of artists is fine and good, but does anyone who didn’t go really care what a writer thought about their set? Not really. But coming up to the SnowGlobe Music Festival presented an interesting opportunity for thought – what brings 10,000 people to Lake Tahoe in the middle of winter for an outdoor music festival?

“Drugs” says Archnemesis’ Curt Heiny. “Yeah, drugs. What else is there to do?” agrees his counterpart Justin Aubuchon. Kicking back in the heated artist building, there’s a sense of trepidation about the weather.

No bones about it, it’s damn cold out. With the weather fluctuating between the mid 30s during the day to temperatures in the teens at night, it’s not exactly an ideal environment. Beyond your usual festival preparations like packing water and drugs, you’ve got the elements to battle against. Long underwear, gloves, layers, etc. are a must to stay comfortable out here. But those are really just some thorns on the rose.

As we arrived to the festival early this afternoon we walked through a snowy forest, the powerful booms of soundchecks echoing throughout the snow covered trees as the festival grounds came into view. Unlike other festival environments, there seems to be a real feeling of seclusion from the rest of the world. The mountains and snowy sky acting as an extra layer beyond the pine trees lining the ground. Not sure if that was what they were going for with the name of the festival but it isn’t a bad fit.

With Steffi Graf, Big Gigantic and Baauer having killed it today already, we’re looking forward to a night of Archnemesis, Minnesota, Dam Funk and Wiz Khalifa. The common thought being kicked around is “can’t wait to see lasers blasting through snowflakes.” So yeah, maybe it is the drugs. We’ll find out more as this magical winter festival continues.

Electric Panda Music joins FrequenScene

November 8, 2012 in Indie Rock, Shows, Soul by chase | No comments

Recently I became the co-host of a local music radio show on TradioV.com focusing on the local San Francisco and Bay Area music scene with some national content peppered in. We’ll have a band in the studio performing live every week and some other fun segments. Last night we premiered the show with special guests Kingsborough from Santa Rosa, CA. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter if you like what you see! We’ll broadcast every Wednesday at 8pm PST


Video streaming by Ustream

Eternal Summers – “You Kill”

July 18, 2012 in Indie, Indie Rock, Shows by chase | No comments

Hard in the monochromatic paint

In a world of singles and limitless options, rare is the album that captivates from start to finish. The kind of sonic infection where repeat plays are involuntary. Such is the case with Eternal Summers‘ sophomore album Correct Behavior, available July 24th and streaming now on Hype Machine. Their throwback sound evokes the kind of feeling you get rediscovering a band you haven’t heard in a long time, except this really is the first time.

I’m just going to stop now and let you listen to this shit. If you fall in love, which you totally will, catch them in San Francisco at Bottom of the Hill on September 12th.

Eternal Summers – You Kill

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