08.03
What? – HARD Summer Festival
Where? – LA State Historic Park in Downtown LA
When? – Saturday, August 7th, 12pm-12am
Why? – A stellar undercard, but mostly because of…
Photo Credit goes to Tim Broddin @ wannabees.be
There’s no question that 99 out of 100 people at the LA State Historic Park on Saturday will be there primarily to see the Dewaele brothers perform live as Soulwax for the first time in LA since HARD Haunted Mansion way back in October of 2008 (if you were there, you’ll agree that this is a rare, can’t miss show). The boys have played a few DVDJ sets in Southern Cali under the 2ManyDJs moniker (at Coachella and HHM 2009), but their live shows are an entirely different beast. Stephen does vocals and synths, David mans the DJ sequencer (still not sure if its analog or digital), Stefaan slaps da bass and Steve handles the drums (sidenote: Stefaan and Steve are not Dewaele brothers). The end result is an electro-rock crossover like no other. The group typically draws from their seminal original album Nite Versions and aptly titled remix album “Most of the Remixes” for their performances, but hopefully we’ll see some new material this Saturday (like their remix of LCD Soundsystem’s “You Wanted a Hit”). Feel free to get your hopes up for this show.
If Soulwax isn’t enough to sell you, a) it should be, and you should be ashamed of yourself, b) there’s an incredibly solid supporting cast to help your hands find your credit card. HARD mainstays Crystal Castles and Major Lazer will co-headline the festival, showing off new albums that have garnered critical acclaim. Also making a rare LA appearance is the German duo Digitalism (DJ set only). Unfortunately for them and for us, however, they were given the same set time as Soulwax. Fuck! Other noteworthy sub-headliners include Diplo, Tiga, Erol Alkan, and Flying Lotus, who was one of the transplants from HARD’s failed M.I.A. festival. Dubstep is also well represented at this gathering by DJs Caspa, Skream, and Benga, so if you’re dying to get your two-step on, you’re in luck.
Other than Soulwax, I highly recommend you guys check out Green Velvet, Breakbot, and The Twelves. House and techno DJ Green Velvet (real name Curtis Jones) has been making jackin house tracks (such as anthems like “La La Land” and “Shake & Pop“) since the early nineties. Jones has a penchant for the weird, as shown by his use of odd sounds and lyrics in his music, but it still gets the job done and the feet movin. Breakbot is a nu-disco DJ/producer off the Ed Banger label. You probably know him because of his megahit “Baby I’m Yours“, which has been one of the most successful tracks of the year, and if you haven’t noticed, disco is starting to come back in a big way. Seriously! In the same vein as Breakbot are The Twelves, another nu-disco duo who make some very cool music these days. They too are architects of a 2010 megahit: their excellent remix of Two Door Cinema Club’s “Something Good Can Work”. Their essential mix is a must-listen as well. Notice how the 3 of them are back to back to back at the HARD stage. How convenient!
I don’t want to preach on about the politics of raves for too long, but Gary Richards will certainly be under a ton of pressure this weekend from both the rave community and general public. Not only does he have something to prove after the botched M.I.A. festival (and last year’s Summer festival to a degree), HARD Summer will be the first massive within LA city limits since EDC, and this will be a sort of audition to see if raves can “play nice” and strike a compromise in the public eye. Security will probably be heinous, might be a good idea to leave the drogas at home for this one, kids.
Regardless, I see no reason why this shouldn’t be a great event. I have complete faith in the HARD crew to deliver us a fun party, and if they don’t…I guess I’ll look really stupid. See you there!
Additional info (full lineup/set times/venue map) can be found here, and tickets can be purchased here.
© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.
