08.10
About a year ago, the folks at HARD were not the most popular kids on the playground. A poorly chosen venue and dozens of rowdy, rail-hopping ravers led to the abrupt end of HARD’s second annual Summer Festival. Teary-eyed candy kids, sulky hipsters, angry bloggers (even a certain blogger called the debacle “Tard Bummer Mestival”…it sounded clever at the time, okay?), 7 figure losses…it was a bad experience for everybody involved. Many figured it would spell the end of HARD events for good.
Well, that was then and this is now. The canceled M.I.A. festival raised eyebrows and added fuel to the fire, as did the death of the teenage girl at EDC, but as the old adage goes, “the show must go on”, and HARD Summer Festival was ON. Following in the footsteps of the massively successful Haunted Mansion events, HARD Summer did not disappoint. In fact, it was on point in pretty much every aspect imaginable.
HARD Summer Festival @ LA's Historic State Park
The venue? Ideal. LA’s Historic State Park was the perfect space for a festival of that magnitude (about 20,000 people). A minimal wait in line (not even 30 minute), plenty of shady, grassy knolls to chill on, and the beautiful backdrop of the downtown LA skyline behind the main stage to boot. Hopefully this will be the first of many events taking place at that spot.
Security? Obama could have had his family reunion there and felt completely safe. The LA Times (in a great, supportive blog post) half-jokingly called it the “safest place on earth”. There were a few arrests for theft, trespassing, and narcotics, but nothing more. The Five-Oh were out in force for this one. No stupid bumrushes, no silly fence-jumping, no tragic overdoses. At the end of the day, HARD looked a little bit better than Insomniac.
Soulwax: the most complete live EDM act around?
The music? On another level. As expected, the Soulwax boys dominated the evening with their first live LA show in almost two years, playing a mix of crowd favorites (E Talking, Another Excuse, Miserable Girl, etc) and newly crafted disco stormers. If you have yet to see these dudes perform live (as Soulwax or even 2ManyDJs), it is time for you to get on the damn bus because no EDM act is on their game as much as these guys. They’ve found their comfort zone somewhere between disco/techno and rock and roll, and are able to deftly improvise within/between both areas with their live rig. Their performance was inspiring: a driving, pounding, disco-rock monster that made traditional DJ sets look like child’s play.
Another highlight of my day was The Twelves, a house/disco duo from Brazil known for their infectiously fun house beats and disco-friendly remixes of well known songs (their dance remix of Air’s “Sexy Boy”…so fresh!) They’re definitely on track for better timeslots and higher/more frequent placement on festival posters (I hope). Hopefully they’ll be back around these parts sometime soon. I also finally got the opportunity to see Flying Lotus do his thing, which I can only describe vaguely as a brilliant pastiche of psychedelic, instrumental hip-hop sounds, shifty, pulsating garage and pseudo-dubstep rhythms, bass in your face, and the occasional 4/4 beat to keep you honest. A little bit of everything, a little bit of nothing. I’m pretty sure he’s what you would call a modern day musical genius. Erol Alkan, Tiga, and Major Lazer were also highly enjoyable, especially Erol.
The icing on the cake? HARD also unveiled its initial lineup for their Halloween Haunted Mansion fiesta, which includes a live Bloody Beetroots set (with Death Crew 77), a Calvin Harris DJ set, Boys Noize, Booka Shade, and, 14 long months after HARD Summer 2009 (about bloody time), a headline set by Underworld! The rest of the lineup (as well as tickets to the 2 day event) can be found here.
Overall, a pitch perfect festival. Good music, good people, LESS people, no hassles. Kudos to Gary Richards and the rest of his crew for making it happen. Y’all know where to find me on Halloween. Color me HARD.
© 2010, Rob. All rights reserved.
