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Ultra Music Festival 8 Review!

Alrights. Its Sunday night and no review to be posted. I was lazy enough but it appears everyone it's just lazy. haha

Anyways here it is. I have some pictures but I will post them some other day.

My friends and I arrived a little after 2 PM. Its the first time Ultra holds a festival in Bicentennial Park. Having been there the week before for GG I was really skeptical on the deal, besides all the competition and the bashing alike.

I have to say that I had 0 problem getting in. Ofcourse, it was 2 PM, the flock of people were just starting to get in. Entrance was the quickest Ive ever been to. And yeah, I did manage to get my Camera in, I even saw a bunch of Camcorders in.

Anyways. On to Boarding the festival.

I get in and Im amazed at the size of the first tent. Biggest Ive ever been to. Then Im surprised by the way it was all organized. Best so far. Time-slots were on time. I dont know what else to say.

Eddie Halliwell <<<<< So underated. !! cant wait to see him again

I saw Adam Bayer<<< WoW
Sef Fontaine<< WOW
Donald Glaude<< Like always.. Great!
part of the killers<< GREAT !!
darren emerson<< some crazy stuff!!
The prodigy<< CRAZYYY !! great act!! got some live footage
Paul van dyk<< On touch!!! Great as always.. just that he was better last year
Oakenfold<< Dont know.. He was screwed by the sound system

My favorites Carl Cox & Friends << I was in Awe!!
Techno Stage << Thing was going off all day!
House tent << Gotta give it to it!
Main Stages were sweet.. Just sound systems were screwed!!


Ultra.. do what you did, with the sound system of last years, and Ultra 5's Line up back @ Bayfront Park, best Ultra ever :-)

Ultra surprised me. I have to say.. Free DVD was given away.. No other complains, besides the dirt.. gotta do something serious about it!!!!

Good review, Felipe. Glad you had a great time. Can't wait to see pics, since I've never been to Bi-Centennial Park before.

Felipe ur so right, Eddie halliwell is so underrated man. Great freaking set he threw down. He threw in Incognition and Playground(nu-nrg rmx) which are freaking great. Like I posted earlier, Ultra surprised me. They did good this year. I can't believe I almost didn't go lol. Let me just say this. I can't wait to go next year. Techno Stage was best imo, shit was banging the whole day. Aside from some technical difficulties from like, 2 stages(main two stages), everything went right. Dj's were on time and the set ups were awesome.

Since Bi-centennial is reputed to be smaller compared to Bayfront, were there any problems with overcrowding?

quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel Since Bi-centennial is reputed to be smaller compared to Bayfront, were there any problems with overcrowding?

Not really.. Walking to and from places was way easier. Didnt have to walk through passages to get from one place of the park to the other.

The only crazyness was getting out. Took easily 15 minutes to get out the park moving like 3 feets per minute lol.. but since ultra people are cool there was no pushing. It was damm cold too!

yea it was cold, but if you got into the tents it was ok No overcrowding problem. Jesus I wanna see what the total number of people there were! Insane.

House Tent was banging all night, Carl Cox was off the chain blew my mind crowd was really lovin it. Benassi was also sick. But my fav by far was pvd played some good tunes including the other side. Ultra did its job again this year and presented a great festival. Liqour lines were a lil long at night and they ran out of certain stuff but oh well liqour is liqour. Overall i give ultra an A

First of all... Bicentennial Park is shitty compared to Bayfront, but there are positives and negatives about both venues, but anyway...

Got there when it opened and the day went by fast! Here is who I saw and in the order I saw them:

Junior Sanchez
He played mainly mainstream music that has been remixed, and you know what...? I actually got dancing pretty good, the crowd definitely was into it. Music is about having fun and he definitely entertaining... but once he dropped a remix of The New Radicals "You Get What You Give" I left before I vomited, lol.

Eddie Halliwell
Didn't impress me... Was kinda bored, though some of the songs were entertaining. I left early from his set.

Infected Mushroom
My favorite Electronic Dance artists of ALL TIME... This was my 3rd time seeing them live but my first time seeing them at an open air venue. They fucking ROCKED IT!!! They thankfully played 4 new tracks (from their upcoming album) and I must say they were bad ass!!!! Lots of energy and the crowd was eating it up. Duvdev's vocals were decent and the live guitar added a lot of energy. I loved the live version of "I Wish." I was pissed that their guitarist showed up late AFTER "Suliman" finished b/c that track has such a great guitar section, but Erez covered it by using an electric-guitar synth. Want to see the tracklist? Check out my thread: INFECTED MUSHROOM TRACKLIST - UMF8

Darren Emerson
I walked by the HUGE Carl Cox & Friends tent and heard Coburn - "Give Me Love (Lutzenkirchen Remix") and I went nuts! So I stuck around but the rest of his set didn't really impress me that much.

Nic Faniculli
I have heard good things about him, so I went to check him out. I stayed for about 4 songs and my overall judgement was that hey was pretty decent, but he didn't keep my attention fixated on the music, more the crowds energy.

Eric Morillo
I caught the tail end of Erics set. He played a track I heard at Global Gathering, dropped by Deep Dish that has vocals saying "we will party all the time" good track! He finished off with Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Angello & Ingrosso Mix) which rocked the crowd. From what I heard he was pretty good.

Paul Oakenfold
Ok, where do I begin? His songs sucked for the most part, the speakers got all fucked up and the bass went bye bye, then the showed was stopped... I left and came back later and surprisingly he was playing some semi-decent stuff but thankfully the misery ended soon enough.

The Prodigy
I love their CD's... but live, IMO, they didn't bring their songs to life like I had imagined they would have. Maybe it's just me but I was disapointed. Ieft in the middle of the set, not caring whether I missed some of my favorites (and fan favorites) like "Voodoo People" or "Smack My Bitch Up".

Junkie XL
I caught his last two songs, the last one being the totally awesome remix he did of The Editors - "Camera" ... Junkie always puts on a decent show, I'm sure the rest of his show was good.

Sander Kleinenberg
I saw his first two songs then Paul van Dyk left because my friends were cold and wanted to go to a tent where there was some body warmth, thus I couldn't judge whether or not I liked his stuff Bummer, because I wanted to see him.

Benny Benassi
I caught the end of his set and I really liked what I had heard. Good energy, little boring at times but it was a decently good tail end of a set. I would check him out again to get the full experience.

Paul van Dyk
First of all I am NOT a fan of his, BUT last year (at Ultra 7) he played an amazing set and totally got me pumped to see him this year. Well... I stayed for 3/4 of his set and I was TOTALLY bored. Last year he was all about the melody and intense tracks... this year he sounded more like a techno, electro, tech-trance DJ. There were some trance moments but I was disapointed heavily.

BT
I got a text during PvD from a friend who was at the Breaks 01 Stage and BT was on, she said he was rocking the crowd so I left PvD (thankfully) and caught the last four songs of BT's set. Thank god I did, he totally made me move like no one else did that night! He pumped up the crowd so much, such a good entertainer!

I stucked my head in at a couple of tents throughout my transitions from stage to stage to see if anything caught my attention. A few people worthy of passer-by-metion was Carl Cox & Danny Tenaglia. I heard one song from each and they sounded decently good.

ANYWAY...

Overall, I had a great time (as usual)... Got annoying with all of the people (as usual) and all the retards on E just made me laugh and feel embarrassed for them (this coming from an ex-drug user myself). Good music, good vibe, good everything. I spent way too much money of food and water but whatever. I miss Bayfront Park but Bicentennial was ok. I'll be going to next years Ultra (of course) and keep the tradition going.

ultra sucked cause i wasn there flexing my muscles and showing all of u TA's how i can pimp it, oh well, next year

ne one happen to see Dj Dan, Bad Boy Bill, Donald Glaude?

quote:

Originally posted by gax ne one happen to see Dj Dan, Bad Boy Bill, Donald Glaude?

I caught some of Glaudes set while i was waiting for my friend to get out of the bathroom(which took a while btw, lines were longggg!)
He was rocking that thing nastayy! Putting on some dark evil shit lol!

quote:

Originally posted by Mattivi ultra sucked cause i wasn there flexing my muscles and showing all of u TA's how i can pimp it, oh well, next year

hit up space afterhours you can join the rest of the muscle heads flexing on the terrace.

Yeah it was a much better Ultra that I expectd. the venue was better than i thought too. I got there pretty early and Infected Mushroom was awesome. I had liked their stuff but never really checked out a lot. I just ordered all the cds I could find online. Checked out DJ Hyper, grayarea, burufunk adn they were all fantastic. BT did throw down a nasty breakbeat set, with girls losing their clothing and everything...lol I was way tired by that point but BT had me jumping and moving, along with everyone else. Looking forward to seeing him wed night in orlando (supposedly a free show). Heard Josh Wink drop Blue Monday before he went into his minimal-stuff. Oakenfold had problems with the system, not sure if he blew something but there was a 15 minute gap of silence and a speaker was blown after that. I was just waiting for prodigy and had to sit there for him. Didn't stay for pvd but I thought Prodigy was ok. But when Spitfire came on with that bass.... I have never heard/felt anything like that.

I got there early so I had no problems but apparently the will call line was like 2 hours by 3pm. That sucks.

holy shit! it was all about techno stage!
i had so much fun.
i will post pics and videos tomorrow and i will write a review.
i got some funny pictures (these dolls )
nfekted and pvd, thanks for hanging out with me. i didnt manage to go and see Carl Cox. i stayed on the techno stage and then me and my friend went to see oakenfold for like 20 minutes and we started hanging out with some drunk couple HAHAHA
good times

i will write full review tomorrow

I got into Ultra at 6 pm just in time to see Greyarea and they rocked it hard. I then went to the live stage watch the rest of the acts on that stage. First was the Killers, which were pretty good. Then came Junkie XL. The man is a great producer, but he does absolutely nothing onstage except dance. I don't know why they call it a live show because all he does is let his computer play his set for him while he jumps off speakers. And it seams like he plays the same songs year after year. I mean come on, how many years has it been now since the Red Pill, Blue Pill craze. After Junkie came Sander K and he rocked it hard. I got to hang out with him for a session at the Remix hotel the day before, and he gave us a little insider tip to a new song he had just finished that he was planning on playing. It is called "This is not Miami" and it friggan rocks. He played this and the crowd just went completely nuts. Definitely the highlight of the night for me. After Sander came Infusion and they never seem to disappoint me. Except for a little 5 minute technical difficulty they had, they were good. I'm glad to hear BT rocked it. I was debating between him and Infusion but ultimately decided on Infusion since I just saw BT here in Tampa a few weeks ago. BT rocked last year at Ultra and apparently he did the same this year. And yes the line outside to get into Ultra was huge. I waited an hour just to get my will call tickets. Overall, a great Ultra and I can't wait for next year.

Can anyone tell me the last song PvD played, he only got about 2 minutes worth? What a tune. I'll write reviews later.

quote:

Originally posted by epdarks Can anyone tell me the last song PvD played, he only got about 2 minutes worth? What a tune. I'll write reviews later.

Way Out West - Mindcircus. That's pretty much always his encore tune.

cross posted because i didn't know this thread was up!

Sorry about the cross post! Also...I couldn't delete the post for some reason, said only an admin could? anyway..




Well lets see...I got there uber late so I'll review who I saw

Morillio:

Eesh. So...I was really looking foward to hearing him spin...considering i've heard a LOT about how nasty he is.

Average.

Okay, so his track selection was good. Played the Ian Carey dub of that "Say what you want" track (one of my favorites at the moment....however it got old after hearing it like 4 times in one day haha...actually no..it still tore the crowd up everytime...). But ah....IF HE FREAKING CUT THE TRACK AND FADED IT BACK ANYMORE I WAS GOING TO JUMP ON STAGE AND MURDER HIM. Sorry, like yeah, it hyped the crowd the first few times...but christ! Come on! Sure you could argue that maybe Angello and Ingrosso loop too much (which is wrong...you can never loop enough like those guys) but whatever....anywhoo...

Jackyl and Hyde vs Dynamix II: Not much to say here. They always tear it up. This time the sound system sounded a bit better too (compared to ultra last year). Oh, and David Noller got pissed at the stupid MC dancing around and shouted something and he moved out of the way.

DJ Marky: HOLEH CRAP! He tore it up, i'm not a huge dnb head unless it's live, something about the vibe ya know? But damn, he was killer and the MC's were on the mark.

Pendulum: sick, sick sick. I wish their set was longer. Only thing that sucked was that only one member was there? I heard somewhere that they only dj individually...can anyone confirm this?

Prodigy: Sick for what I heard, too many fuckin people for me and I didn't feel like fighting my way to the front. Sound system sounded a bit low for some reason? Aparently the mainstage had some problems from what I understood.

OakeyOMGLOL111: Skipped. Not a fan. Mer. I have his new cd...haven't listened to it yet.

Sander fucking K: Always a pleasure. First time seeing him do a DVJ set and I love the concept. His mixing was of course flawless...maybe minus his mix into "Say What You Want"...but it's freakin sander...I got over it in like....4 seconds haha. His set was great! The opening track was killer and that "This is Miami" track?! WOW! CROWD WENT BONKERS! If there were a bonkers-o-meter that ranged from Ben Stein to 10? It would have been at Christopher Walken...because Christopher Walken is awesome and commands that you have more cowbell....ANYWAYS....yeah. "This....is....Miami" Great moment, on par with the moment at global where corsten shot off the foam. Good stuff!

Carry on!:

Sound system was joygasmic....way better than any stage at ultra by FAR (in my opinion).
Visuals were great....at times a little unusual and disturbing...maybe I would have thought differently if I wasn't sober...but whatever hah

Zabelia (excuse the spelling): He just jumped up in my top 5...his set was fucking insane! Perfect set progression and he even creates breaks in his beats via the loop functions on the CDJ's! Great stuff. I mean, the concept of doing that with the loop buttons isn't that foreign...I mean hell, I can do that if I wanted to, but his PERFECT sense of time was intense!!!!! It takes perfect timing to capture beats that well.

The Orb (I think it was the orb, although I thought the Orb was a live performance and not two DJ's...so if it was the orb...here's my review, if not...its a review of two horrible dj's...:

HORRIBLE. FUCKING HORRIBLE. SO BAD I WANTED TO CRY. Sometimes It's just me being a DJ when I hear people mess up a bit...but holy fucking christ they couldn't mix two tracks without trainwrecking MULTIPLE times...yes....multiple. If they were mixing and were off, they'd do...A FUCKING SPINBACK. EVERY TIME. This drives a sober man, especally a sober DJ insane. What the fuck. Please Orb...if you're going to play at ultra....or in Miami...or shit...ANYWHERE....please mix propper? KTHXYBYE.

Sandra Collins and....some other dude at some point I guess. SICK. WOW! First time seeing Sandra live, and she tore it up and made great use of the new Pioneer mixer (gotta get me one of those!!!). Great set progression, loved/was shocked when she threw down the Thin White Duke Remix of "what else is there", since its a little old.

RITM: ...no words. Sick...sick...sick. They always are and they always will be the sickest live act. Oh...and Bunny could use a diet, his ass weighed WAY more than expected in that ball thing when it came my way haha.

not a huge fan of Tanaglia...not his skills, but his style rather.

All in all, ultra was great this year...pictures to come soon! Hopefully someone out there uploaded some video...that'd be pretty sweeto.

maybe I'll bump into some TA's next time? Hope everyone had some good safe fun....well, not TOO safe.

Re: cross posted because i didn't know this thread was up!

quote:

Originally posted by headphonez Pndulum: sick, sick sick. I wish their set was longer. Only thing that sucked was that only one member was there? I heard somewhere that they only dj individually...can anyone confirm this? The Orb (I think it was the orb, although I thought the Orb was a live performance and not two DJ's...so if it was the orb...here's my review, if not...its a review of two horrible dj's...: HORRIBLE. FUCKING HORRIBLE. SO BAD I WANTED TO CRY. Sometimes It's just me being a DJ when I hear people mess up a bit...but holy fucking christ they couldn't mix two tracks without trainwrecking MULTIPLE times...yes....multiple. If they were mixing and were off, they'd do...A FUCKING SPINBACK. EVERY TIME. This drives a sober man, especally a sober DJ insane. What the fuck. Please Orb...if you're going to play at ultra....or in Miami...or shit...ANYWHERE....please mix propper? KTHXYBYE. Sandra Collins and....some other dude at some point I guess. SICK. WOW! First time seeing Sandra live, and she tore it up and made great use of the new Pioneer mixer (gotta get me one of those!!!). Great set progression, loved/was shocked when she threw down the Thin White Duke Remix of "what else is there", since its a little old.

Only El Hornet from Pendulum does DJ tours, the rest do studio work. However they will be supposedly touring together as "Planet Pendulum" and do two hours of Pendulum stuff.

Those two DJs were The Orb. It ended up they didn't do a live set at the last minute.

As for the Sandra one, the other person was Vello, he was controlling all the visuals.

INFECTED ALWAYS THROW DOWN! wow, thank you ultra for bringing them again. Sorry for being crazy, i was one of the israeli people with with flags. Had to show them some support haha.

Anyone else wondering why Oakenfold didn't have a "LIVE ORCHESTRA" along with? False advertising!!!!

yea I was wondering about that. but I think they removed that Orchestra thing from the flyers a few weeks prior to Ultra didn't they? I dont' think I saw it as Ultra drew closer.

did anyone catch richie hawtin

quote:

Originally posted by element-y INFECTED ALWAYS THROW DOWN! wow, thank you ultra for bringing them again. Sorry for being crazy, i was one of the israeli people with with flags. Had to show them some support haha.

ooohh I saw you then. My friend got he's face color with the Israeli colors.. since about 80% of my friends are jewish so.. sort of representing I guess. They rocked it, just that its the 3rd time I see them and its the same stuff over and over again.

Were you able to have fun regardless the lack of Foam and Fireworks?

Haha, lol. What i ment by all that is to make it take out GG by beating it with its own shit. I go for the music myself, but helping out at times at shows, many get pulled in by the art deco, lights, etc. There were many reviews over the festival attractions over the music at GG, so if ultra took those, with the acts that it had, good bye GG. But i think it slaughtered GG anyways.

Photos up as soon as i scan them guys!

I was on the left side of the walkway holding the rail front row with IM. What side were you?

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