CHRIS MOTHER F*CKING LIEBING
hands down played the best 90 min of music i ever heard in my life
reing-lentless hard me while iam running techno
holy siskebeb
i still cant get over his set wow wow WOWWWWWW guy went H.A.M. on the whole tent...
my review for sat...
got there right in time for eco. Eco man you played a solid set, too bad the volume was low and the crowd was ubber dog
ive been goin to e-zoo since the first year and hands down this has been the worst year crowd wise, the retina in my eye is killing me from seeing so much neon oh man and not just that the shirts and sayings they had on them...
"new york we roll hard" "roll so hard mother f*ckers wanna fine me"
"molly molly molly"
such lil skeezeball dirtbag kids who dont know jack about quality music
lucky they steered way from sunday school
claude van stroke...DUBSTEP REALLY? wtf was that all about? horrible
caught maya jane coles, i never seen her before and i thought she was ok, imo shes a lil over hyped but she did plan an ok set nothing to blow my load over...
after that paco came on and took it up a notch quality set from the spaniard...sasha came on and was not as hard as paco but played a really solid set i enjoyed it and finally liebing came in there and was grown man business from the first song to the last
showed everyone wtf he was all about...
great seeing all the usual ta's and meeting new ones i had a blasttttttttttt
i would love to go sunday but the line-up is not for me
Groundhog Boy
My Day 2 highlight:
Mr Game+Watch
Sasha KILLED IT, best set I've heard from him in years! Also had a blast at Mord Fustang.
StrobeLifeNYC
This is it. This is finally the year Electric Zoo parted from its core group of original followers, the ones who were there for the first few years... It's a real shame, I and almost everyone I know just didn't feel like we belonged, fish out of water.
Hours went by with nothing interesting going on musically, spanning all 4 tents. Every tent at any given time was a sing-a-long to music that gets played on KTU 2-3 times an hour. Electronic music turned into the monster we were scared it would be. I don't really feel the connection to "the scene", whatever it is. And the worst part is, the kids are going absolutely APE to this terrible music. For 15-17 year olds, which makes up a good majority of the crowd now, I could see how something like this is probably the most amazing event they've ever seen. I don't think we've "outgrown" it, it's just completely changed. It was never ever like this.
The musical layout, the core audience it's geared toward, about 80% of the lineup is totally just meant for people that aren't us, where as previous years, it was a more 50/50, maybe 60/40 ratio.
It's not like I can say previous years were ALL TRANCE ALL THE TIME, it wasn't. But the variation is what made the festival awesome, even if some days trance artists were lacking. You could go to one tent and hear drum and bass, the other minimal, main floor would have the big names (not necessarily the biggest current trends), and you could wander around and hear different things.
For 90% of yesterday, outside of Sunday School, there was just the SAAAAAAAAAAAME sounds being played over and over and over and over and over... I heard 3 or 4 artists play the same Dada Life song within an hour of Dada Life performing on main stage (that's just disrespectful, or I don't know what).. Rihanna remixes, mashups with Jay Z and Kanye's tune, songs I hear on the ing radio ALL THE TIME.
And the kids are going insane to it. The atmosphere in the tents is electric, but the music is just so piss-poor. The kids in there haven't been to a teen club, much less a big festival, so they're in absolute heaven. When we pulled up to the parking area, there was a line of more than a dozen cars with kids being dropped off by their parents. That spoke volumes, I never really saw anything like that before.. And the "molly mary lucy" shirts and "we roll deep" and all the ing obvious drug shirts just alienated the out of the few music lovers left in the crowd. Hell, I think in years past, there were more drugs, but people weren't as dumb and immature about it. Now you're the cool kid in high school if you went to the Skrillex show and took pictures of you in the "I LOVE MOLLY" t-shirt... Molly was supposed to mellow you out, make you more in tune with the people around you, nature, and the music. Now it's just another aspect of the scene that's been commercialized and tainted. On a technical/scientific level, it barely exists anymore. Whatever these kids are on has them speeded the up, raging like they're drunk off a bottle of Wild Turkey. The music and the inability of DJs to dip or vary the energy in their sets has these kids amped the up for 10 hours. Pretty Lights was the only artist outside of Above & Beyond that had any variation in his set; he changed it up, played several styles, was really awesome. Kids were leaving in mass exodus. If the music doesn't pound their ing faces in, they can't relate to it. They're so sped up, don't really know how they sustain a weekend like this. When Pretty Lights, a fairly new artist, is sending a lot of KIDS leaving the main stage, you KNOW the average age has dropped dramatically.
I think that's just our cue that we're getting the boot. Can't really see things getting better from here. I don't think Sunday's an improvement over yesterday's lineup. Even Sunday School wasn't as consistently quality throughout the entire day as I'm used to. Maya Jane Coles disappointed me; it was an okay set, but nothing memorable.
The positives: Arnej was pretty damn good, and Koze was a great surprise in the Sunday School tent. Wasn't really captivated by anything else (although no through lack of not trying and exploring the other tents) until Sasha at 8pm who played a phenomenal set, one of the best I've seen from him in recent years. Although, to be fair, I heard Paco Osuna was BEAST so I regret having lunch/dinner during his set.
Above & Beyond was a humongous disappointment although their set on Friday in the tent was PHENOMENAL. I guess we could have seen that coming. They did the whole mass appeal thing on Saturday and I guess it worked, the place was really rocking; not my thing though, not after the journey they took me on Friday... They looked like they had so much more fun (the artists) on Friday too, they were obviously more into it. Chris Liebing was....... Chris Liebing... What a legend.
Burak14
^ i'm glad i didn't spend money to go this year. i rather spend $40 to see aly&fila vs joc which will be a better party than anything combined in ezoo.
diabloargentino
strobelife - nice write up. i agree with a lot of things you say. i try my best to respect that there's a new generation of fans up and coming and blah blah.. but sometimes i just want to shoot myself in the face at these things lol. just typical americans, getting into the latest fad and running it to the ground.
rather than complaining and making fun of the candy ravers (which we'll do anyway bcuz it's fun), it's just about picking good parties with good artists. there still are plenty of them.
violethalo
Holy . I danced so hard yesterday. Maya was really good but I did like her better the two times I saw her play club sets this year. Paco was incredible. Sasha was on fire. And I almost broke my entire body dancing to Chris Liebing I thought I was going to have to be rolled into Markus afterwards in a wheelchair.
Sedna
Yo Strobe, I feel you dude. I read your whole post and man, you're spot on with pretty much everything.
Armitage350
I definitely agree with you as well Strobe. I'm 31... and I've never felt so old somewhere before. I didn't even realize EZ was all ages. The only other time I went was 2010 and it was NOTHING like this. It was nothing but little teeny boppers and Gen Z Jersey Shore types in the crowd. I BS'd with a nice young kid on the bus ride back Friday night and his line of the night was "Man, I had a blast and I don't even listen to this kind of music. I don't know who any of these people are." Another kid I saw Sat at the main stage (during Eco's set) was like "Oh my god I want to go to I-bee-za so bad and party so ing hard at I-bee-za (spelled for pronunciation). These kids really have no clue and Strobe is spot on. This is now their scene and the sound of their generation.
I honestly LOVED Friday. Jaytech, Andrew Bayer, Norin and Rad, Reboot, Luciano, and Above and Beyonds closing set. Friday was the closest thing to the 'diversity' that EZ used to present. Your description of Saturday was spot on. Saturday there was a period I was actually quite bored for a few hours after catching Eco and Arnej. I saw about 10-15 mins of Nervo and left. From there on out, it was the Electro House/Trouse bandwagon between the Main Stage and Hilltop. Riverside was all dubstep and Sunday School had its dark nature.
Next year I may likely buy Early Bird tickets again but just get rid of them once they release single day tickets based upon lineups. I'm not even going today because there is nothing I really want to see and quite honestly after two full days of EZ and two afterparties, I'm shot. I need to rest up for the after party tonight (and work tomorrow).
As for the event itself, I will say though everything is pretty well laid out. There are a ton of food options (they are expensive, but they are also pretty darn good). Water bottles and Gatorade were my drink of choice. The layout of everything is pretty good too and there was always room to maneuver around outside. Tent sizes I think were pretty good too.
Overall its a great venue and a great event. But its like they say... its not what you do, but who you do it with. For the event, its the DJ's they book. For us, its the little teeny boppers that now make up the crowd. I really wonder how much better it could've been if a bunch of these DJ's didn't get signed exclusively to EDC NYC. There at least would've been a lot more diversity in my opinion.
Armitage350
quote:
Originally posted by violethalo
Holy . I danced so hard yesterday. Maya was really good but I did like her better the two times I saw her play club sets this year. Paco was incredible. Sasha was on fire. And I almost broke my entire body dancing to Chris Liebing I thought I was going to have to be rolled into Markus afterwards in a wheelchair.
My back I think actually locked up on my during his set, haha. I was in sooo much pain.
a.l.d.i.
quote:
Originally posted by StrobeLifeNYC
This is it. This is finally the year Electric Zoo parted from its core group of original followers, the ones who were there for the first few years... It's a real shame, I and almost everyone I know just didn't feel like we belonged, fish out of water.
Hours went by with nothing interesting going on musically, spanning all 4 tents. Every tent at any given time was a sing-a-long to music that gets played on KTU 2-3 times an hour. Electronic music turned into the monster we were scared it would be. I don't really feel the connection to "the scene", whatever it is. And the worst part is, the kids are going absolutely APE to this terrible music. For 15-17 year olds, which makes up a good majority of the crowd now, I could see how something like this is probably the most amazing event they've ever seen. I don't think we've "outgrown" it, it's just completely changed. It was never ever like this.
The musical layout, the core audience it's geared toward, about 80% of the lineup is totally just meant for people that aren't us, where as previous years, it was a more 50/50, maybe 60/40 ratio.
It's not like I can say previous years were ALL TRANCE ALL THE TIME, it wasn't. But the variation is what made the festival awesome, even if some days trance artists were lacking. You could go to one tent and hear drum and bass, the other minimal, main floor would have the big names (not necessarily the biggest current trends), and you could wander around and hear different things.
For 90% of yesterday, outside of Sunday School, there was just the SAAAAAAAAAAAME sounds being played over and over and over and over and over... I heard 3 or 4 artists play the same Dada Life song within an hour of Dada Life performing on main stage (that's just disrespectful, or I don't know what).. Rihanna remixes, mashups with Jay Z and Kanye's tune, songs I hear on the ing radio ALL THE TIME.
And the kids are going insane to it. The atmosphere in the tents is electric, but the music is just so piss-poor. The kids in there haven't been to a teen club, much less a big festival, so they're in absolute heaven. When we pulled up to the parking area, there was a line of more than a dozen cars with kids being dropped off by their parents. That spoke volumes, I never really saw anything like that before.. And the "molly mary lucy" shirts and "we roll deep" and all the ing obvious drug shirts just alienated the out of the few music lovers left in the crowd. Hell, I think in years past, there were more drugs, but people weren't as dumb and immature about it. Now you're the cool kid in high school if you went to the Skrillex show and took pictures of you in the "I LOVE MOLLY" t-shirt... Molly was supposed to mellow you out, make you more in tune with the people around you, nature, and the music. Now it's just another aspect of the scene that's been commercialized and tainted. On a technical/scientific level, it barely exists anymore. Whatever these kids are on has them speeded the up, raging like they're drunk off a bottle of Wild Turkey. The music and the inability of DJs to dip or vary the energy in their sets has these kids amped the up for 10 hours. Pretty Lights was the only artist outside of Above & Beyond that had any variation in his set; he changed it up, played several styles, was really awesome. Kids were leaving in mass exodus. If the music doesn't pound their ing faces in, they can't relate to it. They're so sped up, don't really know how they sustain a weekend like this. When Pretty Lights, a fairly new artist, is sending a lot of KIDS leaving the main stage, you KNOW the average age has dropped dramatically.
I think that's just our cue that we're getting the boot. Can't really see things getting better from here. I don't think Sunday's an improvement over yesterday's lineup. Even Sunday School wasn't as consistently quality throughout the entire day as I'm used to. Maya Jane Coles disappointed me; it was an okay set, but nothing memorable.
The positives: Arnej was pretty damn good, and Koze was a great surprise in the Sunday School tent. Wasn't really captivated by anything else (although no through lack of not trying and exploring the other tents) until Sasha at 8pm who played a phenomenal set, one of the best I've seen from him in recent years. Although, to be fair, I heard Paco Osuna was BEAST so I regret having lunch/dinner during his set.
Above & Beyond was a humongous disappointment although their set on Friday in the tent was PHENOMENAL. I guess we could have seen that coming. They did the whole mass appeal thing on Saturday and I guess it worked, the place was really rocking; not my thing though, not after the journey they took me on Friday... They looked like they had so much more fun (the artists) on Friday too, they were obviously more into it. Chris Liebing was....... Chris Liebing... What a legend.
for years we've been crying this outloud. people call us cynics . mean ,critics or what not. the truth is out there. there is no quality djs. Only producers who have made a one hit wonders and those dman marketing teams that sell them. like i said, sure some of them have decent production but they have no talents as far as djs. They don't belong in headliners spots.
StrobeLifeNYC
To add to some of my review before, the production quality this year was a big improvement compared to last year... Made Event did a great job with the stages, especially Sunday School. The LED screens are huge and unreal, and I like a lot of the touches they added this year! Water's still $3, which is also very admirable..
