“You didn’t knock, Kane.” “I did, but I think that the music was a little loud.” “Are you afraid of it?” “No, I just don’t like techno.” “You would if you had robot ears.” via Grandma’s Boy
Now that we’re somewhat recovered from our Ultra Music Festival experience comes the fun part: recapping the epic good times we shared with thousands of our fellow party goers and favorite musical influencers.
Hopefully, you checked us out on Twitter & Facebook to get an idea of some of the things we learned this weekend, if not, we’ll do our best to pass this new knowledge off to you.
Like any music festival we’ve covered, there always seems to be a resounding theme in its experience, one word that typically sums up the time we had. For Ultra this word is: Colossal. That’s really what it is. From the stages, to the sound, to the lights, to the over-the-top characters in the crowd, right down to the city it’s held in…Ultra does everything bigger than anyone else. Not saying it’s a great thing or that it’s better, just saying it is what it is. And why wouldn’t it be huge? When you have the biggest and best tastemakers that define a culture, in this city, at the same time, shit’s bound to get crazy!
From Day 1, which started with us getting “trashed” – figuratively not literally, with a filthy house set on the main stage from up and comer, Tommy Trash, to catching one of our new favorites, Paper Diamond, going hard with his ipad, and learning that Martin Solveig sounds nothing in person like he does on a record; the early afternoon jump-off helped guide us in making some really tough decisions. Anyone that was at Ultra knows our dilemma – Lots of overlapping sets and tons of Dj’s you want to see – probably one of the only things that bummed us out about UMF. We understand though; it’s a necessary evil when going to a festival.
That being said, one of the festival’s best sets happened at the Korea stage Day 1. Where a young Mr. Robinson dropped banger after banger and completely made us dance ourselves clean. We have the video to attest to it.
This is more proof that this kid will be on the top of the Electronic Music scene very soon. If he plays anywhere close to where you live, do us a favor and go! Never a bad time = fact.
Early evening Day 1 saw us hit up Skrillex, in a set that true dubstep elitists’ would say was truly tame and more pop than anything they’re used to. The word “soldout” was heard from a few people who used to be Skrillex fans. We just think our buddy Skrill was giving the people what they wanted, the main stage will do that to you, but he came back for round two Saturday with ,12th planet, at the Brazil Stage and we’re pretty sure if you saw the set we did you became a fan all over again. Just destroyer, after destroyer, after destroyer…effing awesome!!! Skrill, we thank you for the good time!
The end of night one had us making one the toughest decision’s of the festival…Tiesto or Pretty Lights. Check out this (4) minute slice of heaven and you’ll know where we went and why.
If Day 1 is your introduction to Ultra, Day 2 is your test in strength and perseverance. After going hard all day and all night, one could definitely be satisfied with a single day of whomps and unhtz as opposed to a full three day excursion, but we here at the SD are festival pros and daily grinders so you know there’s no question where we were when the gates opened.
Day 2 saw us hit up early sets by Zedd who busted out an electro remix of the Nintendo classic Zelda, and SD favorite A-trak, in his element, breaking out the old school decks to spin ’45’s and giving the crowd a lesson in turntable scratching before he came back for round 2 later in the day with Duck Sauce. We went to both sets and they were equally as good. Lesson learned on Day 2, the sauce makes it better.
Other strong sets on Day 2 came from Zeds Dead, 12th Planet, and Fat Boy Slim, but like any electronic track it’s all about the build-up, and there was only one set on Day 2 that we were building into all day: JUSTICE.
In order to make it to that point, one needs sure will, determination, a steady diet of Redbull Vodka and a couple bottles of water to take with them into the mix. The journey to the main stage to see JUSTICE was long and arduous filled with a lot of Fat Boy Slim’s mixes, a shit ton of references to people loving Avicii, and swimming over the thousands of Ultra fans who might’ve been on some other types of things – hey, do what you need to do to get up…we’re not judging.
When we landed, we were 50 yards away from the stage with a sea of people behind us, and the tried and true fans in front. If you’ve seen JUSTICE you’re awesome, if you haven’t we’ll tell you one thing they’re: LOUD and RAW and that’s why we love them.
After finally settling in, JUSTICE, ripped through an hour long set hitting up some classics, mixing it some new stuff, and even going acappella for a solid 2 minutes. Some highlights of the set were Gaspard and Xavier mixing in Jay-Z’s “On to the Next One” during “On and On’’ and the light show during “Stress,” probably the most intense thing we’ve ever witnessed – we know this because one person in our crew had to go sit down, like the Party Robots we are, we raged on!
As for night 2 we closed it with JUSTICE settling on rest and recuperation, rather than catching Avicii play “Levels” five times or Madonna make references to illegal drugs – good call on our part!
On Day 3, we woke up to the sun shining, the birds chirping, and something called, “Total Body Soreness.” The kind you get after hours of doing P90X or a full day of being on your feet. Advil works wonders in these cases, but none the less, we were ready to attack the day only after a couple hours of lounging and a few cups of our favorite adult beverages.
Day 3, was more of a send-off than a test of strength and the party started with Steve Aoki celebrating his birthday in true Ultra fashion by raging hard, throwing cake into the crowd and spraying champagne at the peeps in the front row. You have to love Aoki, for bringing up the energy level of the crowd after two days of heavy activity.
Aoki, was followed by Knife Party whose song “Internet Friends” seemed to be the anthem of the festival, with Dj after Dj droping the blocked on facebook tune set after set. That track will totally set off explosions on the dancefloor if played at the right moment.
From there we kicked back to a little Steve Lawler and Chase & Status, till it was Bassnectar time.
Having spoken about the Nectar in Ultra Previews you know our affinity for this guy, he’s the right amount of mix of everything we love about electronic music: Loud, Fast, Filthy and in every set we’ve seen he completely goes off into his own little world bringing the entire crowd with him on an epic odyssey of Bass and Destroyers.
And he didn’t disappoint playing choice cuts from his new album “Vava Voom”, dropping in a track featuring Lupe Fiasco, mixing in some Wu-Tang Clan throughout his set and ending by giving in to all his “Bassheads” going hard through the finale, as fireworks popped off behind him…signaling an end to Day 3 and an end to the Ultra Music Festival.
All in all, Ultra’s one of those thing that you have to try at least once in your life. Sorta, like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, New Year’s Eve in Paris or skydiving on your 30th birthday. Ultra, will explode your ears, damage your hearing for a few days and have you screaming at the top of your lungs for more noise. If we learned anything in our first Ultra Music Festival experience it’s that music is universal, and the energy that people give is the energy that the music gives you. How else are you supposed to make it through 3 Days of this stuff? So thank you, Ultra, for teaching us this invaluable lesson in life and we’ll see you next year! We’re definitely still feeling it.
Writer & Photographer: Ditto Ramirez
