Erstellt am: 7. 7. 2012 - 18:54 Uhr
Urban Art Forms (UAF): Musings from Day Two
UAF is taking place this year between the 5th and 7th of July at Schwarzlsee, just south west of Graz, not too far from the airport.
It was just after 4pm that dark and stormy, fateful day when I first arrived at the Main Stage, fully expecting to have missed the set from the Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED). It was my fault; I'd been hungry, and spent the hour that they were supposed to be on stage stuffing my face.
Fortunately for me, in a development which would become one of the benchmarks of this year's festival, the TEED were also late with starting, and therefore I got to see nearly their entire set.
For an opener to my festival experience, this was quite... interesting.
The Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
A warm wind was picking up, and ominous dark clouds were beginning to form in the distance. TEED were in the middle of a song just as I arrived; stopped, the DJ and singer (Orlando Higginbottom) apologized and told us all that it was because "that was the version without Luisa", and promptly started the song again. That song is Garden, the Luisa in question is from Lulu and the Lampshades, and it is a duet between Orlando and Luisa.
The only catch is that she wasn't actually there. It was still a duet - her recorded voice sang a line, and then he would sing a line, and then her voice would sing another line, and so on. I was vaguely reminded of 2Pac's appearance at Coachella this year, minus the hologram.
With all due respect to TEED, who sang his bits very well, and was lively enough on stage to not be boring - and who, in fact, played a really awesome set (I danced), as I watched this digital duet, it brought to the forefront for me a question that is always there: how live is this, really?
Full disclosure: I was perhaps partly in the live mood because, despite the fact that we play the Dinosaurs all the time, and I've personally played them on my own Sleepless program more times than I can count, I have somehow got it stuck in my head that Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is actually the name of a proper rock band. Like, with a guitarist, drummer, bass player, and a guy playing keys. So deeply embedded in my brain is this concept, that I will probably be at another music festival one day and see TEED again and again be surprised to find that it is merely one guy with a microphone and an electronics set-up.
Mind you, it wasn't just Mr. Higginbottom on stage. There were also two pretty girls dancing in cat costumes; and let's face it, because electronic music festivals require one to ignore the fact that what one is normally watching is more-or-less a person hitting play on their laptop, bringing any sort of performance quality can make or break an electronic show for me.
Cat costume dancers? Officially made this show a highlight.
Of course, there was another reason this show was ... uhm, memorable. The dark and ominous clouds which had been in the distance were now practically on top of us, and the wind was getting pretty crazy.
And then, suddenly!
This happened.
There was thunder, there was lightning, and little drops of rain that promised to become something more and bigger. Heavy winds carrying away unwitting campers' tents. All of the stages closed, the booths and stands locked down, and the security ushered everyone out.
I was used to sudden weather changes at Austrian festivals, but this was something new (albeit not nearly as bad as the thunderstorm at Nova Rock one year, which cut the electricity in the middle of a Nine Inch Nails set, and flooded our tent in the night).
For just over an hour, it was as if some biblical figure had come down from the heavens with a giant remote and hit 'pause' on the festival. At some stage, this foreboding threat of a giant storm petered away with nary a single hailstone, and the show could go on.
This, however, had the cumulative effect of making an already-disordered line-up (owing to delays and cancellations from unrelated flight chaos) even messier. You no longer could simply go to a stage, and know by the timetable what you were watching. It officially required some cleverness.
After the Storm: The Slow Afternoon
*- Padre El Ferenco, if I'm not mistaken.
We all slowly returned to find a sense of momentum sadly lacking. Oliver Koletzki's set had been delayed indefinitely, Mr. Koletzki having been a victim of the aforementioned flight chaos, and in his place were two very competent dance music DJs* who brought absolutely nothing live to the main stage.
In a different environment, I'm sure I would have been shaking that thang, but in the context of somewhere big like the main stage, I need more than two DJs turning imaginary knobs on the mixing desk and making a show of pre-fade listening on their headphones. I mean no disrespect to their work, but the main stage requires a performance, no ifs, ands, or buts.
So I walked around.
The Music Academy Stage
*- DJ Dizzy & Dorian Pearce AKA Physically Fit
was a bit like the Main Stage. Two competent DJs* playing music but not really performing. I liked it a lot more though, because it was a smaller venue, decorated really well and a lot more interesting to look at, and right by the... no, sorry, right in the water, tempting all of us to go swimming.
Because of its size, for the middle of the afternoon, the "Two DJs" set-up worked far better for me here.
The Drum'n'Bass Stage
There is nothing new to say about the DNB Stage. I went there to check it out, and despite the fact that the venue was in a different part of Austria than last year, and there were different acts booked, etc., it was exactly the same as in 2011. The exact same sound, exact same people, exact same place. I didn't stay too long; because the DNB Stage exists in a vortex outside of time, it wasn't too long before I saw myself from last year nodding his head to the music, and I knew that if Last Year Johnny would see This Year Johnny, we would both cease to exist and the very fabric of space and time might tear open, bringing a black hole into existence, and eating the entire planet. Shuddering at the implications, I fled the Drum n bass room, just as I noted Last Year Johnny also turning around to leave.
That was a close one.
Patrick Wally
Funky Costumes & People
Behold! A bunch of pictures of funky and surreal concert attendees, courtesy of our photographer Patrick Wally.
Turntablerocker
Turntablerocker, on the main stage, were quite a bit better already; they still sort of fell into the trap of just being two guys with their laptops on a big, empty stage, but they made up for it with some really interesting musical ideas, strong visuals behind them, including a pair of giant red lips singing, and - although this won't seem like much - they seemed really into the music, clapping their hands and dancing to it, rather than behaving like dry sound engineers turning imaginary knobs on a mixer. This was pretty interesting for a while, although I did eventually move on to another stage.
Nero
While I was walking around, I began to hear in the distance what sounded like a great electronic-trip hop-rock fusion band with a live female vocalist and electric guitars and a real rocking atmosphere. Hurriedly, I returned to the area of the Main Stage, only to find that the... female vocalist was not actually there (just a digital recording), and the same went for the entire rock band. It was just a guy on stage with a laptop.
The sound was fine, but it's a freaking Main Stage for God's sake. It's big, too wide and empty for one guy with a laptop. Why not just book the musicians themselves to really play that music?
Paul Kalkbrenner
Before I offend all of the Paul Kalkbrenner fans out there who undoubtedly thought this was the best show of the festival, I am going to take this moment to concede a few things:
The light show was quite nice and he looked good. The sun had just gone down and it looked and felt like a headliner performing at a festival.
He is a professional and talented DJ/Producer. What he does, he does well, and he makes dance music.
The crowd was totally with him; before he even arrived on stage, the anticipation and excitement in the air had reached a fever pitch. Everybody was ready to dance and get down, and that is exactly what they did.
Having conceded those things, I would like to play devil's advocate and pose a couple questions for you. Paul's live show consisted of him standing there, looking cool, turning knobs and playing music.
So what if, rather than headlining the festival, he would have played at three or four in the afternoon? What if his name was not Paul Kalkbrenner?
Does 'live' electronic music really just come down to some cool guy standing in front of his decks?
My answer? No. No, it does not. I'm going to skip ahead and bypass Skrillex real quick (sorry, Skrillex fans), because for me, the most satisfying and fun performance of the evening was happening at the exact same time, at the much smaller Music Academy Stage.
Peaches 'DJ Set'
Following an epic and very entertaining live set from Ogris Debris, where they not only played their music, but sang and danced, often within the crowd, Peaches arrived with her entourage and stole the entire show.
The joke is that this performance was listed as a DJ Set. Oh, I have no doubt that that's exactly what it was (sorta); Peaches spent enough time behind her decks to give one the impression that she was actually in control of the music playback- and for the record (no pun intended), aside from a couple of small hiccups, she was really, really good at it.
But she sang. She rapped. She vocalized some of her hits. She played completely unrecognizable stuff. Her entourage consisted of two vaguely sado-masochistic dancers, who performed on stage, in a variety of costumes. She herself came down and danced on stage, even at one point with the audience. And then, when we thought we'd seen everything, out of nowhere, she covered Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" live. It was hilarious and touching. That will be the moment I remember of the entire festival.
Did it fit within the context of an 'electronic' music festival? Yes, it did.
Was it live? I'm going to go out on a limb, and answer with a resounding 'yes'.
The Drum'n'Bass Stage (Pt.2)
Okay, I lied. Something new and special did happen at the DNB Stage this year, something that didn't happen in 2011 and Last Year Johnny didn't see it already. I missed it because it wasn't on the schedule and I didn't know; fortunately our reporter Patrick Wally was there and captured the live DJ Set from Pendulum.
How was the show? Well, this is what Patrick had to say about it: Since the show was suddenly a day earlier and I was stopped on my way in (actually entering the back of the DNB Stage is not allowed for photographers - who knew?), it was pure luck (and experience in talking my way in) to have witnessed Pendulum in the photo pit. And good it was: for me the best performance so far. Having an MC just for live performances (Ben „The Verse") is a big difference to all the other djs who hide behind their tables. The audience went crazy and the heat inside was like partying in the desert. Good that the lake was nearby...
Post-Modern Take on Sex
Even though it wasn't on the official schedule, there is one other performance that I considered worth mentioning. I don't know who these people were or why they were doing this, but two female dancers came out of nowhere during the Ogris Debris set, and did a completely anonymous and strangely beautiful erotic-dance-ritual. It was as if they were making love, but as figures rather than people, in colourful spandex and wearing eerily glowing bulbs underneath their costumes. It seemed to me like a post-modern and somewhat spiritual take on sex or even pornography.
This was an absolutely brilliant (and completely unexpected) live art installation, and also a great compliment to what was happening on stage. My fingers are crossed to see more of that calibre at tonight's festival.