Asheville, NC, home to the maiden voyage of all that is Moog,( rhymes with rouge), has instantly become my favorite city of the south. Surrounded by voluptuous mountains in every direction, covered by a perfect blue sky, ( which transforms into a perfect van Goughesque Starry Night after dusk), is the ideal place to get in touch with nature by day, and jam to some of the worlds premiere Bob Moog inspired music by night.
The highlights of day 1 of MoogFest..
Big Boi from Outkast was awesome, couldn’t have started out the night any better, as he jumped astage at the Civic Center. I missed The Octopus Project so I was a little bummed heading in, but Big Bio instantly alleviated me of any bummedness I still had inside me. He performed the perfect blend of new stuff off Lucious Leftfoot with the classic Outkast jams we all know and love. “Rosa Parks” and “Ghetto Musick,” were two of my favs.
Dan Deacon won the “didn’t plan on seeing, but was very, very, very great” award, with his electronic magic he whipped out with his wand and dj equipment. He is known for being very involved with the crowd in all of his shows. This was quite evident when half way into his set, he stopped the music and got on the mic, and began instructing everyone to form a huge circle in the middle of the 5,000 person audience, in order to start a dance circle. Everyone was instantly intrigued and drawn in, as the first volunteer gave it all he had in the circle. One by one people entered the magical circle of dance, danced their arses off, smoothly exited, and the vicious cycle repeated until we couldn’t hold back and everyone broke out into a crazy, free for all dance party; it was epic. After a few more songs, Dan got back on the mic with similar instructions, but instead of one large circle, we simultaneously broke into 4-5 smaller dance circles, everyone wanted to be a part of the magic. It was da bomb!
GirlTalk was back in action at Moog, and as I said before I have very mixed feelings about GT. On one hand, at live shows all he does is press play on his MacBook Pro to start the playlist of mashed up songs he has been working on for 4 months in his basement, then just jumps around, sweats on the front row, and has his roadies spray the crowd with leaf blowers and water. On the other hand, during all the craze, the songs he is mashing together, ranging from old school rap to pop to motown to new rap to R&B and everything in between is done so perfectly and seamlessly, that its almost impossible not to get sucked into the huge dance, rave that was opened up with that single press of ‘Play’.
After losing a few LBs of sweat it was time to give my legs a little rest, Thomas Wolfe Theatre, was actually connected to the Civic Center’s up stairs, so with out having to venture into the un charted cold, we went to catch Panda Bear. Panda Bear was much more laid back and relaxed, which was great. His sound is very experimental electronic, a little poppy ( not in a bad way), and very chill; it was nice to able to sit for a song or two if needed since there were seats ( very comfy ones) in the Theatre.
Low lights of day 1..
The surprise of the night/weekend to myself was how much MGMT sucks live, this wasn’t just me being a hater, as it was the consensus by many others in attendance as well. A bit disappointed, (but not really), they did NOTHING special live, just seemed like any old band up there, playing their songs, ready to get off stage. Yes, it was cool when they played 1 of the 2 songs that I knew, but that was short lived, and i was ready to leave early. There was even someone trying to sell off their MGMT ticket for a show the next weekend, but no one was even close to buying that worthless piece of paper.
Unfortunate but fortuitous at the same time, RJD2 who was playing at the Orange Peel a few blocks away was completely at capacity 30 minutes before his set was to start, with a line wrapping two blocks down the street. How this festival was set up, being in downtown Asheville and all, was there was two main stages one in the Civic Center, ( huge arena space) and one upstairs in the Thomas Wolfe Theatre, ( great acoustics!) then there were 4 other venues located around town where other acts were split up playing.
The blue dot is us at the Civic Center, and where it says Orange Peel, guess what? That’s the Orange Peel. So there was a bit of a hike to get around to the other venues. It was unfortunate to miss RJD2, whom i dearly wanted to see, but this was fortuitous as i said, because it enabled me to catch Dan Deacons second set of the evening which as i wrote earlier was the bomb!
Devo actually cancelled their set, word on street was, after playing 2 songs w The Octopus Project, a band member broke a finger or 2 somehow. Therefor Devo was forced to back out of playing their 8 o’clock set, I was planning on Big Boi anyway, but I know there were some unhappy campers due to that.
Being Halloween weekend and all, we have had the privilege to cross paths with some great characters.. and its only day one.
Top costumes so far –
Rabbit from Donnie Darko – freaked me out a little during GT
One guy mad a perfect Tron costume w lights and all.
Dr. Rockso from Metalocalpse – “I do co co co cocaainnne”
An array of Dr. Seuss characters were awesome and nostalgic
I have decided its waay cooler to use a disposable camera vs. a digital one, so as I do a reverse in technology, I will have to wait, ( as will you) a few days, weeks, months, or years to actually see all the crazy pics I took.. and crazy they are.