That is the mantra for the now Tomorrow franchise and I was lucky enough to attend day 2 and 3 of the first edition of TomorrowWorld this weekend at Chattahoochee Hills. This is my report. As far as possible, I will try to recount the weekend chronologically just because it's easier in my mind and then random stuff/opinions will be at the end. Pictures and videos are throughout, if you were to watch all the videos, it will some a little bit of time (maybe 20ish minutes or so) so if you plan to have the full blog report experience, plan your time accordingly. And as a further note to the avid reader planning to watch some of the videos, please excuse any singing you may hear me do... All the pictures are on my facebook but the ones have a bit better context for you.
The weekend started at the Marriott Hotel in the city to get a shuttle to the festival. As the buses to the city are hourly on the weekend and not knowing how long the shuttle process will take, I got there reasonably early just in case. The process was quick as so I was sitting waiting for the shuttle for a solid half hour but it did allow me to grab some extra breakfast from Starbucks. The point to this point? In my waiting, I got talking to a guy and a girl who were looking for the shuttle. They were pretty nice and they introduced me to their other friends and let me hang out with them. This was good for many reasons:
a) One of the guys had been to a stack of festivals as well so actually had a more reasoned experience approach to dance music
b) Got to see first hand the American view on festivals
c) It's better to be with people. Particularly for the first bit, we walked all over the festival ground together so you could take in the sights much better.
In a way I felt bad for tagging along with them so in return I tried to provide usual information. Anyone that's been to a festival with me will know that I'm pretty much a walking guide on the festival most of the time. Lineup, check. Set times, check. Map of the grounds memorised, check. Artist info and bios, check. I think they appreciated my knowledge so I'm glad I could be of some use.
So the festival grounds themselves. Wow. TomorrowWorld is correct. It really was like another world. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and by the time you get there, you're in the middle of no where. Then you turn down this little driveway which winds for about 500 meters and then suddenly you turn a corner and the festival is laid out in front of you tucked into the hills surrounded by forests. The production value was crazy. ID&T (the organisers) packed up all the props from TomorrowLand 2012 and shipped them over so everything had it's purpose. My favourite thing was the walkway through the forest towards the waterstages, just had that feel of another world.
And the stages themselves? Wow, crazy! These are probably the best stages production wise. The mainstage is huge with it's giant book at the forefront. The Q-Dance stage is in the shape of giant scorpion which just looks badass. The Anthem/DirtyBird/Trap stage was like a little temple. Just seriously other world thinking in terms of design. The other thing I can praise them for is the sound design. While working around the grounds, some stages would be leaking sound but only if you were kinda "in between" stages. As soon as you in at that stage, there was no leakage. The levels were just right, no "too much bass" like some festivals fall for. The Trance stage was very clever too in terms of sound. Although it was a small stage in the middle in between two of the larger stages, they had 4 stacks of speakers surrounding the stage area so when you were at the stage, it surmounted to a surround sound effect which was really great!
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| Clockwise from top left: Anthem/DirtyBird/Trap stage, Mainstage, Q-Dance stage, Super You&Me/All Gone Pete Tong/Smash The House vs Dirty Dutch stage |
After Yves V, we took the the shade for a break while NERVO played. It was ridiculously hot that day so the shade and break was greatly needed. This fortunate because NERVO's set was particularly good in my opinion. I wish I could like it, simply for the fact that the girls are Australian. Side point, also they're twins, and they're attractive blondes, it's like a marketing fantasy almost. Having heard their recent BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix and being mildly impressed for not just being "mainstream", I'm afraid this set was "mainstream". It's a point I'll discuss later.
After NERVO, I parted ways with the random friends I made from the shuttle in order to see the people I wanted to see proper. First on the list Mord Fustang. I had only ever heard a few songs of Mord, namely A New World, and I had liked what I had heard so I was curious to see what he had. His set was very up and down. When he was good, he was good and the electro house/brostep drops were heavy and pushed the crowd into energy. But when he was bad, he just went on. There were times when he would just go and on with intros/outros and the build ups were far too long. I got the feeling that he was mixing in a house style but with electro/brostep style music, you need quick edits going to from drop to drop. Considering he was the only "bass-y" act I was seeing all weekend, I did enjoy the set overall. Mord is young and I would be interested to see him again in a few years to see how he's matured.
From there I made my way to the All Gone Pete Tong (cockney for "all gone a bit wrong") stage and sat up camp for the rest of the day. On the bill was Jorris Voorn, Maya Jane Coles & Pete Tong, all house with a bit of techno acts. In a way this was a refreshing experience because I rarely get to check out and stick around at a pure house/techno stage. Not many of my friends share the same passion for the genre (although to their credit, they are learning :p ). First up Jorris Voorn. A Dutchman with a flavour for house and tech-house, he definitely had the crowd moving to a nice groove. Having read rave reviews about him in the likes of DJ Mag and Mixmag, I was pleased that he lived up to expectation. Check out his vibe below.
Next up Maya Jane Coles. This girl has a serious reputation. Dubbed as the "Queen of the Undergound", she is known for the person with their finger on the underground house pulse. With even more rave reviews from everyone, it was a solid 90 mins of house and techno grooves. She earned her title clearly and it was a brilliant warm up for the main event.
"Welcome to stage 4 of the BBC Radio 1 dance music marathon with another edition of the Essential Mix. I'm Pete Tong". These words I have heard many a time week in and week out. Pete Tong is not only THE voice of BBC Radio 1 dance music, he is THE voice of dance music full stop. Support for Mr Tong, pretty much guarantees that you're going somewhere. He is the respected opinion for all things dance almost. So hearing 2 hours of hand picked music that he personally likes is bound to be something special...and it was. It was quality house tunes from start to finish. Even more satisfying, hearing songs that I love but don't hear getting played out that often being rocked out over the sound system. Just like this song, Reverse Skydiving by Hot Natured. I love what the Hot Natured crew/label are doing and this track is mint.
The other exciting thing about seeing Pete Tong, it literally hearing him speak. Listening to his radio show, his voice is hallowed. So just hearing him speak in real life is cray cray. This video is just before he's about to come on at the end of MJC's set. Yep, he has a perfect voice for radio.
Sunday I was much better prepared for the day. Heading in a little later to avoid wasting time for better people to come on and allowing me to have lunch at home to avoid expensive festival food. Sunday for me was all about trance. I was at the trance stage almost all day because it did have a stellar lineup. First up was Norin & Rad. I had seen about 20 minutes of these guys before when they supported Above & Beyond earlier in the year back in Brisbane. They had come on after A&B so when 4am hits in a club, staying the extra hour is hard to justify. Their set here was pretty solid, some great vibes for a 2pm-3pm slot. Because the trance stage was in the middle of the grounds, when the DJs exited out the back, it was just out into the festival so I managed to grab a photo with the guys. I mentioned to them that I saw them in Brisbane, Australia and they replied "No way. That was at The Family, good gig". I was shocked that they remembered the venue for a gig 6 months ago. DJs like these guys tour all over the place so clearly Brisbane really did put on a good show. They also said they liked my t-shirt, they really are Anjunabeats guys!
Next on was Jaytech. Similar story to Norin & Rad. Solid vibes for the early arvo. I also got a photo with him. He's Australian so he liked the flag clearly.
Next was Late Night Alumni. One of the members of the group is Kaskade who didn't play with them this time but he was the reason why I wanted to check them out. Oh was it worth it! A brilliant set but it all stems from their awesome music. The singer's voice, Becky, is amazing and fits perfectly with the soft-trancy style of their music. I loved the set and I already listened to all their back catalog. You should check them out asap, seriously. Not convinced, check out the video.
The next DJ was Tydi. Seeing bits and pieces of his stuff before, I didn't overly care about seeing him but there was no one else really on so thought I would at least check him out. His set was ok, clearly building the tempo for the bigger trance guns later in the night. It passed the time easy enough.
After Tydi, I decided to go check out the some of the vibes from the other stages. Which allowed me to check out half hour's worth of Skream's set which I was curious about seeing. Skream is one third of the dubstep super-group Magnetic Man and is noted as one of the originators of dubstep. But towards the beginning of the year, he said that he was going to turn his focus to house and disco music which was a big shock for the dubstep community. So naturally his set was house/disco stuff but it was pretty decent as well. I like Skream's energy when DJing so it was fun to check him out. I particularly liked this little play around with Daft Punk he did. The blend into the bass line of the next track is pretty good in my opinion so it shows he knows what he's doing with house/disco music.
After a quick bite to eat, it was to mainstage to tick off another top 10 DJ from the DJ Mag Top 100, Hardwell. Lots of big things have been said about this kid so I was very eager to see what he was like. And I can see why he's getting big. He is perfect for that mainstage sound which is so popular at the moment. I can imagine he's a better festival DJ than club DJ because I noticed a trend to his DJing pretty quickly. Mash the vocals of a well known song with some chords, when the vocals finish their chorus, go to a build and then heavy bass drop. While this is a pretty broad generalization of dance music in general, it was similar chords, similar build ups, similar drops which made it pretty obvious. But for a 60-90 min set, he can get away with it but if he was to buckle down and do a solid 3+ hour set in a club, I doubt he could keep it interesting. Plus I also didn't like that with every build up, we were told either by some sample or the MC or Hardwell himself to "put your hands up" or "everybody f***ing jump". Your music should make people do that, you don't need to keep telling them to do it. But that ties into the point that I'll make at the end. I'll admit he is high energy and it is hard to resist some of the drops sometimes so overall a good set but I wouldn't need to see him again any time soon. As a side note, at one point he used the vocals to Thing Called Love by Above & Beyond, I was of course belting out the lyrics, no one around me knew them........................America needs to learn about Above & Beyond more!
Back to the trance stage for BT. I had recently listened to his latest album and was thoroughly impressed with it. I had also read before about his impressive live presence so I was keen to see him. Oh my what a set. Seriously banging from start to end. In a time slot where I was wanting to converse energy, it literally got me onto my feet and onto the dancefloor. The #trancefamily crowd were certainly showing their love for him because the atmosphere was crazy. Great friendly vibes but off the hook. Like Late Night Alumni, check out his stuff. He's a talented man (see his wikipedia blurb) and he has many different types of music. If you saw the original Fast & The Furious or Monster, then you've heard his talents because he soundtracked those films.
After BT's set I quickly hurried to mainstage to catch the last 2 songs of David Guetta to see what he's playing these days. Still terrible live, don't bother. One of the two songs was the first song off his new album...it sounded pretty bland despite having links to being made with the UN or something.... I don't know anymore D.Guetta....
The closing set of the festival was the reason why I got tickets for Sunday. I'll let this video introduce him.
The number 1 DJ in the world a record 5 times. The only previous time I had seen him was amazing. His studio work is amazing. Listening to his latest live album a few weeks ago amazing. He is truly worthy of the title of number 1 DJ. Naturally he killed it. But when you have massive tracks like this, it's no wonder.
Briefly foraying into that point I was going to discuss later, the American influence was clear in Armin's set. Check out his closing song (even for just the pyrotechnics display is amazing! It is the last song of the entire festival after all) and tell me that's not an American influence.
And so the last song was played. The last stories were etched into chapter 2 of The Book of Wisdom and so it was time for it to close once more. I can't do it justice so the last video for the post will have to do. In a way, it seemed more emotional that it ought to be...maybe it'll reopen someday where some other lucky festival goers will get to write their chapter.
And so chronologically, that was TomorrowWorld!
But this is a point I want to discuss, that I've alluded to throughout the post. The American influence on namely the music. Clearly DJs sometimes have to alter their style of set or song choices for different crowds. I would be interested to know how much different their set would be say if they were playing TomororwWorld in Australia. For example, I've seen Armin once before as the headline slot at a festival in Australia. But this set was slightly different, for starters using Smells Like Teen Spirit for his finale. In Australia, his finale & encore were both classic tracks from his latest album. In a way, I actually felt sorry for Armin. The crowd was nowhere the best I'm sure he's seen because most people were left over from Hardwell & David Guetta. When he yelled out "Who's a fan of A State of Trance [his radio show]?" and a mediocre response prompting him to asked again to get the crowd up is a prime example. Any other show he would do, the crowd would be in a frenzy at his question and I think Armin knew it too. The trance stage closed at the beginning of Armin's set so the trance fans (called trancefamily) could get to Armin so the trancefamily was all on my side of the stage. Armin almost only ever addressed our side of the stage, never the other stage, like he knew where his real fans were.
The main point of this little rant is the idea of "EDM" to America. EDM is that mainstream dance music genre where it's heavy bass drop from a melodic build up. Animals by Martin Garrix is classic example, it was on top of the Beatport charts for like 6 weeks straight. I don't like EDM because it's unoriginal, all the music sounds the same yet Americans keep coming back to it. Remember the point I made about NERVO, their set was clearly aimed at the American love of EDM but having heard their other sets, they're clearly better than the set they played. A worse fact is that Americans usually just refer to dance music in general as EDM and take other shortcuts like calling house and techno just techno, and using the catch all bass music term. While I'm not a huge fan of millions of subgenres, I do appreciate at least some respect for what people play and not confusing them with something else. The dance music explosion in the US is new and still young. It's amazing the progress they've made in recent years, that a festival on the scale of TomorrowWorld could even happen. But much more progress needs to be made to even come close to the level of dance music in Europe (I'm believing Australia is more closely aligned with the UK compared to the US here). I guess if TomorrowWorld continues as an annual event it will be a test for how dance music is fairing in the US. America can choose to grow in their dance music appreciation, or they can continue playing the same tunes and dance music will begin to die out in the coming years. I hope it is the former.
The last point I want to talk about is the American festival stereotypes. They're all true! People still dress is bright neon colours like it's 2005. Girls still wear those ridiculous woolly/hairy knee high boot things. People still wear heaps of those candy bracelets. People smoking weed everywhere...I know hate the smell of weed (let alone the act of smoking period). People wearing shirts saying things about Molly (which is actually pretty bad considering the number of drug related deaths there have been in recent times). I'm glad I was able to hang out with those randoms for the first bit of the first day. It allowed me to see how an American experiences a festival and see all the stereotypes first hand.
TomorrowWorld was a unique experience, one of the best festivals I've been to, if not the best. Not just for the production value or the lineup but for the truly international feel. Over the weekend I spoke to Americans (clearly), Irish, Indian, German, South African, Australian (although the guy in the Roosters Jersey didn't like me yelling "Queenslander! 8 in a row!"), Mexican, Venezuela, Canadian & French. Plus the number of flags being flown at mainstage showed how many nationalities. It's an opportunity few people get to be apart of a global community in this way and really shows the ideal of the Tomorrow franchise.
For the 3 days, this is a new land or world. They have their own currency, their own brew, their own post office, marketplace and bookstore. It's not surprising to hear some people wait months to take off their entry bracelet serving a reminder of a weekend that was.
But in a way, this is wrong for it contradicts the Tomorrow motto. For those who have experience Tomorrow, I gladly join you as a Tomorrow local. If you haven't been, I urge to go someday. It really is a one of a kind experience.
Just remember these 10 little words.
Yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is mystery.....
The main point of this little rant is the idea of "EDM" to America. EDM is that mainstream dance music genre where it's heavy bass drop from a melodic build up. Animals by Martin Garrix is classic example, it was on top of the Beatport charts for like 6 weeks straight. I don't like EDM because it's unoriginal, all the music sounds the same yet Americans keep coming back to it. Remember the point I made about NERVO, their set was clearly aimed at the American love of EDM but having heard their other sets, they're clearly better than the set they played. A worse fact is that Americans usually just refer to dance music in general as EDM and take other shortcuts like calling house and techno just techno, and using the catch all bass music term. While I'm not a huge fan of millions of subgenres, I do appreciate at least some respect for what people play and not confusing them with something else. The dance music explosion in the US is new and still young. It's amazing the progress they've made in recent years, that a festival on the scale of TomorrowWorld could even happen. But much more progress needs to be made to even come close to the level of dance music in Europe (I'm believing Australia is more closely aligned with the UK compared to the US here). I guess if TomorrowWorld continues as an annual event it will be a test for how dance music is fairing in the US. America can choose to grow in their dance music appreciation, or they can continue playing the same tunes and dance music will begin to die out in the coming years. I hope it is the former.
The last point I want to talk about is the American festival stereotypes. They're all true! People still dress is bright neon colours like it's 2005. Girls still wear those ridiculous woolly/hairy knee high boot things. People still wear heaps of those candy bracelets. People smoking weed everywhere...I know hate the smell of weed (let alone the act of smoking period). People wearing shirts saying things about Molly (which is actually pretty bad considering the number of drug related deaths there have been in recent times). I'm glad I was able to hang out with those randoms for the first bit of the first day. It allowed me to see how an American experiences a festival and see all the stereotypes first hand.
TomorrowWorld was a unique experience, one of the best festivals I've been to, if not the best. Not just for the production value or the lineup but for the truly international feel. Over the weekend I spoke to Americans (clearly), Irish, Indian, German, South African, Australian (although the guy in the Roosters Jersey didn't like me yelling "Queenslander! 8 in a row!"), Mexican, Venezuela, Canadian & French. Plus the number of flags being flown at mainstage showed how many nationalities. It's an opportunity few people get to be apart of a global community in this way and really shows the ideal of the Tomorrow franchise.
For the 3 days, this is a new land or world. They have their own currency, their own brew, their own post office, marketplace and bookstore. It's not surprising to hear some people wait months to take off their entry bracelet serving a reminder of a weekend that was.
But in a way, this is wrong for it contradicts the Tomorrow motto. For those who have experience Tomorrow, I gladly join you as a Tomorrow local. If you haven't been, I urge to go someday. It really is a one of a kind experience.
Just remember these 10 little words.
Yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is mystery.....
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