5 Things I Learned and Saw At Electric Adventure

Posted by Middy on August 22, 2013

In a little Throwback Thursday edition of event reviews, we have Electric Adventure, the 2-day festival that took place at Six Flags, in New Jersey over the 3rd and 4th of August. It combined a bass and trap heavy lineup, with some of the premier roller coasters on the eastern seaboard, giving you an experience where your adrenaline was always pumping, unless you were waiting in line for rides. The lineup was well rounded with guys like Dillon Francis, Seven Lions, GTA, 12th Planet and Zeds Dead all performing over the 2 days. Click past the jump for a few photos and some things I learned and saw at the festival.

5 Things I Learned:

1. Flosstradomus play a pre-recorded set:

WHAT? HOW CAN IT BE? But Middy, me, my twerk queens, and my twerk team stay twerkin to them. Well, their productions may be good, but they are faking their live show, more than a pornstar fakes it with some random dude off the street. In the 20 minutes I could stand to watch them do it, they NEVER once touched the CDJs (one big hint) and two the CDJs were not even on, hint number two. If you aren’t convinced, just watch this video.

EDIT: Apparently they do have some live setup with Ableton and a novation launchpad as pointed out by the astute commenter below, probably as a response to them getting blatantly caught using a pre-recorded set, though they started using it before that video….. The whole thing seemed a little too clean though for how little effort they were putting in to the mixing, but that is the beauty of ableton and novation. They might want to start crediting the hardstyle producers they sample for their songs.

2. Danny Avila gets girls:

This is not a casual thing where like one chick will go after him after a show and he has to work for her. As soon as his set was over, 10 thirsty smokes (though some may have been jailbait) surrounded him in the VIP area and started to hound him, vying for his attention. Eventually, two big-breasted broads gained the upper-hand with him and 12th Planet (way to go big guy). I do not know how the night ended for them, but probably well. I heard a story of Danny trying a bit too hard and creeping on some girl up at Syracuse from one of the promotors, but that is probably the exception, not the rule.

3. Area Event knows how to throw an party:

From golf carting us from the entrance to the backstage (well done Jake), to taking us up on stage, letting us have FREE ice cream and setting aside an nice, providing comfortable area for media and VIPs, Area Event’s prep work and execution was on point this year. Security guards were grooving, and both days went off without a hitch, though two guys did decide to fight at one point. I guess the heat and dubstep do that to people? The video display was well designed with a combination of LEDs and lights, and the sound system did an ample job to project the bass-heavy volleys from the DJs. They are expanding to other events at Six Flags around the country, while also looking to expand events throughout the Tri-state area, notably New York. Not sure if this was Area Event or Six Flags, probably Six Flags, but there were vendors selling all sorts of rave items like glow sticks (pretty standard), furry boots, in case you forgot yours at home and didn’t feel PLUR enough, and glow gloves, something that the connection to drugs just went WAY over their heads. I don’t write this to get more passes or anything, this is genuine and I am very impressed at how this went off. The reason this did get posted so late was because it took forever for the pictures to get uploaded. Not sure if that is on the photographer or Area, but it was bad.

4. Seven Lions is better live than how he sounds on your speakers:

It is a bold statement, but it is true: Seven Lios has changed the game in terms of how we listen to dubstep and how it is created. He has created a melodic dubstep sound that has become copied and mimicked by countless producers looking to hop on what is the hot style now. I had never seen him before the 4th, and he was one of the guys who has been up there on my list to see. His set was about as varied as it could be for an hour-long set could be. He knew how to read the crowd, playing a few big-room tracks like “Thunder”, “Grid” (like that selection), Blasterjaxx “Miami”. He switched up genres and tempos, tossing out a trap remix of “Wakanda”, some trance with the Tomas Heredia remix of “Communication”, and of course serving up a healthy dose of his own remixes and originals.

5. Roller Coasters and Dance Music are Meant to be Together:

Besides the cheesy comparisons that they both have HUGE drops, the adrenaline and energy you get at a show: you get that and more on a roller coaster, albeit with an hour-long (if you are lucky) wait beforehand. While the theme park was crowded, notably on Sunday with the good weather all day, the roller coasters provided a reprieve from dancing and if you didn’t want to see a set, you could go ride a roller coaster. The thrill of both belong together in one event, in one park and this type of a concert / festival should be happening more often. Instead of just setting up a stage with LEDs in a field, more innovative ideas like this should be coming around.

5 Things I saw:

1. ALL-AGED Ravers:

All-aged events are slowly going away with the demand for live dance music skyrocketing, thus the need to dip down into the under-18 pool of ravers to sell tickets is declining, thankfully. I don’t say that as some jaded 22 year-old guy who doesn’t want a 16 year-old dude sharing the same 100-foot radius as me. I mean I don’t want to have to watch out I don’t trample some 14 year old girl, or a 10 year old kid, which there were a surprising number of there. This crowd made it all the more amusing walking around the theme park, seeing people’s, notably parents with small children’s, reactions to these kids in their outfits. Part of that was their reaction to the next point, though some parents seemed to be totally unfazed by what was going on around them, though it could be interpreted as stone-cold shock. Late Sunday, we ran into some people in line for Batman and they described the show as “That fruity show”, and with the clothes some people were wearing, point taken.

2. Underbooty:

It is no secret, warm weather means shedding unnecessary articles of clothing and showing more skin. Many times that means shorter and shorter shorts or skirts and more revealing tops for the ladies. At raves however, this is taken to a rather pleasant extreme where booty shorts and spandex have become the norm, and this point is dedicated to the underbooty. There is a huge following for the underboob, and deservingly so, well now there deserves to be a following for the underbooty. If this part of the body is showing ladies, do not be mad or even surprised if a guy is looking at it. It is exposed just like your hand or your thigh.

3. Better late than never:

Danny Avila showed up late and Dillon Francis showed up late, forcing the promotors to shuffle the schedule. Dillon Francis was understandable. He played a 4:30 to 5:25 set at the Veld Festival in Toronto and then had 3 hours to get to his 8:45 set in the middle of New Jersey. That is not really feasible. He made it around 9:15, to play for 45 minutes. Though he seemed rather tired and annoyed about being cut off early, he managed to salvage it and play a solid set all around. Danny Avila and his father had not educated themselves on just how miserable traffic can be on the New Jersey Turnpike or the Park(ing)way on a Saturday, and left in what they thought was enough time for his 5pm set. He had played a headlining set at Webster Hall the night before, so it should have been fine, he was not flying in from Toronto. Nope, he showed up over an hour late and we had to endure an extra hour of the opener / hit machine DJ Mikey P. Danny Avila would eventually go on after Seven Lions, and would put together a well-crafted MainStage-styled set that was what the crowd wanted.

4: GTA, 12th Planet & Zeds Dead all Delivered Great Sets:

It was a first time seeing all of these guys live, so I was excited to see them all. GTA have been delivering on remixes and originals, spanning all types of styles of sounds in the dance music realm, ignoring genre boundaries and going for what they feel at the moment. Their set reflected that, bringing is electro, trap, house and dubstep, as they electrified the crowd for an elongated set while Dillon Francis was arriving from Toronto. 12th Planet arrived quite early and hung out in the VIP area and made some friends with a motley crew of VIPs, but during his set he was all business, putting together trap and dubstep of his own and others, including some new and unreleased stuff from himself and Smog, his label. Zeds Dead, drunk and goonin’, ended the bass-hevay weekend with a well-orchestracted set that slowly built the bpms with a fusion of dubstep, trap and drumstep, using their own classics and new material as well.

5: Destroid:

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the new trio of Excision, Downlink and KJ Sawka. From the moment they were formed and started releasing music, dub-heads have wanted to see them in action and get a blast of all 100,000 (yes that is right) watts to their face. Their has been a trend lately of guys coming together to make “supergroups”, but they just stand together on stage, nothing innovative. What makes Destroid so different is their live setup, that they debuted at the Warfield in San Francisco, which involves all of them in light up, full-body armor suits, with KJ Sawka doing live drums, something he does very well, and Excision and Downlink playing Launchpad guitars. You can watch a video here to get a better picture of what I mean. I am not that big a fan of their music, it is a bit too extreme in terms of loud and aggressive dubstep. However, their first song had metal and rock influences, which really fit their vibe, but then it just got to very, very heavy dubstep, overpowering my friend without earplugs in the way back of the amphitheater. Not sure how the kids in the front did it. I see their appeal, and I applaud their innovative live design, the launchpad element is awesome and I have a ton more respect for them as artists, but I am just not that big a fan of the music.

Bonus: Dj Bl3nd Fans: They are real!?!? I thought he bought them all on Facebook…. Maybe the guy was a hologram.

Top 5 Songs of the Festival:

1. Martin Garrix – Animals
2. W&W – Thunder
3. Ace Hood – Bugatti ft. Future, Rick Ross
4. Diplo & GTA – Boy Oh Boy
5. Benny Benassi – Satisfaction (Various edits & remixes)

Tags: Area Event, Better, crew, Dance Music, Danny Avila, Dillon Francis, dubstep, GTA, guy, kind, music, night, number, party, Seven Lions, Six Flags, sound, street, team, Toronto, trap, Underbooty It, VIP, watch, work