Thursday I attended IDentity Festival in DC (actually in Bristow, VA) with JuliAn, and I thought I would share some highlights for you (in reverse chronological order). The biggest headliners, Rusko and Kaskade were great; but of course, I would expect nothing less. Although I enjoyed his set at Electric Zoo much more so, I loved the reggae and drum n' bass influence Rusko included this time around. He dropped some new tracks, but unfortunately I couldn't quite track them down. The best I can do for you right now is a BBC Radio 1 rip of the brand new "Somebody to Love". Kaskade also threw down from a DJ booth that towered above the crowd. His set was solid yet a bit bland at some points. His remix of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" did, however, blow the crowd up.
Skrillex - Scary Monsters Nice Sprites(Kaskade Remix) by Mathieu v
Kaskade also dropped his newest single, Eyes.
Kaskade Eyes (Extended Mix)
Three other acts really stood out to me: Avicii, Modeselektor, and Booka Shade. Some I expected more from, like DatSik; whose set I was looking forward to (finally some dubstep in the day I thought), but I quickly got bored of his DJing and left his set to immerse myself in the feel good vibes of Avicii. Unlike my colleagues here at Electric Squeeze, I'm not the biggest house fanatics, but I did not want Avicii's set to end.
Not surprisingly, many DJs dropped some version of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", this was Avicii's.
Avicii Nothing With You (w/ Adele)
Avicii Sweet Dreams (Avicii Sweeder Dreams Mix)
Avicii Levels (Clockwork Remix)
After that I scurried off to wait for Nero's performance and was surprised to find an insultingly small stage. Unfortunately, me and many others were left heartbroken when Nero never showed. The result was our departure and trip to the Main Stage where dubstep king, Rusko, was playing. It was later discovered that the promoter of the festival had bumped Nero off the line-up last minutes to accommodate Markus Schultz. I will keep my opinions on this matter private. Modeselektor brought the heavy, heavy electro beats to a modest crowd early in the day. I don't know about their matching jumpsuits, but they really got me excited for the crazy day ahead.
Modeselektor The Black Block
Modeselektor VW Jetta
The first act we saw was German tech house duo, Booka Shade. Their set started off pretty chill, but built up quickly. I really liked their set up with live drums, which was a break from all the synthetic sounds of electronic music. Check out some of their tunes off of last year's More!
Booka Shade Bad Love
Booka Shade Havanna Sex Dwarf
Finally, a really exciting part of the beginning of the day was that our very own DJ Rew!nd got a chance to perform at the Local Stage. Albeit in front of an early crowd, he threw down, blasting everything from SHM to Chuckie.
Overall the ten hours of music shot my ears for awhile, but was totally worth it. For DC's first major electronic music festival, a showing of 12,000 is far from bad. The festival could have been much more organized, as set times were posted minutes before the festival and the different stages were not clearly marked, but oh well. You still have to hand it to the organizers because when you think of the DC music scene electronic music is not the first thing that comes to mind, but you never know what the future holds.
Cheers!
~MAR
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