ULTRA [uhl-truh] –adjective 1. goingbeyondwhatisusualorordinary;excessive;extreme. Yup, Ultra is the perfect name for this world renowned music festival, as it is and was the ULTIMATE electronic music experience for everyone in attendance. Ultra was not only sold out by 150,000 thousand people, but people from 70 different countries bought tickets to this event. I don't know if that number means anything to you, but compared to the numbers of other festivals this one is as big as it gets!
Tiesto
Unfortunately mine and Kevin's flight was canceled that Friday morning due to the fuel farm explosion in Miami, but an angel working for American Airlines somehow got us on a flight later that day. Because of this, Kevin & I practically missed all of day 1 (meaning we missed Pendulum, STS9, and Benny Benassi, the three we really wanted to see on the first day). We didn't land in Miami until about 10:45 pm, so we rushed to our hotel and then to Bicentennial Park where Ultra was being held. We decided 30 minutes of Tiesto and seeing the festival itself was better than not going at all. Fortunately day 1 was our least favorite day if we had to pick out of the three, but it still was a bummer to miss. Since we found out pretty early that we were going to miss day 1, my ambassador friend Phillip Irwin informed me of an after party called "Future Sound of Breaks" at Mekka nightclub which was right down the street from Ultra. We originally weren't going to try to do any of the after parties since 3 days of Ultra would be plenty, but we decided to go so we could pack some music into our first day in Miami. And it wasn't just random people playing at Mekka either. We wanted to go because Doorly, Dirtyphonics, Excision, and Zed's Dead were all going to be playing!
Dirtyphonics
DIRTYPHONICS was SOOO good. I was seriously blown away. I looked up more information about them afterwards and a review said "You'll burn 300 calories in one listen!" and it's so true because their music keeps you jumping up and down the entire time. Excision played after Dirtyphonics and he was awesome too, and then Datsik popped out of no where and we thought he was going to play with Excision, but he just chilled on stage with him and talked on the mic a few times! Which was still cool. (Remember to pause my music playlist on the right hand side if you want to play any of my videos!)
Excision & Datsik
Day 2 begins and I run into Phillip immediately as we get out of the cab! Check out his shirt. I tweeted a picture of his shirt at Bassnectar and said "your ambassadors wish you were here!" and I'm assuming after that tweet Lorin recognized that I was one of his ambassadors, and started following me on twitter. That topped off an amazing day at Ultra, ready to hear about it?
We get there and go straight to the Carl Cox stage where Steve Aoki is playing, and it was just so cool to even BE in this area because of all the decorations and lighting that was going on at this stage. Afrojack played here after Steve Aoki, and he was great! "Polkadots" by him has been stuck in my head for days because he played later on during the day at the main stage too (where the music can be heard REALLY far away) and everyone was jumping around dancing to this song. Very memorable sight to see! We also checked out Netsky at the Tower of Ultra, check out this new sick song by him here.
Steve Aoki
Crowd of people in the middle of Bicentennial Park, can hear main stage music here
Then we walked over to the Live stage for Skrillexxxxx. I was so excited about seeing him! Skrillex is a little different than most electronic music producers out there, but that's what I like about him. He was probably the only person in the whole festival wearing long sleeves, but hey that's his style and the kid makes sick music. Skrillex played on Sunday as well, and out of all the shows I saw at Ultra, his two were the only ones were people started a mosh pit. Nothing too extreme though!
Skrillex
Next up was three in a row at one stage...Nero, then Skream & Benga, then Rusko! The only part that sucks about festivals is that you have to save energy for people that play later in the day, which means you can't jam as hard as you actually want to earlier in the day! Nero was awesome, and then Skream & Benga were sick too. (Skream & Benga are their own artist names, but they also have a group called Magnetic Man, and a guy named "Artwork" is a part of that as well). But Rusko was who I was looking forward to the most at Ultra, so being in the exact same spot for all three shows was tiresome, but totally worth it!
Skream & Benga
I apologize that the two videos I've posted on here so far aren't HD, but my HD camera apparently didn't have a large memory card, so I took a lot of videos on my other camera to be safe and made sure I had enough space on my better camera. The rest of my videos below are in HD.
Rusko was awesome and I can't wait to see him again - possibly on April 30th in Washington DC! He will also be at the Orange Peel in Asheville the next day, May 1st, but that is a Sunday so Kevin & I figured a Saturday would be more fun.
Anywho, we saw a lot of artists on day 2, and the rest of the good ones this day included Deadmau5, then Excision and Datsik. Just like Tiesto, the crowd for Deadmau5 was absolutely insane. I don't know exactly how many people were crammed in front of the main stage, but I'm guessing like 30,000. Kevin & I wanted to see Deadmau5 because we never had live before, but when we knew Excision and Datsik were going on in the Tower of Ultra nearby, we decided to leave and check them out. Excision was just as sick as he was the night before, and then Datsik was awesome. I heard that Datsik had one of the best sets at Ultra, but we left early to beat the crowds, which I am now regretting! My FAVORITE song right now is "Wake Up Call" by Datsik, which is also the first song that plays on my blog right now, but in case you are reading this and I have changed it, click the link to hear that song.
Deadmau5
This picture above of Deadmau5 looks a lot like my Tiesto picture because Kevin & I found this awesome place on a hill to be able to see the concert. This crowd went wayyy far to the left, where the ground was flat, so if you weren't trying to be up really close, this was the place to be.
Paramedic jamming on top of the ambulance during Deadmau5 (:
After such an amazing day 2, we were pumped up for day 3, and got to see the Disco Biscuits as soon as we arrived on Sunday. I really like the Disco Biscuits because I personally know two of the guys, Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner, as they also have a music group called "Conspirator" and I got to meet and hang out with them after their show in Raleigh this past December. There was also an artist painting while Bisco was playing - how cool would that be to have that as your job?
Ready for Day 3 of ULTRA
Aron & Marc from the Disco Biscuits
Artist during the Disco Biscuits
After Bisco we walked around to see all of the stages and the different music artists at each before the rest of our favorites started for the day. Laidback Luke, Dieselboy and 12th Planet were awesome. We then met up with Phillip and his group of friends before Super Mash Bros, which is a group kind of like the music Girl Talk plays.
Super Mash Bros
After Super Mash Bros, we checked out Will.i.am since he was at the main stage, and he was fun to watch because of all the energy from the crowd. When there are thousands among thousands of people all together wanting to hear music, there's a pretty good chance you're going to enjoy the live music whether or not you like the person playing or not. After a little bit of Will.i.am we went back to the Tower of Ultra (we were there a lot as you can tell) to see Skrillex again. Yet again, an awesome show. The picture below is of Skrillex, and then Edit from the Glitch Mob is on the left, setting up for their show next. =)
Edit from The Glitch Mob on left, Skrillex in the middle
The Glitch Mob was sick, of course. They always are to me. I feel like I know these guys! I practically hung out with them after their show almost a year ago in Greensboro, NC - took pictures with them after the show like it was nothin! Then a few months later I saw them in Charlotte where it was a little harder to get access to them, but I made it happen! I got to talk to them all after the show outside the venue. At Bass Center 2, I SHOULD have gotten to talk to them since I was an ambassador! But I actually never saw them back stage? Must have been hanging out in a secret room with Lorin giving him birthday cake. So yeah, seeing them for my fourth time was awesome. Here are my two videos that I took of them below. The first one catches Edit and then Ooah freestyling. I didn't catch Boreta's part in time!
The Glitch Mob
After The Glitch Mob was the muuuutha f 'nnn Gassslammppp Killaaaaa. Haha okay, sorry for saying his name like that, but if you have ever seen him live, you know why I just did that. Yes, the Gaslamp Killer. Phillip told me about him before Ultra, but told me not to look up any of his songs until I gave him a chance live. His music was not only good, but he is hilarious to watch!!! This dude is seriously nuts. He makes the funniest faces, mixed with the funniest sayings. Phillip informed me that he played better songs a different time before Ultra when he saw him, but Kevin & I still thought he was good. We didn't stay for the whole set though because we wanted to get a good spot for SUB FOCUS!!!
Gaslamp Killer
I was pumped about Sub Focus because I knew Bassnectar had opened for him abroad. Meaning, if the, Lorin, OPENED for someone else, I knew they probably were freaking awesome. And he WAS! Sub Focus was my favorite show of the festival. Every song was so good, and he played a lot of new stuff for us too. I seriously lost it at one point and the sunglasses on my head went flying. I apologize for the crappy quality of my videos, as my camera just can't handle the lighting like it should, but you can still tell how awesome the crowd's energy was for this amazing show. The first video of the crowd jumping up and down gives me chills every time I watch it! (FYI: Sub Focus was in the circular light structure on stage, but there was also a guy on stage commentating the show, saying things like "ya'll ready for some BASS?!") Loved every part of it.
Sub Focus
So I guess that about wraps it up for my Ultra Music Festival blog post! Sorry it was so long, but something of this magnitude couldn't have been summed up in a few words. The month of March has been so crazy for me, and so much fun too! I can't believe Ultra has come and gone, but that only means more fun things to come in the future. You know I'll keep ya posted!
Needless to say, Kevin & I had an unbelievable time at Ultra. Thanks for reading. :-D
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