Music Revolves Around Me: Halloween at it's best

MoogFest 2010. One of the best weekends ever? Maybe! And "maybe" only because all of my best friends weren't there with me, but if they had been, then most definitely. Many of my best friends were with me though which made for a wonderful weekend in Asheville, NC. If you don't know what MoogFest is, check out my blog post before this one.

My girlfriends at MoogFest inside the Asheville Civic Center

MoogFest was and wasn't what I expected, but in good ways. (And by the way, you don't pronounce Moog like the way it looks and like the way all my friends have been saying it for the past two months. It's pronounced like vogue with an M - mogue). When we first arrived to the Asheville Civic Center, I had no idea what the venue actually was since they were making everyone check-in at what looked to be the bottom of some kind of convention-center-building type thing. Then as you get through security, you walk right up to where the main acts of Moog are taking place! The Asheville Civic Center was by far the biggest venue, and was good to have during this music festival since so many people purchased tickets. The first show I got to see was MGMT, since we missed Big Boi due to driving from Raleigh that night. MGMT was somewhat disappointing, as I was expecting a better performance from them but heard that "they aren't good live" from some people there as soon as they started. It was still fun hearing some of my favorites of theirs including Electric Feel and Kids. RJD2 was the next most exciting act that many enjoyed at Moog, and he performed at The Orange Peel. Unfortunately we found out that this venue was at full capacity after our freezing walk to get there, but it made the night more fun and eventful. It also helped us learn our way around downtown Asheville as we walked back to the Civic Center with hundreds of other Moogers to see Girl Talk. When we got back to the Civic Center (I'll call it CC from now on) Dan Deacon was still performing. He was AMAZING. He was probably so amazing because of the way he captivated the crowd. Randomly during his performance, he got everyone (somehow) to "take fivvvveeee steppssss backkkkk." After everyone attempted this since it was such a large crowd for everyone to move in, he got people to create a circle so open space was in the middle of everyone. Then, I'm guessing one of his friends, or someone that is a part of his tour group led an interpretive dance for the entire crowd to participate in. This was so cool because everyone actually participated! (Well except people like me who were in the back just dying laughing at the whole thing, but I wasn't laughing AT it, I was laughing at how crazy it was that everyone was so into it! I happily shocked!)

It really made the night so much fun. And although you probably guessed that I felt this way, Dan Deacon's music was really good too. The video below was taken at the end of the interpretive dance when the crowd came back together and the music was building up for his next song. So amazing...

After Dan Deacon came Girl Talk. I didn't know what to expect because I had heard Girl Talk before, but knew that most of his songs are current, popular songs that have been remixed by him. Click this link for a good YouTube video that I found of all the people dancing on stage. YEAH - the security guards let a bunch of random people dance on stage while Girl Talk performed! I tried to get on stage with my friend Kellie but by the time we figured out this was an option, it was too full. That video was when it was a little less full! Click this for another good video of Girl Talk at Moog. This video was taken by someone who was taking a video of the screen that was displayed in the CC, makes me want to be back!

Next came Saturday night. We had the system pretty figured out at this point and knew that we wanted to stick around the CC instead of trying to leave to get into one of the other venues. Fortunately, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium was connected to the CC, so no going outside in the cold was involved on Saturday night! This was so awesome because we could walk right back and forth between venues without ever having to wait and get back in line. First up was Nosaj Thing, which we missed because 6pm was just a little early to make it out and be ready for the night for us. However, I didn't even know if Nosaj Thing was good or not, I only was interested in seeing him because Bassnectar had tweeted about him before, so I figured he must be! (AND by the way, I'm on Glitch Mob's mailing list and in an email they sent me yesterday, it included a free download of a song Boreta remixed by Nosaj Thing. Here's the Direct Download link for this song, I really like it.) So we got there when Caribou was playing, and they were good, however Thievery Corporation was who I got pumped up for. My friend Elise has loved Thievery Corporation for over four years now and boy should I have listened her when she was playing them for me after the Glitch Mob concert we went to in May. She tried to describe what type of music it was for me, but I couldn't really understand how good they were until I heard them live. Here is one of their most popular songs and definitely my favorite as well, Lebanese Blonde. It has been her ring tone for two years now and now it's Kevin's as well. Hope I don't get sick of it because I like it too much! The video below is during Thievery...sorry for the shaking at the end, I was dancing!!!

Thievery Corporation at MoogFest 2010

Since Thievery was so good, we were all thrilled to continue our night by heading to Thomas Wolfe to see Disco Biscuits! This was the first time I had walked over to Thomas Wolfe and I am so glad Disco Biscuits was in this venue because it made it so much better than if it had been in the CC. I personally am a fan of smaller, darker venues (as I described in my Bassnectar posts) and that is how Thomas Wolfe was. The crowd can get more into the show, and the lights look better when the venue's lighting is dark. I had heard the Disco Biscuits a few times before, but they don't have that many songs you can actually look up and play. What I mean is that they play a new set every time they do a show, so if you fall in love with the music they play when you see them, you will most likely have to download that set if you want to hear all of the same music they played. This is like what Phish does as well, as Phish puts out their set after every concert for people to download/buy. Anyways, Disco Biscuits were by far my favorite show at Moog (Pretty Lights hadn't happened yet ;)) and was definitely one of my favorite concerts I've been to ever. They had the best light and lazer show that I have ever seen, and it filled the entire venue allowing the lights to be on the ceiling and the walls. Every single person was standing up and dancing for the 3 hours that they played. (Yes, THREE..I took a few breaks - one including when a mean security guard took one of my lazers from me. Yes, I'm a nerd and bought two of the LEGIT green-beam lazers off ebay. He thought he was being sly when he came up and asked me for it but really I gave him the one that didn't work as well and he didn't know it..so HA!)

Disco Biscuits at MoogFest 2010

Massive Attack was playing during Disco Biscuits and we were sad we missed out on that, but Disco Biscuits was just too good to leave. After Disco Biscuits, Shpongle was playing at the CC so we walked over and listened to him until he was over, as he was the only act still going on at this time of the night. I had never heard of Shpongle before, but people seemed to be really into him!

Shpongle at MoogFest 2010

Crazy costumes filled every venue at MoogFest the entire weekend as well! I couldn't believe how many people dressed up both Friday and Saturday nights, and Halloween wasn't even until Sunday! Here are some of the pictures I took with people dressed up.

I didn't know how the third night night was going to live up to Friday and Saturday, and if it wasn't for Pretty Lights, Sunday wouldn't have been as good. However Pretty Lights seriously made the entire weekend. Everyone had been waiting for Pretty Lights since Friday night, and their show was better than the first time I saw them in March. (PS it's hard not to say them because the word "Lights" is plural, but even though Pretty Lights used to be a "him", he actually has a drummer that is on stage with him full time now, I believe). Anyyyways. Pretty Lights dressed up as Bassnectar and Deadmau5. WHAT A BETTER COMBO? I couldn't have picked two better music artists for them to dress up as. I seriously was so happy when I noticed that Derek was dressed up as Bassnectar, and his drummer was dressed up as Deadmau5. I took like 50 pictures trying to get a good shot of this and the two narrow pictures you see below are mine, but I just came across the other picture on MoogFest's Facebook page below those two.

You see that on the left is Bassnectar, and the right was Deadmau5. Derek had on a long black haired wig and the drummer had somehow made the costume head that Deadmau5 wears, and it looked pretty legit! They both took the costumes off about 20 minutes into the show, probably because they don't know how Bassnectar and Deadmau5 do it with all that hair/head in the way!

Here are some pictures and a video from the Pretty Lights show itself.

Pretty Lights at MoogFest

Before Pretty Lights, we saw Two Fresh, Young Brother, Mimosa, and Sleighbells. Two Fresh was pretty good, Young Brother was alright, Mimosa was GREAT, and Sleighbells was weird. To talk about the most important one, Mimosa, he was really good in concert. I loved every song he played and it really got me pumped up for Pretty Lights as the music before was kind of slacking in the excited department. Since Sleighbells and Mimosa practically came on at the same time in two separate venues, we decided to check out Sleighbells first, but we decided to leave since the first three songs weren't that good - if we had stayed longer they probably would have gotten better, but we didn't want to miss any more of Mimosa than we already had. Sleighbells has a girl as the main singer and she was singing a little too crazy for my liking. Most of the Sleighbells songs that I like were nothing like the three they played first. Run the Heart for example, is one of their songs that I do like..except that one is a Bassnectar remix - so maybe that's why :).

Sooo, I can't believe I actually found time to do this blog post! Well, I guess MoogFest was October 29-31st, but it is finally done! Moog was so much fun and I definitely want to go back next year. I am happy that there is a music festival like one so close to home, as the other ones are going cost more money to travel to (Oh yes - I plan to attend Ultra Music Festival in Miami in March...now THAT will be a trip.) But for now, I am excited to have shared all of this info with whoever has taken the time to read it. I'm now counting down the days until Bassnectar on New Years Eve, 51 days to be exact. And remember, we have to see how many followers Bassnectar has then compared to what he had after the Wilmington and Raleigh shows.

Here's just a couple more pictures that I took at Moog. My whole album is on my Facebook page if you would like to see them all.