Posted by Caelin Meredith
The weekend — which means the Bluesfest goes 10 hours a day. A nice, relaxing way to spend two days off work: milling around on a grassy knoll by the river and hearing some great music.
Rocking the Electro Stage: Nobody Beats The Drum, from the Netherlands. Despite the afternoon slot, they performed a high-octane set to a fair-sized crowd. Still, I wish I could say it was something like this:
Sjam and Jori from NBTD told me they have been on the road for the past eight weeks, playing shows and making music during the 16-hour van rides. Their current work, they said, is especially influenced by the landscape, as they’ve just completed a quintessential American road trip, starting in Alabama and heading up the west coast.
Ordinarily the band has a 27-foot screen to showcase their one-of-a-kind videos. Unfortunately, the stage specs at Bluesfest kept them from using it. A small sample of what we missed out on:
Next up was France’s Mustard Pimp. “Christian rap/death metal/electro” is how he chooses to describe his music his on his Myspace page under “genre.”
Hard but crunchy beats with full basslines, featuring well-timed peaks and subsequent drops. Plus: a notable absence of dubstep! Not that I’m hating — it was just a refreshing change, since every other DJ has managed to incorporate some dubsteppery. CHECK OUT MUSTARD PIMP’S MUSIC ON SOUNDCLOUD.
Meanwhile, on the main stage… this was happening.
And that’s all we’re gonna say about that. Back to the Electro Stage, and the evening’s headliners: MSTRKFRT.
Jesse said the last time he was in town they played to more than 2,000 fans at an all-ages gig in Hull. The Bluesfest attendance was on par with that, and the crowd jumped non-stop for an hour and a half. An electro-and-dubstep-fueled, Moombahton mashup of hits, including Nero’s “Crush On You,” which got the calls for rewinds. The crowd surfing throughout this performance made it seem as much a rock show as a DJ set.
And FINALLY … an after-party! MSTRKRFT were there as guests of honour rather than working behind the decks, so DJ duties fell to local hero Mister P, who’d played the fest a couple days earlier. The music flowed at JunXion in the Market, as partiers reveled until dawn.
