Top live shows of 2017: #’s 20 – 16

We’ve reached the top 20 live shows I saw this year.  Read on to see who made the cut.

#20 – A Tribe Called Quest – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 15th.

It was one of their first performances without Phife Dawg, and they paid him many great tributes during it.  ATCQ also came to preach and teach, and Q-Tip was absolutely fierce on the mic.  The whole crowd was with them the entire time.

#19 – Cut Copy – Mamby on the Beach – Chicago, IL June 25th.

Cut Copy were easily the best band we saw on Day 2 of Mamby on the Beach.  They played an energetic set that had the whole beach crowd jumping before it was even halfway done.

#18 – Will Clarke – Mamby on the Beach – Chicago, IL June 24th.

Speaking of great Mamby sets, DJ Will Clarke‘s was our favorite DJ set by far.  He seemed to be having a great time behind the decks and inspired me to dust off my digital turntables.

#17 – Nicolas Jaar – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.

We ended our Pitchfork experience with Nicolas Jaar, and it was a lovely, trippy way to end the festival.  He created a neat soundscape that drifted and swirled around the crowd like a warm fog.

#16 – Derrick Carter – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.

If you need a boost to start your final day of a big music festival, go see Chicago house music DJ legend Derrick Carter.  His set in the early hours of the last day of Pitchfork was outstanding.  Everyone worked up an early sweat and enough energy to make it through the rest of the day.  He put on a clinic.

Who’s in the top 15?  Come back tomorrow to see.

Keep your mind open.

[Unsure of what to get me for Christmas?  Subscribe!  It’s free!]

Mamby on the Beach 2017 recap.

I had never attended an electronic-themed music festival before my wife and I went to Chicago’s Mamby on the Beach at Oakwood Beach this year.  They’ve been running this festival for a few years now, and I’ve been meaning to get to it since it’s practically in my back yard.  This was also the first time I’d been to a beach in a long while.

The weather was good, although the wind did whip across the beach and adjoining park now and then.  This was especially cold on Sunday night, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

One of the first things we discovered upon entering the festival is that large bottles of sunscreen aren’t allowed inside it.  “You can put some on before you come in,” said the man checking our bags.  He let me keep a small keychain bottle of it, but they were apparently worried I might be smuggling drugs or booze in my new bottle of SPF 30 lotion.  Heaven forbid I try to take sunscreen to a music festival on a beach.

We cheered up when we saw the “Silent Disco.”  It’s a clever idea.  Everyone gets a pair of wireless headphones and the DJ’s set is live streamed to them.

It looks weird at first, because it appears to be a bunch of people dancing to nothing.

It looks like a bunch of people suffering from dementia, but it’s actually a fun dance party.

I like the idea, as did a lot of others.  I thought I might have to try this when I get my DJ skills up enough to do such a thing.

We arrived early enough on Saturday to catch most of Ravyn Lenae‘s set at the Beach Stage.  It was an adjustment to go from our usual “dancing in clubs” to “dancing on sand,” but we managed well.  Ms. Lenae had a fun time performing in front of a hometown crowd and put down a nice R&B set.  Her cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” was delightful.

Rayvn Lenae

We headed to the MixMag Tent to see British DJ Will Clarke after that.  He had a great set and seemed to be having a good time.  It was inspiring for me, as my digital turntables have gone ignored for months while I’m finishing a book on disaster movies.  I later Tweeted that his set inspired me to dust them off.  He replied, “Do it.”

After a nice snack of Leghorn chicken sandwiches and free Vitamin Water, we went to see electro trio Marian Hill play at the Beach Stage.  They turned out to be the best band we saw all day on Saturday.  They were funky, sexy, and even a bit trippy at times.

Marian Hill

Crowd favorites Miike Snow were on after them, and they had a lot of us singing and jumping as the night got cooler and more people got higher.  For the record, other people must have been allowed to bring in more than sunscreen because there was a lot of weed being blown at this festival, more than some of the Levitation festivals I’ve attended and those are psychedelic rock shows.  We had to move to different places in the crowd multiple times to escape so much MJ smoke.

Miike Snow

We ended Saturday by checking out part of Tchami‘s “future house” set at the MixMag Tent.  It was big, bright, and booming.

Tchami

It was also packed.  The crowd couldn’t fit under the tent and extended well beyond it onto the beach.

So…much…house music!

We got back to our Air BNB place tired, sandy, and a bit sunburned, but ready for Sunday.  We spent most of Sunday morning and early afternoon at Chicago’s Gay Pride Parade with friends, but then headed back to the beach in time to see STRFKR play a fun set of dance rock that came complete with dancing and crowd-surfing astronauts.

STRFKR

We had time for some steamed chicken buns and turducken sausages before moving to the Park Stage for the first time all weekend to see Thundercat play a wild jazz fusion set that left some people confused and others (like me) wowed by the virtuosity of it.

Thundercat on the loose!

We zipped back to the Beach Stage to see Cut Copy, who delivered the best rock set of the whole weekend.  They came to kick ass and apply sunscreen, but they were denied the sunscreen.  The whole crowd was bumping, and beach balls and rolls of toilet paper (“I feel bad for anyone who ends up sad in one of the port-a-potties,” said my wife) flew in every direction.

Cut Copy

We ended the night, and the festival, with Flying Lotus.  I’d been keen on seeing him for a while, and it was worth the wait.  The sun had set and the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees from the start of the festival into the low 60’s by the time he started his set.  Mandy was wrapped in a blanket and a lot of us were huddled in the crowd like penguins trying to stay warm off each other’s body heat.

It was a great set, full of stunning 3-D visuals and great mixes of both dance tracks and deep trip-hop stuff.  One beautiful moment was when he mixed in Angelo Badalamenti’s theme to Twin Peaks.

Is this Laura Palmer’s eye?

The whole set was a mind trip.  I wish I would’ve had 3-D glasses, but when I mentioned to a guy behind me how the visuals were 3-D he said something along the lines of, “I’m glad I’m not seeing it in 3-D. That would probably freak me out.”

It was a good time.  Mandy summed up a lot of the crowd well.  “It looks like a lot of people missing Greek culture over summer,” she said.  Don’t get me wrong.  We didn’t run into any douchebags.  We did bump into a lot of trashed people, however.  One woman was sobbing as we all left the venue.  I stopped to make sure she was okay.  She hugged me, told me I was “a good soul,” and then disappeared into the crowd.

Will we go back?  We might, if the dates work out and the lineup is good.  I sure wouldn’t turn down a press pass!

My Mamby game is strong.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t be a beach.  Subscribe.]

DJ set list for June 22, 2017.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in for my WSND show last night and the big Mamby on the Beach preview.  That went longer than I’d planned, so I didn’t get to the Mondo Moment or Holiday Music segments.  They’ll be back either next week or the week after that.  We didn’t have a winner in First and Foremost either, so that means I get to keep another cover song in my back pocket for future use.

Here’s my set list from last night’s show:

  1. Dahga Bloom – Supa
  2. Chelsea Wolfe – After the Fall
  3. Tamaryn – Violet’s in a Pool
  4. A Place to Bury Strangers – Another Step Away
  5. Equinox radio spot
  6. King Crimson – Red (requested)
  7. The Black Angels – Tired Eyes
  8. The Buttertones – Pistol Whip
  9. Aquarian Blood – Heaven Is in My Head
  10. The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer – Get Ready
  11. Sugar Virus – The Ripper
  12. The Raveonettes – Lust (Trentmoller mix)
  13. Ghostland Observatory – HFM
  14. Skyland Drive-In Theatre intermission spot
  15. The Men – Gates of Steel
  16. Fancy Fux – Stripper
  17. Will Clarke – House Girl
  18. Rayvn Lenae – Free Room
  19. Marian Hill – One Time
  20. Schlock radio spot
  21. Miike Snow – Pull My Trigger
  22. MGMT – Electric Feel
  23. DJ Heather and Colette – Walking on Sunshine
  24. Latmun – Everybody’s Dancin’
  25. Green Velvet – La La Land
  26. STRFKR – In the End
  27. Thundercat – Them Changes
  28. Cut Copy – Lights & Music
  29. Hank Williams – Rootie Tootie

Tune in June 29th for a “Best of 2017 So Far” show.  What are your favorite songs and / or albums of the year as we pass the halfway point of 2017?

Keep your mind open.

[Feeling behind on music?  Subscribe and you’ll get updates sent to your e-mail inbox.]

Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: Cut Copy

Australia’s Cut Copy will bring their electro-pop to Chicago’s Mamby on the Beach festival June 25th.  What started as a home recording project in 2001 has bloomed into a four-man band within the last sixteen years.  I’m hoping they’ll play a lot of tracks off their upcoming (and as yet unnamed) album.  It would be a delight to hear them before a good chunk of the world.

Keep your mind open.

[Plenty of music news can be delivered to your e-mail inbox if you subscribe.]

Chicago’s Mamby on the Beach festival announces 2017 lineup.

Chicago’s third annual Mamby on the Beach festival has released its lineup for 2017.  Just some of the powerhouses scheduled are MGMT, Miike Snow, Flying Lotus, and Cut Copy.

Tickets are still available at decent prices, so don’t wait to snag some.  I have a lot of bands to research before June 24th.

Keep your mind open.