Day For Night 2017

[thebosma]

How was Thom Yorke? I know a lot of people said there were some tech problems and he was pretty visibly annoyed the whole time.

[mookie]

I enjoyed Thom's set. By the time we all got over there, the best spot we could get was far left side of the stage, by one of the screens. I was hoping they'd show him on the screen, but they only had abstract images.

The set was very similar to what he did in LA a few days before. The only tech issue was the stage was on top of the subwoofers, so the stage was vibrating and made some of their equipment fall and stop mid-song. He chewed them out half joking/serious, but it was fine from there.

It was a little tough making it through the set, since it had been 12 since Shabazz started. But I did enjoy it.

[zircona1]

I thought Thom's set was uninteresting, though that may have been - as mookie alluded to - fatigue, plus sweating from being in a crowd of people trying to get a look at Thom. I did kinda like the last few tracks, though I'm not a really a fan of his solo work.

Thanks to all for a great weekend. My favorite acts:

1. The Jesus Lizard - Never thought I would get to see this band, and they brought it. The guy behind me was laughing a lot at David Yow's antics.
2. Perfume Genius - I loved how he really got into his performance. Also, his music always seems so serious and sad - in part because of his voice - so it was cool that he smiled, said thanks, and made a few funny remarks between songs.
3. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Sounded great as always, plus, they played 'Blaise Bailey Finnegan III!'
4. Demdike Stare - Loved the visuals that went along with the music. I think most of the songs were new, I only recognized one.
5. St. Vincent - Great visuals here too, plus the fact that Annie succeeded in pulling off this sorta-risky show on her own.

Honorable mention for Roni Size, whose drum-n-bass made me sweat. 

I liked Shabazz Palaces and Forest Swords more than I expected to (I've never dug their recorded work). 

Laurie Anderson was more talk than music, which was disappointing. You could hear people talking over her, which killed the ambiance. 

[pigs]

Best fest will buy blind.

Pretty Lights won the weekend with that set. Lil B in close second.

[Deleted]

such an incredible weekend. i think we'll be buying blind as well for next year (eric said y'all are great and had an amazing time. especially since he pretty much only went for NIN and the light exhibits)


-thursday night cocktails on a balcony in december was lovely

-friday morning conservatory pho was lit af. we wandered through the parks after that and then ended up at Platypus Brewing which was delish and super cheap.
-the friday summit thing did not start out well and i'd have been mad if i had paid full price. they didnt even remotely have most of the installations ready yet to view and upstairs was completely blocked off. the opening "talks" thing was just not great. apparently Saul Williams went on first so no one saw him. then everyone else was just kinda awkward (Chelsea Manning was trying to talk about a police state but i feel like it didn't go anywhere.) Laurie was great whenever she got to speak which was rare. Nadya from PR was cool though. she should've taken the terrible moderator's job.
-oh my god the fucking yellow stage is so dope. it was an boiler room style set up with the DJ in a circle in the middle of the room and everyone dances around them with LED screens around the perimeter. had no idea what a Limb was but had a lot of fun with the aesthetics of the set.
-Boots was a good but forgettable. Jenny Hval was fantastic and the whole post-meme live stream thing she did with her tech's phone was hilarious.
-we left after that unfortunately but im sure Earl and Kaytranada were good. we ended up meeting everyone for shenanigans at Numbers and danced the night away dying laughing and Broc's family and LoT getting wasted together and then munki dancing with the half naked folks on stage. also whataburger.

-brunch saturday at Honeymoon was maybe one of the best meals ive had on vacation. bummed we didnt get to meet up with everyone but christ almighty it was like a longman and eagle at half the price.
-fest was much more organized and ready saturday. still debatable if having the main stage flipped was better or worse for sound -- we could hear of montreal all the way through downtown. the bathrooms hidden between red and yellow were the best spots all weekend. cleanest fest bathrooms ever.
-of montreal was whatever. im not a fan but i wasnt deeply annoyed by anything on stage this time, for whatever that's worth.
-princess nokia seems very angry much of the time.
-perfume genius is. just. the. best. <3 new stuff sounded amazing live. dude was so on point with his voice and his dance moves
- lol b.
-went into pussy riot not really sure what to expect but it ended being a full blown pop show with obviously lots of hilarious satirical bits on trump and putin. was much appreciated by the houstonians but the cops/security looked incredibly uncomfortable
-i dont mind pretty lights in general but for this set he came out saying he wanted to do all new stuff and just organically build it there with synths live for everyone. it was neat and im sure the crowd hated it.
-i apparently saw hoodedcelebrity and not cardi b because i dont know cardi b enough to know better but apparently everyone is very upset she only played the 4 songs she has?
-forest swords was so fucking tight. perfect sound for the blue stage.
-i dont care for james blake usually but i thought he sounded great -- the crowd, not so much.
-ended up camping for nin because of the schedule change and we got a good spot. set was maybe the best ive seen them play in the past 2 tours or so. band was just lit up and fucking plowing through jams. to my point irt mookie a few nights ago: 75% of nin sets are all the same so he's not wrong in that regard but D4N had its own 3 or 4 unique songs as all shows do and it was fucking great (Reptile, Lovers, Piggy, and Survivalism had they finished the set.) the rain made it better in some respects up front and trent was totally feeding off it. unfortunately it sounds like the rain got so bad at the end that it was ruining the PA (apparently there were reports of lightning too) so they told nin to leave with 4 or 5 songs left. nbd for most of us who have seen them before but i feel bad for anyone who hasnt seem the and wanted the 3 H's end party
-the 1 re-entry feature is so nice. we were able to run to the hotel, drenched to the bone, and change out outfits and dry our shoes off and meet everyone at conservatory an hour later for drinks and then head back in to the fest
-i thought jamie xx was fine. good crowd. 3rd time seeing him and it's never even remotely the same set any time so that's cool i guess. this one was way less sampling or his own music and just more organic sounding...dub? for lack of a better term. good downtempo shit.

-didnt get in in time for shabazz saturday but local foods brunch was perfect. so many mimosas.
-first time seeing priests and thought they were a blast. real small crowd but everyone was very into it.
-album leaf was a very nice atmospheric touch to a lovely 70 degree and sunny day
-dunno who rezz is but she was kinda fun. kinda dumb generic dubstep but not the obnoxious kind i was expecting
-en vogue was 10/10 and crowd was going the fuck off for em
-ew i dont know why i tried to watch phantogram what is wrong with me
-got up close for the first half of godspeed and it was phenomenal. hung back with the board for the next half and it was still lovely in the sunset
-jesus lizard outdid butthole surfers from last year in every way. came out swinging and just kept beating up the crowd (kinda literally) and sounded perfect
-green stage was running late so we ran over to see some justice who were killer as always and had a massive and cool light setup
-swoooooooooooooon annie. she was able to nail to the "solo on stage" setup just fine and had a great crowd if you dont count the tambourine fools. she did her full set of hits (redone for her by herself and not a whole band) and then the whole new album. happy to hear so many people in the crowd singing every word to the new stuff. so perfect. also sweet jesus the outfit/guitars.
-ran back to get drinks downtown and have a nice sit. was much needed
-came back in for thom yorke which was a shitshow as far as crowd goes (expected) but we ended up getting closer than i expected and had a good time dancing for about an hour. he did the few songs from his 2 solo albums i wanted but no other singles or AFP songs that i recognized.
-we snuck over to watch some nina kraviz on the yellow for a while and wow that was intense. like, woah.

-same bahn mi place on monday that i had last year at broc's recommendation. still fantastic.
-last jedi sploooooooooooosh

-the light installations are practically their own separate rant. so many great and beautiful ones this year, especially the robots. such a great and unique feature to a festival.

-club quarters was kinda eh this time. didnt send housekeeping 2/4 days and the other 2 i still had to call for a bunch of stuff they forgot (towels, coffee, etc)

-definitely never flying united again but i should've seen that coming. really terrible experience at the desks, at the gates, and with the attendants. generally bad experiences both ways.

-ummm terminal c in george bush airport is brand new and every seat comes with a tablet you can use to play games or order food/drinks from plus outlets and it's kind of the best thing




kaaaaaaaay that's all i have for now love you all let's do it again

[mookie]

Oh christ, who ever was giving out those tambourines had better not do that shit again next year. That was awful.

[teekoh]

That would have annoyed me to no end. I would've spent all weekend running around smashing everybody's tambourines.

[claypoolfan]

I kept thinking it was the same girl for the first few times I saw someone with the tambourine and almost went to say something until I found out they were a giveaway haha.

This fest was so good again, Sunday may have been the best day I've had at a fest. Holy christ Jesus Lizard, Nina, Annie, Rezz was awesome, Priests were awesome, En Vogue surpassed all expectations, just a great day. I even liked Godspeed and I didn't think I would.

Fuck Phantogram though.

[alady]

So proud of y'all seeing En Vogue but wasn't Roni Size there too?

[Deleted]

i didnt notice them until later sunday evening so im not sure when they started pouring in but by St Vincent i noticed 3 or 4 fools with them up close to the stage (luckily the fellow Annie freaks by me hand no problem telling said fools to shut the fuck up. which they did.)

they were all over for Thom and Nina though.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2017 9:54:26 GMT -6 alady said:

So proud of y'all seeing En Vogue

TOO GOOD, I SAY. TOO GOOD. 

[llamaoftime]

I started to watch Ryoji Ikeda but then went over for En Vogue and I'm so glad I did that was the most lit set

Jesus Lizard was also incredible. I went for Justice over St. V and while I'm sure St. V was good, I'm pretty sure that Justice set may be my favorite DJ set I've seen, I absolutely loved it and had a hell of a time. Met up with some coworkers for that and we all had a dance party. Priests were solid, as were Shabazz Palaces. Godspeed was great.

Saturday (out of order here but whatever) Deep Cuts started the day off right with a solid set. Of Montreal was fantastic. Saw a lot of the art stuff and it genuinely kind of blew me away. So many cool installations. Perfume Genius was solid. Lil B was fun for a minute. That Pussy Riot set was something else and I'm so glad I saw it. Left that Cardi B set before she actually came on. That was kind of awful and she shouldn't have been given an hour if half that is just a DJ playing pop songs. Really loved the James Blake set.

Nine Inch Nails were sooooo good. Like I've been really excited for them but that was better than I imagined. I'm really sad the set got cut short but what they did play was great and I got to hear a few songs I really wanted to hear. The rain kind of added to it at first honestly before it started coming down too hard. I hope they make up for it and come back soon.

Overall I love this fest so much and I would travel for it if it wasn't where I live, but its so awesome that it is. I really really hope they do this again next year.

[Broc1123]

Day for Night was an amazing fest. So so excited and grateful that this event takes place where I live. Glad everyone loved Houston, it's a great place to be.

The art installations were legit. Like, I figured I should make sure to check them out in downtime, but they blew me away. It really immerses you in the place. It's such a great thing to do instead of going to shows you know you probably won't like.

The grounds for the fest were awesome. So unique. They really do a great job of making you feel detached from reality compared to normal festivals. Loved the small details like projecting on the large wall to the left of main stage and the funny pre-show messages on the screens.

My top sets:
1. St. Vincent (was doubtful of the solo act thing but it was incredible)
2. Solange (Seat at the Table was like my #20 favorite album of 2016 but this set just kicked so much ass. It was perfect.)
3. of Montreal (Hissing Fauna is amazing and the set did it justice)
4. Priests (can't wait to see what this band does next. great set)
HM: NIN and Pussy Riot

Complaints:
1. Lack of water fill-up stations, only had a hidden drinking fountain inside that i didn't find until Sunday night before Thom
2. Where/when they scheduled Thom. Just awful. Everyone was fucking dead by then and Thom solo isn't exactly the thing that you can power through at 1am after a long weekend. Also, as others have said, almost impossible to see him.

Also, shout out to the liquor sponsors giving out free booze no matter how many times you came up and had already been stamped (especially Johnnie Walker). I didn't spend a dime after 2pm Sunday.

[ten15]

Dec 18, 2017 22:06:02 GMT -6 zircona1 said:

Honorable mention for Roni Size, whose drum-n-bass made me sweat. 

Yay!

[mookie]

Yeah, that Johnny Walker tent was a Top 5 fest highlight for sure.  The girl at the stand knew my order by about the 3rd time I went up on Sunday.

[ten15]

Dec 19, 2017 9:30:55 GMT -6 @wretched said:

-we snuck over to watch some nina kraviz on the yellow for a while and wow that was intense. like, woah.

I told you. 

[Deleted]

new setup made splitting sets between blue/yellow and red/green much easier this year so yeah it worked out quite well nina was fucking wild for 2 am on a sunday night

[llamaoftime]

yeah I really enjoyed the new set-up. Made traveling between stages pretty easy, seemed like there was plenty of room for the red stage, and the set-up for the yellow was kind of ridiculously awesome. My only real complaint is that crowded blue stage sets are a bit rough, it can be hard to see the actual act. I don't know if they had the space for it but I feel like they should try to make the actual stage a little bit bigger.

[Deleted]

i didnt get to see many blue stage acts this year but most of the ones that i did felt right for that spot and i didnt have crowd issues.

the one major exception being Thom. i get the appeal of him inside with a quieter set, but it's still Thom Yorke. crowd wasn't so big i couldn't handle it (we were able to sneak up to a pretty good spot,) but the crowd was definitely too drunk/waiting for radiohead stuff and tainted the vibe a bit.

i dont think there's any way they could have situated the stage to fix that though. he should've just been on a main stage

[Broc1123]

Well one major problem with Thom's set was the lack of video of him. I was like 10 rows back and could not see him and I'm 5'11".

[ten15]

I got you...

[Deleted]

how dare you use the real one.

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[dij22]

Really jealous of the full Hissing Fauna set

[Deleted]

does anyone remember if blind presales included the VIP option?

apparently VIP did include free drinks this year at every bar, which would be worth it.

[Broc1123]

My regular wristband also had free drinks.

All you had to do was visit the Johnnie Walker or paloma stands as much as you wanted.

[mookie]

99% sure VIP wasn't in the blind pre-sale

[claypoolfan]

Oh hell yeah, I just looked at my credit card rewards for the first time since the fest and realized that they recognized all the bars at the fest as a restaurant so I got triple points on everything I spent! That really really added up. Lolla needs to get on that, it never recognizes it.

[llamaoftime]

^that's actually really nice. pretty sure I used my credit card for everything so that will be nice

also I really really hope this happens again next year. I'll feel a lot better if they do a blind presale soon

[alady]

What cards are you guys using for points? I need to get in that game.

[Broc1123]

Saturday seemed packed and Sunday didn't seem much lighter. So I feel like attendance was not an issue. Maybe selling passes at their full price is an issue, but the more they build their name recognition in Houston and around the country, the easier that will be.