New York’s premier electronic music festival, Electric Zoo, just wrapped up on Labor Day weekend. The 3-day zoo-themed festival went off without a hitch. Electric Zoo knocked it out of the park this year with the talent lineup they chose to book. There was a plethora of incredibly talented artists performing at the Electric Zoo and its respective parties this year. Notably Of The Trees, Diesel, Subtronics, Gordo and CloZee stole the show.
Trees The stage performance hosted by Brownies and Lemonade on the first day of Electric Zoo really set the event up for the kind of top notch talent that Made Event was bringing to the zoo. I had never attended an Of The Trees performance before, but I can be sure it won’t be the last. The Denver-based entertainer most certainly managed to mix and flow the energy of the crowd. His mix was on point and more so his song selection was on point. Everything about his set felt like you had just entered a mysterious rainforest with time periods in blissful oases and time periods in cryptic caverns. The performance of Of The Trees focused heavily on evenly molding moments of heavy bass into moments of serene ambient sound.
Those who had never heard of Diesel had a surprise on Saturday. None other than Shaquille O’Neil performed on Saturday at Electric Zoo’s Bite This! organized scene. I didn’t expect the crowd and Diesel to be as energetic as they were that night. Diesel had been churning out banger after banger, including hip hop and rock songs mixed with dubstep edits. The entire front rail from front to back was loaded with headbangers. During Diesel’s performance, he repeatedly shouted into the microphone “Where’s my mosh pit?” and “ladies only” to give an idea of his mood during the night. The energy was electric and watching the world’s (literally) greatest DJ perform was a sight to behold.
Sunday I could see Subtronics play right at sunset on Electric Zoo’s main stage called Antheon. It was an interesting sight to watch Subtronics unleash a barrage of dubstep edits and recordings on the main stage audience. In years past you would see electronic pop veterans take over the main stage, it was nice to see Electric Zoo bring a change of pace from that and lean more heavily into newer talent such as Subtronics. By far, Subtronics has some of the most incredibly appealing visuals. He closed his set with a friendly public service announcement to all ravers to be friendly, smoke weed and stay hydrated.
Just before Subtronics hit the main stage, there was the new house band Gorde formerly known as Carnage. I had seen Carnage perform several times before and always enjoyed his energy. It’s literally off the wall. Gordo’s energy was refreshing from his previous project. The amount of latin house bangers and high energy techno records he had included in his set made for a nice break from the slew of bass acts I had seen on Sunday. As always, Gordo brought his awe-inspiring stage presence by repeatedly jumping off the DJ decks.
I ended the festival on the third and last day watching the bass queen CloZee close his own stage hosted by Odyzey. The stage featured the amazing talents Mersiv, Inzo, Wreckno, Tripp St, Rome In Silver, sumthin sumthin, NotLö, Redrum, Canvas and more. I had never seen CloZee perform before and was not disappointed at all. The fluidity of the mix, song selection, and visuals were so in conjunction with each other artistically that the whole thing felt like a cohesive journey. CloZee’s visuals were one of the most beautiful LED displays I have ever seen. They are fast, psychedelic and unique in themselves.
Plus all the amazing acts that happened over Labor Day weekend at the festival. Electric Zoo after parties held at various event spaces in New York City, including the Brooklyn Mirage, Kings Hall, Marquee, Webster Hall and Lavo, have all featured intimate experiences from some of electronic music’s most creative budding talent. . A highlight after the party I attended was the last day of the weekend. Watching all in all all in all play b2b with Rome in silver at CloZee’s afterparty at Kings Hall, the two dressed in white bathrobes with sunglasses stole the night away for the most intriguing afterparty.
Image Credit via: ALIVE coverage for the Electric Zoo Festival
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