Electric Zoo Festival: A Caged Facility of Housed Music
Richie Adomako / September 24, 2009
Its been over a week and we still haven’t recovered from the Electric Zoo music festival. For the first electronic music festival in New York City, we would say it was a success. With a great selection of music from DJs in house and dance, The Electric Zoo proved to be more than a festival. It was an event that gathered a dance and music culture from the tri-state area, and bringing along its taste-makers from parts of the world - including New York’s own Danny Tenaglia and Roger Sanchez. With four stages, there wasn’t a moment where a stage was empty, yet the crowds were manageable and one could move about with ease. With some sun, it seemed like an oasis on a playing field for dance and music lovers – made more apparent as the night fell and draped the sun underneath the city skyline to massive lighting effects on the stages.
Packed with an audience that knew their music, the DJs met them in return with their A-game – hooking the crowd along with every notch of beat thrown their way. Roger Sanchez, the Queens native, sent the audience into a frenzy with his rendition of Fat Boy Slim’s “Right Here Right Now.” With a remarkable set list, English DJ, Ben Watt created some excitement with his take on MGMT’s “Kids” and Kaskade’s “Move for me”. Always a crowd favorite, Steve Aoki delivered by keeping the crowd on their toes and jumping throughout his set. Like the Rockstar-DJ he is, Steve commanded from the stage and fueled the audience with a barrage of beats combined with his touch of sound effects – all while making use of the great sound system in place by playing with the channels. With a vocal break in his hard set to The Bloody Beetroot’s “Warp”, Steve hopped on his table, and with extremity, screamed in tune with the track.
On a Keyboard and FX, French DJ and Producer, Yuksek created a fervent environment as he sang over live beats to “tonight” and ignited the crowd with his track (featuring Amanda Blank), “Extraball.” Benny Benassi has a tendency to deliver more base than many speakers can handle, and rightfully so he did – causing a raucous by dropping David Guetta’s “Sexy Bitch” and surprising the audience with Major Lazer’s “Hold The Line.” He even threw in his version of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Otherside” to an eager audience.
To top the night off, Armin Van Buuren took the stage with crowd control – as one would expect the number one DJ in the world to do. While playing a familiar set, he showed that he is in fact king of the stage as he played with the audience and pulled an act where he stops abruptly and disappears, momentarily leaving the audience begging for more and chanting for him to come back – all to a monotone beat at the pace of a heart beat. At what seemed like a climax, Armin reappeared on the stage and unleashed some heavy trance, grabbing the audience and leaving them in fervency as they clapping in excitement with steady hands in the air for the remainder of his set.
Overall, from general consensus, the audience seemed happy to see a festival like this in the City. With great performances reciprocated with crowd energy and continuous music, spontaneous dancing loomed at every corner. As the day presided to an end, the masses looked as if they’d just walked out of an intensive workout decorated with smiles.
Click here for pictures from the packed day by Oliver Correa & Kenroy George. Also, check out the recap video from our friend Peter Drier.
