Glass Animals @ The Wiltern

Favorite moments from Glass Animals show at The Wiltern, first night:

1. Loved the palm trees and vertical lights on stage.  It was like a luau at a rave. 
2. Seeing Wing's reaction when she heard singer Dave Bayley's speaking voice for the first time.  I guess it's hard to imagine such chocolatey vocals coming out of him. 
3. The only white people I've ever seen dance like Bayley are ravers and DJs.  It took some getting used to, but he was good and his moves were mesmerizing.  
4. Their cover of Kanye's Love Lockdown is infinitely better than the original.  Although, it did get me interested in Kanye's 808's & Heartbreak album.  People complain about his voice on the album and all the auto-tuning, but it takes balls to sing on an album when you know your voice isn't great.  I really like the concept, and you can't deny the songs are damn catchy. 
5. I don't usually like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but Glass Animals' cover / mashup, Gold Lime, actually made them sound appealing. 

Besides the odd dim sum din in the crowd during Cocoa Hooves (which was pretty rude if you ask me.  Everyone was talking so loudly, I'm pretty sure the band noticed.  But props to them for getting through the song without faltering), the rest of their set was solid.  They turned The Wiltern into their own sexy Hawaiian dance club. 


More Reviews: 

• LA Music Blog
• Restless Cities

FYF Fest 2015

FYF was back again at Exposition Park, this time with a new walkway, an extra stage, and some new food options.  Here are the highlights. 

• The New Walkway really cut down on the time it took to get from Main Stage to The Trees.  This took about 7 minutes of walk time for me.
• The Lines to get in were constantly moving, although a bit long on Day 1.  Day 2 was much better.  Still, getting in was a vast improvement over Day 1 last year. 
• It was a bit sad that FYF didn't sell out all their tickets, but I was glad it wasn't as packed as last year.  Guess the previous year's logistics really did a number on this year's attendance.  
• ID Check was conveniently located right after security. 
• Perrier Greenhouse offered nice cold cans of sparkling water...and free bubbles.  
• BADBADNOTGOOD was an interesting choice for The Arena, but they sounded great live.  I enjoyed their modern jazz version of hip hop. 
• Caught a few of Goldroom's songs at The Trees.  Wish I had stayed for the entire set because he got me dancing even though I was sitting on the grass in the back.  Till Sunrise was the perfect song to hear at sunset. 
• The Trees stage was fancier this year, which was really noticeable once the sun set. 
• On the way to the Flying Lotus DJ set, I got distracted by the lights and music of Shlohmo.  His music paired really well with my tasty lavender and orange blossom donut (aka Joyce Lavender from Donut Friend.  Love their punny band names btw). 
• The twice fried Korean chicken wings from Status Kuo were probably the messiest things you could eat at FYF, but they were also some of the tastiest.  Note to SK:  add moist towelettes to every order.  We went through several napkins and a few moist towelettes that I luckily had.     
• Chet Faker's live show was much more energetic than his sometimes mellow songs on his albums.  No Diggity attracted people to the stage and the rest of his set kept them there.  
• As a last minute replacement, Kanye West only had bright lights and smoke as his stage setup, but he still had the crowd going wild over every song.  It was fun to see him try to do 10 hit songs in the last 10 minutes of his show.  Surprise guest Rihanna sang with him from the pit and then later on stage.  
• Flume turned the Main Stage into a giant dance club.  Did anyone find it strange that Lorde came up on stage to dance with him, but didn't actually sing?  I was surprised that he was actually kind of polite and undouchey for a DJ.  He kept thanking everyone after his songs and seemed genuinely excited about performing there.  
• It was my second time seeing Belle & Sebastian, but my first time actually being close enough to see them on stage (the last time I saw them was at Hollywood Bowl forever ago). I can't believe that even after 9 studio albums, they're still considered indie.  Singer Stuart Murdoch was wearing a nautical shirt and a hat, which I feel like is the exact same thing he wore at Hollywood Bowl.  I like to imagine he has a closet full of striped shirts.  During The Stars of Track and Field, they showed this amazing old footage of the opening ceremony for the 1984 Summer Olympics that took place in the Coliseum at Exposition Park.  Jetpack = epic. 
• D'Angelo & the Vanguard were having a sexy dance party at The Lawn stage.  We could feel his James Brown-like energy all the way from the beer garden.  He put on a great show including costume changes and him playing multiple instruments.  
• Morrissey sounded good live and I even got to hear a Smith's song, but I pretty much lost interest in the rest of his set after he launched into the preachy Meat is Murder and played the accompanying bloody animal slaughtering video.  I do admire him for playing past his set time for his fans.  And I hope people listened to him when he urged them not to vote for Trump. 

More Reviews:

• From Worst to Best - Consequence of Sound
• Day 1 - LA Music Blog
• Day 2 - mxdwn
• Every band on Saturday - LA Weekly
• Food - LA Weekly
• D'Angelo - USA Today
• Kanye West - LA Times
• Morrissey - Music Times

Pictures:

• Stereogum