Soundwave >> gets better and better every time. Saturday night at Big Surf in Tempe was the 3rd installment of the waterpark music festival and it proved to be the best one yet. As a returning Soundwave surfer I can attest to the the entertainment, experience and execution being flawless.
While I'm a huge fan of Diplo, Boys Noize, Kaskade, Dirty South and other artists from Soundwaves past I think this lineup was the best. Adventure Club, Designer Drugs, Z-Trip and R3hab crushed it as expected. Each bring different styles of electronic into the mix and propers to SLE & Disco Donnie for continuing to bring the elite and in the variety.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the early evening set by Seven Lions and the headlining Calvin Harris. I wasn't familiar with the former and wasn't the biggest fan of the latter until last night. Both brought it to Tempe and I couldn't have asked for better sets. The energy during Calvin Harris was unbelievable. I've been to my share of shows over the years [ovbi] but this energy was rare.
The Soundwave experience is unique. I don't know of any other festival you can day drink, go on water slides, dance and be merry to the sounds of the utmost electronic illness. I envision this festival transforming into a 2 or 3-day banger at some point and perhaps rivaling fests like EDC or Ultra [though I wouldn't really want it to get that big - 2 stages a reasonable distance away from each other are perfect and manageable without any stress]. It's time for the desert to put a stake into the scene and this is just the way to do it.
This installment was better not just in the artistry but in the little things too like separating 18+ crowd. There are still some areas of improvement that I anticipate will be addressed before next year [more bars, more food, more potties, etc.]. These little things will go a long way.
All in all, it was the blastest blast and I'm really looking forward to next year. Check out some of the videos I took below [the rest on the zBORED YouTube channel] and you may party vicariously through my camcorder. Enjoy!
Seven Lions:
Designer Drugs:
Adventure Club:
Z-Trip:
R3hab:
Calvin Harris:
