It is day 2 of Electric Zoo. The sun is shining, people don't have work for the whole day and Above & Beyond is headlining. After a fantastic finish to Day 1 by the legendary Chemical Brothers, it was time to see what would happen on the very polarized day two with heavy on trance, hardstyle and trap.
Here is what we saw.
1:50 - Mako start playing to a pretty small crowd, understandable as the first act of the day. After running through some of their own originals like "Our Story" and "Children Of The Wild," they still keep it interesting for the main stage with Alex stepping out to play some piano and a violinist joining the part for a track. "Deep Down Low" count is now up to four for the festival.
2:30 - Wiwek is unleashing some of his patented jungle terror on the main stage. He mixes in a few known hip-hop vocals to keep things familiar with the early afternoon crowd. It is all about the drums right now.
2:40 - Peeking our head into the early Sunday School Tent for Justin Jay, the ratio of dudes wearing shirts is much higher today. I guess techno really took off those shirts yesterday. The groove is strong with Jay.
3:50 - I wrap up my interview with Mako who thank me for not asking them the same interview questions they always get. Walking out, I overhear the first question in their next interview and they give me a quick glance of knowing that the usual drill is coming.
3:53 - Ansolo caps off his set with the Swedish House Mafia remix of Coldplay "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall." I have not heard this one in quite bit and it is good to hear it again.
4:00 - Solarstone wraps his pure trance set over on the Riverside Stage. The stage has a very strong trance lineup with guys who are not afraid to push the BPMs to 138 and 140, adding some pretty gritty bass lines. This is pretty new at E Zoo, which has had Above & Beyond curate stages in the past or been pretty light on heavy trance guys in the past.
4:10 - The weather stays absolutely perfect without a single cloud in the sky and ideal temperatures for a festival in the low 80s.
4:20 - The main stage is very noisy with Borgeous. I need to get away.
4:45 - My ears and soul are being rinsed out by top hat-wearing Kölsch. The production in the tent occasionally comes alive a full array of lights and lasers with solid visuals behind him. He plays his remix of Eric Prydz "Generate," which gets the best reaction from the crowd. The bass in front is so heavy it shakes you to your core. Glad I have my earplugs (though that is a given).
5:10 - The amount of Above & Beyond shirts at the festival is almost 1 in 10. We know whom people are there to see.
6:00 - Ferry Corsten is playing an all trance set. Recently he has been mixing up some big room into his sets, as seen by his label Flashover Recordings, but there seems to be a return to the Ferry-of-old, with a modern twist in this set and his new productions. I leave him very satisfied after a few subpar prior performances.
6:20 - I get a notification from the E Zoo app saying not to mix drugs and alcohol. Thanks guys. What will happen when weed gets legalized....?
6:55 - Dirty South wraps up his set with his collab alongside Alesso "City Of Dreams." The Serbian-born producer, DJ also potentially premiered a new remix of "Sun Is Shining," while also running through a whole bunch of his own material and some new bootlegs. The D-loving, nutella eating fans were out in full force this evening.
7:20 - The lovely Nervo twins have the taken the reigns on the main stage and are keeping it live. The duo just released their debut album Collateral and is playing a whole bunch of music from it such as "Hot Mess" and "Ready For The Weekend." "Deep Down Low" count up to 5.
7:30 - Orjan Nilsen bringing it at Riverside with the arm wave to Andrew Rayel's "Dark Warrior." He unveils a new single before giving way to Markus Schulz.
8:05 - Yasmine from Krewella shows up with Adventure Club to party during their song together "Rise & Fall." No live vocals were heard. The Canadian producer, DJ duo go on to mix a whole lot of dubstep, big room and festival-sized progressive house together, sprinkling in a little trap as well as the final act on the main stage before Above & Beyond.
8:30 - Markus Schulz is banging out some festival trance that his label is known for. His visuals are pretty impressive and expansive, especially since he has some for Delerium's iconic track "Silence," which he didn't even make.
9:25 - The Group Therapy session begins. Jono and Pavo are here in New York, with Tony back home. The full Above & Beyond experience is here tonight in New York as they are back once again at Electric Zoo. With their new single "Fly To New York," which was premiered last October at Madison Square Garden, being chosen as the festival's anthem, the duo have a special place here.
10:20 - They have been running through a host of their new remixes, like those for "Salva Mea," "Blue Monday" and "Zero Gravity," in addition to tracks from We Are All We Need such as "Peace Of Mind," "Sticky Fingers" and "All Over The World." They unveil something brand new from and "Anjuna kitchen," though do not reveal which label artist it is.
10:27 - They drop the club mix of "Fly To New York." People are everywhere locked arm in arm belting out the worlds.
10:40 - It is time to push the button. The duo pick out the couple of lucky fans from the crowd who get to hit play on "Blue Sky Action" as fireworks goes off in the sky. Even after all of these years, it still feels authentic and heartfelt.
10:55 - There may or not have been tears shed during the set as it comes to close. It is time to head home, but smiles all around as Above & Beyond climb down from the E Zoo stage.
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