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Entity recaps music festival Desert Daze 2016.

This was my first time attending Desert Daze, a festival in its fifth year that recently moved its venue to the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree, California. The venue was spectacular, infused with the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and his son Lloyd Wright, as well as numerous artistic and meditative centers.

Entity recaps the top performances at the 2015 Desert Daze.

Building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright & Lloyd Wright in Joshua Tree, CA (Institute of Mentalphysics)

Meditation on Sound

Meditation on Sound

And the vibe was DIY, as all good early festivals should be. Most importantly, the crowd was incredibly reflective of the space and its general art and sound design: a little bit rock ‘n’ roll and a little bit psychedelic.

Entity recaps the top performances at the 2015 Desert Daze.

Entry path to Desert Daze

Overall, everyone was joyful, kind and low-key, perfect for a desert weekend get-away filled with hard-hitting music and beautiful aesthetics.

Entity recaps the top performances at the 2015 Desert Daze.

Walkway at Desert Daze

Below, I’ve compiled a list of the top six performances I saw (in order of performance lineup), followed by numerous honorable mentions from this under-the-radar yet talent-packed weekend.

1 Gary Wilson

Gary Wilson is a legend in experimental music, garnering a cult following during the ’80s and ’90s, the decades succeeding his retirement after ten years in the music scene. But he became active again in the early 2000s and has been making funky abstract work ever since.

He was an artist I was very excited to see and I was not at all disappointed, except with the relatively small crowd his early set on the first day garnered. His performance was completely wacky; he kept sitting in a large plastic bag, a faux-fight broke out between the keyboardist and the drummer (and then Gary and the keyboardist) and the performers switched from one quirky outfit to another.

This only enhanced the irreverent musical style, which included tracks like “6.4 = Make Out.” With the music’s soulful and jazzy undertones, this set showed off his reputation as a performance artist as well as a musician.

2 Bombino

It’s hard to know where to begin with Bombino because his style of music is eclectic in the Western music scene. A Tuareg guitarist hailing from Agadez, Niger – a region known for its contributions to art, music and dance – Bombino blends a number of musical styles.

To untrained ears his style may come off as world music, but to characterize his music as such is to ignore the important influences in rock and blues that he clearly draws from in his guitar riffs. Talk about shredding! The repetitive nature of his riffs also harkens to the use of loops in electronic music, but he plays it all live alongside joyful bandmates who occasionally choreographed their dances and hyped the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, they were feeling the music in a beautiful exchange of cross-cultural appreciation. Bombino and his band were so happy and infectious, and the audience surely felt it and sent love and good energy back.

3 Toro y Moi

Toro y Moi’s set at FYF in 2015 was a great success, but it must be said that his performance this weekend was even better. He significantly benefited from a later set time, with funky danceable songs accompanied by a killer light show, both of which were striking in the desert night.

He opened the set with some of his biggest singles, and the groove among the sizable crowd was palpable. Coupled with laser-style lights, the whole thing felt electric. Friends and strangers danced together, enjoying a beat that walked off the stage and into their souls.

4 Deerhunter

Deerhunter is one of my favorite bands, and I have been lucky enough to see them two times before, once at FYF in 2012, and a second time at Coachella last year. The first time I saw them I was completely blown away, as they played only four or five songs in an hour-long set, riffing and improving on highly popular singles.

It was like hearing some of their music for the first time and I remember sitting on a lawn, just enjoying every new interpretation. This was an ability I even lauded in an article leading up to Coachella, highlighting the sort of music I was most excited to see. They were in good form at Desert Daze, playing a number of hit records and performing as their odd-ball selves the whole time.

Bradford Cox, the lead vocalist, and the band used voice modulators throughout the non-musical portions of the show. They oscillated between sounding like chipmunks and monsters, giving an off-kilter vibe to match their musical and visual sensibilities. They dominated this larger stage and better evening set time, showing off their extreme musical complexity.

5 Al Lover’s Dronal Dissonance

I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised to happen upon this band’s set by accident, when trying to get into the only indoor stage for Toro y Moi’s electronic persona Les Sins. After taking off my shoes, as was required for entry into the “Sanctuary Hall,” I found a dark room full of people sleeping, laying on the floor or sitting upright and attentive in folding chairs arranged in a square surrounding a dance floor.

Thick, polyphonic, yet meditative music washed over the room, ebbing and flowing, always slow and gong-like in its reverberations. Much of the audience totally relinquished themselves to the unexpected change of pace, enjoying this extended moment of peace and tranquility amongst the craziness of the two-weekend long festival.

After leaving this space, I had a completely different appreciation for the experience I was having. It was transformative. Apparently, all it takes is some really good ambient electronic sound.

6 Foxygen

I have been a fan of Foxygen for years. Their music is great and their performance antics are off-the-wall. But they also hold a special place in my heart considering our proximity in our respective youths. Foxygen hails from Westlake Village, CA, a city not far from Los Angeles, where I had many friends.

Some of my friends knew Foxygen’s members personally and championed them in the early days, giving me an appreciation for their work before the broke into the indie “mainstream.” Since then, their popularity has boomed, as has their presence on the festival circuit, but I had yet to catch their craziness live.

When I finally caught them onstage, they did not disappoint, bringing the bombastic performance style I had heard so much about. This, coupled with the five-piece horn section they had along side them on stage, made for an incredibly engaging set full of intense emotion and the sound to back it up.

Mild High Club: a stoney jangle-rock band that sounded like Mac DeMarco had a baby with indie shoegazers (like Real Estate or Beach House).

Deakin: one fourth of my favorite band, Animal Collective, which played an amazing one-man show filled with ambient and soft experimental tracks off of his debut solo album, “Sleep Cycle.”

Washed Out: king of chillwave, whose music is the opening theme for “Portlandia,” put on a simultaneously dancey and mellow set for a big, swaying crowd.

Cherry Glazerr: teen rockers (who just last year graduated from high school) making killer garage pop with sometimes-sweet vocals, and ended their performance with front woman Clementine Creevy flashing the audience.

Wand: a psych-rock band of which I was unaware until this festival, but whose entire set I enjoyed for their lively stage presence that enhanced their grungy tunes … no wonder two of their members backed Ty Segall on tour for his most recent album.

Thee Oh Sees: indie alt-garage-psych punk-rock darlings (is that enough hyphens for you?) garnered one of the festival’s biggest crowds, all there to see them play their eclectic mix of sounds in great form.

The Raveonettes: Danish indie rockers with an entrancing – both sonically and visually – performance. I basically stepped into another world, focused entirely on them and their beat-heavy, yet melodic and lyrical showcase, and stepped back into the real world at the end.

La Luz: very hip, well-dressed and synergistic surf rockers that brought beach vibes to the high desert, and ensnared a large audience considering their early slot.

White Fence: one of the very first artists I wrote about when I started reviewing music, White Fence has a dear place in my heart, and his genre-bending set helped remind me why, as he fluctuated between ’70s rock and lo-fi electronic tracks.

Jennylee: another artist of whom I was unfamiliar until this festival, but was blown away by when seen live; she rocked out in jeans and a t-shirt, sometimes with her golden doodle on stage, performing shoulder stands and somersaults to accompany the groove.

Alan Vega Tribute

Alan Vega Tribute: for context, Suicide, a mainstay in the punk and post-punk scene for the past 40+ years, was booked to headline this year’s Desert Daze. Unfortunately, duo member Alan Vega passed away this July. Rather than cancel the show altogether, the festival decided to hold a tribute, with a number of individuals already at the festival for their own bands, as well as other artists influenced by Suicide and Vega.

There were some audio troubles, but the giddiness and intensity of the various performers on stage did his memory justice and brought together a bunch of happy punkers enjoying minimalist electronic beats and a wide swath of vocalists.

Brian Jonestown Massacre: these long-time legends were incredible, with humorous audience interaction and band synchronicity.

If you’re looking for a desert festival alternative to Coachella or Desert Trip, then Desert Daze would definitely be one to check out. True indie vibe runs throughout every part of the festival, bringing strange and amazing sights and sounds every crowd can enjoy.

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