Electric Zoo Review: Day 1 In-depth & Comprehensive

The unofficial closing party for summer, Electric Zoo, quickly snuck up on us this past weekend. While it was a festival we were looking forward to all summer, we sadly knew what it meant when it came; summer would be over. Nevertheless, it was an opportunity to go out with a bang. Would this festival leave EDMBoston looking back on the summer and missing it or leave us distracted with a memorable festival experience??  

Electric Zoo is a three-day festival, which takes place in New York City's Randall’s Island park.  Tucked away in the east river, Randall’s Island is a public park offering an incredibly expansive space for a large festival.  On one side of the park is the picturesque east river and opposite sits the Icahn stadium.  Electric  Zoo 2012 would be the fourth edition of the festival and the lineup would see 108 artists, of varying sub-genres of Electronic Dance Music, play across four stages.  From marquee names to up and comers, the lineup offered any EDM lover a fantastic musical experience.  With any lineup as big as Electric Zoo’s, it’s always difficult to make decisions on who to see.  Nevertheless, we carefully mapped out whom we wanted to see.  Decisions were made between Diplo or Skrillex or Bloody Beetroots? Above & Beyond or Benny Bennassi or Chris Liebing? A-track or Above & Beyond? As you can see it was no easy task.

EDMBoston’s festival experience kicked off traveling to the festival via NYC notorious subway.  One of the best experiences of Electric Zoo is that you get to enjoy the bounty MYC has to offer while running amuck with your fellow ravers.  Given that 110,000 people attended the festival, you can imagine the amount of people sprinkled across every subway in the city and it made for great times.  PLUR screamed through the city, as people dressed up donning the sexiest neon and E-Zoo wristbands.  This made for making friends on the way to the festival more then easy and we met a bunch of phenomenal people.  The friendly banter on the subway got us in the mood early and cheers on the bus ride to Randall’s Island only heightened the excitement. By the time we got off the bus we wanted to run in.

From a logistics standpoint the bus setup worked wonderfully, as it took only 20 minutes from boarding the bus to the time it dropped us off.  The best part  was that the bus acts as a natural buffer in preventing ridiculous queues at the festival grounds entrance  - i.e. EDCNY Saturday 1-hour wait times.

When we unloaded from the bus we were met with effortless entry from 1pm-3pm.  Inside we were greeted with the E-Zoo Garden.  The garden was perched on a slight hill looking above the festival grounds.  On the hill scores of people were spread about enjoying the beautiful 92 degree day. Amongst the people were Electric Zoo animal decorations scattered about.  Neon deer and neon flowered trees embellished what would have been a plain park.  At night the trees would come alive with neon Christmas lights.

The first day we had Nadastrom, Gabriel & Dresden, Jack Beats,  Luciano, and A-track lined up, in respective order, to party with. Nadastrom broke our Electric Zoo seal at the fools gold sponsored riverside tent.  When we entered the tent we were greeted with something unexpected for a small tent.  A massive rectangle lcd screen wall covered the facade of the entire stage, with the dj booth inset behind it.  The omnipresent screen left us guessing as to what we'd see at the other tents and stages.


Behind the impressive display, Nadastrom laid down their signature hip-swinging, sexy, gorilla moombahton.  We describe it as such because the moombah sound, similar to the tempo of reggaeton, created by Dave Nada, makes your hips swing like the sexiest of salsa or reggaeton beats would.  Just when you’re feeling the beat in your hips the bass drops making you want to jump like a gorilla.  The set was righteous and pushed hard when it needed to and gave us time to breathe when it was also needed.  The drop in Bailey Smalls – Baby, I love you (Jay Fay remix) hit hard and got us gorilla bouncing.  

Nadastrom - photo: Jordan Loyd

The slow bass of the very next song D Rakkas - Gangsta Revival(JWLS remix) greeted us next and we lost our souls when the moombah drop came down.  The combination of the dirty slow bass and the event staff misting the air with water, made us feel like the happiest of gorilla’s in the jungle of the Electric Zoo.  Other notable moments in Nadastrom’s set were their ability to engage the crowd with a hands in the air clap to the dirty beat of Diplo’s Express Yourself and their ability to speed up the tempo at the end of the set and bring it back.

Gabriel & Dreden - photo: Bennett Sell-Kline

In our opinion, Nadastrom was one of the most underrated sets of the weekend, as not many people spoke of it.

Next up on our plate was a short 30 second walk to the Hilltip tent that was hosting Group Therapy on Friday.  Performing was Gabriel & Dresden.  This was possibly the only let down set of the festival.  After riding a moombah groove we thought surfing a trance high would be perfect. However, we just weren’t feeling it.  Within the first 30 minutes we found their set choppy from song to song and not the trance vibe we were looking for. In hindsight listening to the siriusXM broadcast the set sounded pleasant but at the time of the festival we left because back at riverside was Sir Dillon Francis.

Dillon Francis in foreground & A-track in background credit: Bennett Sell-Kline

The comical social media icon/genius DJ, Dillon Francis put on a clinic that had us out of our slouch in no time.  His set kept us guessing, entertained, and wowed at his skill.  We hadn't seen Dillon before and finally understood the fanfare behind not only him but his DJ skills.  Behind that cartoonish image is a serious artist, which will face-melt you with an array of music from moombahton to twisted electro all in his unique style.  He effortlessly weaved his way out of song samples, never playing one at length.  Part ADD part talent made this set work and the energy in the tent blow most other sets away.  We only wish we had been there from the start.  Like monkeys playing in tree to tree, or in this instance track to track, Dillon had us losing it to his remixes of “Money Making” “Whose ready to Jump” and “Masterblaster”.  Masterblaster was slowed down to like 100BPM and had a grime factor of 10.  Like any good class clown, Dillon saved one last antic for his last track.  He played a slow tempo remix of Vengaboys “We like to party” before mixing into his remix of Control Freak.

Jack Beats credit: Scott Kowalchyk

Jack beats kept the party rolling at Foolsgold Riverside tent. Unfortunately, they weren’t  able to keep us nor the crowd for very long.  Francis set pumped the energy level so high, that it was almost impossible for jack beats to keep it going.  They got off, strong carrying the energy in the crowd, but it dissipated in no time.  While the Jack Beats set was fun to listen to, it was on the awkward side, as the track selection failed to connect with the crowd.  An example of this was when they played Skrillex featuring the Doors collaboration of “Breakin a Sweat”.

After 40 minutes or so at Jack Beats we ventured off to see what the food situation was at the Zoo.  While nothing was more impressive then the music at the festival, the food came desperately close.  Like Deirdre said in her E-Zoo piece, this festival has some serious food vendors.  You won’t find run of the mill stadium food here.  Instead there was gourmet meatball vender, Korean food, grass fed beef burgers, wood oven pizza, asian chicken kabobs were just a few to choose from.  It was piece of mind to have some wholesome food and pay the standard prices you would for other crappy stadium food.  A big shoot out to Bob & Joe Kebabs.  They were wicked tasty and the perfect protein to keep us fueled for the festival, not to mention simple to eat.

With our bellies full, it was time to close out day 1!  We had chosen to see the first part of Luciano’s set at the Sunday School tent before moving to the Hilltop tent to see Above & Beyond close out group therapy.  The Sunday school tent had a noticeably different vibe in part due to the music.  Everyone was subdued and chill grooving to the technical sound Luciano was laying out.  It was a fantastic atmosphere that only came to light because of Luciano’s fabulous work in the booth.

Photo from Main Stage Performance Saturday credit: Jordan Loyd

For in depth coverage of Luciano Electric Zoo 2012 set, read Shikhar's review here.

However, the highlight of Friday was Above and Beyond! We made the calculated decision to skip pretty lights and we safely say it paid off, even after hearing what a cool performance Derek put on.  Above & Beyond’s ability to connect with your soul and sweep you away to another world is unparalleled.  They built a fantastic journey and took us through some powerful peaks and valleys, like a complex drama.  The drama would only be heightened by the omnipresent LCD display in the hilltop tent.  Pictured below you can see the massive screens contorted and arranged to form something very unique to Electric Zoo.

Above & Beyond’s Friday nights drama would conclude in a dedication to the late Neil Armstrong.  If you haven’t seen A&B, they use a computer to type messages up on the LCD screen behind them.  For the Neil Armstrong dedication the following messages were displayed in order:

"This country made a promise"

"Made by a Murdered President"

"To Put a Man On The Moon"

"Neil Armstrong was that Man"

Everyone gave a loud cheer of celebration and just like that night 1 had concluded at the Zoo at the Hilltop tent.

Nevertheless, over at the main stage Pretty Lights was closing down Day 1 of the festival. Read an indepth review of Pretty Lights Electric Zoo Day 1 set here.

Day 1 came to an end and the animals returned to their caves only for a brief rest before returning for more action the next day.

Read our Day 2 Review here