Part of DGAF never dies

Need we say more? photo: JKatan

The best thing about LA is its ability to have outdoor music festivals without humidity or a big chance of rain. And the best thing about outdoor festivals is definitely the fresh air. It can get hot, nasty, and stuffy as hell inside a packed indoor venue. I mean nothing against indoor venues of course, but it's definitely way more comfortable being in the middle of a sweaty crowd when you're outside.

Not a bummer in sight. photo: JKatan

HARD Summer had the right idea of moving to the Los Angeles State Historic Park. It was the same quality, just a different vibe. Instead of an all-night rave style party, it felt way more like a regular daytime music festival.

This is not EDC, people. photo: JKatan

The security was not messing around... we'd already witnessed an arrest before we'd even got in. We then had to remove our shoes at the gates, airport style. Police were patrolling the streets, drug dogs were walking around, bouncers were everywhere. Nobody was fucking around.

HARD gets it right again. photo: JKatan

We arrived just in time for Breakbot, who warmed up his set with clean funky disco-tastic house, surprised everyone when he decided kick into harder gear. We were left so flabbergasted by the transition from Snoop Dogg to Mr. Oizo that we did a synchronized jaw-drop that no one could even imagine choreographing.

The breakdown with Breakbot. photo: JKatan

We headed to the Harder Stage for Switch, who was dropping all kinds of baile funk fun, and witnessed a pretty intense 2-hour tag team set from Benga and Skream. It was wobbly, energetic dubstep madness. They know how to work a crowd.

This is how we roll (no pun intended). photo: JKatan

We listened to the always dope sounds of Diplo as we headed toward the food trucks. The only thing security couldn't stop were the red ants that were crawling on my shoes and biting my feet while we were in line. We finished our sandwiches and made our way back to see Flying Lotus, who was playing a good but very mellow set. Apparently I missed him drop some heavy ass shit just as I left to check out Crystal Castles, who were assaulting the senses with their controlled, noisy chaos. If they're not punk as fuck, I don't know what is. Hell, even Alice Glass rhymes with badass.

Is that steam? photo: JKatan

But we could not bear to miss Tiga, who was tearing it the fuck up. He probably played the most undeniably danceable set all day. Proxy kept the party going... but we had to head over to at least catch the end of Major Lazer. There was a Chinese dragon and a ton of people dancing on stage, and we knew we'd missed some ridiculous antics. Leave it up to Major Lazer to take the party to the next level.

video: JKatan

But nobody brings the party like Soulwax. Yay Belgium! If you also know about 2ManyDJs, you know that the Dewaele brothers have so much musical talent it's disgusting. They've evolved from a really cute, catchy, and interesting pop band to this nonstop dance machine. It amazes me how they make live instruments sound electronic and analog equipment sound digital... you get the energy of a live band with the sound of a DJ set. It's totally legit.

video: JKatan

My only complaint? That they didn't play for like 2 hours. They were the perfect closer to HARD Summer. I don't think you can really follow Soulwax; I think it worked out to not have other DJ's on til 4am after the headliner.

But I forgot to mention one of the highlights of the day, and it was seeing the lineup for this:

Part of the weekend never dies.

HARD Bummer

We here at DGAF believe in being DGAF, but not when it shuts down one of the most anticipated events of the summer. It was a once in a lifetime lineup, check this out, this made me jizz in my pants:

It was nice not to have to drive to Downtown LA or Hollywood, as we here at DGAF are not used to going to cool events that are local to us. The lines, when we got there, of course were ridiculous because it was sold out. Luckily for the DGAF team, we found a short line that for some reason no one was going into. I assumed it was VIP, but it turns out it wasn't. We weren't very happy at the prospect of missing Busy P's set, and had hoped that doors would have opened before he started playing. But whatever, we were more than happy to be in at 8:15, which was like an hour earlier than we thought we'd get in.

I wondered how stuffy it would get in an indoors venue, and I wondered why they decided not to have it at the Shrine. But as we entered the Forum, my doubts disappeared. I was ready to party, and so was everyone else. The place was already jumping, and Busy P himself even announced from the stage that he'd never seen a crowd that crazy at 8:45. This is Busy P, he's been around. He's been doing this shit for how long now? You could tell how excited the whole place was. I'd waited all summer to see Crookers, my personal addiction of 2009, and I knew it was going to be one of the best nights I'd ever have.

Crystal Castles came on after with their assault on the senses, and Alice Glass proved yet again to be quite the badass. When she came out onstage carrying a strobe light, I knew whoever had epilepsy was going to be seriously fucked. They ended their set with noise and feedback (we found out later that apparently their equipment broke?) and Shimosh and I were already thirsty, as the dancefloor was getting hot and we'd already been rocking out for over a good hour.

We decided to go get some water from upstairs, which we thought would be simple and easy. When we looked up, we saw that the seating area was packed, and the stairways were being blocked. Oh shit, how were we going to get upstairs to get water? What the hell was going on? Some people were jumping the stair railings to get onto the dancefloor. Whatever, we just wanted to go get some water and get back onto the dance floor, in time for Chromeo!

So we navigated around to get upstairs, got our water, and... came back to the stage area where the lights were on, no music was playing, and someone was making an announcement from the stage??? WTF? We weren't allowed to go downstairs, and it turns out that the stairs were being blocked for a reason. A guy was announcing from the stage for people to sit down, and not block the stairways, and calm down or the music wouldn't continue. It turns out that the place was becoming a fire hazard, and that people had to clear the stairways and the first 5 rows of seats, and if people wouldn't cooperate, the event would get shut down. Wow. That was NO joke. I'm sure it didn't help that we'd seen people jumping the railings to get to the dance floor. But it got even worse when a HUGE bum rush came out from the VIP area entrance, and then people fucking took it a step further by jumping from the fucking BALCONY to get to the dance floor! Yeah, good move! You're on the dance floor now, but you can't fucking dance because now you're INJURED! And the place is already being called a safety hazard, so like that's gonna improve anything!

"Shit!" I said to Shimosh. "Now this place is really gonna get shut down!"

But... it seemed like there was hope, there was no announcement of a cancellation, and it seemed like people were cooperating and there were announcements that Chromeo were ready to go on as soon as everything was cleared. It sucked that the rest of the sets were gonna get cut short, but we still had the rest of the night, we just wanted it to start up again! Hope had dwindled however, by the time there was still no music 2 hours after Crystal Castles played.

Shimosh and I went to the bathroom, and before we even came out back into the stage area, we found out that our fears were confirmed, and the place was in fact, shut down. Finding that short line that allowed us to catch Busy P's set was even more siginificant now, and we were even more grateful for going to Discotheque the night before.

Outside was chaos, complete with riot police (wtf?!), ghetto birds flying in the sky, fire trucks, ambulances, and the biggest, most disappointed crowd I'll probably ever see. People were throwing bottles but it was fairly peaceful, as most people were still rolling (what a waste!) and bumping Bloody Beetroots from their car stereos and holding their own little mini raves in the parking lot. It was like the aftermath of an electro armageddon.

Despite all the craziness, we met some cool people at Hard. We met a couple guys and gave them a ride back to the Custom Hotel, where they were staying. We decided to hang out at Hopscotch, the bar at the Custom, where the Suzanarchist got a bit drunk and called everyone a sassy bitch (including a janitor who was cleaning near us, who told the manager, who told us to get out (please)). Before we got kicked out, we got to meet Phra of Crookers, which made our night. She also asked Ethan Kath of Crystal Castles if he knew ODB. DGAF indeed.

But we hope that you'll be DGAF but not to fuck it up for everyone else. And HARD will be back on track with a vengeance for Halloween at the right venue this time. It was tragic, it was a disaster, but shit happens. Move on, get your refund, keep dancing, and stay responsibly DGAF.

Discotheque with Don Rimini: A Chat Review

Last Friday, the Suzanarchist and I went to Discotheque at Club 740 in downtown LA, which is a new weekly party thrown by the guys from Nitrus + MFG, aka the promoters for the HARD festivals. This week had artists Don Rimini, Destructo, Staccato, Acid Girls, Classixx, Switch, Spank Rock, and the MAD DECENT basement with Paul Devro + more. Here’s what we thought:



SUZANARCHIST: so we got there and the parking was $5, not bad
SHIMOSH: yeah, right next to the club, so that was good
SHIMOSH: getting in was smooth (no water bottles, but whatevz)
SUZANARCHIST: yeah i had to dump my 5 hour energy shot
SHIMOSH: LOL, is that what happened?
SUZANARCHIST: yup. idk i didn’t really care, it was almost empty
SHIMOSH: oh ok. i thought you meant an unopened one
SUZANARCHIST: nope. so we get there and the line is short, which is bomb
SHIMOSH: yeah line was cool because we got there at like 9:50ish?
SUZANARCHIST: yeah
SHIMOSH: doors opened at 10
more people came later on, but it was free before 11 (with rsvp)
SUZANARCHIST: ah
SHIMOSH: it was a really cool venue
SUZANARCHIST: yeah
SHIMOSH: i really liked it
SUZANARCHIST: it was pretty big
the lighting was SICK as fuck
SHIMOSH: HALE yeah SEVEN FORTY! the “underground” part had a “rave” feel to it
SUZANARCHIST: yeah totally
SHIMOSH: not necessarily music, but the vibe, or maybe it was just the setup
SUZANARCHIST: well honestly, at first they were playing reggaeton and shit, latin american music
but later when they started dropping baile funk, i was fucking DOWN. and someone played “let the bass kick,” i almost creamed.
SHIMOSH: lol gross. yeah... MAD DECENT, right? paul devro?
SUZANARCHIST: MAD DECENT
SHIMOSH: MAD DECENT! yeah it was good stuff
SUZANARCHIST: yeah the beats got dirty downstairs.
when classixxx was on upstairs, the beats were super clean—almost sterile. Like immaculate sterile coked out 80’s beats.
Acid girls were cool
SHIMOSH: yeah acid girls were good
SUZANARCHIST: i remember them near the beginning
SHIMOSH: so was it acid girls then classixx then rimini then staccato then swtich then spank rock? (even though we couldn’t make it til the end)
SUZANARCHIST: i guess spank rock finished?
SHIMOSH: i guess so
SUZANARCHIST: i remember staccato being there before we left


SHIMOSH: i’m not sure, it sucks bc it was starting to clear out a good amount after don rimini
i wonder if everyone just migrated downstairs? or went to smoke?
because there were a buttload of people smoking
SUZANARCHIST: oh yeah, after don rimini the dance floor was almost empty. it sucked. i’m sorry but female djs need to be repped.
SHIMOSH: yeah lamesauce
SUZANARCHIST: staccato DROPPED some fucking beats
SHIMOSH: staccato was dope, but i think don rimini exhausted everyone. It’s like he just blew a giant load on everyone and the crowd was like OMG I LOVE IT and couldn’t take it and died
SUZANARCHIST: he fucking DROPPED so many dance bullets
SHIMOSH: OMG I KNOW. Don Rimini=best


SUZANARCHIST: fucking bombs. missiles. let me back up i think just brought on the armageddon. don rimini was the shit.
SHIMOSH: let me back up = awesome. i loved when he played “warp” i was like omg <3
SUZANARCHIST: WARP WAS FUCKING SICK YES
SHIMOSH: crookers remix of let me back up <3
SUZANARCHIST: i mean i always liked that remix, but hearing that live just...
SHIMOSH: made you melt
SUZANARCHIST: gave me cardiac explosions of ecstacy and i didn’t even drop
SHIMOSH: haha, nice
SUZANARCHIST: that’s the test of really good dance music—you can rock out to it completely sober, which is why HARD and its promoters put on the dopest tightest shit
SHIMOSH: but “i cant imagine moshing to dance music”
SUZANARCHIST: fuck that bitch
SHIMOSH: HAH
SUZANARCHIST: well u couldn’t back in the 90s, but now... i mean acutually maybe the prodigy
dance definitely started getting more eclectic roots, but it wasn’t widespread as this. i think DJs are showing their diverse influences more
SHIMOSH: totes

SUZANARCHIST: it’s not just “rave” music anymore, it’s not as specific, it’s not cheesy—
people are turning cheesy samples into fucking quality shit.
SHIMOSH: Discotheque win?
SUZANARCHIST: yeah discotheque brings on fucking quality djs
SHIMOSH: first discotheque wins. don rimini was amazing
SUZANARCHIST: good vibe
SHIMOSH: totes
SUZANARCHIST: it wasn’t too packed
SHIMOSH: yeah! that’s what i liked
SUZANARCHIST: the venue was nice, large, spread out... there were chill areas to sit down
SHIMOSH: it wasn’t like PACKED FULL like a Japanese train during rush hour
SUZANARCHIST: yeah or cinespace LOL
SHIMOSH: HAH yeah! cinespace was just uncomfortable
SUZANARCHIST: and the best thing is it’s free before 11.
SHIMOSH: well it was for this first one, but i don’t know if they’re doing it for all of them
SUZANARCHIST: yeah but that was good
SHIMOSH: yeah it was. free=awesome, but otherwise it was like $10 presale which isn’t bad. worth it, i’d say. good times.
SUZANARCHIST: oh yeah $10 is good—for that quality too!
the downstairs failed when it dropped the electro reggae
SHIMOSH: yeaaaaaah
well i’m not partial to reggae, so maybe i’m too biased but yeah... not into the reggae
SUZANARCHIST: yeah i hate dance reggae. i mean both of us are biased, but u know that baile funk/funk carioca shit was TIGHT
SHIMOSH: discotheque was pretty dgaf awesome, right?
SUZANARCHIST: the sheezy yes
SHIMOSH: BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT
SUZANARCHIST: ?
SHIMOSH: i say the DGAF award of the night goes to this guy

the dancing man. he’s so fucking disco. that man was dancing from the very fucking beginning and did not stop. he probably started dancing at 9, and the thing started at 10 and i think he was just non-stop party. this guy seriously was so. fucking. DGAF
SUZANARCHIST: yup. DGAF of the night
SHIMOSH: he was so sweaty. DGAF award
i’m going to make like a “dgaf award” ribbon to put on that
like a first prize ribbon
but that says “DGAF”
or “#1 DGAF”





So, this week will be another fun weekend! Discotheque on Friday with Busy P + SebastiAn, then HARD Summer on Saturday! We predict this friday’s #1 DGAF to be Busy P, but we’ll see. So go to Discotheque this Friday, (21+) bitches.