Fuck Yeah Fest (FYF) was really good this year! I remember it being an unorganized clusterfuck when I went back in 2014; they've totally cleaned up their act since then! (A bit of bottlenecking aside).

I went both days and didn't get sunburnt! Patting myself on the back, and it doesn't even hurt.

Here's what the weekend consisted of:

SATURDAY

Classixx
Todd Terje & the Olsens
Gerd Janson
Junior Boys
Tame Impala
Hot Chip (Live)
Explosions in the Sky
Moby (DJ)

We watched Classixx from the beer garden; it was good, dancy, (drinky?) music for the background. While we were there, I creeped on this guy's "Dedicated to the Craft" shirt and I whipped out the sign I made for Hot Chip.

The stage for Junior Boys was sort of tucked away in the back, and at first we ended up grooving a bit in "The Woods" before heading to "The Club" (stage names). In doing so, we stumbled on this guy named Gerd Janson who I ended up really liking.

We made our way to "The Club" and caught my favorite Junior Boys song, In the Morning, just in time! Dancing our way under the disco balls, we headed to Tame Impala. I've seen them twice before so I didn't mind ducking out early for my main obsession, Hot Chip.

Hot Chip was labeled one of the best performances of FYF by LA Weekly. You can see me posted up front and center with my lil' Hot Chip sign in the article. I also found another photo of me on laist here.

Because I was front and center, guess who got the set list!?!?! Hoping I can get another one from next week's show in Wales!

Sidenote: On day 2 of the fest, I actually saw Alexis Taylor walking through the park with his wife and daughter. I choked and didn't say anything to him and I'm still slapping myself for it!

Explosions in the sky filled the stage with vivid colors while exploding peoples' minds with their sound. Instrumental music always feels like a dreamscape to me and is really, really wonderful. It's refreshing to strip away all lyrics and dig deep into the sound.

We danced to Moby and then stumbled home around 1:30. Getting a Lyft out of there was an absolute nightmare!

SUNDAY

Preoccupations
Wild Nothing
Blood Orange
Father John Misty
Anohni: Presents Hopelessness
Mac Demarco
Beach House
LCD Soundsystem

Saturday, I went solo to the festival and Emily met up with me later in the day. I caught the middle to end of Preoccupations' set. They're previously known as Viet Cong, but changed their name for obvious reasons. Starting my day off with a bit of grungy punk felt good.

Emily found me mid-Wild Nothing set. Having purple hair really does come in handy.

Blood Orange was next. They brought out Carly Rae Jepsen and Nelly Furtado for a song each... which is quite possibly the most random combo of guests ever for Blood Orange. I mean, good, but odd.

Father John Misty always puts on a hell of a show. Talk about drama. He kept flailing himself all over the stage, falling to his knees and completely on his back.

We couldn't figure out if his graphics were malfunctioning or purposefully ironic. First, the screen quickly flashed to a desktop background of a baby with a mess of folders. Next was the software update failed message. Then a Windows start-up screen, and the set ended with a "Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 2014" banner. It was then that we knew (or are pretty sure?) it was all on purpose.

After grabbing some Fruity Pebble churro ice cream from Ridges, we met up with my coworker Zack and his girlfriend at Anohni. Her graphics were really powerful. I turned to Zack and said, "This feels like something that would be in a back room at MOCA or LACMA for an art installation". He's a copy-writer at work and does lots of artist bios, so knows lots of fun facts about the music scene.

He explained to me that it probably was art-installation-esque because in the past, Anohni has worked with the likes of Lou Reed and Bjork on installations and projects. Plus, the show was called Anohni: Presents Hopelessness which in itself seems like an art piece with an underlying message.

We went from Anohni to Mac Demarco and met up with a few more friends. Fighting our way through the crowd, we ended up to the side of the sound booth which was a pretty good spot.

Afterwards, we caught a few Beach House tunes and moseyed our way over to LCD Soundsystem.

Hey, remember that time I waited for 8 hours to be very front row for LCD at Coachella? Me too.

Anyways, LCD was AMAZING. I danced so hard, as soon as I got out of bed and stood up the next morning I felt my legs scream, "What have you done to us?!" Worth it though. Totally worth it.

I metro-ed home, showered at like 1:30 or 2am, and tried to get some sleep for work the next morning.

Speaking of mornings, I leave tomorrow morning (6am flight) for Festival Number 6 in Wales! I'm beyond excited but man is it going to be a long trek.

Cross your fingers for us!

FYF '16

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

September '16 Playlist

HARD Summer ‘16