Camp Bisco 2013: Review

If you haven’t been to a festival where you see people dressed as birds, dogs dancing with their owners, or just a DJ holding it down at an ice cream joint till 6 AM, then you haven’t had the complete festival experience. That’s right, I’m describing Camp Bisco ’12, the best year this event has ever seen. Featuring a assorted collection of artists, from Thievery Corporation to Madeon, Bisco 2013 left concert goers entirely satisfied with their jaws on the ground.

Boys Noize signee, Strip Steve, kicked it off with an hour of phenomenal tech/deep house that threw the tent into an uproar. The legendary DJ/CEO of HARD events, Destructo, took the decks after to pack out the entire tent, and it was only three in the afternoon! He issued a thunderous set loaded with deep house gems that took the place completely by storm, especially when Duke Dumont’s smash, “Need You (100%)” roared through the speakers! However, it’s no party without RL Grime droppin’ some hard trap beats full of dope and swag that included Cashmere Cat’s filthy remix to Miguel’s “Do You…” a track that also appeared in the sets of other Trap artists there like Bauuer and Grandtheft.

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Notable performances from STS9, Flosstradomus, and Flux Pavilion raised hype as the cat-man, Dillon Francis, dominated the stage with one of his best sets yet, even bringing his dad on stage! The night ended on a note like none other as Boys Noize showed why he is one of the most respected DJ’s in dance music.

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Day two was blazing with energy as the sun shone brightly over the entire fest. Kindergarten signee, Popeska, was unstoppable. However, the best sets of the day came from the French Express tent, made up of Perseus and then Moon Boots. Labeled as “protectors of the feel good”, this tent kept the good vibes flowing with a bright, NuDisco feel to kept the whole crowd grooving as if we were back in the disco days.

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Then came Wolfgang Gartner. The man is on a whole other level. The way he performs for the crowd is very unique to any DJ I have seen and the mixing is simply incredible. However, when Bassnectar took stage, all hell broke loose. He literally kicked you in the face with bass. Concluding with an epic remix to Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of”, he without a doubt left everyone at the show deaf, but also grinning childishly from ear to ear.

One of the most memorable moments was watching Destroid take stage in Predator-styled suits that were simply kick ass. It was only the fourth appearance from this super-group, but these guys took dub step and electronic music in general to the next freaking level. Excision and Downlink fired away on their robotic guitars as KJ Swanka rammed out some massive beats that made this show the most unique and bad ass performance of the festival.

Day three arrived and so did Audrey Napoleon. As soon as her giant (yet extremely stylish) heels clicked on stage, everyone went bonkers. The amount of diversity and power her set gave off upended the entire dance floor. Napoleon blasted fire for the entire sixty minutes and left us all simply speechless. It’s not everyday where you get to witness a set like that and we all hope to see her headlining this festival next year!

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The exclusive appearance of Zeds Dead that night was nothing short of spectacular along with Crizzly’s mind-boggling set that followed. Grandtheft, Gramatik, Project 46 and Dirtyphonics all were impressive, building up into an astonishing final set from Madeon to cap off this years Camp Bisco. He is a genius on the decks with immaculate talent of live sampling and mashups that had us all in awe.

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Camp Bisco ’12 was without a doubt a magical experience full of stunning performances from bands and DJ’s from nearly every musical genre. Here’s to another year in the books, looking forward to Bisco in 2014!

P.S. We are extremely thankful to Grooveshark for providing our team with a big tent stocked with food, drinks, electricity, and most importantly a great team that was so easy and fun to work with!