Christos and I went out to Identity Fest this week to take in a lot of good music and the whole “summer concert/music festival” vibe. It’s a nice change of pace from the normal club or small concert kind of thing and it gives you the chance to take in some music acts you might not normally get to see in your city (see what’s coming and where).

We got there pretty early to catch all of the acts, we got to speak with one of the early acts, a Canadian Duo named “Data Romance“. We really enjoyed their spacey, dubby, soundtrack kind of sound. Check them out and you might get to hear some tracks from their “Ashes EP”, coming out October 1st.

Download “Data Romance – The Deep” from their site.

We had to check out Holy Ghost!, and they did not disappoint. They played all the tracks you’d expect, and it’s very interesting to see them played live. I was especially interested in one piece of gear they had on stage, it was a wooden box with metal panels, knobs and cables. I looks like some kind of effects unit, but being the synth nerd that I am, I immediately recognized it as a double-sided modular synthesizer. I ran back stage to get a slightly better look and saw it was a Synthesizers.com (generally known as just ‘dotcom’) modular analog synthesizer. I stopped one of the band members as they were leaving and asked them about it. He said that they like to use the modular in the studio for most of their synth lines, but had to figure out a way to take it with them, so they made this smaller unit. He said the box was an arrangement of a few oscillators and filters synced it up to their master click track and sequencer. I really wanted to snap a picture of it for you guys but they were breaking down so I didn’t get the chance. Make absolutely certain that you check out a live show from them sometime, they do a DJ set frequently, which is good, but doesn’t hold a candle to their full band performance.

Holy Ghost! – Static On The Wire (RAC Remix)

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We then booked it over to check out Le Castlevania’s show, which was another fun one. By this time the crowd was really filling up and Le Castlevania had already began throwing the crowd near the stage into a big rave/moshpit/partyzone kind of frenzy. He was really taking advantage of the concert atmosphere to rockstar style onstage antics really getting the crowd pumped up and into it. We also got to speak with LCV after the show, which I’ll talk about in another post because I’m already rambling.

As the sun went down the music just kept getting harder. Nero’s set was the best of the night, he played absolutely nothing but really nasty dubstep mixed well, I would kill for a mixtape from that set, if you go to IDfest and he’s there, don’t miss him. This was followed up with the headliners, Aoki brought out some huge LED lit letters, played Dim Mak’s best, and climbed on anything that wouldn’t fall over and sprayed champagne on one of the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen, always a good time. Kaskade was playing from a stage maybe 40 feet above the stage, complete with massive visuals on white curtains in his signature pastels. Stepping into the main hall here was like being transported to one of those Euro mega-raves that I’ve always wanted to go to but have only seen on video. Between those two shows it was pretty much impossible not to have a great time.

Nero – Promises (Skrillex Remix).mp3

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Nero – Must Be the Feeling

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One recommendation, make sure you party beforehand, drinks are even pricier there than at some of the nicest club venues.