I went to something called Make Music Pasadena over the weekend, an event that is either encouraging music to become Pasadena, or is asking the city of rich white people to start making music, either way it’s a bad idea. They maybe should have called it rude children who have no attention span. I fucking hate going out in daylight, and events like this, but I was loaded on cough syrup and booze, and for five seconds this seemed like it would be alright. I fucked up.
Huge turnout for Grimes 5pm slot, seemed odd she was playing so early, she had massive overflow into the adjacent parking structure. She was the only thing at the festival that could be called somewhat relevant to music, actually I could have stayed to watch music somehow magically flush itself down the toilet at the Chain Gang Of 1974 or Grouplove sets, who were also playing somewhere in what felt like 50 square miles of city roped off for what appeared to me as a festival put on as a dare by first time organizers.
Her set was notable as it was her first performance with assistance running her laptop, from a single androgynous figure she referred to as her backup band. Her voice was as promised by the recordings, with only a few moments of possible miming on a chorus or two. Cops were extremely jumpy and seemed to be used as a stand-in for last minute hells angel style security, who created a barricade between an imaginary front row and a special uncrowded front row that was less than half-filled, with a broad spectrum of industry types and decadent rich children, who paid $250 to obtain vip passes for a free street concert, as evidenced here:
Grimes made the announcement that she was on the verge of being shut down for the large audience pushing against the gates separating them from the nearly empty VIP area, the organizers should have realized this might have been a popular set in advance and put it in an area that could accommodate her draw comfortably or just have not allowed so much VIP, here is a shot of her garage overflow alone:
Those who didn’t pay $250, who waited hours to see Grimes had to watch the rest of the show through a wall of cops wearing their motorcycle helmets standing on the back of the barricades protecting the VIP area.Here are the cops ejecting a goofy kid dancing that Grimes requests to be allowed to stay while she plays “Oblivion”
Her set was cut extremely short, she was 20 mins late starting, but they turned off her mic so she couldn’t say thank you or goodbye at the end. There was something engaging about her performance, she has good songs, but again, she seems so green to performing and even making music that the hype is exceeding her abilities, people seem to know how to play the publicity game better than they know their art these days.
Here Grimes discusses the distinction between the old 4AD and current 4AD artists.
Filed under: VACATION, Videos Tagged: 2012, 4AD, almost shut down, art, Beauty, Box, Claire Boucher, Dance, dark, Dark Electro, Electronic, Goth, Grimes, grimes live, i vacation in your hell, love, make music pasadena, mmp, music, night music, nightmusic, oblivion, SET, Sexy Cash, Skinny Puppy, Synth, Video, Videos
