Lightning In A Bottle, But Outside Of The Box [Event Review]

[divider]MUSIC[/divider]
Ah, our favorite part. As far as the West Coast is concerned, Lightning in a Bottle placed dibs on all of the best artists for Memorial Day Weekend. There’s nothing we haven’t said before for headlining performers Flume, Odesza, and RL Grime – all made optimal use of their respective stages and proved they’ve been continually honing their craft despite erratic tour schedules. The real gems were tucked deep down within the lineup poster and claimed time slots that were easy to miss without appropriate planning. Below are our favorite sets from each of the three main stages.

LIGHTNING STAGE: Bubble Gutter

A tranquil shot of the Lightning Stage before Bubble Gutter brought its wonky, upbeat performance (Photo by Dan Krauss)

Hear us out. The Do LaB promotes the conjunction of art, music, and everything in between, and Bubble Gutter shot up somewhere from that marvelous disarray. It’s difficult to describe the performance, but a good place to start is visualizing a traveling circus that happens to integrate zany electronic music into its act. The crowd was hesitant to participate at first, surely some of them were just claiming a decent spot for Odesza, but it’s hard not to appreciate great choreography, beatboxing, and oversized toothbrushes assaulting the front row. Again… It’s hard to explain.

THE WOOGIE: Shiba San

The enormity and cartoonish-ness of the Woogie Stage set it apart from the rest (Photo by Juliana Bernstein)

We like our house deep, and Shiba San’s set pulled us into the abyss. The openness of the Woogie Stage paired with the head- and booty-bouncing basslines brought the crowd to life in spite of the collective last-day-of-the-festival struggle we were previously experiencing. Though skeptics of tech and deep house might have been expecting a boring, repetitious hour in the heat, Shiba San enlightened the crowd with his dirty, dirty, Dirtybird ways. We could easily go on, but we wouldn’t want to pull a Game of Thrones S5E10 and spoil it for those of you heading to the a certain star-studded BBQ in September.

THUNDER STAGE: The Opiuo Band

This was the most difficult pick considering the Thunder Stage was also donned by bass tastemakers G Jones, Stylust Beats, Koan Sound, and Griz, but as soon as The Opiuo Band played the first recognizable notes from “Snorkle”, the question answered itself. Though the adorable Kiwi can still bring the funk with only himself and his drum machine, the addition of a sax player, a guitarist, a standalone drummer, and six months of band practice amplified his grooviness even further. Readers: If you have the chance to catch the band in action, absolutely do it, but be prepared for a severe case of whiplash.

Pages: 1 2 3 4