Big Red Machine Now on Streaming Services

Here's a playlist with the P-E-O-P-L-E order for anyone who doesn't want to listen to each track individually

 

Anyone at Eaux Claires this year? Thoughts?

 

i was there. personally, i thought it was incredible. if you embraced the fluidity of the whole thing it was everything they said it would be. wasn't disappointed by the lack of big name surprises because i was blown away by all of the new music/collaborations i stumbled upon. the chippewa area on friday was a mess but they course corrected on saturday so not too salty about that either.

highlights for me were:
-all of the performances on the stage in the round
-the PEOPLE mixtape closing out the fest
-everything julien baker was apart of (the jeanette with thomas wincek, the music box with gordi, her solo performance on the main stage, playing appointments with the national, the list goes on and on)
-field reports energy during their set on the IV stage

man... what a weekend.

how about you?

 

also, here's BRM's entire set. so damn good.

 

I was there, and I've been there every year. I had a great time. For what I paid, I have no qualms with what was offered at all.

This was my first year with Chippewa pass. I found the pass to absolutely be worth it, the food was insanely good. I wish they gave me the opportunity to pick up some drinks in passing by other stations for convenience but I see how that would be hard to manage.

I saw some great sets, and loved the collaboration. As a Bon Iver fan, I feel like you would have gotten a better experience going to a festival other than Justin Vernon's, which I feel is a bit backwards, as a lot of people would have expected the opposite. I was hoping for some more surprise collaborations. Amelia and Nick from Sylvan Esso were there and I was hoping they'd cover Coffee. The Bonnaroo late set was crazy and I would have loved to see Heavenly Father acapella. They played Woods at the FEFAX show and it was a beautiful version. A lot of people would have loved that. I've seen Bon Iver a decent amount of times so I wasn't upset about this though and we got the chance to see BRM for the first time. That being said, I love later JV work but I really would enjoy hearing his voice without the Messina (vocoder) at least a few times. It would have been cool to see some 22AM songs stripped down. That acoustic version of 8 (Circle) is great.

I'd say that the Julien Baker/Gordi set could have been my favorite but it was unfortunately hit by a decent amount of technical difficulties. JB looked very visibly upset during the majority of the set and I spent most the time feeling bad for her. No blame put her way, but it did seem the main issue was her having her wireless receiver off. Most of my friends saw Pussy Riot at the same time, and while if I started over again, I'd still pick the JB/Gordi set hoping it would pay off, I do slightly regret not seeing Pussy Riot as they all had a great time. Great finish at the end of Saturday though. I got to Ho99o9 behind my friends and I thought I lost them. I decided to go in solo and made my way into the pit and found my friend all the way up front dead center. We moshed for thirty minutes and I thought I was going to die, but we made it alive. Everyone in the pit was aggressive but friendly and would make sure that everyone there was having a good time and would help people up immediately.

There were some issues. Bathrooms were overrun, both public and VIP. My bladder sucks hard, so I found myself at the end of the longest line far too many times. Flambeaux was a great idea but I feel like it was not utilized properly for most sets. Most artists looked straight forward off the "main" side and others surrounding never saw them at all. A lot of times it didn't matter if they wanted to, because the set was half full with equipment for upcoming sets. Decent amount of audio issues I didn't notice previous years. Lake Eaux Lune had an obvious blown speaker on stage right during the PEOPLE Mixtape. I stopped noticing it after a while so I was not sure if they found the issue and corrected it. Woods shows were great but the amount of people stuffed into some shows made it a waste of time walking all the way back there if I didn't show up way earlier than the set. The audio bleed from other sets sometimes ruined the soundscape some artists were going for. The biggest offender was the all-day "secret" dance party in the woods.

Despite the issues, I had a lot of fun, and I'll be back next year.

Personal show highlights:
Julien Baker
Phoebe Bridgers
Hiss Golden Messenger (Solo)
PEOPLE Mixtape
Ho99o9