Ultra Music Fest Review

The annual Ultra Music Festival, wrapped up Miami’s Winter Music Conference, and this year it was spread among 2 days. It had a diverse line-up that was made up of some of the world’s best talent from all genres of the electronic music scene. There were a couple of problems with some of the acts that did not seem to blend in with the whole dance scene and the terrible rain on day 2 did put a damper on some performances, but the fest did have its strong parts including some great performances by DJs we all love.

Last year Ultra brought in The Killers and Hard-Fi to give a rock edge to the festival with bands that seem to have a dance audience, and it worked well, with The Killers drawing as big an audience as Paul van Dyk and Carl Cox. This year the big non-dance draw was The Cure, and it did not blend well at all. It was overly depressing and brought down the crowd and poor Fedde Le Grand had the task of bringing back the energy in a set that was cut short because The Cure went on to long. As in every rock concert it took to long for them to set up then come out and when they did the crowd was just brought to a low by their goth/emo sounds. If Ultra wanted rock bands that can be combined with our scene they could have gone with Depeche Mode or even Snow Patrol, whose songs are being remixed by everyone. One can even argue that Ultra does not need the rock acts and should just stick to DJ’s who are desperately in need of exposure in North America anyhow. There was a lot of talent in South Beach this past week not invited to the event including: Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Robbie Rivera, Axwell, and Above & Beyond, that were more deserving of a spot than Shiny Toy Guns and The Cure. North America deserves an outdoor event that maintains its focus on dance music and Ultra has to do a better job of holding this torch, I understand selling tickets is the main idea, but this can be done by just filling the bill with top electronic acts with some fresh faces like the names above.

Day 1 was highlighted by the reunited Deep Dish who do not play together as much as they used to with their solo careers taking off. The set had a more hard hitting edge than Dish fans may be used to, but “Proper Education’ definitely had the crowd rocking. They built an electro set over some banging minimal beats, which had everyone dancing with the backdrop of a Miami sunset over the clear blue ocean.

The main problem with the first day was not only The Cure, but the fact that fans had to choose between Sander Kleinenberg, who had the anthem of last years conference with “This Is Not Miami” and Tiesto, who returned to Ultra after a 1 year hiatus. Ultra should have had Sander open up for Tiesto instead of Fedde Le Grand and put The Cure on a separate stage so fans would not have to choose between the Dutch trance stars. Tiesto played one of his better sets, featuring tracks off his upcoming release “Elements of Life”. He also spun some classics, ‘Lethal industry” and “Flight 643” and a wicked mix of Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”.

Day 2 can be summed in three words, Fat Boy Slim; he killed the Carl Cox and friends tent. At first glance I was shocked that he was not playing the main stage or the house stage, but being inside the tent worked so well, it had the feel of a club with a big disco ball, lasers, and video screens, and everyone jumping up and down together with Norman Cook. He could have easily headlined one of the main stages, but his energy really translated well inside those friendly confines. There’s a reason he could sell 20,000 tickets in England, and he put it on display at Ultra. Forget about the music, Fat Boy throwing things around, using tape to close his own mouth, and bringing his own air horns, was what had the tent bouncing.

Other performances that kicked some ass belong to Danny Tenaglia, who brought the techno and tribal fusion to the masses and David Guetta gave the house stage crowd a lesson on why the “F*ck Me I’m Famous” parties have Paris and Ibiza clubbers fighting to get in, he dropped a remix of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which had the American crowd dancing and singing along even with the raindrops falling. One of the emerging Dutch trance stars, Sander Van Doorn, gave the main stage a taste of why his tech-trance style is fast becoming one of the top acts on the trance scene. Ibiza favorites- Erick Morillo and Roger Sanchez lost most of their crowds due to the 2 hour down pour of rain, that at first had the Sanchez crowd moving, but eventually people had to find cover. When Morillo took the main stage all the videos and lights had to be put out because of electrical problems which left him to spin in front of thousands of people in the dark, which was a throwback to the days before the technology really hit the scene, and was kind of nice.

Ultra could have survived on one day of a line-up filled with just dance acts. The addition of a second day proved to be unnecessary and the weather posed problems that no one could do anything about. Ultra Music Festival is still the premier event in North America, the Sates or Canada do not, and can not, provide a better line-up, ever. The promoters could do some good by adding acts that deserve the exposure of an event like this and leaving rock to the many outdoor festivals they already have.