Thursday, July 3, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, July 3, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 7 'I Sing the Forest Electric': EF14's Two Distinct Subcultures Annual music festival in Rothbury MI is decadent, but not depraved By GIANCARLO BUONOMO ManagingArts Editor "Unlike most of the others, we didn't give a hoot in hell what was happening on the track. We had come there to watch the real beasts perform." - Hunter S. Thompson, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved." Please forgive this predict- able Hunter S. Thompson refer- ence for a "Look Ma, I covered a music festival!" article. I only include it to admit at the start that I was wrong. I figured I would go to Electric Forest as a reporter. While my co-editor Adam covered the music, I would observe the festivalgoers, "the real beasts," and report on their depraved excesses. There would be me, with my media bracelet and plaid shirt, furiously jot- ting down notes, and then there would be everyone else - the legions of electro-junkies in funny hats who eat tabs of acid like Listerine Strips. I imagined calling this article "Electric For- est is Decadent and Depraved." Most of my preconceptions were based on rumors about Electric Forest; that it was much more than a music festival, that it had the best people-watching ever, that it was trippier than an MGMT video. These rumors were believable, considering that Electric Forest takes place in rural :Rothbury, Michigan, spe- cializes in the relatively niche genres of jam bands and elec- tronic music and that the "forest" is an actual forest, so decked out with lights, lasers and shrines that it recalls something from Alice in Wonderland. In truth, none of the rumors turned out to be false. But now that I've returned from Roth- bury, and gone over the pages of notes and hours of recordings I accumulated during my time at the festival, I cannot write this report with my original focus. Not because I feel the need to write about the music, even though it was amazing. Rather, because I discovered that Elec- tric Forest is less about the peo- ple who choose to come than it is about what this peculiar event allows those people, including me, to become. Electric Forest is not so much a music festival as it is a four day act of collective weirdness, heavily facilitated by the festi- val organizers and sustained by a pervasive spirit of community and non-judgement. I began to get an idea of this right when we arrived at the camp grounds. The actual festival area, the stages and vendors, is located on the Double JJ Resort, a sort of Wild- West re-enactment spot heav- ily repurposed for one weekend every year. The attendees camp out in a complex of fields adja- cent to the resort. These fields form a small city during the weekend, complete with named streets and neighborhoods. From my berth at the corner of "Air- strip" and "Maple", I gazed out upon the expanse. Thousands of parked cars in neat rows, most with colorful tents next to them, filled the once-empty space like a psychedelic Hooverville. These people were clearly pros - many tents were adorned with ban- ners and flagpoles featuring the logos of the classics: The Grate- ful Dead, Bob Marley, Sublime, all fragrant with years of accu- mulated incense and ganja. But it was inside the actu- al festival, a good ten minute walk from our campsite, that I finally encountered the masses of people. I'd never seen such a dazzling array of outfits. Some attendees were dressed in stan- dard music-festival attire: girls in Daisy Dukes and flower head- bands, guys in tank tops and flat-brims. But they were the minority. Some men wore top hats and tight suits like the Mad Hatter, and some girls wore only bikini bottoms with fanny-pack codpieces and painted marijuana leaves covering the tips of their otherwise bare breasts. Others wore Teletubbie or bear outfits, or giant Pikachu heads. One man I passed on Saturday wore only a Speedo and a small silver crown fixed to his head at a rakish angle, while sucking on a large lollipop. Another was so adorned with rib- bons, beads and feathers that he resembled an Aztec god. But the decadence doesn't stop there. Many festivalgoers carry totems, which are long poles with anything on top. And I mean any- thing. Blow-up sex dolls. Bill Mur- ray's face. Simpsons characters. I saw one depicting a cartoon King of Kings, with a Mr. Skin-esque grin, and the words "PRAISE CHEEZUS" in big block let- ters, likely in honor of the String Cheese Incident's combined 12 hours of stagetime. And of course, drugs. They're an essential part of the festival, so ubiquitous and accepted that one pizza vendor put up a sign that read "DON'T FORM LINES. LINES ARE FOR YOUR NOSE, NOT SPICY PIE." I'm watching Ms. Lauryn Hill and a guy to my left lights up a joint the size of a Sharpie. I'm raving along at Zedd, and a guy to my right vacuums a good quarter-teaspoon of coke into his left nostril. This overwhelming amount of, well, everything made me wonder "Is this where all the weirdos gather? Or is this where people gather to be weird?" I've concluded that it's the latter. Of course, I don't think that Elec- tric Forest is where Mormon missionaries and Goldman Sachs executives congregate to let loose, but I did get the impres- sion that Electric Forest provides a safe environment for ordinary people to abandon mainstream mores for a weekend. A guy in a hammock put it best in a remark to another guy in the hammock strung below his: "I'm going hard tomorrow, because I have to go back to reality after that." Electric Forest is not only a retreat from "normalcy," but also an oasis of kindness and together- ness. Festivalgoers go out of their way to accommodate each other. One girl entered a Port-A-Potty after a long wait in line, only to burst out and run after the previ- ous occupant who had dropped a $5 bill. During a packed perfor- mance by Steve Angello, another girl got tired and decided to sit down right in the middle of the crowd. Everyone, even those wildly dancing while rolling, made sure to give her space. At an event like this, people make themselves vulnerable by dressing in shocking and reveal- ing ways, taking mind-bending substances, and then walking around an environment that is confusing even if sober. To have a good time requires a level of trust on everyone's part, that their fellow attendees will not take advantage of them, and will even help them out if need be. I experienced this trust first- hand. On Saturday, I was sitting in the crowd at the Sherwood stage, vibing to Schoolboy Q and takingnotes. I struck up a conver- sation with a couple sitting near me, Nick and Kat from Louisville. We chatted about Electric Forest and why people would come here. "We're all here for the same thing: music and good people," Nick said. As a red-shirted security guard walked around inquiring whether the numerous people smoking joints had medical per- mits, I remarked to Nick that I didn't usually strike up conver- sations at concerts. "But at a place like this you should never feel like you can't talk to anybody," he replied. " You can go up to anybody and be like 'Hey, what's up?"' At that moment, I saw a friend about 15 feet away, one who I hadn't talked to in awhile. I immediately leapt up and moved towards her, forgetting that my phone, backpack and notebook were still on the ground next to Nick and Kat. I looked back anxiously, and they motioned towards my things and gave me a thumbs up, indicating that they would watch over them. Leaving your stuff with strangers prob- ably isn't something to make a habit of. But as Doctor Thomp- son said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." The going at Electric Forest is defi- nitely weird - I viewed them watching my stuff as a matter of professional courtesy. EDM-loving, Molly- popping kids overlap with older, jam- band hippies By ADAM THEISEN SeniorArts Editor Friday night at Electric Forest, Ms.Lauryn Hill,The String Cheese Incident and Zedd performed con- secutively on the same stage. For an idea of how strangely those art- ists fit together, imagine watching a triple feature at a movie theater of "Do the Right Thing," "For- rest Gump" and "Spring Break- ers." It was the same on Saturday night, with hippie jam-band String Cheese beingsandwiched between the reggae of Stephen Marley and EDM star Steve Angello. The cultures of most music fes- tivals can easily be described with one or two adjectives = urban Lol- lapalooza, rural Bonnaroo, glitzy Coachella - but what was most interesting about Electric Forest was that two entirely different subcultures coexisted, without ever really having to cross paths through the entire weekend. There were the hippies who came to smoke and drop acid (or what- ever is was that was that people were calling "acid") and see the jam bands (traditionally the most disrespected, most uncool kind of band), and there were the EDM kids, who mostly seemed college- aged and came to take Molly and party like the farmland of Roth- bury, Michigan was one gigantic frat house. Our first real encounter with anyone at the festival came as we were still in our car, waiting to get in. A woman probably in her 20s came up to the open window. "Have you guys seen Cheese yet?" she asked. "Nah, but we're excited to." "Right on, so you haven't had, like, an 'Incident' yet. I've seen them six times already. They're my favorite band in the world, and I'm trying to see them again tonight." She asked us for money to help her buy a ticket, but when we told her wedidn't have any cash, she stayed extraordinarily positive. "That's all right, 'cause I just need positive vibes, and just knowing that you guys are sending me goodenergy and feelings is gonna help me out." If you try to talk to any "serious" music fan about the relevance of The String Cheese .Incident, he or she will likely laugh in your face (before this weekend, I would've done this, too, if I'm being honest). Jam bands, as a whole and almost without exception, are thought of as goofy and toothless. Critics think of jam bands and they hear echoes of 10-minute wandering guitar solos and picture an older, granola munching fanbase. But while "the establishment" may immediately dismiss them, to many people, The String Cheese Incident is the biggest band in their world. Our North Dakotan neighbors at the camp site, for instance, had traveled all the way to Michigan to see "Cheese and whoever else." I was ready to see what all the fuss is about. On Friday, after Ms. Lauryn Hill showed up late (as usual) but still put on a thrilling, energetic performance, Cheese went on stage. Frankly, I was bored. Maybe I had set my expectations too high, maybe I should've listened to them beforehand to know what I was going to hear, but the band just seemed average to me. I decided that the specialness was in the minds of the fans and not in the music, so I left and wandered the festival. When I got back to the stage where Cheese was still playing, though, I was intrigued. The band was in the middle of a fiddle solo, which usually doesn't seize my attention, but something about the energy of the crowd excited me. As they kept playing, I waited out the parts where I had previously gotten bored and listened as they slowly but surely built up into tow- ering, awesome crescendos. The String Cheese Incident is just a band that you need patience for, I decided, and resolved to see them again the next day. The Saturday String Cheese show was amazing as a pure spec- tacle, as a concert and as a socio- logical experience. Cognizant of and prepared for the music's slow build, my expectations were met and then exceeded as the techni- cally proficient group serenaded the crowd with its music - part country, part rock 'n' roll. More impressive than the band, though, were the fans. Not only was this the first festival experience I had ever had where everybody could breath freely in his or her own per- sonal space, the Cheeseheadswere unself-conscious and non-judg- BRIAN SPADY/Electric Forest 2014 The "video game themed jam" during The String Cheese Incident's show on Saturday night Sef upl >-v" d n/l J I ! ts. LESLIE PARK GOLF COURSE I wwwmEou R 2120 TRAVER ROAD I ANN ARBOR 1734.794.6245 This coupon entitles you to: leslie park iTi THE PURCHASE iFi18 HOLES Mutshow valid foeutty/student 1.0D. This coupon is not good f~ with other coupons. Expires Aug. 1,2014. Calitoday! a M - faculty/students receive 5% off greens fees year round. Sccm to ke our Fcesbook pae mental. Many were shirtless, many were wearing tie-dye, and every- one was doing his or her thing, dancing in a loose, dorky, swaying sort of way while smiling and just being chill. When the band took a break halfway through, we all sat down in the big field, and I could really tell how much of a com- munity we were. All of us cross- legged, talking and gazing at the lit-up stage with anticipation for the show to resume. It reminded me of my hometown of Livonia, where every year on the last Sun- day in June (the same weekend as this year's Electric Forest, in fact) we finish off our annual fair ("The Spree") by sitting on blankets in the outfield of a baseball diamond and watching fireworks. To my delight, not five min- utes after the band retook the stage, fireworks started explod- ing behind them, while an appar- ently video-game-themed jam resulted in a floating model UFO, stuffed Pac-Man and Pac-Man ghosts being held on fishing rods above the crowd, giant inflatable Mario coin cubes and (I kid you not) a full-costumed reenactment of the original "Donkey Kong" video game on stage while the band played. Ridiculous? Yes. But the kind of sensory-overload what- the-fuck kind of display that no one will ever forget. The perfect end to the incredible show came when Ms. Lauryn Hill joined the band for a round of universally beloved covers that ranged from Stevie Wonder and The Beatles to Bob Marley, closing with "Could You Be Loved?" However, at least half of the fes- tivalgoers did not attend Cheese's shows, a fact that I noticed when I stuck around at the same stage to see Zedd on Friday and Steve Angello on Saturday. The crowd seemed entirely different: younger, packed-in tighter, wearing base- ball caps and tank tops. This was the college crowd that had come for pulse-pounding EDM, not old- hippie rock. Unlike, jam bands, EDM is actually considered cool. Many will tell you it's the cutting-edge of modern music, and it's mostly unconcerned by extra frills like guitar riffs or piano solos (or even vocals). EDM artists know that all their fans want are catchy hooks to dance to, and that's exactly what they give them. Whereas the jam- mers took acid and smoked pot to loosen up, these fans took Molly to totally intensify the experience. They sweated, pogoed, threw glow sticks and flipped out in excite- ment for every new laser beam that accompanied a drop.' While Steve Angello was a little too purely electronic for my per- sonal taste, Zedd put on the kind of all-out 110-percent show that pro- spective festival-headliners dream of. Mixing into his set repurposed vocals from pop hits as well/as his own smashes, Zedd punctu- ated every bass drop with a flash of lasers or jets of smoke firing from the stage, to the glee of the crowd. It was a 90-minute onslaught of fun, danceable, energetic electro- pop beats, and it was just what the crowd wanted. Electric Forest catered to both subcultures by scheduling its artists against each other. At all times, one of the main stag- es would have a more modern, younger artist, while the other main stage would feature an older act (for example, ScHoolboy Q and Damian Marley played at the same time). Thanks to this setup, the EDM-loving, Molly-taking fratstars and the jam band hippie stoners could ignore each other, with each group enjoying its own music with its own people. How- ever, these two groups had one big thing in common. When you really got down to it, neither was really there for the artists. EDM, with the exception of Skrillex and maybe a few others, has eschewed the typical instantly-recogniz- able rock-star status that usu- ally comes with musical fame (it's why Daft Punk insists on wearing those helmets). Would you really recognize Calvin Harris or Steve Aoki if you saw them on the street? No. As talented as they are, in the end, they're just mediums to deliv- er the hooks and effects that fans want. On Saturday night, I noticed that The String Cheese Incident was the exact same way. The fans didn't truly care who was up on that stage. They were just there for the music and for each other, dancing and sweating and trip- ping and rolling and smiling and instinctively just having fun.