Camp Bisco | Mariaville, New York | 07.2012

Camp Bisco 11 Cleans Its Act Up

07.12.2012 – 07.14.2012 :: Indian Lookout Country Club :: Mariaville, NY

Words By: Jeanne Bettencourt & Michael Urban

Photos by: Dave Vann

 

Anyone who has attended any of the past ten Camp Bisco Festivals hosted by the Disco Biscuits can tell you three things:  the campgrounds at Indian Lookout Country Club are less than desirable, organization is minimal, and there is a lot of sketchy people and substances floating around.  After quite a few complaints from both festival goers and the surrounding townspeople, those in charge of the event made significant changes to the way it was organized.  The number of tickets sold was reduced, you had to pay to camp next to your car, the dance tents increased in size (and the smaller tent was moved) and it was also made a 16+ event (which in my opinion, should have been 18+).  The event also offered early admission at 9 PM Wednesday evening, which by and large made waiting times much shorter.  Free showers and flushing toilets in multiple locations (what?) were offered to patrons, and from the get-go, Bisco seemed to be making obvious efforts to improve the event.

A stellar lineup that included EDM and livetronica matched with friendly and goofy vibes and top notch parties, Bisco Eleven was a huge success.  As with any festival, it is what you make of it, and if you go with the right crowd and surround yourself with trustworthy, happy people, Bisco will ensure you an incredible, memorable experience incomparable to no other.

 

“The much larger than previous years B.I.G. tent provided plenty of room to do what you pleased, whether it was bumping and grinding with gorgeous sweaty ladies or put on a stellar performance with your LED hoop.”

Weekend Bests

Gorgeous weather and an extremely happy crowd definitely set Camp Bisco up for success – and some of the top performances were given by Virtual Boy, Lotus, and the impromptu B2B set given by Zed and Porter Robinson.  The much larger than previous years B.I.G. tent provided plenty of room to do what you pleased, whether it was bumping and grinding with gorgeous sweaty ladies or put on a stellar performance with your LED hoop.  In fact, the tent only reached its capacity on Saturday after single day ticket holders invaded the campgrounds, and even then navigation throughout the dance tent was manageable, helping erase the discomfort after being pushed and shoved out of tents of years past.  Sound quality inside the tent was superb but still extremely audible if you needed to pop a squat under the stars just outside.

Weekend Fails

Perhaps it’s time for organizers to hire some new artists to spice up the décor of the festival grounds – although the addition of a Ferris wheel was aesthetically pleasing, the replacement of the colorful canopy at the back of the main stage field with a cheesy icicle/glacier sculpture was underwhelming at best.  During the day it just plain looked stupid; its illumination after the sun went down only added a small amount of allure.   The only artwork that caught my eye was the giant penis shaped chairs on top of the hill next to the general store.  Technical problems during multiple sets also took away from the experience, and also contributed to Big Boi landing the worst performance of the weekend.  The sound engineers completely fouled up his mixing leading to exploding eardrums from the piercing, unrefined bass, causing fans to start chanting for Lotus to take the stage.  He was also running extremely late, allowing him only 17 minutes to perform — just enough time to confuse everyone with performances of un-remixed mediocre top 40 songs.  Problems before Dada Life took the stage fortunately did not take away from the set experience (in fact it weeded out fair weather fans), but the disruption during Bassnectar’s  Saturday night headlining slot completely interrupted his typically entrancing journey through his eclectic catalogue and left fans hungry for more.  Despite his sound issues,  the talented DJ continually apologized and joked about offering the set as a free release (Bassnectar refuses to release any of his live sets) and soldiered on, eventually ironing out the glitch and ending on a high note, thanking the crowd for sticking with him (the largest crowd of the weekend in fact, with his popularity keeping most of the fans impatiently standing by his side).

Thursday 07.12.12 :: Highlights

Zeds Dead | Main Stage 2

Zeds Dead, consisting of DC and Hooks is an electronic music duo hailing from Toronto, Ontario.  Their music has been classified as mainly dubstep but the two artists are continually fusing different genres of electronica by pulling a vast array of source material and molding it to their own distinctive brand of dance tunes.  Appearing on the second main stage from 6-7 PM Thursday evening, Zeds Dead got the festival rocking with ‘Hit Me’, with an incredible light show despite the sun setting in the summer sky.  Other highlights included ‘Bassmentality’, a collaboration done with Killabits that really grabbed the crowd’s attention.  The duo also incorporated Trap Music into their set which included a remix of RL Grime & Salva’s ‘Mercy’.

Virtual Boy | Label Tent

While 95% of the festival was crammed onto the field of the main stage for Skrillex’s set, the extremely lucky other 5% of us were rocking out hard to Virtual Boy in the Label Tent.  Henry Allen and Preston Walker formed Virtual Boy while completing a class project at Chapman’s University Conservatory of Music, and their incredible sound has reached new heights in the electronic music world, with video game noise overtones and elegant harmonic textures.  Possibly the best part of their set was that there were hardly 200 people present, so you felt like you were hanging out with the boys and their feverishly hot dancers.  Captivated by their lights and screens, the crowd rocked out to jams such as ‘Young Montana?’ (Sacre Cool Remix), ‘Only One’, and ‘Mass’.  These guys have been given rave reviews from their colleagues, and are sure to be the next big act to blow up in the EDM scene.

Zedd/Porter Robinson | B.I.G. Tent

To the delight of fans, Zedd and Porter Robinson closed out the late night festivities in the B.I.G. Tent with an impromptu B2B set.  22 year old Anton Zaslavski, more commonly known as Zedd, and 20 year old Porter Robinson are two of the youngest house DJs currently under the spotlight.  Their chemistry was unmatched as they dropped a bootleg of ‘Apologize’ vs. ‘Million Voices’.  They captivated the crowd and got bodies moving with ‘Unison’, “Language’, and ‘Spectrum’.

Friday 07.13.12 :: Highlights

“With the perfect romance of organic and synthetic music, heavy bass lines, funky synthesizers, beautiful and uplifting guitar jams, and two very talented percussionists, this band appeals to many different types of music lovers.”

Lotus | Main Stage 2

The dynamic quintet hailing primarily from Philly had the advantage of performing right after Big Boi’s 17 minute failure, but the boys hardly needed the advantage.  With the perfect romance of organic and synthetic music, heavy bass lines, funky synthesizers, beautiful and uplifting guitar jams, and two very talented percussionists, this band appeals to many different types of music lovers.  These men have quickly climbed the festival ladder landing them a headlining spot Friday evening, performing a perfectly catered set for the electronic hungry fans in attendance.  Kicking the set off with ‘Massif’, a new electrojam that recently popped up on their latest tour, the crowd quickly got into dance mode and showed them an enormous amount of love.  Other highlights included old school tunes ‘Sid’, get silly tune ‘Wax’, and  video game music cover ‘Zelda’.  The only complaint I have about this set was that ended far too quickly.

Dada Life | B.I.G. Tent

Aside from some technical problems before the start of their set, Dada Life performed an epic heavy and heart pounding set, sending the crowd into a frenzy of craziness, bananas and champagne.  The Swedish duo Stefan Engblorn and Olle Corneer, recently earning a spot in DJ mag’s top 100, reacted to the crowd with ease, blasting through jams such as ‘Kick out the Epic Motherf*cker’ and ‘Happy Violence’.  The energy produced during their set was unmistakable, and continued through the night.

Mimosa | B.I.G. Tent

Next up for late night in the B.I.G tent was youngster DJ Mimosa, a unique trap music producer hailing from the San Francisco Bay area.  Combined with intoxicating visuals, Mimosa’s late night performance proved that this DJ is top of his class by constantly defying expectations and blurring genres.  His Notorious B.I.G mixes are some of my favorites, and he really heated up the crowd with Candyland’s OG trap remix to ‘Sandstorm’.  The only mistake he made during the night was a shout out to a Bonnaroo crowd – a little too much champagne and bananas with Dada Life perhaps?

Saturday 7.14.2012 :: Highlights

The Disco Biscuits | Main Stage 1

The reason for the festival and the band with the most exposure throughout the weekend: The Disco Biscuits!  Founded in 1995 at the University of Philadelphia, the electronic and rock quartet have created an eclectic and energetic sound that keeps fans on their toes and constantly guessing.  The group decided to start the festival in 2000 in order to fuse EDM and improv rock, and the result has been 11 years of amazing electronic music.  I was unable to catch all six sets they performed throughout the weekend but of what I saw their last was most memorable.  Their superb light show and constantly changing musical expression kept me captivated and their racy guitar riffs and electronic beats kept my feet moving.  Probably their most well known tune, ‘And The Ladies Were The Rest Of The Night’ was one of the last to be performed but not before ‘Cyclone’ and ‘Helicopters’.  The perfect end to an enormous performance throughout the weekend, the band closed out their last set with an epic twenty minute rendition of ‘Spraypaint’.

Dillon Francis | B.I.G. Tent

I hadn’t heard much about Dillon Francis before I stumbled upon this set Saturday night in the main DJ tent.  I was pleasantly surprised and excited to join the massive party raging out to this 24 year old open format DJ from Los Angeles.  His act seemed to have no boundaries and I was awestruck at his seamless transitions.  Day tickets had the festival overflowing Saturday and the B.I.G. tent was packed for Dillon’s late night performance.  His remix of ‘Clockwork’ and ‘Mercy’ by RL Grime were personal favorites and sent the massive crowd into a frenzy.

Simian Mobile Disco | B.I.G. Tent

Closing out Saturday night and wrapping up the festival was the London based duo Simian Mobile Disco.  Founded in 2005, James Ford and James Shaw are known for their use of analog equipment, keeping their shows from sounding over-produced and too polished.  The house producers were the perfect end to a crazy weekend of EDM and livetronica, and the extremely diminished crowd was a welcomed change-up from the packed tent a few hours before.