Seismic Dance Occasion deserves its place amongst at the moment’s checklist of must-attend dance music festivals [Review] – Dancing Astronaut
Phrases by Ross Goldenberg and Zach Salafia
Simply take a number of moments to think about a number of dance music festivals from the highest of your head.
Over the previous decade-plus, we’ve had the fortune of festivals like Extremely, Tomorrowland, and CRSSD Competition turning into a relentless in our occasion calendar. And whereas we've got zero plans of these annual journeys altering anytime quickly, it was time for Dancing Astronaut to broaden its pageant horizons and journey to a weekend-long occasion that wouldn’t have essentially come straight to thoughts had we been requested that unique query in years previous. However one factor that we did know forward of time is that yr in and yr out, Seismic Dance Occasion has routinely curated one of many best billings in home and techno in at the moment’s pageant panorama.
When the Actual Music Occasions-backed pageant printed its 7.0 version lineup this previous Might, it grabbed our consideration with out even studying till the very backside of the poster. A few months later and we turned that temptation into actuality, with a plan totally locked in to go to Austin in November and safe some first-hand verification surrounding the limitless variety of optimistic feedback that we’ve heard about Seismic Dance Occasion. And after these three days had been all mentioned and performed, we can officially confirm that we had been in a position to do exactly that.
Final three days completely flew by however Seismic 2024 needs to be up there with a few of my favourite pageant experiences in current reminiscence
1,000,000 vids + extra ideas about DA Seismic yr 1 quickly however firstly simply need to give an enormous thanks to the @SeismicTX staff pic.twitter.com/v4D63kmKjP
— Dancing Astronaut (@dancingastro) November 18, 2024
To set each the literal and figurative stage for these persevering with to learn, Seismic Dance Occasion primarily finds itself occupying the encompassing grounds of Austin’s go-to locale for dance music, The Concourse Mission, which incorporates the Tsunami stage—the pageant’s out of doors mainstage—in addition to a pair of extra intimate levels referred to as The Realm and The Secret. However Seismic additionally has a footprint inside The Concourse Mission—a year-round, indoor venue on the location—the place attendees can discover the Volcano stage. Inside simply moments of stepping out of our Uber—which we want to word was an extremely seamless technique of transportation each to and from the location—and strolling across the pageant, an early takeaway we gathered was that Seismic—which self-describes itself as a “boutique pageant”—had each an intimate occasion really feel whereas concurrently feeling greater than spacious. Areas like meals concessions, merch, and loos had been nothing greater than a stone’s throw away and had nearly little to no strains any time we’d stroll by.
In contrast to larger-sized festivals the place journey time between levels expectedly have to be accounted for, Seismic’s compact structure made it practically painless to bounce from stage to stage, with congestion and sound bleed having not crossed our minds for an on the spot. And we are saying “practically painless” as a result of as many can attest to, there was usually a prolonged line to enter the Volcano stage, which we'd very loosely label as our one and solely “grievance” of the weekend. However that’s merely the unlucky actuality of an area that may solely match 2,000 folks of the 5,000 or so day by day pageant attendees. Particularly when there have been a number of extremely anticipated units like Wax Motif back-to-back Matroda, Max Styler, Cloonee, and extra happening inside.
And whereas we’re not fully positive what Seismic’s direct reply to that downside could be, we’d wish to counter the above sentence in saying that the Volcano stage by no means felt the slightest bit overcrowded at any level through the weekend. And the identical might be mentioned for any of the opposite levels. Everyone knows that‘s turn into a severe subject of dialog in at the moment’s day and age in addition to being a key figuring out issue when deciding the following occasion or pageant to attend. Even when the headliners got here on at both Volcano or Tsunami, there all the time gave the impression to be loads of area to maneuver in any which course.
One thing else that we additionally felt the necessity to level out is the neighborly group the Seismic staff has cultivated. All through our total keep, everybody we’d are available contact with—from Seismic attendees to Seismic’s pageant workers to Seismic’s two house owners, Kelly Grey and Andrew Parsons—had been welcoming, pleasant, and open-armed at any second of the day. And that genuinely added one other layer of enjoyment to our overarching Seismic expertise.
We—in fact—can not proceed this with out diving into the precise purpose we made the journey out to Austin: the lineup. It’d be a extreme understatement if the phrase “stacked” rolled off our tongues when describing the checklist of names that Seismic rounded up for its 7.0 installment. And we knew that from the second we had laid eyes on the poster again in Might.
We might spend the following a number of hours speaking about each single set that we’d taken in throughout these three days, however we’ll do our greatest to condense all of it for now.
Our weekend commenced on Friday on the Tsunami stage because the solar started to fall throughout Madison Palmer, Seismic’s personal Andrew Parsons, and Layton Giordani. And as dusk ensued, we journeyed into The Concourse Mission—for the primary time—for a string of tech-house units from Westend, Deeper Goal, and Sonny Fodera earlier than in the end returning again outdoors to shut day one with the Darkish Prince himself, Gesaffelstein. Instantly following the ultimate moments of day one, we had our doubts about how day two or day three might probably surpass our debut stint at Seismic. However we had been gladly confirmed incorrect, with day two together with a pair of standout units from melodic techno favorites like KAS:ST and Massano at Tsunami earlier than we had been led again to the Volcano stage for Riordan, Max Styler—who we in the end topped as Dancing Astronaut‘s weekend favourite—and eventually, Waxtroda. And our day two pageant night concluded again outdoor at Tsunami as soon as once more with Carl Cox’s hybrid set. In between our Sunday to really discover all the pieces the pageant needed to supply past its two major levels, we nonetheless tallied up some memorable performances from Jerro, Sammy Virji, Disclosure, and none aside from Eric Prydz himself—who was accompanied by a quick rain mist—to cap off the pageant portion of the weekend.
Seismic’s lineup was about as properly curated because it probably will get from prime to backside, with headliners totally cashing in on the lofty expectations that we had for them and Seismic’s well-rounded undercard delivering numerous standout moments from the weekend. And except for the on-and-off once more rain—which we had been admittedly in favor of—that had sprinkled in all through Prydz’s closing look, we've got to make point out that our first journey to Seismic had definitely lucked out contemplating the completely chic climate that served because the backdrop to the weekend.
We'd be remiss if we didn’t nod to what went on as soon as the pageant curfew hit every night and the get together moved indoors. Usually as soon as a pageant concludes, the journey have to be made elsewhere for these seeking to lengthen the night. However an enormous perk of Seismic’s strategy was that its afterparties had been hosted on website inside each The Concourse Mission in addition to a separate room—not more than 100 yards away—referred to as Membership BLK. And we discovered ourselves in both of the 2 rooms into the early hours of every morning, switching off between areas on night time one, spending night time two with Riordan and Matroda, and expectedly rounding out the weekend with Jerro earlier than receiving a two-hour masterclass of a set from Eric Prydz underneath his alter-ego, Cirez D.
For as intimate because the Seismic feels upon first look, its manufacturing undoubtedly holds its personal amongst the very best as quickly as all the pieces kicks into motion. Seismic’s stage designs had been top-tier throughout the board—with a particular shoutout to PHASE[3] Ideas, who had been behind the Tsunami’s stage design—and its sound high quality appeared to rival any membership or pageant setup that we’d beforehand are available contact with. Factoring in all the pieces from its stage and lighting manufacturing to its sound high quality to easily the room on the dancefloor, The Concourse Mission felt prefer it was amongst the best indoor areas that we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing to this point. And it even had a further LED panel that spanned a majority of the roof—which was applied solely for the pageant weekend—which definitely elevated the Volcano stage expertise. However even with out that roof LED addition, The Concourse Mission felt like a first-class area that we're itching to go to once more throughout a non-Seismic a part of the calendar.
If we might sum up our weekend in Austin in only one sentence, it could be the next: Seismic Dance Occasion is the pound-for-pound greatest pageant that we’ve ever skilled in additional than a decade of attending dance music occasions.
We went into the weekend largely blind. We’d by no means been to Seismic. We’d by no means been to Austin. And we’d by no means even step foot within the state of Texas. Whereas reminiscing on the airport on Monday morning, we constantly discovered ourselves mentioning the concept the weekend went about as flawlessly because it will get in terms of all of the transferring components that make up a pageant journey. And with the year-long countdown now on till Seismic’s 8.0 version in 2025, we're one-million % in favor of giving Seismic Dance Occasion a everlasting spot on the Dancing Astronaut occasion calendar going ahead.
Thanks a lot to Seismic Dance Occasion, Actual Music Occasions, The Concourse Mission, and all of these concerned that made the pageant occur.
Featured picture: Anthony Djuren
Classes: Options
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