[boi] Esthetic Evolution 5

[TProphet]

EVOLUTION - Esthetic Evolution 5 evolved again this year, dramatically this time. It is now one of the most organized electronic music festivals in the Pacific Northwest. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's nice that logistical details like camping spaces and porta-potties and permits and so forth are worked out in a much more organized fashion than before (the porta-potties even got cleaned out on Saturday morning, why don't more festival organizers do this?). On the other hand, it's unarguably constraining and a lot of the spontaneity that I have enjoyed in previous years seems to have been chased away by rules and police checkpoints and security guards.

Beach party - One of my previously favorite events, the Saturday beach party, was an example of the new constraints. The permit didn't allow it, and the police were out in force to make sure nothing fun happened (and to bust anyone they possibly could on whatever pretext they could find). So, instead of being DJs on the beach in the sun for an afternoon of fun, the sound system ended up being a CD player in someone's pickup truck. The river was cold and running fast this year, and the weather was colder than usual, and overall the beach was a disappointment.

Main Stage - Esthetic Evolution consistently stands out for having a main stage that looks, sounds and feels incredible. Visually, it was stunning; the designer did an amazing job with both space shaping and lighting the dome. My favorite part of the lighting was multi-colored lasers focused on a heart-shaped disco ball, which provided a beautiful visual effect on the dance floor. I was pleased to see the multi-colored dome cover was double stitched this year, doubtless a nod to Mother Nature's fury last year, and fortunately not required this year. And, of course, the signature pyrotechnics were back, giving DJs the ability to turn up the heat. Dropping beats comes with authority when the stage transforms into a fire breathing dragon, with a roar that rivals a 737 taking off.

The main stage was powered by KV2 sound this year, provided by Starborne. This system just keeps growing, and wow, it sounded incredible! The bass was truly earth-shaking, and it was shaped right for the space. Although there were some pretty serious problems with the power infrastructure, you would never have known it based on how the system sounded. Kyle and Michael did an incredible job of pulling this off despite some very tough challenges. Bravo, guys!

DJs - Top notch talent and too many quality DJs to do justice to them all. Of all the sets on the main stage, I enjoyed Dylan Rhymes on Saturday the most. He was obviously (to me, but not the audience--keep in mind I'm both a DJ and sound engineer) dealing with some nasty technical difficulties but calmly held it down despite it all, dropping some of the sickest breaks I've danced to in ages. It didn't connect with the younger kids, and I'm glad it didn't. The 25-and-up crowd kicked them off the dance floor and took over! We grooved and got down, showing the kids how it's done, while they milled around confused. Everyone on the dance floor, you're all my heroes. Except the kids.

Crowd - I really love to see younger crowds coming out to make new friends and enjoy the electronic music scene. Jaded ravers may not like them and will grouse about the good old days while leaning on their canes and adjusting their dentures, but I like to see new people keeping the scene alive. And wow, I was really happy to see so many new, fresh faces this year! I just wish that so many of those faces weren't drunk, stoned, rolling, or otherwise impaired. How can you truly enjoy a dance event if you're too messed up to dance?

Dancing - Definitely awesome this year. I was really happy to see so many people (including a couple of 18yos) showing off their stuff! I love expressive, flowing styles (since that's how I dance myself) and there were a few guys on the dance floor with some amazing moves. And girls, too! I'm delighted to see women getting more assertive on the dance floor, and with real dance moves (rather than slutty Pioneer Square faux-stripper moves, which I was very pleased to see less of this year). Keep it up, girls--you're what makes the boys dance, and that makes me happy!

Chill dome - This was a calm, beautiful and relaxing space. Friday night was very nice, although it could have sounded better and I didn't spend much time there. I was more in a dancing mood so I spent most of my time at the main stage. Kandy kids took over the space on Saturday afternoon making bracelets and charms, adorable! I took a nap next to them; stretching out on the couch was bliss. Saturday night sounded much better after Kyle brought in some Mackie reinforcements from Seattle Camp. It was pure bliss until--just at the crescendo of Michael Manahan's set--someone erupted into a bazooka barfing fountain of foulness. That spoiled the moment for me and I went back to Seattle camp.

Seattle camp - This was truly awesome, and included friendly and familiar faces from Regroove-A-Nation, Innerflight, Shameless and more great Seattle peeps. I love you all! These guys were totally organized, as I expected, and showed everyone who came to camp a great time. One girl from Idaho summed it up best when she said "I keep trying to leave, but I just can't!" The stage rocked all day Saturday, a long dubstep set attracting dozens of kids at one point. We set up a smaller, unauthorized and entirely renegade sound system at midnight and ran it all night. And so it became three Esthetic Evolutions where I haven't been officially booked but have managed to play out anyway. Lots of fun!

MonkeyDo - The nicest neighbors ever! If you didn't make it over to their camp, you don't know what you missed.

novaTRON - Nova rocked it as always. I didn't get as much time at his camp as I would have liked, but I'm looking forward to seeing the novaTRON Lounge reconstructed at Photosynthesis Festival. novaTRON practically got me into the electronic music scene, albeit unwittingly, at Phoenix Festival nine years ago. If you have never seen novaTRON play, seek him out--he's worth flying halfway across the globe to see!

Boise County Sheriff - Very much not nice neighbors. While I love the Twin Springs space, it's clear the government of Boise County does not want us there. I'd like to see Esthetic Evolution moved out of Idaho. Here's the pointed message I wrote to the Idaho Department of Tourism:

Hi folks,

I live in the Seattle area, and visited Twin Springs, Idaho over the weekend. I was attending Esthetic Evolution, a 3-day electronic music festival. This was a legal, permitted, and insured event. Other than driving through on my way to somewhere else, I am not the demographic that would normally visit Idaho, although I could certainly afford to do so regularly. Accordingly, I should be the demographic that Idaho is trying to attract if you’re interested in growing your tourism base.

Unfortunately, the Boise County Sheriff’s Department does not seem to agree. They evidently do not like fun, do not like music, and do not like visitors, and had a dragnet of six police cars shaking down practically everyone on their way to the festival. They wrote dozens of speeding tickets for exceeding the 25 mile per hour speed limit (which isn’t posted anywhere near the area they were operating) by as little as 2 miles per hour. They were extremely rude to festival-goers, threatening them with drug dogs and arrest if they didn’t consent to intrusive vehicle searches. Overall, people attending the event—about half of whom were from outside Idaho—were made to feel extremely unwelcome in your state.

Here in the Seattle area, tourism is the second largest component of our economy. When visitors are treated well, have a good time and receive great value for their vacation dollar, they’re likely to come back again and again. Harassing visitors—even if it drums up a few thousand dollars in fines—is simply bad business, and I will think twice before visiting Idaho again. And to be entirely clear, I didn’t break the law at all and was not given a citation for anything; I’m just upset at the poor treatment attendees received.

[MontsDe]

I did happen to have my camera show up missing though ;-(.... its a 10 megapixel canon powershot a2000is. I will send out a $50 reward if the camera is returned to me... please call me at 503-201-2498 or email montsde@hotmail.com if you found this camera.

Other than that the party was sooo fun, will for sure be going out to this one again... Props to the hippy dippy camp for keeping the awesome food a rolling... JEN IS AWESOME..... thank you all so much..

Thank you soo much to to both the flamingo camp and the psy camp that let me play music i had a great time playing that dirty techno for you...

Thanks to everyone involved, thanks to the local Boise peeps who are awesome, and a very special thanks to Devin and Ryan...

Good times,

MontsDe

[elementalx]

one word can describe the weekend......

RIDICULOUS.

to be continued........

[GooglyMoose]

I had a good time.

[Recess]

Originally Posted by GooglyMoose

I had a good time.

May I expand upon that good time you had? ; )

Great review TProphet. I appreciate you sharing your letter as well.

Killer weekend!! Will write more soon.

[GooglyMoose]

Originally Posted by Recess

May I expand upon that good time you had? ; )

Great review TProphet. I appreciate you sharing your letter as well.

Killer weekend!! Will write more soon.

errr..... lets just say I'm dreading the surfacing of pictures.

[T~Lily]

Well this sums up my time!!

[rhines]

Originally Posted by elementalx

one word can describe the weekend......

RIDICULOUS.

to be continued........

Indeed!

Thanx so much for dropping our new remix! It KILLED!

i have video's posted here on the Innerflight page:

http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=136285900149

yeah, and overall...
I had an awesome time!

Thanks to everyone involved.

[elementalx]

Originally Posted by googlymoose

errr..... Lets just say i'm dreading the surfacing of pictures.

you're not done yet!!!.........

[harpattack]

Shaplopa really sums up the weekend for me....

Oh where to begin, This was my first trip out to Esthetic Evolution and it was worth every long hour of that crazy beautiful drive.

Sorry to see the Police shaking things down we absolutely thought we were going to be searched on the way up the dirt road but thankfully we were waved on....(jedi mind tricks). My sympathy goes out to those that were not as lucky....

HOWEVER, now that the bad news is out of the way lets focus on the positive!!

SEA CAMP!!! You crazy bunch, thanks for being as great as you were I had a great time playing and cooking for you!!! It was damn good to see some old and make some new friends. Googly one word.....RIVER!! Kate H i loved your outfits!! Recess great with ya playing over the dubstep and thanks for waking me up in time to sing! Alison I love you dearly thanks for everything including the table i cooked on and I hope you enjoyed the flapjacks!!!

NOVATRON lounge was amazing don't know who all caught the Nova, Night Train, Forest and Rhines 3+ hour impromptu jam session but it was DELICIOUS!!!

Overall things seemed to be pretty much organized and running smoothly the parking was crazy at first however worked itself out rather nicely.

The main stage blew my mind (literally) Nicely constructed and FLAME ON!!
Props to my homie KDJ for doing it up right!! Devo I heard part of your set from the the hill behind the main stage really and it tied everything together nicely with the amazing view so thanks dog!! I enjoyed most of the music i heard and saw from there...

All and all i had am pretty righteous weekend saw and played some great music, cooked some delicious food(i think i made a scramble sunday or monday that fed around 15 people (a new record for me!!) and YES!!! (As I've been known to say) Thanks everyone for bustin ass, being great and let's do it again next year!!!

Might as well face it.... I'm addicted to spuds!!!!!!

[dj plantlife]

we had a blast. so many of the ID people we talked to had only been in the scene/into electronic music for a short time (5 or less years) and it definitely translated in the way they party. no seattle jaded BS, very little scene drama (that we noticed), lots of kandy/glowsticks/etc., and lots of old fashion fun. mad props all around to the ID scene and especially devin for rallying a decent group of seattle folks to make the long haul. totally worth the drive.

[DeafChild]

This was by far my favorite year for this fantastic festival. These guys have really got their shit together and it SHOWS. Killer deco and amazing sound. Top notch lineup and music programing. I think that Dylan Rhymes and Kadeejah Streets were my favs this year. They both absolutely KILLED it!! Partying and hanging out with Marvin just got funnier and funnier with every passing hour. That guy is a fucking party machine! Hillarious! To much else to list really.. hot springs, friends, fire cannons, good wine, more fire cannons, burgerfest, toss in some more fire cannons,......watching the sun rise from the 4th story of the giant couch tower wrapped in a blanket with my friends..epic!


Thanks Devo, Ryan and everyone else! This gathering has got something really special happening that a lot of the other big shows on the west coast are missing and I cant wait for next year!

Respect!!
Ian

[St. Earl]

just curious which river this was near.
i spent time on the south fork of the payette when i was 18.
up around loman.
glad it was an awesome party..

[dj plantlife]

Originally Posted by St. Earl

just curious which river this was near.
i spent time on the south fork of the payette when i was 18.
up around loman.
glad it was an awesome party..

middle fork of the boise...

also updating with some highlights (mostly personal) -

- not dying on the way there when almost run into the river by a clearly unhappy local...
- being greeted by seattle crew at the gate
- camping just close enough to the chill tent so it drowned out all other noise, but not too close that we couldn't sleep
- the effort and creativity put into all of the stages
- steak and eggs dinner
- bacon breakfast
- brutus the dog visiting camp for breakfast (all weekend)
- the river
- the hot springs
- hot tent action
- blueberry pancake breakfast
- apparently missing any and all interaction with local law enforcement
- sunrise on the scaffolding tower
- spork shots of champagne, beer, and jager
- taco truck in la grande
and so on and so forth...

[Adlib]

Hi everyone!

Esthetic Evolution will be writing an official response and making photo archive announcements in the next week or so! As usual, all the promoters need a few days to decompress, return to the "real" world, gather up all the pictures and figure out the best way to thank all of our family, friends and fans. Needless to say, this was BY FAR the best year we've had yet. Esthetic was bigger, easier to run, better sounding, cleaner, more fun and more eye opening than ever before, mostly thanks to the commitment and dedication of our many attendees from across the West Coast and beyond. What a community! We love all of you!

Again, we'll try to get an official response out as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep the great reviews coming! We love to hear how the weekend went for all of you!

P.S. We appreciate TProphet bringing up the police issue. We plan to address this in our official announcement. Our hearts go out to anyone who was unlawfully detained, messed with or mistreated on their way to our event. We hope this doesn't deter anyone from coming in the future and we plan to help out in whatever way we can.

[GooglyMoose]

Highlights for me include
- Lots of great booze
- Sea Camp people. Chill as hell and it was a pleasure to meet and chat with all.
- Skoi in the chill tent. Great music there. Fantastic guy as well. Pleasure meeting him.
- My red wig and dress. I looked fantastic.
- Dancing like a loon all Saturday night.
- Trying to cross the river after climbing down that hill drunk and climbing back up. Actually that part sucked but it does make a great story and maybe a cool scar. I will never do something that stupid again.
- Addicted to Spuds.
- Joe playing early at the Sea Camp stage. Dub was just what I needed to start the day.
- Manos, Josh, and Recess (and guy who's name I can't remember, sorry) playing on Saturday. Great Seattle DJs holding it down.
- Getting to play at the Sea Camp stage. I've always wanted to play in the sun so lifetime dream complete. Thanks to all the people who said nice things.
- The scenery.
- Hanging with Josh. Great guy and under rated DJ. Good getting to hang out with you.
- Nova stage!
- Whoever was playing techno on the main stage on saturday. Great set.
- Firing up Sea Camp again late at night and hearing classic tracks like Kill City and others. Plus I got to play some chilled out music that people seemed to be enjoying. Great time.
- Dylan Rhymes, I missed his set completely but his craziness provided hours of entertainment.
- Kids Of Tomorrow rocked the chill stage.
- DEVO! Set of the weekend for me. Brought out the classic prog head in me. I had a blast hearing classics like The Sky Was Pink and The Man With The Red Face. I havn't danced like that in a long time and I'm guessing will not do that again. Plus he let me hit the flames sometimes which made me chuckle like a school girl.

Regrets
- Sleep, really just didn't do it. But it's cool. It made me party more.
- Missing Kadeejah play. I got there just in time to hear you dropping great tracks playing but ESP was going by the time I got done unpacking.
- Missing 95% of ESP. He was also killing it.
- That fucking river.
- Not remembering to break out my field recorder at all.

[Adlib]

Oh, BTW, it was Dylan Rhymes who played on Saturday at the main stage, not Rhines. It seems like many, many people believe Dylan and Kadeejah threw down the best sets at the party... However, Kadeejah did play a SMOKIN' new track by Rhines and Rhines himself did destroy it at SeaCamp, so it's all good!

[Tecate Warrior]

holy fucking cow batman! EE just keeps getting better and better in every respect. Awesome review TProphet, and a HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed in any and every way - I don't think I even have to name names here. And how about mutha fukin Dylan Rhymes - the ultimate professional bad ass party animal providing hours of sunday morning entertainment - un-ba-fucking-lievable! If i was him, i'd be dead by now. He was better than the energizer bunny, kept going and going and going and going......wow, just straight up fucking wow!!

[zilch]

Hey, I seemed to have misplaced my music cd's, I played on the main stage at around 3pm on sunday right after defchild and before skoi.... its a black case with mostly liquid dnb and downtempo... has anyone recovered this????!!!!!! please help

review to come later... i have tons to say.. mainly it was amazing!
more later

[Adlib]

Originally Posted by GooglyMoose

Highlights for me include

- DEVO! Set of the weekend for me. Brought out the classic prog head in me. I had a blast hearing classics like The Sky Was Pink and The Man With The Red Face. I havn't danced like that in a long time and I'm guessing will not do that again. Plus he let me hit the flames sometimes which made me chuckle like a school girl.

Aww, shucks. Thanks so much for the props, man! That set was my ten year anniversary as a promoter. I had to bring the heat (hehehe). It was a privilege having you down there with us!