° FESTIVAL: HARD NYC ° by Chief
This article was written by Busted BASS.
New York City’s HARD festival was one of my favorite memories of the summer. As the Manhattan skyline shrunk from the ferry to Governor’s Island anticipation grew. Like any great festival, HARD fest was a haven, an escape from the Manhattan pace of life to enjoy the world’s best rhythms. But if you were looking forward to relaxing, HARD was not the place for you. From Skream and Benga’s epic 3 hour marathon of a set to the devastating mosh pit at Borgore’s set, HARD fest went out of its way to earn its name.
By far my favorite set of the show was watching Skream, Benga, and their unstoppable hype man bring a taste of South London to New York. On second thought, their performance was more like a hearty meal of dubstep served well done than it was a taste, running for three hours. The audience battled against the heat, hands in the air for hours. Their set dug deep into the duo’s catalog but also focused on the new material from the duo. It was one of the day’s highlights when Benga dropped Baltimore Clap, and a sea of hands clapped along in response.
After Benga, Skream, and some local band called Sleigh Bells or something Die Antwoord did their goofy post-hipster rap set and put on a pretty good show. Their matching uniforms and constant costume changes were redeemed by charismatic showmanship. Constantly engaging the audience, Die Antwoord made their trip from South Africa worth it for everyone involved. Unfortunately their set skipped over this gem from their catalog.
Seeing M.I.A. is fun. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Her set was plagued by a bad sound engineer, a thunderstorm, and even an actual plague of frogs. So I made that last part up, but I did that to soften the blow. Don’t you feel relieved in a lot of ways now? When I first saw M.I.A. she overcame similar issues with the sound, but at HARD fest her charisma was lost behind a lazer show, a backing band, and the bottles of tequila she brought on stage to distribute to (throw at) the audience. And to be fair they were actually much worse at HARD fest, entire songs would have inaudible choruses. Lucky for her the audience was ready to fill in the words on classics like Ten Dollar. But before she could catch her stride rain and lightning caused the set to be canceled. Surely like everyone else at the festival she was exhausted from a long day in the heat, so I hope that the rain check show she promised on twitter delivers the kind of quality work we’ve come to expect from M.I.A.: flashy things, controversy, and dance music.
Katy B – Katy On A Mission (prod. by Benga)
