Desert Daze (15 Oct 2017)
Institute Of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree, CA
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The third day of the festival you could really feel the ruthless heat coming off of everyone as they drudged along carrying their water bottles and clutching beers like it could be their last. But despite the tiredness there were still some of the best acts to come yet. Weyes Blood and her band were the highlight of the whole festival for me. God if her album Front Row Seat to the Earth didn’t just rip my little heart in half. So in seeing her I felt like a pre-teen seeing her idol she has only written about in her diary. She opened up with a divine acapella with Can’t Go Home, then after the rest of her band joined her onstage. Her drummer Dash Hutton (formerly with HAIM) really brought the sound together in Seven Words. She sang Generation Why standing in a powder blue suit alongside a tapestry of the earth…and as the wind blew the white curtains behind her everything was calm and right world. She also covered George Harrison’s Run of the Mill which I thought was beyond brilliant.
Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) was just as euphoric and beautiful as expected, but of course since she is shy she pretty much played all her songs in the dark and referred to an iPad with lyrics lit up beside her Xylophone machine. I had this lofty vision of asking her to take a photo with me with our backs to the camera…but unfortunately, I didn’t get an interview. My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O’Ciosoig on the drums helped in creating this really soft, haunting vibe that went well with the creepy black and white Victorian backdrop visuals. Hope stayed at her setup for Salt of the Sea and The Peasant. She was a lovely euphoric dream singing lullabies to us from the stage, and with Into the Trees it felt like the stage was lifting up higher and higher and we were sailing with her in the clouds…a religious experience of epic proportion.
The last set I saw at my now beloved Moon Stage was none other than Jason Pierce, the mastermind behind Spiritualized. With images of brightly-colored oceans in the background of him and his band, he opened up with Shine A Light, the melodic dreaminess pouring all over the venue as people swayed back and forth smiling at each other. From behind the pit I heard a girl yelling over and over “This is EVERYTHING…I can’t believe this right now this is EVERYTHING!” While it was indeed special I was just trying to keep my balance as the crowd kept moving closer and closer to the stage when I finally made my way out of the pit. Next was Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space from the album of the same title and I can imagine how easy it would be to fall in love in such a setting as this, at a time like this, at a place like this, to an artist like this. This was the live music experience people talk about when they talk about the top 8 best nights of their lives. The mood, the energy, the music, the shining faces…this crazy world takes a backseat to all of that. Love is the driver and Spiritualized took us all home that Sunday evening amongst the Joshua Trees under the stars.
I met eyes with fellow Daze goers on the way out and there was this kind of unspoken connection of “Hey, we did it, we’re alive…maybe now more than ever.” And just like that, it was over just as quickly as it had begun. I left feeling elated and exhausted, and as I made my way back to the day parking lot, I smiled in satisfaction knowing that the soles of my boots were caked with the magical moon dust of the desert.
Allah-Las |
The Only Other Thing is Nothing |
Allah-Las | Allah-Las |
Weyes Blood |
Weyes Blood |
Spiritualized at Desert Daze Festival 2017, Joshua Tree (15 October 2017) |