Camp Bisco: The Music (2018)

Camp Bisco 2017 was probably the most disappointing festival I’ve been to, musically. It wasn’t because the sets I saw were bad, but rather, because never before (or since) did I miss so many sets that I wanted to see. The rain put a little bit of a damper – pun intended – on that experience, and I was determined to make up for it in 2018. I saw SO MUCH great music this year and I really feel vindicated. Here are the highlights!

STS9 I don’t really listen to STS9 but I have so many friends who do and I knew they were going to be incredible live. They were jammy and upbeat and absolutely did not disappoint. This was the first of many sets of the weekend that I went to alone because my friends were all at a different stage, and it was the first, yet again of many, where I told them afterward that they missed something really amazing.

Tipper and Jai Wolf Tipper and Jai Wolf are not remotely the same people, but I saw them both at Minus Zero three months ago and my comments – that Tipper is the music of outer space, and Jai Wolf is the music of the universe – still stand. Actually, this Tipper set might have been even better. His collaboration with Fractaled Visions on visuals is just bonkers – check out this preview video that Bisco posted in advance of the festival.

The FlooziesThe Floozies are at the top of their game, friends. I’ve seen them a ton of times over the years, and to be honest I was a little apprehensive about this set. The Floozies are a duo, and they occasionally play with a full band, which honestly is not my favorite because it can take away the electro part of their sound and leave them as just a generic funk band. This set just had a horn section, and it was absolute FIRE. This video is actually from last year’s Bisco but still great.

Lespecial One of my favorite parts of festivals is ending up at sets you never intended on going to and having an amazing time. My whole group ended up at this set, which was kind of all over the map in a really great way. Lespecial is rock and funk and hip hop and a million other things, and I loved it. The one thing I will say is that one of their band members is an absolute diva, and delayed starting the set because he kept asking for minor tech adjustments, over and over and over.

Big Wild This might have been my favorite set of the festival. Big Wild is always incredible, weaving in and out of originals and remixes, going from tropical to heavy but always high energy. I was so impressed by this set that I took a little over a minute of video, which I never do. Of course, the sound on my phone is absolute garbage so it sounds awful, but here’s a photo from that same moment, at least, and a video (not mine) that highlights one of his classic remixes.

Even though this may (?) have been my last festival of the summer, there are still so many awesome music adventures coming up in the next few weeks. Hopefully I will write about at least one of them.