Music Festival Review: HARD's Haunted Mansion 2012

Another awesome holiday, another awesome music festival.  

    We arrived to the scene fashionably late, as always, even though we had a hotel down the street from the venue and as always, the line to get in was hell.  We got in pretty quick, about 20 minutes, but some people were saying that it took them 2 hours to get in.  Once we got in we went straight to The HARD Stage where AraabMuzik was finishing up his set.   During this time I checked out the people in the crowd, the scene, as well as the the festival layout.  I wasn't impressed by anything, they had a couple carnival rides but thats about it, nothing I haven't seen before.  However, a good amount of people were dressed up for the occasion, Dia De Los Muertos skulls were the most common costumes.

Mariah Tauger / For the Times 

    8:00p our night finally gets going.  Jack Beats came on and they kind of killed it.  They put on a good set, a lot of dance music but nothing so awesome that it stood out.  We raged the outter area of the crowd the whole set.  I must be getting old because this is the first time we stayed on the outter perimeter of the crowd instead of hustling to get in the middle, center stage.  I liked it though, it gave us a lot of HAM space.  If you don't know, HAM space is the amount of room one has to go HAM while spectating a show in the crowd.  HAM meaning Hard As a Motherfucker made popular by Kanye West and Jay-Z's track "HAM" off of the Watch The Thrones album.  You know you have HAM space when you have room to jump around, shuffle, when people aren't bumping into you, and you can go crazy and wild but not bump into other people.  I've come to learn that HAM space is essential.

    Now I have to admit, the Mad Decent artists that performed at HARD were amazing.  That includes Zed's Dead, Major Lazer, Dillion Francis, and Diplo.  I really wanted to see Crookers' set because I heard it was their last live performance before Phra and Bot parted ways, but we saw the end of Kill the Noise and some Knife Party instead.  Don't get me wrong, Kill the Noise and Knife Party blew my mind.  Kill the Noise had the second or third best set of the night but I'm getting a head of myself.  So like I said earlier, Zed's Dead was amazing.  They threw down a mix heavily influenced by dubstep with some trap in it and a little rap.  Songs such as Cowboy had Omar on the mic but Rude Boy and Coffee Break didn't.  The blend was great.  They also played "Mercy" which I'm going to go ham to every time I hear it.  Over all the set was pretty awesome but it sounded A LOT like the set from the Mad Decent Block Party with some songs replaced.  Major Lazer was pretty incredible too I remember leaving and Niggas in Paris went on and my friend and I went crazy, we listened to that song on repeat when we went to Coachella so it brought back some memories.  It never gets old.

Mariah Tauger / For the Times 

    We headed to the Earstorm Stage.  Luckily we got their in time to see Kill the Noise close which was fucking incredible.  I've seen him a bunch of times and I wasn't impressed till this particular set.  I don't know what it is but the integration of trap music and hip hop has greatly influenced the EDM game, especially in Los Angeles.  Hip Hop has also attracted some EDM elements for itself too, it's a pretty interesting.  Although I hate it when I hear EDM on the radio.  Knife Party wasn't that great, we were in the back of the crowd with not a lot of HAM space.  But the last time I saw them I was front stage against the railing, pretty much as good as it gets.  We left a little early to catch some Dillion Francis who was amazing, I think I would've liked his set more if I saw the whole thing.  What I heard was pretty awesome though so I'll take what I can get.

Mariah Tauger / For the Times 

    The best set of the night, without a doubt, was Diplo's.  The perfect combination of dubstep, electro, hip hop, and trap.  Actually a lot of trap including a mix of Kanye West's "Clique" which was probably the best part of the night.  There was a lot of HAM space too so that helps make the experience better.  Diplo blew me away, there wasn't a point in his set were I wasn't moving or having a good time.  A lot of the people I talked to agreed, ranking his set as #1 for the night.   I really liked the whole feel of the LA scene because it houses a different EDM culture than its counter part San Diego.  The LA music culture incorporates a lot of hip hop and hard music and dubstep.  It's my favorite kind of music.  After the festival we went back to the hotel and got WEIRD. 

If I could add any artist to this festival, Bassnectar would have made it perfect.

I'll score this festivals based on 4 categories: venue, average performance, crowd energy, and overall experience.
Venue: 7
Average performance: 8.5
Crowd energy: 8
Overall experience: 8
In other words, I had a great time.

Here's how I ranked the performances:
#1: Diplo
#2: Kill the Noise
#3: Zed's Dead
#4: Major Lazer
#5: Knife Party