The 12th annual Ultra Music Festival played Miami last weekend, showcasing the best in electronic music and DJ styles over 11 stages.

By John Davisson

The main stage featured the biggest acts on a huge stage with state of the art lighting, lasers and pyrotechnics. Friday featured Little Boots early on the main stage. She used a number of electronic gizmos, including keyboards, to create her music. Her songs are catchy and interesting, probably less of a niche sound than most of the acts at Ultra and she easily held the crowd‘s attention. She has recently been featuring a laser harp onstage, but playing in the daylight made that impossible. It was a short set but a nice start.

Next up was Passion Pit, a Boston electronic band. Its set pumped the crowd with falsetto singing and catchy dance hooks almost resurrecting disco music. They were brand new a year ago, but are already sounding a little old. It’ll be interesting to see if they can last long.

After two acts on the Main Stage, I moved to UMF Ibiza Arena for Will.I.Am (from the Blackeyed Peas) spinning while scantily-clad dancers showed their stuff on either side of his DJ table. The set was in the middle of a giant tent, with inflatable sculptures hanging from the ceiling and lights flashing all around. The DJ table however was fairly minimal, and it was difficult to photograph him from the pit in front of the table.

So I moved back to the Main Stage for LMFAO and their Miami shirts, followed by a live set by Groove Armada (as opposed to a DJ set as they were doing the next day). LMFAO was energetic and good to photograph. The singer for Groove Armada wore a nice costume and was also fun to watch.

I headed back to the UMF Ibiza tent to catch an up and coming DJ called Kaskade, who had a very interesting set. This time I didn’t go into the pit, but rather photographed from onstage, which made for better images.

After Kaskade’s set, I wandered over to the Bayfront Live Stage to catch the end of The Crystal Method’s set. The group doesn’t seem to like being lit up, and my photos are mostly of silhouettes. When the set ended, it sounded like the group was unhappy with its sound, although there plenty of people there, happily dancing away without a care in the world.

The next act was one I was waiting for. Rabbit in the Moon had an over-the-top visual performance and I was eager to photograph the set. The performance was billed as 3D, and they handed out 3D glasses to everyone in the crowd for the performance. The singer entered the stage with red and black warpaint on his face and weapons that spewed fog and sparks when he pulled the triggers.

Throughout the Rabbit in the Moon performance, the singer changed costumes several times; one outfit was furry with 10-foot long arms, one outfit was like a mirrorball, and yet another costume had LED lights. For the finale, he climbed into a giant ball with glowsticks attached to his clothes and did a Flaming Lips crowd-walk over the fans.

I got off to a late start Saturday (thank you Miami traffic), just barely arriving in time for Damian Marley & Nas bringing reggae beats to Ultra on the Main Stage. After that I caught Benny Benassi DJ'ing on the main stage. He had a much nicer DJ table than the Ibiza tent (today named the UMF Brazil Arena) complete with spotlights around the rim.

I decided to sample the Carl Cox & Friends Arena today for some more DJ’s. The stage had nice curtains of LED’s surrounding the performers, and scantily clad dancers again. Fortunately there was a nice VIP platform on the side that made photographing much better. I caught the end of Erick Morillo and a set by Sasha & John Digweed, before exhausting the photographic possibilities.

Back at the main stage, the sun was setting, and it was a good time to check out Armin Van Buuren and the Swedish House Mafia and see the full effect of the lighting at night. It was definitely an impressive display. The huge bass speakers at the main stage were so low and loud, the bass would rumble through you, loosening any phlegm in your chest, and causing your nostrils to vibrate. Deadmau5 closed the evening at the Main Stage, and he definitely had the huge crowd dancing. It was so hot in Miami that night that he only wore his mask part of the time.

I left a little early to beat the traffic but ended up walking by Ghostland Observatory and couldn’t resist checking it out as the group is always fun. I stayed until the end of its set, which was pretty much the end of the festival. It took me almost two hours to get onto I-95 for the drive home. I never learn. I still don’t understand the fans’ obsessions with things that glow and light up or why the emphasis on certain fashions at Ultra. I’m glad I haven’t been pulled into the club culture; it’s interesting to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.

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Comments (1)

• |2010-04-11 12:30:16 ??  - lol
  Your last few lines crack me up. Put some thought into it and i think you can figure out why the fans like things that light up. Its a rave with 100,000 people at it.

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