A new festival popped up as the festival season started to wind this year. Our Music Festival took place in Berkeley last month and Marc Fong was there to cover it.
The inaugural Our Music Festival took place on Saturday, October 20th at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, closing out the outdoor music venue's 2018 season. In a time when music festivals saturate the market and festival-goers have more than enough options, what's one more?
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| Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
The website offers some promising, tech-savvy buzzwords but what this means beyond the music remains to be seen. The Our Music Festival "model" (in contrast to the "traditional" music festival "model") suggests that there will be referrals, fan feedback (perhaps in regard to future artists who might play OMF) and rewards in the form of redeemable OMF tokens. All of this sounds good but the details are still hazy.
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| Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
I downloaded the OMF app., scanned a QR code and received tokens. OMF staff helped me scan another code on-site and then I was rewarded with an OMF bracelet...future Our Music Festivals will likely clear up how fans really benefit from the technology behind it.
In my opinion, all of the tech stuff isn't as important as why people go to music festivals: for the live music. I do acknowledge there's probably a fair segment of festival goers who go simply for the notoriety, to partake in a community that welcomes booze and drug use, skimpy clothing/cowboy hats/headdresses, etc, etc but I am choosing to ignore those.
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| Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Our Music Festival offered a modest line-up with a common theme: feel-good, college dance party. The majority of attendees looked ready for some ass shaking and by the time Zedd (the headliner) took the stage it was clear they got their money's worth.
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| Kid Quill at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Kid Quill opened the show with a smooth take on rap that was pleasing for those who made it out early. Quill's song, "The Opener" was fitting, given that his place on the line-up. ("I'm just the opener/no one came to see me/singing all my songs and nobody knows em/I'm just the opener, handing out my CDs/standing by the table if they want a photo/Yeah, and I'm the first on stage/but they don't know my name").
Kid Quill gave his impressive opening set his all and energetically engaged with the audience. They may not know his name now, but give it time.
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| Charlotte Lawrence at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Next on the bill was Pop up-and-comer Charlotte Lawrence: young (only 18), bubbly and impassioned. She already has an impressive number of streams for songs off of her Young EP and I can only imagine her burgeoning fanbase grew after her OMF performance. With a lot of middle fingers thrown in the air and waving them around like she just didn't care, her performance was unabashedly rebellious for a pop artist while also being dancey and down to earth.
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| Matt & Kim at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Our Music Festival welcomed Matt & Kim to the stage for the rock portion of the evening. My personal fave, the duo poured their hearts out, blasting out fan favorites like "Day Light" from 2009's Grand and "Happy If You're Happy" from 2018's Almost Everyday.
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Their party-rock sound was a lot different than the rest of the bill that Autumn afternoon but that didn't effect Matt & Kim, they always know how to throw a party.
The Brooklyn based pair blessed the crowd with confetti, giant pictures of Oprah and blow-up dolls with their faces on them! Their over the top, upbeat energy was a great addition to the OMF line-up.
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| Matt & Kim at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
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| Matt & Kim at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Rockers at their core, Matt & Kim is clearly made for dance fueled festivals like Our Music Festival. Their loud, infectious sound is just part of their live show. The stage presence these two have is unlike most bands: they're explosive, non-stop energy is a huge reason to see them live.
3LAU kept the dance party going in earnest shortly after Matt & Kim.
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| Matt & Kim at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
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| Matt & Kim at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
As one of the founders of OMF is wasn't surprising to see the Vegas DJ on the line-up. Nor was it surprising to see that 3LAU is as good as you'd expect, seamlessly blending beats and melodies to an eager crowd. Showcasing a use of samples so vast I can't remember them to tell, 3LAU fed a melody hungry audience.
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| 3LAU at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
By the looks of the outfits, or lack there of, fans in the crowd were there to shake (and show off) their booties and 3LAU got them to do just that. Toward the end of his set, QR codes with OMF tokens were shot into the crowd as they danced. Witnessing paper technology raining down on shiny, happy dancers was pretty neat.
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| Big Sean at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Big Sean was up next and if anyone was upset by the rapper's interruption to the dance party, they clearly did not protest the issue. Instead, the rapper/singer delivered a lively performance that consisted mostly of well-known hits that fans loved hearing, adding to the already great OMF experience.
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| Zedd at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
Headliner, EDM god Zedd, closed the show with larger than life visuals and a commanding stage presence. I don't think there was ever a question how he would sound but he sounded fantastic: I and many other can attest that the 29 year old producer has a unique sound with in the EDM genre that is all his own and he knows how to work it.
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| Zedd at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
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| Zedd at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
From a deck seemingly hovering in the air, high above fans and the stage itself, Zedd immersed us in bone-shaking EDM. The audience, riled from all of the previous acts, erupted in screams of excitement when he took the stage which didn't stop. He fed off of that energy, creating an amazing vibe which made for a great ending to a cool day spent at a festival.
Though I lack the savviness to fully appreciate the tech nuances of OMF, I can appreciate that 3LAU and company know how to throw a party. I am curious to see what the next iteration of this festival brings to the table.
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| Zedd at Our Music Fest @ The Greek Theater Berkeley 10/20/2018 photo by Marc Fong |
review and photos by Marc Fong
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