The festival is winding down but the music is not. Here are 5 things we took away from the last day of Desert Daze Music Festival:
- Shintaro Sakamoto was forced to cancel his set due to the devastating Typhoon Hagibis currently decimating Japan. We send our love to our Japanese friends and will someone please schedule a local Shintaro show? (San Francisco & New York people you have no excuse, go go go)
- British indie-rock band Ride graciously filled in for the cancellation and their atmospheric shoegaze was perfectly on-brand for the fest.
- Moses Sumney, who hails from Moreno Valley, doing a hometown set of sorts. Although he had technical difficulties that ate into his set time, he brought with him two string players, three wind instruments, and debuted two new songs. He described one of his new songs as an experience akin to “taking us to church” and we agree; The alt-gospel-r&b vibes were strong with that track and we can’t wait to hear more new tracks.
- Shiny! Disco! Balls! Khruangbin, JFC. The Houston trio showed off their on-stage chemistry, both musically and physically. Effortlessly gliding between songs, and taking turns shining on stage, they had us eating at the palm of their hands, specially when they played that epic 7 min funk / r&B / soul medley. GOT DAMN.
- Two words; THAT BASS. Wu-Tang set out to blow out everybody’s eardrums that night. We could have down without the movie trailer and the Hulu ad at the beginning of their set (I heard someone say “where’s the skip ad button,” yikes) but everyone forgot about that the minute 7 out 9 members stepped on stage. Sans Ghostface and Method Man, Wu-Tang performed most of 36 Chambers, with a set that also included a riff on The Beatles “Come Together, asking the DJ to play Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and even bringing out Khurangbin to do a Khru-Tang version of “Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)” that us throwing up those W real high.
Photos by Jeanette Diaz
