Day MVS 2021

With no small amount of poetic symmetry, our first festival back was held at the same location and thrown by the same promoters as our last festival before COVID struck. Day MVS is Crssd-lite in that it’s about the same festival, just with one fewer stage (The Palms Stage was removed). You would think that'd be a big loss as the Palms stage is always a good time but functionally it was the same music, the same venue, just fewer people. Pretty great on paper and very great in reality.

The lineup was a pared-down version of what you would get from the traditional bi-annual festival at San Diego Waterfront Park. A shorter list of names on the lineup enabled the organizers to give more DJs extended set lengths. Short lineup, long set times. I was excited for this as a chance to see artists take us on a journey but as it turns out, not everyone needs or even deserves a long set.

Into the set reviews!

Saturday

Saturday we, meaning I, did not leave the Northside, which is the size and production quality of the Ocean View stage at Crssd. We got there shortly after the Sponges started their set and I was fairly impressed by how many people showed up to the fest before 3 pm. The only people who show up to the festival early are those with big brains. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

Saturday Sets:

The Sponges - Fun daytime tech-house set to get the juices flowing. I don't know these guys that well but they were quite fun. I did, however, find their act name a little misleading. "The Sponges" was really just "A Sponge and a Clown," because there was one guy up there doing literally all of the mixing and another guy, wearing a rainbow clown wig, who was just dancing next to him. There was a moment where Clown Boy tried to hop on the decks and was promptly removed by his partner who recognized an oncoming train-wreck when he saw one. Overall, I would see these two again in a festival setting but this wasn't crazy enough to justify a ticket purchase at their own show.

Cloonee - I like some of his recorded stuff and was excited to see him but this set lacked depth and variety. He got an hour and a half and not much of it did anything for me. I confirmed this with other members of our friend group so you can rest assured that my sample size was larger than 1 for this opinion.

Yung Bae - I like Yung Bae. He plays the type of future-funk stuff that has made Party Pupils beloved in the scene and it was a refreshing change of pace after about three hours of tech-house. He played some bassy rap remixes, and bouncy daytime high-energy house songs and brought a lot of energy to a late afternoon sun-fatigued crowd. Big props to the promoters for booking this act as it wasn't on the same wavelength as the rest of the acts but broke up the day nicely and was a fun set overall.

Monolink - This was one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend and my oh my did it deliver. Monolink plays one of the most unique live sets in the game with a live guitar, live vocals, and crazy edits over his outstanding discography. The sunset slot is a coveted one at Waterfront Park as the sunset from that venue is top top top and Monolink absolute ripped it. Highlights included Rearrange My Mind and the Return to Oz - Artbat Remix which I didn't think we were going to get but Mr. Chan and I experienced on our way to the bathroom towards the end of his set. Fucking ripper of a show. If you don't know this guy, his Burning Man set from 2018 is a fantastic intro.

MK - MK has been doing this shit for like 30 years and after seeing him a few times, I have high expectations for one of his sets. His set at Day MVS, as Huge put it, was one of his "greatest hits" type of sets. The weird thing about this one was that despite the fact that I know MK has played many multi-hour sets in the past, the last half hour of his 90-minute set fell flat. The first hour was a blast and a great mix of his vocal-heavy hitters and some deeper, driving tracks. His last hour was so bad that we thought Fisher was just late and MK had only prepared an hour set and was just ad-libbing until that Aussie ding dong showed up. To sum up, first hour, fantastic, last half hour, meh.

Fisher - I've been quoted as saying in the past, "If you can't have fun at a Fisher set you're trying too hard," and I still believe that within certain contexts. Fisher is a fun DJ with some great (ghost-produced by Chris Lake) tracks that are a lot of fun in a club or small stage setting. What Fisher is not is a main stage headlining DJ. His sets are one-dimensional. His visuals are gimmicky self-indulgent photos of his face and his mixing is essentially my 12-second crossfade on Spotify. We left early and went to get burritos from the Mexican spot down the street from our BnB and that was by far the right decision.

Overall, Saturday had some great moments but it was not the b2b banger of a day that Sunday was shaping up to be.

Sunday

We mixed it up a little on Sunday. By mixed it up I mean I went and saw all of one set at the Southside (Techno) Stage before running the rest of the way through at the Northside main stage.

To the sets!

Luttrell - I love this man for a few reasons. Mainly, because his first name is Eric and he looks like this:

But also because he plays vibey, unique, Anjuna-adjacent music that is a blast to listen to. We got there for the beginning of his set and he played a gorgeous set of mostly songs that I didn't know or at least didn't recognize. I would and plan to see this guy again in a heartbeat.

Special Guest: Green Velvet - We aren't entirely sure why he wasn't listed on the lineup in the first place, potentially because he had a show in LA the day before and they didn't want to cannibalize ticket sales, but for whatever reason, getting GV at the Southside Stage as a surprise was a complete delight. For those who haven't seen him (this was my first time), Green Velvet fucking RIPS. He also happens to be swaggy as hell and has as much fun DJing as the crowd does dancing. He may only be second to Anna Lunoe for DJs that have the most fun while on the decks. His set was on the techno side of tech-house with a few classics mixed in with a whole lot of stuff I didn't recognize but absolutely slapped. He also did some live vocals over one of his closing tracks. Highly recommend this guy if you get the chance to see him play.

Yotto b2b Jeremy Olander - Yotto makes Lane 8 type music if Lane 8 was feeling dark and moody. Jeremy Olander, I don't know much about but after this b2b, I'll be doing some investigation and return with results for my loyal readership. We arrived for the back half(ish) of this set which was great because right around 5 pm on Sundays is when I usually start playing driving, bass heavy, melodic deep house. Before you ask, yes I would like to see these MFs again either separate or as a B2B. Although Cooper only got 1/2 of the songs he wanted (Underwater - Yotto Remix but not I Want You - Yotto) we still got treated to a great time and memorable B2B set.

Nora En Pure - I've seen Nora play twice before at this venue. At the first Crssd, I went to in the Spring of 2018 and at the last Crssd, I went to in Spring 2020. This time around she did not come to play games. She got two hours and she deserved every last second of it. There aren't many house DJs/ producers who curate a set that deserves the Sunset Slot at a stage the size of the main stage at Crssd/ Day MVS but Nora is every bit of that artist. In her two hours, she delivered an immaculate journey spanning some of her classics (Diving with Whales), to the Chris Lake Remix of How's Your Evening So Far. She even threw in a song that I wasn't certain I was ever going to see live, Best of Me - Artbat. Nora will continue to be one of my favorite DJs and one of the few, in my opinion, to deserve main stage billing at just about any fest you attend.

Lane 8 - Here's one of the few other DJs who truly deserves the main stage slot. Between Nora and Lane 8 it's disgraceful for the fest organizers to give Fisher a headline slot on Saturday. Despicable. Anyway, Lane 8 fucking brought it in a way that told me he's been dying to play shows again. His music, while we all know to be beautiful, absolute slams on big main stage speakers. There is so much nuance to the low end that gets dropped on a lower quality setup that comes through in a huge way on festival speakers. It helped that we were also about twenty feet back from the rail for complete immersion. The surprising brain melter track selection of the entire weekend was him mixing into the Ich R U - Jacques Lu Cont Remix - Boys Noize. No, none of us had ever heard of that song either but when it dropped the crowd went absolutely insane. The rest of his set was a great blend of new stuff he released within the last year, tracks from his album, and some throwbacks to please the OG Lane 8 fans (looking at you, Roy). While we had to leave early this was still a top contender for set of the weekend. If you don't have him in your sights for this fall when shows return I would change that ASAP. He's a king for a reason.

If I could change one thing about this festival I would switch the lineups between Saturday and Sunday. I know they load Sunday up to make sure people show up for that day but I still hate that the best lineups always tend to fall on Sunday for these two-day fests.

Overall it felt good to be back in a massive outdoor venue listening to music in the throes of a huge crowd. Nothing feels quite as good as having your chest rattled by full-force bass surrounded by good friends. Excited for the next time that we all get to do this together.