The Future Is Coming: Get Yourself Ready for Day for Night

14305330_1800453596890532_6543992112005703259_oOh, man. I got a bit wrapped up in the countdown to Yes, Indeed! 2016 last week, so I let this one slip a bit, and that means that unless you’ve been sailing a raft across the ocean for seven or eight days now — or, alternately, hate music and/or joy, in which case I don’t have a clue how you’re reading this — you know that the organizers of Day for Night, FPSF‘s quasi-sister festival in the winter months, released the official lineup.

And yes, it is good. I mean, really good. On December 17th & 18th (not to mention the special VIP pre-party on Friday, December 16th), Houston is in for a hell of a show. Take a look:

2016 Day for Night line up release from Day for Night on Vimeo.

There’s some impressive names in there. Personally, I’m psyched as hell about ambient pioneer Aphex Twin (who I had to introduce to my EDM-obsessed daughter recently, actually), hip-hop super-duo Run The Jewels, Britpop/shoegaze icons The Jesus and Mary Chain, the ever-excellent Jana Hunter‘s Lower Dens, cinema-friendly EDM dudes ODESZA, drum & bass master Squarepusher(!), hazy pop outfit Washed Out, the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, legendary composer and musician Marcel Khalife, and — no fucking way, seriously? — John Carpenter, director and composer for films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and They Live.

Again: oh, man. There’s a ton of other good stuff in there, too, of course — that’s just the big names I’m particularly excited about. I’m also happy to see H-town fairly well-represented at DFN, with Fat Tony, Wild Moccasins, Buoyant Spirit, Vacation Eyes, LIMB, Us., MNYNMS, Night Drive, and From Beyond, among others, making an appearance.

Oh, and the badass Welcome to Houston lineup of pretty much every great Houston rapper I can name, which you might’ve seen a couple of FPSFes ago, will also be hitting the stage at some point during the weekend. I still say their most recent FPSF performance beat the Wu-Tang’s by a mile, and that’s saying something…

Here’s the whole list:

Now, you may be surprised I didn’t specifically call out Björk in the list of people I’m excited to (hopefully) see; that’s because it’s not, strictly speaking, a Björk performance, but rather a “five-room digital experience” that relies on virtual reality tech and incorporates multiple films created by and with the artist. The idea is a neat one, don’t get me wrong — supposedly you’ll be able to view these films in 360-degree VR, which is pretty cool. It’s not the same thing as actually seeing Björk herself play live, however, at least not to me. She will supposedly be around, definitely doing DJ sets during the VIP pass-only Friday pre-party and possibly elsewhere in the festival, too; I think I’d rather see that, honestly.

Of course, this being Day for Night, the “Sound” side of things is only half of the equation, and the “Björk Digital” stuff is a good segue into the “Light” side. As with last year’s show, there’re some phenomenal visual art installations, created by people like NONOTAK, Robert Seidel, United Visual Artists, and Shoplifter.

One surprise on that list was Damien Echols, possibly best-known as one-third of the West Memphis Three. I don’t know exactly what he’ll be doing; his bio talks about ritual magick, but how that fits in with the festival, I have no clue. Still, it should be interesting.

Also worth mentioning is the venue for this year’s DFN — it’s what used to be the downtown Barbara Jordan Post Office at 401 Franklin, which the USPS closed last year and which is now being developed as a mixed-use facility called Post HTX. It’s apparently a pretty massive place, and I’m happy to hear the folks working to redesign and built out the space will be keeping as much as they can of the original building, because it’s pretty cool as-is.

The best part of all this is that, festival-wise, Day for Night is pretty affordable (here’s hoping it stays that way in years to come…). Despite the big names on the bill, General Admission two-day passes are $150 (plus tax), which ain’t bad compared to the cost of even FPSF these days. The deep-pocketed can go the VIP route, naturally, and shell out $700 — that gets you into the Friday night pre-party, meet-and-greets with some of the festival artists, “rapid entry” to the festival, access to the VIP lounge, swag, and free food.

I’d strongly recommend, by the way, that you get your tickets now, because if this doesn’t fucking sell out — and probably soon — I will eat my shoe. And I don’t mean one of the nice, clean, new shoes I’m wearing right this minute, but one of the nasty, old, busted-ass shoes I keep in the garage for when I have to go pick up dog crap or whatever in the yard.

Seriously. If this doesn’t sell out, The Universe can go fuck itself. So do it now.


«
»

Leave a Reply

[Posts/Articles (RSS)]

Upcoming Shows

H-Town Mixtape

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

Our Sponsors