Day One: Friday at Moogfest

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Although Moogfest’s opening day was rainy and cold, it certainly didn’t put a damper on festival-goers’ spirits. The air in Asheville was abuzz all day as a series of workshops and showcases led up to the first night of lively and skilled musicians, kicking off with the charismatic Matthew Dear at 5:15 pm at the specially-constructed Animoog Playground in downtown Asheville.

Moogers crowded the streets of the southern mountain town to catch their favorite acts at venues across the city. In addition to the Animoog Playground, the Asheville Civic Center and attached Thomas Wolfe Auditorium were transformed into a colorful playground for lovers of all things dance and electronic. The historic Orange Peel, one of the South’s favorite venues, was alive all night with tunes from Austra, Atlas Sound, Tobacco, Zomby, and Anika. The Diana Wortham Theatre and the brand-new Asheville Music Hall were also in on the fun, playing host to a number of the lesser-known performers who unleashed their talent on the hungry (and often costumed) attendees.

As proof that the frigid temps and on-and-off drizzle (mostly on during Chromeo’s 9:30 pm outdoor set) couldn’t discourage the freaks of the fest, attendees warmed up the Animoog Playground by dancing, jumping, and singing to the high-energy Chromeo set. Dave 1 (aka David Macklovitch), guitarist and vocalist, grinned through much of the set as fans made their best attempts to ignore the cold and rain by embracing the opportunity to get lost in a tangle of dancing strangers. “We’re all gonna wake up tomorrow with pneumonia,” Dave 1 laughed at one point, “but it was worth it!”

Back at the ACC, Moby killed it with a high-energy light show where he was chatty and enthusiastic, racing around stage from drums to guitar to keys and synths. Playing crowd-pleasers that kept the jam-packed arena rocking, singing, and jumping, Moby’s set was a perfect example of why he’s found such staying power and success. In keeping with the no-encore festival prototype, near the end of his set, Moby said, “Usually at this point, we go off stage and wait like forlorn puppies at the humane league, hoping you’ll ask us to come back on stage. I feel as if we know each other well enough to dispense of that charade,” before plunging into the next song.

Day One wrapped up with a rocking late night set from TV on the Radio at the Civic Center and a packed-to-capacity set from Araabmuzik at the Asheville Music Hall. As TV on the Radio finished, many hardcore festers simply weren’t ready to call it a night, and throngs of people wrapped around the block from Music Hall on Patton Street onto Lexington Avenue.

Stick with The Tuned Inn for more updates from Moogfest, including reviews from specific shows, features and tons of exclusive multimedia features.

Read about a sampling of the Friday acts from The Tuned Inn staff below. More to come on The Tuned Inn!

Kelly Bocich on Atlas Sound:

Atlas Sound took to the stage at the Orange Peel at 7:30 pm on Friday, entrancing the crowd with his solo performance with a Moog synthesizer, guitar, harmonica, and vocals. Atlas Sound—aka Bradford Cox, frontman of the band Deerhunter—played both synth-heavy ambient instrumental songs and guitar-only songs tinged with a hint of both folk and pop.

His performance had a tangible organic feel and seemed to be as much an adventure for him as it was for his attentive fans. Concert-goer David Smith, from Wilmington, NC, is a Deerhunter fan and was anxious to check out Cox in a different context as Atlas Sound. Smith, a first-time Moogfester, noted that he enjoyed watching Cox work out his ideas while on stage. The rest of the crowd seemed to agree, as they were mostly quietly respectful, giving Atlas Sound full attention. On one occasion on a particularly slow and slightly eerie song with his guitar, the audience did drift a bit and chatter began to compete with the sounds coming from the stage, but Cox seemed to recognize this and moved right back into another synth-heavy tune.

James Kraft on Mimi Goese and Ben Neill:

After finding the small side entrance to the Diana Wortham Theater Moogfest has apparently opted for this year, attendees were treated to an intimate entertainment from the talented singer and her electro-gypsy backing band. Warm orchestral hits from the cyborg “mutantrumpet” (as he calls it) that Ben Neill was rocking, per usual, mixed with laid back drumming, warm electro pulses, pretty strumming bass lines and a touch of cello. Mimi’s engaging stage presence helped the act to segues seamlessly from tune to tune, and from wardrobe change to wardrobe change (at one point, Mimi pulled out a large pair of scissors and simply clipped her gown right off). A more sedate and slightly less dance-oriented act than many of the others, it was a welcome change from the more loud and throbbing acts that dot the Moogfest lineup, especially in such a cozy venue, on such a cold night.

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Diana Friedman on Holy Fuck:

Holy Fuck played at the Asheville Civic Center last night and the simplest way to describe their show is to say they lived up to their name. Holy fuck, what that a dance party.

The Civic Center is a cavernous arena, but the band filled it with Moogfesters in their Halloween finest. In contrast to other shows at other venues, almost everyone at the Holy Fuck show was in costume—there were people on stilts blowing bubbles above the crowd, mad hatters, and even guys on rollerskates getting down to the building, always building, tempo of the music.

Driving guitar, heavy keyboard, and plenty of electronic elements created intense music that built up to a peak, then broke just slightly, with long melodic sounds breaking over the crowd like a wave, the not-quite-vocals flowing over the Halloween dreamland beyond the stage. The band was swaying and jumping almost as much as the crowd, which was there to surrender completely to the music. All in all, a show to remember.

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Kelly Bocich on Fine Peduncle:

You might not have heard of Fine Peduncle before Moogfest, but if you caught his Friday night show at the Asheville Music Hall, you won’t soon forget him. In front of a small but dedicated and interactive crowd, Fine Peduncle’s diminutive stature belied a larger-than-life stage presence. With racy lyrics (“I’d love to make your legs shake/I’d love to make your whole body ache” “I’ll strap your arms to the corners of this bed”) and a hypersexual stage presence, his flawless falsetto brought the Music Hall to life.

Fine Peduncle performed solo, with a simple table set with a MacBook and a collection of small electronic equipment. His electro-R&B vibe was irresistible and effusive “thank you”s and “I love you”s to his fans were a perfect juxtaposition to his fierce stage presence. Fine Peduncle’s super-charged and super-sexy tunes beg listeners to release their inner freaks and join him in his writhing and throbbing dancing.

James Kraft on The Field:

The Field’s “secret gig” at Harvest Records started well for me, personally—I found a Lavern Baker LP for $2! The “venue” (an excellent, vinyl-oriented shop in West Asheville) was quite small, especially for (basically) a minimal techno act, leading the drummer to drape a thin blanket over his kit to bring down the dynamic a little. The sonic consequences of this were quite pleasant, actually, as it mellowed the sound a bit as well as bringing down the volume, creating a sort of pleasant wash. The Field features driving, slightly behind the beat, noodling-type drumming, sort of like Gene Krupa playing disco, and the muted thumping quality of the shrouded kit enhanced this quality.

The 40 or so in attendance, packed awkwardly between the aisles of records, also seemed an odd crowd for techno, looking perhaps a bit too bearded, a bit too plaid. Once the band struck up, though, all doubt was lost, and within a minute every head was bobbing. I mean literally, every head was bobbing—we looked like those little tiki dolls you see stuck on a taxi’s dashboard. It was a great way to kick off a festival of massive shows, catching such an epic artist in such an intimate setting. Plus, you know, the cheap vinyl I scored, including a copy of The Field’s brand new LP, “Looping State of Mind,” which Axel Willner kindly ran out to his car to fetch for me.

The Field was a little less peaceful, a little more exciting that night, live at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium for their official Moogfest gig. Thomas Wolfe is a traditional regional theater, with a single mezzanine and a raked orchestra level–the sort of theater Broadway touring companies and stand up comics would play, or where an elementary school class would be taken to hear Ladysmith Black Mambazo. With the band going on at 10:30 pm, I was already pretty egg sauced it from dancing for (so far) four or five hours, and I was grateful for the comfy theater seats there.

I was less grateful for the decision that had been made to limit the dance pit to only the first 50 attendees, for safety reasons. The diehards crowded therein –drunk guy in light-up skunk costume, fashionable young man with his skinny jeans rolled to reveal bare feet tucked into light brown top-siders, girl in rather arresting “Carrie” Halloween costume–got to have a lot more fun than the rest of us, I think. Even in the seats the crowd was dancing more actively than for most acts I’d seen all day, although we were limited to mostly lateral and vertical motion by the rows of seats in front and behind us.

Also worth mentioning was the light show, which was just fantastic. The roaming red spot lights (visible as long cones of light due to the fog which had been built up on stage) with the muted purple backdrop and flashes of green in The Field’s were perfectly mesmerizing, calming and entertaining, without blinding me or giving me a seizure.

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Diana Friedman on Lunzproject:

Lunzproject, a collaboration between the legendary Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Tim Story, played at the Diana Wortham Theatre last night. The Wortham, the most sedate of the Moogfest venues—it has actual seats—was filled not by Halloween-clad revelers but by hard-core Roedelius fans, who were there to see him and Story work their ethereal electronic magic. The show started out with Story and Roedelius creating long low tones on electronic instruments, with an image in the background of a bright yellow spot surrounded by darkness projected onto a large screen behind the performers. As the show progressed, the music got richer, in tandem with the sun getting brighter and the darkness receding, giving the impression that you were not only watching, but hearing, a sunrise.

Rather quickly, Roedelius switched over to a full-size piano, where he stayed for the rest of the performance. The performance was minimal—no talking from the musicians and only slight pauses between pieces, which were strung together to create one continuous story through the visuals and the sounds. The story itself was abstract, but the visuals, going from the sun to cells, to water, to man-made elements like a bridge, and finally to a man walking, over the course of the performance, gave the impression of witnessing something akin to the birth of man.

The music, which progressively put more emphasis on the piano and melody over the course of the performance, was beautiful and haunting. When the show ended, the crowed immediately jumped up as one into a standing ovation, which brought smiles to the faces of Story and Roedelius, who hugged each other and thanked the crowd before heading off stage.