July 12th 2013
The night has ended, trounced by the unequivocally powerful morning sun. We arrive at the Quebec train station at 5:15 a.m to catch a 5:35 a.m train back to Montreal. We have been in Quebec three days and four nights and probably amassed a total of 13 hours of sleep. As I (Brandon Cummings) write this I am currently on said train and lacking in many of my faculties, compassion and sympathy, not even enough to give myself a bit and go to sleep..
So what exactly was Zebrat doing in Quebec city for the formerly mentioned time?
Well there is an amazing festival that happens here for 11 days, from July 3rd til the 14th, and in these days 75,000 thousand people come to dance, drink, yell, drink, instagram pictures of themselves drinking dancing and/or yelling, and of course NOT doing drugs. This wonderful shindig is known to Quebecois as Le Festivale d'ete de Quebec, or Quebec Summer Festival.
This years festival included the likes of Bruno Mars, Stevie Wonder, Rush, MGMT, Passion Pit, Weezer etc. Quite an eclectic mix. Zaman and I arrived late Monday evening after I made a quick and rash decision that I indeed DO fully love Bruno Mars with all the bromantical feelings a man can have and that there was no other choice, we MUST see him or it would be me that would be "locked out of Heaven." Yes I am that dramatic.
So even though the bus ticket was $30 more expensive that day then the next I rushed us out the door and we ran full tilt until we arrived-- panting and mumbling incoherently about catching love grenades-- at the bus station.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Quebec city there was only half an hour until he began and we had yet to locate our hostel which I assumed would be easy because I had looked at a picture on google maps of the outside, saw that it was an old brick building obviously in the old town, and figured I would just come upon it like a treasure chest in Zelda. Needless to say this wasn't the case and after running around and around like Flo Rida's turntables, we ended up missing his entire set. I was heartbroken..ish, we had come so close I swear I could feel him loving me just the way I was.
Tuesday faired much better, we stayed with two people Zaman met on couchsurfing.com and actually hung out with them the rest of the festival. They were awesome. We went to see MGMT and Weezer that night. MGMT was good, they played at the biggest stage which is set to host somewhere around 50,000 people which I thought a shame because, other than their hit songs, no one payed attention. There was actually so little fucks given during their non-hit songs that I had a hard time concentrating on them. To be fair they were far from ostentatious, I thought they would have done better at a more intimate stage.
After MGMT Weezer played. I don't really like Weezer that much. I see the appeal, I appreciate their music and how likeable it is but I just don't get a broner for them. They played well. People payed more attention, I think, I mean they definitely have enough hits to keep a crowd of iPhone wielding teenagers away from tumblr for an hour or so. That was a little rude, it's early and I've yet to sleep… No compassion remember?
The rest of the evening was nice. We stayed on our new friends couches and got harassed by their pet rabbit named Wu Tang. Wu tang escaped from his cage (leave it to a clan member to escape from prison..) sometime in the early hours and began trotting back and forth between our couches staring at us amiably and trying to dig holes in our stomachs.
Wednesday evening arrived and we met up with our quebecois friends and all went together to see Zed's Dead and Bassnectar. When we got to the show--outdoors--it was hot and very muggy but no rain. Zed's Dead started at 8:30 p.m. It was a very solid performance, they have a great sense of what to give a crowd (especially a crowd full of drunk and/or high people who basically just want things to be very loud). I enjoyed their set and danced hard. Then Bassnectar came out.
Now I thought, after watching Zed's Dead, that they had done a splendid job in bringing the energy up and really holding the atmosphere (and they had done that quite well ), however, as soon as Bassnectar started I realized an energy level that I didn't know existed. It was as though I had just bought a house, which I thought I had known everything about and then discovered a secret attic filled with Charizard cards, pez dispensers that never deplete, and a freezer full of ice cream. You think I'm embellishing? Good, because I'm not. This man is someone who has perfected the bass and drops it so damn hot it'd make Ryan Gosling feel insecure.
Not long and we were sweating our asses off and smiling like shit-tossing chimps. I must say I've been to a lot of raves and electro/dubstep concerts and I have to say that this show had some of the most amazing visuals. It worked seamlessly with his music and captivated me. Often I caught myself just standing, probably open mouthed, watching with the hypnotic vigor of a zombie observing a brain surgery.
Three quarters into his set, whilst most of us were breathing raggedly and dripping in sweat, it began to rain. So perfect this was! His set took a dip into a more trance, hip hop vibe as rain fell noncommittally upon our appreciative heads like Jesus's blessed hand. Then as his set began to pick up again so did the rain and before I knew it he was dropping "Pennywise Tribute," a song consisting of a pounding riff much like a guttural, raw soccer chant. The rain turned torrential and then some giant rubber balloons that had been reflecting lights fell from above us and everything was awesome sauce.
Thursday showed up like herpes. I mean it sucked. We nursed our hangovers and then we went to see Madeon, Martin Solveig, Wolfgang Gartner, and Tiesto. Seem legit? It most definitely was. Madeon played first and although I super love his music his set was a bit underwhelming, though Zaman reminded me that we were watching an 18 year old dj original material in front of about 15, 000 people and I agreed that Madeon is amazing. I still found his set a little hard to follow, it had a lot of short builds followed by short drops which Zaman used to allude to the young Madeon's sexual prowess.. Because he's young and it's possible he pre ejacs'. Yep. Jokes.
Next was Martin Solveig and he was good, he played his hits plus some dirty electro baselines. Though, and this is something kind of lame about electro music, one of Madeon's most famous songs is a remix of one of Martin Solveigs most famous songs. Great song but I heard it twice.. Just sayin'.
After was Wolfgang Gartner. At this point all of it was sounding a bit like- and don't take this the wrong way because I love Electro- a transformer farting. It was great though, I danced so hard I can't move my neck right now. Tiesto came on afterwards and I continued to dance as though my feet and arms were on fire and I had spent my childhood giving firemen the finger.
"STOP, DROP, AND--" "FUCK OFF!"
Tiesto was great. There were loud synths, and girls singing about love, and wiggly sounds, and whooshing sounds, and heavy bass, and some very glamorous sounding keyboard lines, with a pyro-inspiring fireworks show to end it. All in all I had an amazing time and I really do love all the craziness of electro and dub step, these are simply the musings of a temporarily depraved man who just spent two straight nights dancing like he's going to talk to god.
So that basically sums it up.. After Tiesto, Zaman and I returned to our new friends home and played Mario Kart for the NES until we had to make our way through a calm and deserted Quebec City Old town-- looking like a the centre of a village in Skyrim-- to the train station. And now I am going rest my bass beaten body against the modest via rail seat and attempt to lead an eye closing seminar followed by some soothing beat counting.. 128 bpm, 129 bpm, 130 bpm and so on.
Blog Finished.
Zebrat.
Brandon that was super entertaining to read!
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