Escape Music Festival, the two-day, mostly electronic music festival, is taking its talents and heading to distant shores. Actually it’s not so distant, but the festival has announced on Monday that they’re changing the location of the festival from the originally planned Pier 9 in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, to the more popular Governor’s Island Beach Club.
Common sense will tell you that the new venue location takes place on Governor’s Island. I’ve been there once and I’m pretty sure it literally took a ninety-second ferry ride from the Financial District. Don’t worry, the promoters will be providing FREE ferry service both days of the festival. The promoters have also been able to extend the event’s curfew to midnight on both nights. Concerts and events take place at the Beach Club all throughout the summer, including Full Moon Fest and the NYC Summer Beach Party last month.
Festival promoter Merritt Quirk of Balearic Entertainment commented on the change of location the day of the announcement.
“Once, we were given the chance to bring the festival to Governor’s Island Beach Club, we all quickly realized that this was actually a blessing. The new venue allows us to give so much more to the fans. We always knew it was going to be a good event. Now we know it’s going to be an incredible one.”
The festival, which takes place October 10th and 11th, features exciting and talented acts including Moby, Yeasayer, Girl Talk, Mayer Hawthorne, and more. See below for my picks on which acts you CAN’T MISS if you’re attending the festival. See ya there!!
Ra Ra Riot – This alt-rock group has a very modern sound mixed with really cool retro rhythms that will give you great dancing material throughout their entire set. If you give their 2013 album Beta Love a listen you’ll hear really catchy pop-friendly tunes in ‘Beta Love’, ‘Angel, Please’, and ‘That Much’. They’re really a more retro-version of Maroon 5 without all the terrible singing of Adam Levine.
Placebo – This British rock band has been around for twenty years now and is still able to staying current in their style of songwriting to allow kids today to turn their music up and let loose. Singer/guitarist Brian Molko’s piercing voice allows the music to launch into orbit, as he sets the tone with its natural energy and signature attitude. For a band that formed at the end of the 90s grunge era and built its foundation in the 90s rock scene, they’ve been able to bring their 90s alt-rock roots with them into the 2010s. Their 2013 album Loud Like Love is a record that captures the bands aged to perfection chemistry and sound. My favorite song off that album, ‘Loud Like Love’ has everything you want from a veteran rock band- great vocal lines, strong guitar, and a great rockin beat you can dance to.
Boris – I LOVE this Japanese rock band. They bring such an energetic contrast to the electronic bands and DJs that make up the majority of this festivals lineup. They are hard, edgy, and fast. Although the loud, distorted guitars, epic drums, and stadium anthem choruses rattle your core, they wont you feel like you stepped into Ozzfest. Think more like Metric or The Naked & Famous in their ability to turn great guitar rock into the style you could remix really well into a club mix. They are however a hard rock band.. so get ready to enter the pit with nothing held back.
Tesla – This electronic/new-wave band is everything you loved about Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories but with some more classic influences and ingredients. Think of if The Smiths and Bowie got to add their own fuel to the RAM fire and you’ve got this bands 2013 album, The Universe is Made of Darkness. I love their song ‘Undetected’ as is has that slow and sexy rhythm made up with instrumentation from Africa’s ‘Toto’. They take that step from 80s new-wave pop to 90s house music in the appropriately titled‘1991’. These guys are going to bring some great throwback dance tunes to a modern sounding festival.
The Joy Formidable – Think Lucius meets Shiny Toy Guns, meete Ume? Yeah this band just flat out fucking rocks. Lead by Ritzy Bryan on guitars and vox, this alt rock band might be the most rock-based band of the festival. I’m really pumped to see if their live show can capture as much energy as their 2013 album Wolf’s Law captures. They’re pure in your face modern alt-rock and you’ll love the songs they rip through like ‘Little Blimp’, ‘Forest Serenade’, ‘The Hurdle’, and ‘Cholla’.
Article by: Tom Shackleford
