Courtesy of CRSSD Festival // Keiki Lani-Knudsen
Jeff Mills, DJ Heartstring, Little Dragon & more delivered on a glorious rain-soaked weekend at Waterfront Park
There was a moment during DJ Heartstring’s set on late Saturday afternoon that could not have been more immaculate. About halfway through their dazzling, pulse-pounding performance on the City Steps, a series of dark clouds hovered ominously over the Waterfront Park venue. As the Berlin duo worked their way to a cinematic techno peak – the crowd on their tiptoes ready to explode – the clouds unleashed their rain to a rapturous reception. The crowd went ballistic, cheering and screaming and signaling to the heavens in ecstasy – the rain serving as a unique respite full of euphoric emotion and release. It was quite possibly the most PLUR vibe I’ve ever experienced at CRSSD.
To festival newbies, or your average high-maintenance festival-goer, rain can be a mood-killer. A soggy inconvenience that’ll mess up your hair, wardrobe, make-up, and maybe your sense of mental or emotional equilibrium. But at CRSSD, it was a most welcome turn-of-events. After all, dancing is one of the more primordial and instinctive things that a human being can do for fun. Add in mother nature’s sense of chaos and unpredictability, and it makes for a truly transportive sonic journey. Nothing about the CRSSD experience was tainted by this light, periodic rainstorm; in fact, the rain just added an extra something special to it.
For several years, CRSSD has been a mainstay event for electronic music, and a flagship festival for San Diego in particular. There’s a real sense of quality and community emanating from the FNGRS CRSSD sphere, in which house, techno, and electronic-adjacent live music all converge. The festival’s planning team deserves commendation for the product they put out at CRSSD’s spring 2024 edition last weekend, and for being able to roll with the punches delivered by the turbulent weather patterns. Everything from the festival’s organization, amenities, and musical curation was stellar once again, proving that the format of CRSSD is truly a well-oiled machine at this point.
As visible as the HOUSE x TECHNO jackets were, so too were rain jackets and ponchos – as far as the eyes could see. The City Steps stage once again proved to be the best venue of the fest, with an eclectic crowd embracing the wide range of techno on display from one killer dance set to the next. Australian duo X Club, fast-rising through the EDM ranks, threw down a ferocious series of bangers that truly awakened the beast inside every raver in attendance, setting the scene for the rest of a phenomenal night of techno music. DJ Heartstring, as mentioned earlier, followed things up with glorious slices of disco melody, expert transitions, and sonic tapestries full of subtlety, nuance, and bombast. About as tasteful of melodic techno that you’ll witness this side of Ibiza, and a musical treasure trove for the eager CRSSD crowd.
Later in the night, the Ocean View stage played host to a number of killer live acts, including Tel Aviv electro titans Red Axes. With their simmering big beat and garage rock-infused sounds, the band moved and grooved the audience into spiritual submission, incorporating elements of dance-punk, new rave, live drums, guitars, and even a pair of mesmerizing guest vocalists who rallied the crowd into a dancing frenzy. Later on, Day 1 headliner Tale of Us powered through with their hypnotic, gentle brand of big-room house, a style whose cultural footprint continues to expand not just in EDM spheres, but on the mainstream festival circuit as well. Tale of Us have been doing their thing for almost two decades, and they are now bigger than they’ve ever been. It must be a huge source of pride and validation for them and their fans. By the end of the night, the area around the Ocean View stage was nothing but dying grass and mud, a surefire sign of a good time had by all.
Of course, the action on the side stages was just as invigorating as the night wore on. The b2b combo of Partyboi69 and Kink was pure, unfiltered madness from start-to-finish. With Partyboi smashing up the CDJs and Kink pounding away on drum machines, their frenetic, slightly ridiculous tag-team brand of hard techno and gabber was a truly rowdy way to end the night. With a duo like that, you really have no idea what you’re gonna get, but no matter what it’s always gonna be awesome and the only thing you can do is strap in tight and groove along. Relentless, you could say.
Day 2 of CRSSD began on another foreboding note as rain came and went early on, providing an extra dose of the feels as acts like Roosevelt and Sofia Kourtesis got things going on the Ocean View and Palms stages, respectively. There are a few highlights from Sunday that stand head and shoulders above the rest, however. The first of those was Little Dragon.
Going on nearly 25 years and change, the Swedish alt-pop band has been one of the most reliable but also underrated acts in the entire music industry. They’re one of those artists that will always deliver a solid album and a fantastic live show with each touring cycle. And they definitely can anchor an evening slot at a music festival with ease, as demonstrated by their bravura set on the Ocean View. With singer Yukimi Nagano wrapped in colorful mesh sheets, the band delivered their shimmering mid-tempo synthpop to a stunned audience. Every year, CRSSD books a small handful of non-DJ acts that straddle the EDM scene, and Little Dragon certainly looked the part as a group who could bring in the heads and the casuals with class and aplomb. Sultry, soothing, glistening stuff from the Swedes once again.
Another act that’s aged like fine wine is Jeff Mills, one of the most celebrated artists in electronic music for his role as the undisputed godfather of Detroit techno. At a spry 60 years old, Mills still spins like the younglings, and his set on the City Steps stage on Sunday night was a glorious, clinical affair. Body-moving, mind-expanding, and extremely unpredictable, Mills’ performance was both a riotous party and a musical history lesson, and to see his style come alive in person was a transcendent experience for all in attendance. The level of nuance and subtlety in his mixing and transitions is simply unmatched. When an entire 90-minute set feels like one cohesive song that never lets up, you know the person crafting it is an absolute icon. It was comforting to witness such a large crowd embrace Mills, whether it was old-heads or newcomers to his sound. The cream always rises to the top, and as the white lights of the stage flickered in strobe light fashion, it felt like Mills was practically levitating.
Another legend that also delivered was Richie Hawtin, who followed Mills with an incendiary DJ set of his own. Building on the dark, technical vibes that Mills introduced, Hawtin brought a controlled, mounting sense of sonic tension and release that once again underscored exactly why he’s still so beloved after all these years. There were plenty of peaks and valleys that swayed the crowd directly into the palm of his hand.
A booking like his and Mills’ – and the audience that these two are able to play to and captivate – is an example of just how rich and cross-cultural the CRSSD festival brand is right now. They can churn out hot, buzzy names like Barry Can’t Swim or FISHER to reel the masses in, and educate them and expand their horizons with acts like Ken Ishii or Sven Vath. Come for the headliners, stay for the legends. It’s a slogan that CRSSD should adopt at this point. You can believe after this extraordinary edition, we’ll be back again and again – rain or shine.
