Alive 2007

November 19th (World), November 20th (Digital U.S) and December 4th (Physical U.S). Those are the most important dates in my book right now. On those days, Daft Punk's new album Alive 2007 will be released (in the respective areas). I'm fairly certain its a record of their live performance from Bercy, Paris and the Deluxe edition will contain the awesome footage from the NYC show that hundreds of fans filmed for them. Awesome, please go out and support your robot overlords. (I think I'm going to be buying this album twice...once on the 20th and I already have it pre-ordered from Amazon for the physical copy). It's worth it though, holy shit is it worth it.

Vegoose: Best Performance of 2007

This is quite possibly the most cliché thing I could say, but I'm going to say it anyways; a picture is worth 1,000 words. And this picture from Daft Punk's performance at Vegoose 2007 is worth so much more than that. This was my third time seeing them, and each time it has gotten that much better.

The day started at around 4:30 A.M when my Dad woke John C. and I up to begin getting ready. We left Northridge at around 5 and were in Vegas by 10. We checked into the hotel (Four Seasons, top 4 floors of Mandalay Bay). We ate some breakfast and then headed over to the Sam Boyd Stadium (where Vegoose was taking place).

We get in line, and about after 20 seconds of waiting, I realized that I had forgotten my ticket back at the hotel. I told John to go ahead and go inside and I would wait for my Dad to bring the ticket to me. Once he brought it to me, I took the walk back to the line and...of all the people to meet up with, I saw Xav and a few of his friends. W ewalked inside the stadium (outdoor area, actually) and talked for a bit. We watched one song of Gogol Bordello (who was INCREDIBLE).

I then headed over to the "Double Down" stage to wait in line (FRONT ROW IS THE ONLY WAY!). First up was Lupe Fiasco, he kicked some old school beats (Mobb Deep anyone) with fresh lyrics over them, it was pretty awesome. Then came Mastadon who was...interesting, to say the least. Following Mastadon was Cypress Hill who was insanely good...they really know how to get a crowd going. Finally, before Daft Punk, was Queens of the Stone Age who were good, but not as good as I hoped they would have been.

Then, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Leading into the best mix of Homework, Discovery, Human After All, Stardust and Together that you have ever and will ever hear. There is no text that can do this show justice - it is a show of light, a show of music, and the combination of the two just seems to absolutely destroy any other precedent of a good show. I seriously was dancing, jumping, rocking out for two hours straight. And I wasn't even tired after. I could have gone on for another three, and wish I had. There was an after-party at the LAX club in the Luxor, but it was 21+ only, so I was out of luck.

After waiting TWO HOURS for the shuttle John and I paid $30 each for, we got back to the hotel and passed out. To dreams of robots and rocking. To melodies of synths and drum machines. It was glorious.

Human.
Together.

Ready to get rocked by the Robot gods!

Well, it's getting close. John, my Dad and I leave for Las Vegas (and Vegoose) in less than 10 hours. We plan to get to the Four Seasons Hotel at 8:30 A.M, check in and get some breakfast, and then leave to get to the festival area by 10. We'll be waiting around for a long time, but it's worth it....don't you think?

This will be my third time seeing Daft Punk live, and it will be the most spectacular. I first saw them live in Miami at the Bang! Music Festival in 2006, then I saw them this past year at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and will now be seeing them in Las Vegas at Vegoose. Which will be the best? Who knows...the Bang! performance didn't have the encore...but that show also popped my DP cherry, and it'll hold a place in my heart forever.

I should be packing right now, but there isn't even that much to pack. All I need is one day of clothes, lots of water, and my dancing shoes. I will be standing for around 12 hours, and hopefully spend a majority of those rocking out and dancing my ass off.

The flyer at the right lists the line up for Saturday (the only day we'll be attending...give me a break, we have an AP Calc test on Monday and the SAT II's the next weekend, we're still highschool students!). QotSA, Lupe Fiasco, M.I.A, Public Enemy, The Shins...they're all good! Who knows who will be at the Daft Punk stage...we're camping it out just for front row seats though.

Everything seems good and ready to go, and I will definitely try to post an update on Sunday as far as how the show went, with pictures and videos and everything (if they allow the camera into the venue). This is going to be awesome, you all really should get into Daft Punk if you aren't -- maybe start with "Stronger" by Kanye West if you're afraid of Electronic music, but the beat and voice in the background ("Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger") is Daft Punk and they're going to drop some musical bombs on Saturday. See you all in about 36 hours! Wish us luck!

Unusual

Every single person writes their first post on a blog the same way. That's just boring, don't you think? You don't need an introduction to me. If you already know me and found this blog...then, well, you don't need an introduction. If you just found me through the wonders of an internet, I really don't feel like giving you an introduction. You found this somehow, go use the wonderful tools of the internet to find out everything else about me.

Anyways, I'm at my internship right now at the SFV News, and unfortunately its very boring, so I've decided to start one of these. We'll see how well I keep it updated.

I'm planning on going to Vegas this weekend with my friend John and my Dad, so we can attend the Vegoose Music Festival. Hopefully when I'm back I'll have plenty of pictures and a new blog to share with all of you. We'll see.

Daft Punk for the third time...only a day and a half away.