Our Future: @ The FYF Fest 2017

Last weekend I traveled down to Los Angeles to attend FYF Fest, a three-day music festival founded in 2004. I've attended once before in 2016, and given that it takes place outside of my home state of Washington, it certainly isn't a journey that I've taken on a whim. However, as a music fan, FYF has consistently presented a festival experience worth the journey. Unlike many other events in the currently oversaturated music festival circuit, FYF has managed to stand out from the herd by filling its lineup with esoteric acts along with performances that are hard to come by anywhere else. It's a music festival made by music lovers for music lovers. For this reason, for two years in a row now, I've found it worth my time and money to make the trip out. This year, the festival took place from Friday to Sunday, July 21 - 23.

Friday started out slow for me with Beach Fossils who I only inadvertently caught as no one else was playing at the time. By the end of their set I could only sit and wonder how their brand of mellow, lo-fi indie rock still has a large enough fan base to warrant being put on the bill for a major festival. Luckily, they were followed on the same stage by Angel Olsen, who managed to put on an engaging show despite my lack of experience with her studio material. She delivered with mostly quiet, introspective songs full of understated energy; the kind of live presence you'd hope to get from a singer songwriter that very few musicians are able to actually deliver on.

Though the acts I was most looking forward to came later in the day, as Bjork served as the debut act for the main stage. She was supported by Arca; an experimental electronic musician who I've written about previously and who also had a slot in the festivals lineup, as well as a full string section. Though I've never been the biggest fan of her work, she was undeniably one of the highlights of the festival and created an intense, emotional show full of theatrics. Her set was most heavily oriented towards her most recent album, "Vulnicura," though it was older tracks off "Homogenic" and "Post" that seemed to get the crowd most excited. The set concluded with a fireworks show set to "Hyperballad."

While the task of following such a set seems nearly impossible, Missy Elliott certainly delivered with her first U.S. show in over a decade. She possessed nearly endless energy, jumping from song to song continuously for most of the set. The visuals, stage theatrics, costumes, and back up dancers were just as extravagant as you'd likely imagine them to be if you've ever seen a Missy video, and she proved to everyone on site that years after what most would consider her heyday she still sits above nearly every other female MC around in 2017.

The day ended for me with Flying Lotus, who had an eclectic set ranging from spacey ambience to trap bangers to remixes of music from Twin Peaks and Ghost in the Shell. Though what really stood about Flylo's set were the visuals, seeing as 3D glasses were provided for everyone in attendance specifically for his set. While I expected the 3D effects would likely be tacky, I and seemingly everyone else in attendance were taken aback by just how crazy the effect actually looked.

Saturday once again started slow, with the first performance that I caught being Cap'n Jazz, though it was easily one of the standouts of the fest. For their first show in years, the seminal Emo band slammed through their set with the sort of discordant energy that every good live punk band has. At any moment it seemed like the semblance of music they had could entirely fall apart, but the sheer energy from both the band and crowd alike managed to hold it together. King Krule was up next for me, who delivered a higher energy rendition of his brand of intimate, minimalistic indie rock that worked great in a live setting.

It's worth noting that Saturday is the only day where single day passes sold out however, and the primary reason for this was of course the two headliners, A Tribe Called Quest and Frank Ocean. Tribe were up first, and though out of all the headliners they had the least elaborate stage set up, the pure energy and passion contained in their music made things like back up dancers and fancy visuals seem superficial. The set was clearly punctuated by the death of one of the groups founding members, Phife Dawg, as it was clear that in a sense his passing made it necessary for the group to play live again. Midway through their set they announced that it would be their final show in LA and that they needed to play one last time to help process his death. The passion and necessity that they found in expressing themselves through music was clear and was a reminder for everyone in the audience why music matters.

Frank was up next on the main stage and garnered possibly the most cramped, crowded, and intense audience I've ever witnessed. Sitting about 20 feet from the stage, I was incapable of moving and witnessed more than one person collapse in the audience from heat exhaustion. Yet when Ocean came out, it made it all worth it. It was very clear from the get go how important it was to him to be performing in his hometown, and despite the goliath crowd he somehow still managed to make the set feel intimate, talking directly to members of the crowd and joking around with his band and crew members. Oh, also Brad Pitt came out and sat on the side of the stage on the phone during his performance of "Close to You" ... for some reason. After his set, as I wandered the festival grounds ragged and exhausted, I stumbled into Nicolas Jaar, who's eclectic style of techno coupled with his sci-fi visuals felt like the perfect way to end the night.

Sunday was the weakest day for me in terms of the lineup, and yet it still managed to deliver with some fantastic performances. Iggy Pop was the first I caught, and while I love a lot of his older work and his legacy within the music canon is undeniable, I couldn't get into his set at all. Part of it was simply his appearance, and while I feel superficial citing that as an issue, his skin quite frankly looked like it was about to fall off his body. He still certainly delivers on the iconic songs by The Stooges like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Search and Destroy, "but much of the set felt like it simply lumbered along. Omar S was the next act I caught, and while I don't know his work as a DJ particularly well, his skill was undeniable. He had the same groove and laid-back energy that Moodymann Theo Parrish pioneered back in the Detroit techno scene in the 90s.

Solange followed, who was as tightly composed, fierce, and soulful as you'd expect if you've heard any of her music. It was just a much a visual experience as it was an auditory one, with a cast of about 20 musicians who would cycle in and out throughout the set all in matching costume. Seemingly everyone in her crew managed to perform tightly coordinated dance moves while playing their instruments flawlessly, all while looking laid-back and natural. And of course, she brought the house down with the youthful energy her music oozes with.

Nine Inch Nails were the final act of the festival, ending things with a grinding, pummeling bang. As with their studio material, their set seemed to oscillate between rushing along at a destructively fast pace, slugging through industrial soundscapes, and at times facing the raw, moody self loathing central to their work as a band. In this way, their set never really seemed to settle and continued to engage me.

Kyle Mangione-Smith is a filmmaker and student living in Boston.