As I entered through the bleachers and EDC's iconic panorama was laid in front of me on Day 2, A-Trak was in the midst of a bossy hard trap set. He must've been feeling it, because he climbed atop the decks and enjoyed a Christ-like pose before ending the set with some old school scratching. As I moved on for a wander, as is customary around these parts, I fell into the deep grooves of Nicole Moudaber. I was all about it. The Neon Garden is where ravey meets clubby, a techno palace - There's no EDM allowed here. As time passes, I find myself spending more and more time at the there. A sign of maturity, perhaps? I fuckin' hope not.Tbe Neon Garden always has the most chilled out crowd // photo credit: Kristin WardianDid you know that the Circuit Grounds is the same exact structure as Coachella's Sahara Tent, with 400 ft added on? On Saturday, Avicii managed to make it look small with his legions of fans. In general, Saturday was more crowded than Friday. They always are at EDC. Nearby the Circuit Grounds, the 7UP stage was settling into the neighborhood. The consecutive quintet of Two Fresh, Trippy Turtle, Mr. Carmack, Djemba Djemba, and Durante showcased the next wave and the future looks good. OWSLA's Durante in particular stood out -- His set was chameleonic. I was all ready to call it Diplo-meets-Boys Noize, but then he dropped into some whompy UK-style bassline house and then something that sounded like acid house over trap beats. Pretty cool. The programming at the 7UP stage has been rad all weekend, but, boy, is that branding garish! It's like a 360 stimulo-tron bashing you over the face with 7UP logos. Hard sell or what?The Las Vegas Sun reported that the death of Montgomery Tsang on Day 1 had tempered the mood of the festival, but I didn't really see that to be the case. There are 140,000 people at EDC every night. That's more people than live in Dayton, Ohio. People can't be expected to take that on personally. I didn't hear anybody other than me bring it up during the day, although many seemed to know about it.Kill the Noise returned once again from whatever shroudy cave he's been hiding in to show us, as he did last year, that he's taken his crunch-step tonal palate and applied it to house beats. It had it's moments. Similarly, Knife Party returned from the dead by going back to their roots and playing some real techy drum and bass. I loved it, but I don't think the crowd at the Cosmic Meadow really knew what to make of it. They woke up more when the hits came out.After swimming through people back towards the Neon Garden, I was honored to (mentally) award Carl Cox the inaugural Carl Cox Award for Awesomeness. He is an OG baller-ass baller. Every DJ in the world could learn something from Carl Cox. He's the only person that could make saxophone work in a techno tune.After that, I actually went to the Basscon for the first time ever. Hardstyle is usually something I avoid like an ornery bobcat, but the stage design of an angry cyclops face pulled me in. And though I can't say i'm gonna be shuffling' with the rest of you too often lot in future, my searing disdain for the genre has cooled a little. Maybe the fireworks had something to do with it. These things go off for like half an hour twice a night. If you're walking, everybody around you just stops and stares at the electric sky until they're over. So pretty!As the sun came up, I watched Martin Garrix turn up the massive Kinetic Field for his closing set. The kid is the real deal, exactly what he's supposed to be as a crossover housey pop star. His tune selection was heavier and darker than I thought it would be, so props to him for playing stompers and not hands-in-the-air jams.Check out our EDC 2014 Day One Report
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