HARD Summer 2013 may have come and gone, but memories of sun, friends, and great music still live on in the attendees of the 2-day event that took place in LA State Historic Park last week. We at LessThan3 were thrilled with all of the music we heard, but there were a particular few that really struck our fancy. Take a look at our top performance picks from HARD Summer after the break.
Alvin Risk
While most festival-goers were dancing their faces off to the likes of Dog Blood, Flux Pavilion, and Disclosure during the first day, Alvin Risk was busy playing for a relatively small crowd at the Summer stage. From the second his set started it was clear that no matter how many people showed up for his set, Alvin was going to bring his usual amount of relentless electro and moombahton sounds mixed with the occasional lasers. Mixed among many of his originals including Psychotic (which Alvin explained is based on the people from LA) were many pop remixes including his remix of Fun’s We Are Young, all of which helped to satisfy just about everyone in attendance. Dressed in his signature argyle sweater, Alvin showed the crowd one of the most high intensity sets of the entire festival.
Breakbot
On day two the Summer Stage was transformed into an all day Ed Banger 10th Anniversary celebration. One of the major highlights was a live set from French nu disco master Breakbot who took the stage wearing one of his full white suits. Playing the keyboard behind giant red lips, Breakbot made love to the ears of festival-goers who were lucky enough to catch his evening set. Irfane, who sings on many of Breakbot’s songs, came out during the set to perform classics like Baby I’m Yours, One Out Of Two, and a few others. It was the perfect mid-festival set to take a quick break from all of the jumping around and simply enjoy great music surrounded by great people.
Disclosure
We expected the Underground tent to be packed for Disclosure, but wow did it overflow! Making up for the crowded space were the warm vibes coming from all the fans; from front to back you could hear everyone singing their hearts out together for nearly every tune off their debut album, Settle. The UK phenomenon have truly earned their fame, and on Saturday the duo delivered a real heart-to-heart performance that won over the city of angels.
Dog Blood
Boys Noize and Skrillex teamed up as Dog Blood are sure to draw the masses anywhere they play, and this was certainly the case on Friday at HARD Summer at the HARDER stage, where the dynamic duo brought a set that was more tech-electro and less trap than their inaugural Coachella performance. The pair performed tracks off their recently leaked EP as well as some amazing IDs, and we are dying to know the identity of the producer behind them.
Flosstradamus
Flosstradamus always go HARD in the paint, and this past weekend they were dropping their heaviest trap bombs like their recent remix of Do Or Die by Flux Pavilion. Much to the delight of their fans, the trap titans played a longer set than usual, and the crowd kept up with their explosive on-stage energy. everywhere you looked, girls were shaking their asses and dudes had their elbows flying.
Justin Martin
dirtybird saw its biggest day ever on Sunday, with a stage dedicated only to the San Francisco label’s acts. Justin Martin performed a 2-hour set from 8-10pm and took the cake with a performance full of new highlights and old Justin and dirtybird favorites. Toward the end of the set, Justin and label head Claude VonStroke did a bit of tag-teaming, much to the crowd’s delight. Cameos from Eats Everything and J. Phlip, who had performed earlier in the day, also kept the set interesting.
