Review – Summadayze 2008
Despite the heat, Chromeo absolutely killed it on the main stage. This duo proved that good things really do come in pairs. Covering a range of old and new tracks, with D-Thugg pumping out his vocoded lyrics via a talkbox, the pair had the crowd eating out of their hands. From Fancy Footwork, to You’re so Gangster and all their best in between, funked it up good and proper. As the set wound down, and the lads walked off stage, chants of “Chromeo! woah woah!” erupted, and they came back to with 100% for their finale, leaving a large number of people deeply satisfied.
Fdel was in absolute fine form for his set, and he played a large number of classics as well as a few of his own tracks. From a starting point of only a few people in front of the stage, as well as sitting down, it was a testament to his talents that by the end of his set he had a full crowd and every person sitting down up on their feet.
Salmonella Dub got up, and it is a shame that possibly the highlight of the set was a re-rendition of “Killing In The Name Of” – which was well done, and yet it just seemed a little bit of a cheap trick for the crowd. Everything else seemed to blend in, and for some reason the rest of it didn’t seem to grab attention. A few new bits, a few classics, but it seems that Salmonella Dub, who have always put on a good show, missed the mark this time around.
De La Soul, as usual, played a solid set, despite a somewhat stilted beginning. As always, they pulled out their classics and really got the crowd excited – and what else can you expect? The only thing that kind of nagged in the back of the mind was that it all sounded so familiar to the last time they were out here, but, even being slightly repetitive, they are still a great act. People Under the Stairs followed on from De La, and the crowd very noticeably thinned out, everyone headed off to the tents or home after a huge day – but there was no mistaking the enthusiasm with which they played, and the really put on a great performance for those who stuck around, their funky and energetic antics marking them as a superb hip-hop act.
NYPC was the most disappointing act of the entire day. To put it bluntly, whoever the sound engineer was at that time needs some lessons. With vocals at the beginning that were barely able to be heard, muffled instruments and a keyboard completely and bewilderingly garishly swamped out all pointed to something going disastrously wrong. There’s supposed to be a bit of lo-fi in this new-wave-rave-electro-pop stuff, but that was ridiculous. On top of that, lead singer Tahita Bulmers onstage antics didn’t gel with the sedate performance of the near-manikin movements of the rest of the band, and the tempo of the entire set felt as if they had pitched down.
Tags: chromeo, de la soul, new young pony club, salmonella dub