Counterpoint Music Festival Review
May 22-24, 2015
Words by Charlie Spooner
Photos by OwlEyesOnYou Photography
Whoever said that “there are grand rewards for those who pick the high hard roads” must’ve had this year’s Counterpoint Music Festival in Kingston Downs, Georgia in mind. After dealing with the painfully vague directions on the website and then getting stuck for over an hour in a jumble of cars that was reminiscent of the Lincoln Tunnel toll plaza during rush hour, we finally made our way into the festival grounds. Little did we know that the difficulties we dealt with to gain entrance would signal just the opposite experience with regards to our upcoming enjoyment of the weekend. Counterpoint would for three days become a magical home away from home full of beautiful art, exceptional music and even better people.
After setting up camp and getting to know our neighbors we made our way down through the myriad of tents and smiles towards our first set of the weekend. We arrived at the stage just as The Soul Rebels were bringing that NOLA funk and getting the crowd, whose feet were somehow shuffling, skipping and juking all at once, to kick up a sandstorm. Next came Excision and our first taste of Counterpoint’s delectable plate of EDM with his aggressive dubstep/bass music. Although hard to pick a favorite, the inclusion of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” into his set takes the top the spot for us.
Keeping with the electronic vibe, we caught Australian electro house/dubstep duo Knife Party afterwards. They kept the crowd in a fervor and the next big drop was all that mattered. Sadly our night was nearly over, but not before Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, a quintet that’s taking the jam scene by storm, took the stage. Something so Dead left us grateful to be at Counterpoint and as the night ended our anticipation of the next two days effervesced through us and pervaded our dreams.
In the morning we did Yoga to awaken us and ready both our body and soul for the long day ahead. After some breakfast and coffee we followed the crowd over to where The Heavy Pets were playing. They brought the sunshine with them from Florida and their cheerful, funky jams chased away the clouds in the sky to set us up for an amazing day of music. In our experience, every festival has one act that completely takes us by surprise and leaves its mark on us through the rest of the weekend. Manila Killa and Mark Johns who played next was that act. Coming in to the weekend we had never heard of this DJ/singer combo but we won’t forget them now. The positive energy that they flowed through the crowd could be caught in a jar and saved for a rainy day, and although we knew their set had to end, we didn’t want to come down from atop our dust clouds to let our feet touch the ground.
The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur of Italian Ices, vendor visits, a ferris wheel ride and brilliant beats that seemed to replace the wind and refresh us even as the sun was shining down hard upon our skin. Jauz, an up and coming house/trap DJ played a fire set and showed that he’s one to keep and eye on. Then Earphunk rocked out hard and Galactic played a predictably on point set full of the quality jazzy funk we’ve all come to know and love.
After that was Emancipator Ensemble’s chillstep that brought down the tempo of the day and as we swayed like reeds in the wind to their set, we were reenergized and made ready for the night ahead. Piggybacking the tranquil vibes were the cheerful tones and lyrically conscious message of Rebelution. There’s something about the positivity of reggae that manages to pump happiness through your veins until it seems that your whole circulatory system is alive and dancing.
Switching up the vibe was Widespread Panic and they came out ripping right from the start and altogether killed it. But what else could we expect other than high energy rock bursting with solos and emotion coming from one of the long reigning rulers of the jam scene? Keeping up the energy, next came Cherub, a severely original duo who aptly demonstrated their heavy brand of sexed up electro pop. Then R.L. Grime dropped some trap-infected hip-hop before Papadosio, a band that we are no stranger to, played one of their best sets we’ve seen in a while. Standouts that night were ‘Cue,’ ‘All I Knew,’ and ‘Method of Control.’ Last up on the docket was Dillon Francis and he kept the crowd bouncing up and down by playing multiple tracks off his new album and some recent remixes, but there were many who thought it wasn’t his best set. However, he was able to show that even if not at his best, he could still control a crowd and keep everyone raging. After a brief silent disco dance party sponsored by Imagine Festival we returned to the tent and called it a night.
We woke up slow the next day and basked in the sunshine radiating through our tent, knowing that we must savor every precious moment of our last day. In order to get in as much as possible we headed down to the stages to get things going. The first artist Robert DeLong was a loop making indie electronic producer with a poppy edge who uses video game peripherals to modify his sound and is as fun to watch frantically running back and forth on stage between his different controllers and instruments as he is to sing and dance along with. Following in the live performance category was EOTO. This duo performs live, completely improvised electronica that includes but isn’t limited to drum and bass, dubstep and electro. Before their set they stressed how everything we heard was going to be made up on the spot and how all their songs were to be built note by note in front of us. If you have the chance to see them live you should do it and bask in their supreme skill.
Once again, the afternoon seemed to roll by too quickly when all we wanted to do was relish in each moment. Lettuce, a Brooklyn based power funk juggernaut put a groove in everyone’s step and there wasn’t a still body in the crowd. Then we got smooth psychedelic dub beats back to back by Michal Menert and Ott that sent us into a dream that we lucidly traveled until the last notes played. Afterwards was the Roots and it was a real treat to see The Tonight Show’s legendary house band whose hip-hop/neo-soul beats have been captivating the nation since the late eighties.
What ended up being our favorite set of the weekend came afterwards in the form of Norwegian DJ Kygo who stole the show. When the first notes rang out with the familiar sound of Ed Sheeran’s ‘I See Fire’ we knew that this set was going to be special. Seeing as we are diehard followers of all things Middle-Earth, this song melted our hearts and had us singing along with every word coming out the speakers along with most of the crowd. Kygo’s laid back progressive tropical house flow was the perfect way to make us believe that summer’s already here and his music was played for much of the car ride home. Riding high on our emotional wave, we surfed in front of Zedd for awhile after Kygo’s set ended. He dropped track after track of solid gold and didn’t belie any of the hype surrounding his performance.
Closing out the festival was the dubstep/house duo Zed’s Dead pit against Umphrey’s McGee and we decided to end our weekend with the latter. By giving us one last set to groove to and showing us more than just some of that Umph love we’ve come to crave, they were the perfect way to end our Counterpoint experience.
Looking back over the weekend there were only three places we found that Counterpoint needed improvement and all of them are definitely fixable for the future. The first area was the jumble at the entrance, where all that is needed is better informed and directed volunteers. Next up was the Heineken Community Spray Paint Stage (a stage in between the other three) where the music played way too loud and the noxious odor of the paint cut through the air into multitudes of unsuspecting nostrils just as badly as the abhorrent sound did to the ear. Not only should people participating in the so-called exhibit have been given masks to protect themselves but the overpowering volume was one of the main culprits of the third issue of the weekend, which was a serious noise bleed issue. The music all weekend long coming from the three main stages was fantastic and we couldn’t have asked for a better lineup or set of overall performances by all the acts, but if you weren’t within thirty yards or so of the front of each of the three stages that were somehow all facing each other, then you heard overlapping music. Noise bleed is a huge issue, but is one that can be fixed with a little foresight next year.
That being said, the weekend truly was full of love and laughter, music and memories, great people and great performances, phenomenal vendors and peachy Georgia weather. When it’s all said and done, Counterpoint was an amazing festival and we will certainly be returning to make more magical memories next year. Hope to see you there too!
