Written by: Sam Wolloch
The fall foliage has just begun to pepper the green backdrop of east coast interstates with bright branches of yellow, orange, and red leaves as I take a few minutes to catch the Moon Landing Fam up on the first half of the Alchemy Tour b2b Ascend Tour double dip.
Let’s hop back to the beginning of Full Send Weekend. Leaving my car by work in The Bronx, NY, it was an easy 40 minute subway ride down to the Manhattan Port Authority bus station before a rather unpleasant four and a half hour Greyhound bus up to Boston Thursday night. I rendezvoused with my PIC and lady friend @senfa and we got those good Zzzzs at her place in Rochester, NH. Friday started with an afternoon ride up to Portland, ME where we met up with the third member of our Alchemy fam, her BFF and our lovely host Ian.
With the Ascend Tour touching down in Boston on Friday, the LA crew’s Alchemy Tour got moved from the Portland stadium to the more intimate Club Aura and I for one couldn’t be happier. Clearly the right decision based on the crowd and likely one of the smaller places they’ll play, it made for an unbelievable atmosphere with awesome energy all night long.
While there was less production with the smaller show, we were right up in it with the artists almost arms reach away and I didn’t miss the stadium at all. For my A/V nerds, I was able to shoot most of my videos in 1:1 instead of landscape 9:16, fully front and center for The Glitch Mob, Slander & NGHTMRE, and Seven Lions.
We rolled up to the venue just as the local opener was getting off the decks for The Glitch Mob, who started their set a little after 9pm. They featured two brightly colored mixing decks slanted to face the fans, so we could see them in action as the LA based trio blessed us with their dark industrial basslines. A few notable moments from their set were a mashup of “Animus Vox” and Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” plus b2b classic “Fortune Days” into “We Can Make the World Stop” complete with all the great graphics from the music videos.
The Gud Vibrations production came out next with Slander + NGHTMRE dropping some heavy heat to fire up the dance floor. Moshpit Mike and a few enablers started shoving around for a bit, but soon found that most of the fans at Club Aura were not really into throwing their weight around. Things got wild quick when they dialed up the bpm on “Griztronics” and oh yes oh yes that shit was hittin different. Of course Slander was out here doing Slader things, featuring their remix of Post Malone’s “I Fall Apart” and “Love is Gone,”
I took great pleasure grinding it out to NGHTMRE’s new collab with Zhu “Man’s First Inhibition,” and enjoyed the feels of the crowd pleasing collabs “First Time” and “Potions.” Pretty friggin sweet we’ll get to hear those sadboi anthems again tonight on the Ascend Tour with Dabin and Said the Sky playing solo sets as well as their feature roles in the Illenium live band. But I digress…
Finally the set I’ve been waiting all summer to experience, Seven Lions taking the stage on his headline tour. After playing circuit ground in 2017 and main stage in 2018, Seven Lions was a notable miss from this year’s EDCLV lineup and unfortunately could not get to his Moonrise set in time. I contemplated staying at his label’s Ophelia Records stage to catch his weekend closing set on Sunday at Electric Zoo. But after seeing Mitis, Dabin, Jason Ross, Said the Sky and Kill the Noise, I could not bring myself to miss the epic Dogblood set on main stage. But by golly Ophelia Records, that stage takeover had an incredible lineup and vibe.
It all added to the anticipation for this Alchemy set after missing Seven Lions at the three summer festivals on my calendar. He delivered an energy packed experience with enough psy trance drops to keep us moving and grooving well after midnight. I caught all of the classics I came to hear, highlighted by his song with Above & Beyond “See the End,” and a moving mashup of Zedd’s “Clarity” and “Dreamin.” It was a special night at an intimate club venue getting to share it with my Alchemy fam who had never seen any of these wonderful LA artists perform live.
When the Alchemy Tour was all said and done with Portland, we got up outta Club Aura a touch before one and headed back to the BFF’s flat to try for a good night’s rest before day two of Full Send Weekend – a stop at the legendary Madison Square Garden for the Ascend Tour.
Before I end part one of this adventure, a quick pic of the reinforcements as we power up on the ride down from Portland to New York City. Many thanks to Ian for the hospitality and the lovely Stephanie for her patience and perseverance in the driver’s seat while I twirled up this quick review. I’ve got some short clips of the artists up on my twitter feed @SamWolloch and you definitely don’t want to miss my maiden voyage as I share the feels on an @ourmoonlanding Instagram takeover live and direct from section 105 @TheGarden.
Of course there is plenty more of the Alchemy Tour, which goes on for nearly another month and finishes with a stop in the valley for many of the hometown MoonLandingFam to enjoy on October 13th. Check out the complete list of Alchemy Tour dates here. Until next time…
✌️💙
