North Coast Festival Day Two: Beats With a Side of Funk

The soggy start may have delayed a few bands, but there was no shortage of funk, jams, untz, or beats in Union Park yesterday. The Right Now kicked things off with their unique brand of soul, then Rubblebucket brought some afro indie beat flair to the table. Love seeing lovely ladies throwing down amazing vocal jams<3 Then The New Mastersounds killed it, complete with organ funk- not even the rain stopped the crowd from dancing. I had the privilege of hanging out with the band after their set, and if there was any question as to where I would be going for afterparty, this set it- more funk needed! Then RJD2 and Breakscience got the beats going, and the rain stopped for a second. Lettuce was one of the awesome surprises at Electric Forest and it was great to hear more jazzy funk from them as well. Cutting that set between Big Gigantic, DJ Thibault, and Lettuce was difficult Too much good music!

By late afternoon, the sun managed to put itself out and many people were going barefoot in the grass/mud. Most popular accessories by far were ponchos and umbrellas. Next year someone should sell LED umbrellas; they'd make a killing. Future Rock pumped up the crowd with a high energy set, and then Wyllys and Rusko both put on great dance parties. Despite not knowing what festival he was at, Common threw down a killer show and further confirmed that Chicago still has a great hip hop scene. Carl Cox was highly recommended to me and I'm sorry to have one gotten to catch one track; that's the casualty of covering a fest- you rarely get to see the whole set of anything. Closing out the night were Fatboy Slim and his feel good electronica and a rocky/wompy STS9 set. Even though I had just seen Soundtribe the night before, I couldn't take my eyes off the feast of lights or stop dancing to the bass and samples. Can they play again tonight please?

The New Mastersounds/Wyllys/New York Hustlers Ensemble/Van Ghost afterparty was amazing from start to finish. You know how sometimes the opener isn't as good as the closer? Or how sometimes the opener is really good, and the headliner is only ho hum? None of that- all of the acts played amazing, unique sets. Jennifer Hartswick wins MVP- she not only sang with Van Ghost, but hustled with the Hustlers and lent some awesome trumpet skills to the New Mastersounds. Speaking of, the boys closed out the night with some tracks released only a month ago and we were all sad to go home when the lights came up.

Off for the last and truly FINAL stand of Summer. Follow along at @TLTMusic!