Schedule Share

Friday: Pantha du Prince (30 min) > Bear in Heaven (30 min) > Morton Subotnick (Full) > Miike Snow (30 mins) > Squarepusher (Full) > Ahleuchatistas (30 mins) > Explosions in the Sky (1 hr) > Richie Hawtin (15 mins)

Saturday: Julia Holter (Full) > Magnetic Fields (1 hr) > Cold Cave (30 mins) > Hecker/Lopatin (Full) > Orbital (30 mins) > Harold Budd (30 mins) > Four Tet (30 mins) > Shpongle (30 mins)

Hoping my VIP ticket ensures that I'll get into all of the partial shows...

Thursday:
Skipping Justice -- if everyone reviews it as a must see, I'll catch them the following week in Dallas.

Friday:
Pantha du Prince
Miike Snow
Squarepusher
Richie Hawtin

Saturday:
Divine Fits
Cold Cave or Andy Stott
Orbital
Four Tet

I still haven't been able to make a mock for myself. Saturday just breaks my heart too much.

Pantha > Nas > El-P > ? > BMSR > EITS or Hawtin
Divine Fits > some of Magnetic Fields > Cold Cave > Death Grips > Disclosure > Carl Craig or Prefuse 73

Yeah, it's rough. Although it was a bit easier for me because before the schedule was even published I knew that I would be seeing all of Orbital's set no matter what.

If I can offer any advice, my decision making process on stuff like this goes:

1) Which band has better stage presence? (youtube helps a lot with this)
2) If tied, which band do I like better?
3) If tied, which band had the better recent album? (as most live shows are focused on recent material)
4) If tied, which band has the better back-catalog?

There are a lot of bands I like that I'm missing, but I'm OK with that. Because in the end its live music festival, and a compelling live set will outweigh most anything else. Even if I love someone's music, if their performance mostly consists of them standing behind a laptop I'll probably go see a band I like less that has a more involved live set. For example, I wasn't too keen on the last M83 record (a bit over-produced for me), but their live set was AMAZING last year. Right now the only debate I'm having is whether to see Andy Stott (whose music I love, but live is just a laptop jockey) or Santigold (who I'm not that excited about, but will probably be better on stage).

Also I tend to bias myself towards seeing full sets rather than show hopping because entering/exiting venues and walking around downtown Asheville in the cold is exhausting.

I've had to base some of my tie-breakers on "who might I never get to see again because they are likely to stop touring". It really breaks my heart that there is a Dolby / Orbital conflict. But all I have to do is look at my MP3 player, and there is not a single Dolby song on it - but the entire Orbital catalogue is -- so Orbital gets my eyeballs and earbones for that time slot.

Sadly, my homebase of Dallas TX does not always get the electronic acts to tour the city with consistancy (Austin tends to suck a lot of acts away from Dallas and Houston). I do not ever recall a Squarepusher tour coming anywhere near Texas. Same goes for Orbital.

There are acts like Justice, Nas, Primus which will be in Dallas in the 14 days after Moogfest. And El-P is in the Dallas clubs every couple of months.

Then there are some of the legacy acts that I'll have to miss because the GF finds their body of work to be 'sleep inducing' - namely Budd and Subotnick. So I have to appease her with Miike Snow instead of Subotnick - and Budd overlaps with Orbital and my preferred selection of Four Tet.

In some cases, I would have liked to see the schedule have an extra day or an earlier start (possibly even squeezing in a set at a few venues after lunch and before dinner. But I think they'd have just as many complaints about Friday afternoon gigs like they say they got about late Sunday gigs -- coming from the people who had to work Friday and Monday.
But I only have last year to base my opinions on - and I loved last year's festival so much I decided to come back this year. But this year has planted a seed of discontent with regard to attending 2013. Here's hoping that no one throws any fertilizer near that seed.

I'm trying to stay positive, and will suspend any judgment till after the event... and yeah, I knew there would be conflicts, but I assumed I'd be able to see full sets of most of my favorites. Right now, I'm going to be seeing about 30 mins of many bands I'd really like to see from start to finish. Fantastic artists on this bill, but I'm wondering if I'm really built for the overlapping "festival" format... we'll see!

First, let me say that I think ACE can improve the schedule by making a wholesale switch with Death Grips and Shpongle. Just put Death Groups in the CC during the Shpongle slot. DG is more interesting, deserves a bigger time and space and are generally better musicians (yeah, I said it) than Shpongle. Also, I know exactly 0 people that are interested in going to Shpongle; please don't waste that venue. I'm sure there's all sorts of stage and contractual problems, not to mention dumping a few thousand amped up kids on the street at 2AM, but don't let that get in the way of a substantial schedule improvement. It won't fix everything (for me) on Saturday, but it'd go a long way in getting things right.

Friday
Pantha Du Prince (partial)
Bear in Heaven (partial)
Nas (partial)
El-P (partial)
Squarepusher (full)
Blondes (partial)
Richie Hawtin/Explosions in the Sky (which ever one captures me)

Saturday
Julia Holter (partial)
Actress (full)
Andy Stott (full)
Cold Cave (partial)
Death Grips (full)
Four Tet (partial)
Prefuse 73 with Teebs (full)

Most Bummed to Miss
Hecker and Lopatin

Lol but they have played the orange peel several times.

Yeah they did iearlier this year in fact.

It probably can be altered to fit the venue it's being performed in, within reason at least.

So right now I'm thinking a bit of Trust, then Orbital, and probably leave a song early for Disclosure. Kind of worried Disclosure may fill up when the Orbital crowd disperses into the city.

So that's what I'm thinking for the cluster portion of the schedule. I'm not happy about it, but it'll do. Can't believe I'm skipping Death Grips and Hecker/Lopatin though.

Ah yeah. I'm doing Carl Craig rather than Four Tet, so Disclosure is on the way for me.

Saturday schedule was modified a bit.

Now I'm seriously considering skipping Orbital. :/

Death Grips -> Hecker Lopatin -> Disclosure

Also worth noting that I've seen Orbital before (and Death Grips)