The Electric Zoo festival returned to New York for its seventh year on Friday at Randall’s Island Park, which has been reimagined to be a more fan-friendly experience, after a rash of bad press had sent organizers scrambling to establish a more appealing. Previously, weather closures and drug-related deaths marred the festival atmosphere, in addition to obscenely long wait times and chaotic organization.
This year however, a more compact, convenient festival layout made for a great deal more fluidity, ideally aided by the EZ pay wristband system which helped cut lines at concessions. However, complaints of difficulty adding funds (“E Zoo dollars”) complicated matters, given that no vendors accepted cash at the venue.
Electric Zoo: Transformed brought out the wild ones, with all walks of dance lovers tearing it up to some of EDM’s biggest names, past, present and future. Don Diablo could be found tearing up his new tune with Tiësto called “Chemicals,” while across the way on the Riverside Stage, Kanye West collaborator Cashmere Cat constructed a powerfully hook-laden set, sidestepping the big dumb drops for a more nuanced experience.
On the massively altered main stage (which looks like a bird this year), Israeli DJ/producer Borgore took a dubstep sledgehammer to the crowd with a blizzard of beats, but dude needs to never sing live again. He’s tone-deaf.
Zeds Dead repped Canada well with a rock-laced format, peppering the ubiquitously obvious beats at the festival with tastes of Pink Floyd, The White Stripes and more.
Friday night’s highlight performance was the headlining slot for the Chemical Brothers, who have returned after half a decade to a scene they largely helped create, but have very little direct representative connection to any longer. With their big-beat sound having been warped into a climate of painfully unoriginal drop climbs, it’s no surprise that Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands delivered a 90 minute powerhouse run through their production history, bringing the bombastic excess of their contemporaries back to center with a core formula of excellence.
