HARD SUMMER 2012 - August 3rd & 4th @ LA State Historic Park

[LiquidL]

Going Saturday but work is crawwwling today in anticipation

[anonimouse]

going to my first HARD event and can already say will likely be my last, didn't know Live Nation bought them. dear lord. hopefully this wont have any obvious effects until next year, as Live Nation has a habit of taking good venues and making them shitty, and taking shitty venues and making them HORRIBLE. looking forward to $6 bottles of water

fuck Live Nation

[suprefan]

Gary needs corporate backing. But he picked the wrong company to get help from. I'm sure Insomniac and Gv flirted with the idea.

[theresalwaysone]

looking forward to $6 bottles of water

To be fair, water was already $6. Nothing new there.

[Mugwog]

$3 water and much better layout than last year. HARD did better

[streamline]

best HARD i've been to. sound was great at every stage except the HARDER stage, still needs to be louder there, but other than that it was great. boys noize threw down the best set i've ever seen. also, pretty sure magnetic man played out the same set as coachella, but at least they had bass this time

[WhyTheLongFace]

The layout was really good. I didn't have sound problems like people did last year. Water was $3 and very abundant. Still with that said, I had just an ok time. The crowd didn't really show Bloc Party much love and I'm jealous of those seeing them at OSL w/o being surrounded by ravers. Danny Brown's voice was muffled so I couldn't understand him and that really hurt since I don't know much about him.

Outside of that Craze threw down a dope set, the little bit I saw of Breakbot was cool, Miike Snow ended amazingly and Bootsy was funky as hell for the 20 minutes I saw him.

[streamline]

The layout was really good. I didn't have sound problems like people did last year. Water was $3 and very abundant. Still with that said, I had just an ok time. The crowd didn't really show Bloc Party much love and I'm jealous of those seeing them at OSL w/o being surrounded by ravers. Danny Brown's voice was muffled so I couldn't understand him and that really hurt since I don't know much about him.

Outside of that Craze threw down a dope set, the little bit I saw of Breakbot was cool, Miike Snow ended amazingly and Bootsy was funky as hell for the 20 minutes I saw him.

Did you see Talabot? His set was in my top 3 of yesterday. Lots of dancing

[tmac]

The 30 mins of sound pellegrino thermal team was absolutely incredible. I then cruised over to talabot and he was amazing as well. Fkae blood and gesaffelstein were good. Bootsy was way too fucking loud. It was silly

[Justin170]

Agreed! Much more organized then last year. As annoying as the beer rule was at least I could buy one fast. Boys Noize threw it down and I liked that nobody saw Bloc Party because it left more room for me!

[Media Blitz]

Scored!

[Ardentbiscuit]

I am bummed Brodinski canceled.

[anonimouse]

$3 water and much better layout than last year. HARD did better

when i was there last nite i kept thinking "this really isn't that bad..." but i figured improvements had been made from what i've read of previous years. i must say though thats having been to hundreds and hundreds of shows and that was only the 2-3rd time i've had to take my shoes off for a search. pretty annoying but at least the lines were relatively quick when i went in. never had to wait in line for porta-potties. most security was pretty chill, cops weren't that bad either (but there were sooooooooooo many!)

i thought the place was going to be way more packed. looks like it didnt sell out this year, hope they aren't gonna take a hit on this one. i must say tho it was pretty sweet to be able to leave my spot about 15 people from the rail and come back about 10 mins before miike snow started and walk right up to the same spot without any trouble at all. it was like the goodness of coachella with the small fest feel of this aint no picnic. then again it was almost criminal how thin the crowds were for bootsie and joey beltram.

i guess i'll retract my previous statement on not going again as long as this thing doesnt get all LN'd out. for those who went in 2010-11, are the wood chips on the ground in the back area new? did that used to be dirt? and have they always had the floor mats in the tents? just imagining that entire area + dance floor being dirt and what a nightmare it would be

[brando4n82]

Whaaaat?! Nooooooo

[brando4n82]

going to my first HARD event and can already say will likely be my last, didn't know Live Nation bought them. dear lord. hopefully this wont have any obvious effects until next year, as Live Nation has a habit of taking good venues and making them shitty, and taking shitty venues and making them HORRIBLE. looking forward to $6 bottles of water

fuck Live Nation

Errmahgod. Fuck the corporate world. Blah blah blah

Shut up dude. This was easily the best hard event they have ever put on. Money just kills everything, doesn't it?

[anonimouse]

Errmahgod. Fuck the corporate world. Blah blah blah

Shut up dude. This was easily the best hard event they have ever put on. Money just kills everything, doesn't it?

hurr durr dude. guess you didn't read my last post. i know it's a lot of words, you can take breaks if you need to

[Albiedamned]

Anybody see Gesaffelstein? That was one of the best. And anyone get those fliers for Hard Haunted Mansion? Justice, Knife Party, and Major Lazer, tickets on sale August 11.

[brando4n82]

hurr durr dude. guess you didn't read my last post. i know it's a lot of words, you can take breaks if you need to

I did. We just posted at about the same time. It was still a naive post.

[anonimouse]

I did. We just posted at about the same time. It was still a naive post.

dont put yourself down like that! there is an edit button you know

[choice cat]

Last night was plenty loud for me at all the stages. Some great improvements made! I liked the layout much better lots more room. Really looking forward to tonight. I felt bad to see Bloc Party not getting much love as well, but thats pretty much expected at a Hard event. Boys Noize was the absolute highlight of the night .. Woooow what a fucking set that was. Enjoyed every minute of it.

[paulb]

I hope someone filmed Gesafffelstein in its entirety! .....and Huoratron today!

[RickeyinLA]

Best lineup, best weather, best setup, best sound (Harder stage could've been louder), and this was a ridiculously good two days. Gesaffelstein was amazing, Chromeo, A-Trak (plus what I saw of Surkin and Oliver and DJ Craze, Fake Blood, and Breakbot) were incredible. I wanted to love Bootsy but that was a summer fairgrounds performance at best for the first ten minutes I saw (don't you think they should have made his bass louder?) before having my head taken off again by Boys Noize - he gets better every time! On Saturday Smims & Belle did that song I needed to hear, A-Trak was funner than yesterday, Trolley Snatcha - great, Zombie Disco and Birdy Nam Nam were fun from the beer garden, Alvin Risk killed it hard, missed Brodinski somehow and I wanted to catch him, Dillon was sick, Datsik was sik, Nero was GREAT up until the crash/burn which led us to CVS and James Murphy - loved the version of Slippery People he played and the Poolside Harvest Moon and boy was that a happy discothecque. Skrilly Vanilly was fucking excellent, he was fucking excellent and the crowd went insane again. This was like having a really good Sahara tent six Gold Line stops from my home and next month it's a really good Gobi and Mojave tent in the same backyard. Fucking yay.

[Oranix]

stayed at teh discoteque stage all night last night. Best sets go to Justin Martin, Vonstroke and Kill Frenzy. James Murphy to end the night was sickkk. really groovy.

best time at a festival in a while!

[brando4n82]

Discotheque is the new Sahara. There, I said it.

[Brochella]

How was John Talabot?

[Mugwog]

I don't know what happened other than being attacked by a pink jelly fish the whole night on Saturday.

[Derekx]

Fake Blood, Chromeo, and Birdy Nam Nam were my favorite sets of the weekend. I'll have pictures up soon.

[anonimouse]

james murphy was soooooo fun! such a good way to end it. like you guys said discotheque truly did have an oldschool sahara feel going on. especially nice at the end of the evening when all the bros were at skrillex. anyway looks like i'll be checking out haunted mansion this year

oh yea anyone know what was up with the dude the medics were working on right in front of the discotheque sound board at the end? he seemed pretty fucked up but he was somewhat responsive.

[summersnow]

Friday, in general, was one of the least crowded HARD events I have ever been to (been to quite a few now) - don't know what it was, if it was the line-up or just the fact that the majority of the attendees couldn't make it in early enough to justify a two-day'er. Would not be surprised if Gary went Sat/Sun next year a la FYF this year.

Friday - Talabot's set was odd, seemed like his mixer was broken - fairly generic-sounding. Action Bronson was hilariously entertaining + he was in great spirits and quite good - hope Coachella picks him up next year. Fake Blood was quite good, but Gesaffelstein doing a live set was a fucking revelation (if you like his music) - so much tension/release. Hope good videos pop up somewhere (and that he somehow decides to do that again in LA - his DJ sets aren't nearly as enjoyable if you're a fan). Bloc Party - wow, what a horrible reaction for a band that was top of the poster - felt bad for them (they sounded a tad off too, not sure if that was stage sound or what). Boys Noize tore the place up (as always).

Saturday - 3x as crowded - can't even count the # of fraternity shirts spotted. A-Trak's set was great/fun, dropped a few Duck Sauce cuts that fit in nicely. Squarepusher sounded great, but again, crowd had no idea what they were in for/did not stick around. All that you need to know about the crowd was that the biggest non-main stage reaction I saw/heard all weekend was kids singing along/going nuts to an Alvin Risk remix of that big fun. song "We Are Young" - liked his set overall, tons of energy in the tent. Kill Frenzy was great, Dillon Francis/Zedd were as expected (loads of people there) and DJ Antention was probably the craziest set I heard all weekend from a musical standpoint - and also the least attended. Too bad, he was great. Skrillex ended with Cinema, I fell asleep standing, crowd was pleased. Metro seemed too hectic after the show, but that just means I'll be leaving earlier next year/time.

[darkmoon66]

Little Dragon was my favorite, followed by Boys Noize and Squarepusher.