Identity Festival @ Gexa Engery Pavilion, Dallas, TX

What a day? Oh what a day!! In my years as a concert goer, and in my years reviewing shows, I had yet been to an electronic music festival. That was all undone at Gexa Energy Pavilion when the touring Identity (ID) Festival came rolling into Dallas. With big name acts such as Rusko, the Crystal Method, DJ Shadow, Pretty Lights, Steve Aoki, and a handful of others, the word was definitely out in a city that attracts many large-scale electronic festivals and shows. In the sweltering heat, thousands of patrons descended upon Fair Park's amphitheater for a day's worth of techno, electro, dubstep, house, funk, you name it.

With three separate stages spread across the amphitheater and its adjacent parking lots, festival goers had their choice of three different acts performing at one given time. Unfortunately, the Advent Stage was poorly located in a back parking lot that left it pretty much abandoned for the better part of the day. But in contrast, the Dim Mak Stage, located in the main parking lot, and the Main Stage, located within Gexa Energy Pavilion, both attracted the largest crowds with a constant fluctuation of people from one stage to the other, dependent on which artist was performing at the time. The best part about going into the Pavilion to catch one of the eight scheduled acts on the Main Stage was the fact that it was covered and beyond the blazing sun. It got seriously hot.

But not to be outdone by the sun, some of electronic dance music's (EDM) best brought the bass, the energy, and all the fun you could ask for. Most of the day was spent watching and dancing to DJ's spinning records, CD's, or forgoing hard media for digital compositions. There were a handful of acts that performed live with instruments, including Hercules & Love Affair, Holy Ghost!, and the Disco Biscuits. The veteran Crystal Method showed all of the youngsters how it's still done, showcasing a catalog's worth of material to the overflowing crowd at the Dim Mak Stage. I mean, c'mon, "Keep Hope Alive" is a classic. But on this day, dubstep reigned supreme. Datsik and Rusko attracted throngs of people to their respective stages to indulge themselves in bass heavy tracks and head-splitting sounds. After watching Datsik perform his afternoon set, I wondered if I could handle another dose of dubstep before the night was through. But there I was, in the Pavilion watching Rusko drop some pretty heavy bombs on the audience. While he doing that, Steve Aoki was putting on a spectacle on the Dim Mak stage. With 'AOKI' spelled in neon lights, the man behind Dim Mak Records played a plethora of tunes from his catalog and provided a different sound from his dubstep couterparts. Unfortunately, I was feeling the effects of the sun before DJ Shadow and Pretty Lights took their stages as the night's headliners. With my tail tucked between my legs and a splitting headache, I decided to call it a day. But all in all, it was a pretty fun day full of great performances and interesting scenery. Pictures of the festival are below:

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