Review: Nocturnal Wonderland Night 2

Night two of Nocturnal Wonderland brought with it excitement, artists I’ve never heard of, technical difficulties, and new and old friends reached.

I ended up at the festival about the same time I did Friday night (around 7pm). I could tell the crowd was larger (it being a Saturday night), but the line to get through ticketing and security still flowed smoothly and quickly. Being greeted by the same fantasy filled world as the night before was a beautiful sight to experience. I wanted to start quickly though, so I didn’t take as long to soak in the images, and quickly headed to the tents.

I arrived at the Labyrinth tent to be treated to a nice surprise. John Dahlbäck was on stage spinning, and he’s an artist I’ve never heard of before, but he was fantastic. I felt he was able to play to the crowd really well, and the visuals on stage were amazing. They used live camera feeds of the audience overlaid with different light patterns to create a unique experience. If you were like me and hadn’t heard of him before, I highly suggest checking him out.

Great moments happened throughout the night were I continually ran into groups of people I had met the night before. It’s such a great feeling to turn to your side, recognize someone you had a brief connection with before, and just be filled with excitement that you’re able to recreate the experience. There was one group of students from Occidental College that I must have ran into at least 6 different times throughout the night. Meeting new people is one of the best parts about these shows.

Following John Dahbäck, I was able to rave out to R3hab and was taught quite clearly that there really is no party without Arty, but from there the night went off a little bit. Sometime between the end of Arty’s set and the beginning of Benny Benassi, the sound cut off completely. Technical difficulties come and go when your working with all digital media and the crowd accepted it and began chanting Benassi’s name, keeping the energy high. However, after that moment the sound quality in general faded. There were moments when the music was so soft I could easily hold a conversation with those around me without having to raise my voice. I’ve seen some people complaining that only the front speakers were on, which may have been partially the problem, but I was able to get close to the stage and there were still moments when the volume dipped. Whatever it was it certainly killed the energy around the tent.

It felt to me like they were able to fix the problem by the time Pretty Lights took the stage. If you didn’t see my review of Pretty Lights at the Shrine, you should know that he is one of my favorite artists and he has never disappointed me. The build up at the beginning of his set using just the first few notes of “I Know the Truth” put so much energy inside of me, that when he finally dropped the track, I exploded with excitement and grooved the rest of the set away.

I had planned to head to another tent to see Dash Berlin after Pretty Lights, but I had made some friends at this stage and decided to stick around to see Sebastian Ingrosso, which I think was a wise choice. He’s not my favorite artist, but he does know how to spin a good set.

One of the best moments came when all of the performers sporting giant animals over them, that I mentioned in night one, all converged on our tent at once, creating quite a spectacle for the crowd. Sebastian even teased the audience about the upcoming Swedish House Mafia OneLastTour coming to LA (tour dates are announced in just a few hours!) by exclaiming how the next time he would be back in California, he would be bringing his two friend with him, which caused the audience to erupt with cheers.

Even with the technical difficulties, I had a blast on both nights of Nocturnal. The artists were great (as always) and the crowd all seemed to be at the same level. I highly recommend coming out if you’ve never been before, and if you have, I hope to see down the rabbit hole next year!