Headstash

Headstash On The Road: Counter.Point 2012 Day 1

It’s hard to believe that just a 30-minute drive outside of the sprawling urban city of Atlanta is the epitome of rural country in Fairbun, Georgia. Counter.Point is set on a huge beautiful plot of country land with wide open fields, hills, nature and little else.

After a decent wait for parking, we entered the Counter.Point grounds and saw just how beautiful Georgia can be this time of year. This gorgeous area combined with temperate Georgia fall weather is the perfect conditions to throw a festival.

Another highlight of this first year festival, right off the bat, is the organization. This is probably one of the most organized festivals I’ve ever been to, which also is all-the-more impressive considering it’s an inaugural event. The MCP guys definitely know what they’re doing when it comes to producing a festival.

There were only two stages playing music on Thursday. So after exploring the grounds a bit and checking out the multiple sections of Shakedown, we walked in to Beats Antique. Immediately, I noticed belly dancer extraordinaire Zoe Jakes donning a huge headdress of white dear horns. Her elegant dance coupled with the electric tribal fusion meant for an amazing time. These guys definitely played to this festival, throwing in their version of Bassnectar’s “Voodoo.” Antique's tribal sound wonderfully segued back and worth with Bassnectar’s classic get-down sound.

We stuck around on the same stage for Big Gigantic. Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken were on their game last night. From the back of the crowd, as they opened up, the first thing I noticed was huge clouds of smoke coming out from the stage. This is the first time I’ve ever seen pyrotechnics being used by Big G. They threw in a good mix of old and new material, everything you would expect from a festival set. They used their LED visualizations incredibly well, and they were clearly customized for each song as “I Need a Dolla” showed a montage of dollar bill visuals.

Midway through the Big Gigantic, we decided to go check out Up Until Now, featuring David Murphy or STS9. It was clear Murph-dog was in the house as we walked in to an “EHM” remix which absolutely brought the heat. Some STS9 fans talk about how overplayed and undiversified STS9 has gotten with songs like "EHM" being played so often. Well Murph needs to take what he was doing with his brother and Up Until Now and bring that flavor back to Sector 9 because it was really creative.

The mixing was completely original and it was extremely refreshing to hear that song played in a totally different manor and yet maintain the raging aesthetic of the original. Another highlight from this set was a mixing of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” The opening segment of “War Pigs” dropped right into an electronic jam-sesh that had the energy of the crowd right on par with the energy of the music.

We ventured back to Big Gigantic and caught the last of their set as they ended with one of their favorite closers, their version of “I Can’t Stop.” Music on the main stages were unfortunately over for the night. Although 12:00 a.m. is early to stop music at a festival, the silent disco kept things moving for those that wanted more music.

It was clear that few people wanted their night to be over as a huge line amassed at the silent disco stage. We got in to check out one of Asheville’s best producers, David Krantz. His stage name really sums up his music – Futexture. His music is a palpable downtempo psychedelic mashup of pure bliss. The sounds he makes really do seem to have texture to to them in a very tactile manor. Moreover, those textures are nothing short of futuristic - this guy is ahead of his time. His Tipper-esque sound had everyone lucky enough to be wearing those headphones wiggling with wonder.

Day one of Counter Point can be considered a huge success. Stay tuned for more coverage from Atlanta.