There is some confusion about my wristband. A security guard is unsure that it has received the stamp required for admission. A MoMA PS1 Warm Up official meets with the security guard to confirm the authenticity of the wristband, and the confusion is amicably settled. I enter the PS1 courtyard, which features a giant water filtration machine designed by Andrés Jaque, the winner of this year’s Young Architects Program. I would run up a $20 Poland Spring™ drinking water tab over the next few hours as Jaque’s water trickled above me, taunting.
Frank and Tony play disciplined house music that, at times, screeches to immobility for maximum effect. As such, they are the most criminally underappreciated act on the evening’s bill. For most of their set, people are still trickling in, and those who showed in time for the beginning of the set have worked up a decent beer buzz by its end. I enjoy the beats while I sip my Poland Spring™ and look at art. I peek outside for Via App, whose set is strange, confident, and markedly less beat-oriented than her recent 1080p release.
Gavin Russom plays the hardest, dumbest, most consistently gratifying techno set I’ve seen since Portland’s U.S. Hard. At some point during the kick-drum avalanche, crowd control becomes a problem, and security guards become aggressive. In the line to buy a drink ticket in order to then wait in line for another bottle of Poland Spring™, a drunken person comments on my press pass. “Can I be in your article?” they ask. I ask them if they like this shit, and they respond “sure.” A nearby listener adds that the Warm Up festival is the “greatest place to get day-drunk.” I go outside for a moment of respite from the mass of bodies and I’m pretty sure I see Jason Schwartzman smoking a cigarette.
Bob Moses has some sound problems (I think), but his set has moments of clarity. His captivating presence onstage evokes Autre Ne Veut and Baths. The set is bassy and “serious,” satisfying my humble expectation of what an internationally touring DJ ought to sound like. As the final drink tickets are sold and the courtyard begins to clear out, I am reasonably content, though I sort of wish Gavin Russom had just played a six-hour set. Earlier, a drunk stranger had lamented to a friend, “I’m way too hot to be here.” Remembering this, I smile on the way to the subway station, surrounded by throngs of young and beautiful people.
Tiga / Turbo Recordings / Montreal, Canada
Bob Moses (Live) / Domino / Brooklyn, NY
Gavin Russom (Live) / Ecstatic + DFA Records / New York, NY
Via App / 1080p / New York, NY
Frank & Tony / Scissor & Thread / Brooklyn, NY
More about: Bob Moses, Frank & Tony, Gavin Russom, Tiga, Via App
