Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus

One of the unique things about FYF is that they have an arena right in the middle of the festival grounds, and they have certain artists play in there who might not perfectly suited to your typical outdoor stage setup at a festival. FlyLo was another one of this year’s festival stalwarts, but even at a late night tent gig at Bonnaroo, and even with the world he could conjure up with the dual screen set-up he’s currently favoring, there was always the sense that FlyLo’s space is so specific that he doesn’t really belong in a grab-bag festival situation. The arena at FYF was a neat solution to this: most of the bands I caught in here made it feel like some alternate reality in this massive dark cavern while the rest of FYF passed by outside. With gauzy lights streaming from the stage and a rig full of mirrorballs of various sizes hanging above the center of the crowd, it was also special to see FlyLo in a large room like this, to imagine what he could do with his beats clattering around in such a massive indoor space at any given show. While the fact that we were in L.A. made it feel like he was really teasing a Kendrick cameo when he dropped his To Pimp A Butterfly contribution “Wesley’s Theory,” most of the set was of the spaced-out FlyLo variety, and it provided the kind of insular, escape-into-your-own-head experience uncommon at festivals.