CounterPoint in hindsight

• Paul DeMerritt
• GIVIN’ WHAT THEY LOVE: Janelle Monae stagedives over a sea of fans.

Countless furry boots have been put back in the closet, confused Cartersville locals can sleep easy once again, and tens of thousands of proudly smelly patrons are finally enjoying the embrace of a warm shower as the second Counterpoint Festival concludes.

EDM and hip-hop fans arrived in droves from all over the country (some from as far as Eastern Europe) to descend on the rural oasis of Kingston Downs to escape from the trappings of reality and indulge in three days of sweaty, sunburned dancing to an array of artists, oh yeah, and OutKast.

The festivities kicked off early Friday afternoon with a Creative Loafing-curated stage that featured an absolutely stellar set from Atlanta’s own eclectic goofballs Hello Ocho who received a brief introduction from none other than the illustrious DIP.

The festival grounds themselves were modest in size but managed to accommodate the eager masses who were treated to carnival rides, numerous food vendors that managed to find a middle ground between nutrition and feel-good heartburn, and miscellaneous pop-up shops geared toward captivating the minds of tripped-out attendees.

Friday featured a lineup of EDM heavyweights with Big Gigantic, Pretty Lights, Krewella and Boyz Noize competing for the most lasers and the greatest chance of giving their fans irreversible hearing damage. Big Gigantic and Pretty Lights in particular dazzled crowds by proving that there can be a happy unity between live instrumental prowess and laptop trickery.

Saturday featured the diversity in CounterPoint’s lineup as indie rock, electronic psychedelia, soul, and left field electronic all came out to play. The criminally underrated Rubblebucket brought an insane amount of energy for a blisteringly hot afternoon performance that combined complex horn arrangements with infectious grooves that commanded the audience to dance until certain exhaustion. Lead singer Kalmia Traver even sang like a seasoned pop-veteran while busting out a baritone saxophone solo in the same breath. How rare is that?

The absurdly talented Janelle Monae and her equally talented (and fashionable) band followed Rubblebucket at 5:45 p.m., and the English language doesn’t provide enough positive words to describe her performance. If there has ever been a spiritual successor to James Brown and his unparalleled work ethic, it’s definitively Monae. Over the course of an hour the Electric Lady crooned, moonwalked, stagedived, danced on top of speakers, died, was reborn, and started a massive pillow fight with her entire band. Her first-class professionalism challenges other artists to treat their live performances with more care, energy, and precision.

The rest of the evening fluctuated from J. Cole’s tight verses, to STS9’s oscillating space jams, to OTT’s psych-reggae union, and finally capped off with either Above and Beyond’s trance-dance spectacle or Shpongle’s druggy psybient weirdness. None of the aforementioned artists captured me with the same intensity as Monae or Rubblebucket, but they provided an excellent showcase of the diversity in today’s electronic landscape.

Sunday dawned to a weary crowd that managed to fight off the sun poisoning and hangovers to expend all their energy for one more day of shameless turnt up bliss. Instrumental trip-hop trio Chrome Sparks opened at CounterPoint’s smallest stage and despite just returning from a drive all the way from New Orleans, the Michigan natives positively killed their set. Their fluttering electronic textures coupled with tight live drums managed to convince attendees to abandon their hard fought shade and let loose in the scorching sunrays.

Ployd took to the massive Steeple Stage at 2 p.m. and proved why he’s deserving of his self-proclaimed title, Trap Jesus. He wielded power over the crowd in a truly Messianic fashion without even needing the benefit of expensive light shows.

EL-P and Killer Mike, or Run the Jewels, performed at 3:45 p.m. to a captive crowd that intently followed Mike’s cries to prove to Brooklyn-based EL-P how down and dirty Southerners can really get. They tore through their set, spitting verses like fire and bouncing energy off each other with the friendly competitiveness that’s so rare to find among today’s fame-hungry rappers. As the intensity of their rhymes reached their peak and the crowd was caught in a religious-like fervor... “Temporary Weather Suspension: Please clear the venue and go back to your hard top vehicles. We will alert you when it is safe to return.”

All music was abruptly cancelled, and distraught attendees were herded back to their cars and campgrounds as the rain began to pummel the festival grounds. Of course, that didn’t stop everyone from excessive partying, though cars were beginning to line up at the exit gates due to uncertainty of whether the festival would be completely cancelled outright.

Yet at 7 p.m. sharp all fears were eased as Thievery Corporation kicked off the music at 7:30 p.m. with set times pushed back by an hour and poor Riff Raff’s performance was cut off entirely. Phantogram provided a surprisingly high energy set that rallied thousands of attendees into a grooving frenzy despite having a set that was light on their biggest hits. The Diplo-fronted dancehall-tinged Major Lazer ramped up the energy even further with dancers, confetti cannons, a surprise appearance from an eager Riff Raff, and of course, “Bubblebutt.”

• Cayla Verrone
• THE BASS BRAINFEEDER: Thundercat wails on his mammoth electric bass.

Electric bass guru Thundercat performed a technically dizzying set at 10 p.m. but sadly the audience was sparse as the mammoth OutKast crowd started to take shape. The earlier weather confusion combined with a 20-minute delay in their start time caused the anticipation for their homecoming performance to reach maximum capacity. Desperate cries of “hootie hoo!” washed over the audience and finally, after years of waiting, Georgia finally got to welcome back their favorite sons.

Any fears of Coachella’s sound problems, and Andre 3K’s lack of energy were immediately assuaged as the first glittery lines of “B.O.B” emanated from the speakers and the two childhood friends ripped through their verses without having to dust off any cobwebs. Their set was packed with every obligatory hit, and some of the key singles like the classic “Player’s Ball” and “Crumblin ‘Erb” from their 20-year-old debut Souternplayalisticadillacmuzik were even thrown in for nostalgic effect (though Andre dismissed their earliest verses as “wack”).

I was a little disappointed that Monae only jumped on the stage briefly to dance for “Hey Ya!” instead of performing her single “Tightrope” with Big Boi, but their set was too flawless to justify complaints. (Be sure to check out Gavin Godfrey’s in-depth review of their performance.)

After the ‘Kast chaos dispersed, minimalist instrumental producer Tycho performed with his talented backing band to soothe the tired souls of CounterPoint’s exhausted patrons. The dreamy set was the perfect afterword to the festival’s three-day madness.

Going forward, Kingston Downs may not have been the ideal location for the festival. The stages were only minutes apart and the noise blasts of the EDM artists in particular often bled over each other. The carnival games gave off the air of a State Fair moreso than a music festival, so the fest still has a ways to go before capturing the pop-up city feel of giants like Bonnaroo and Coachella.

But CounterPoint’s eclectic lineup ultimately made the festival. It’s rare that over the course of 72 hours I get to savor a dazzling Pretty Lights light show, keep Monae from tumbling to the mud as she stagedove across a sea of fans, and after years of accepting their demise, see OutKast return to the stage once again.

‘Till next year, Counterpoint.