Review: Danger’s in the air at Hard Day of the Dead

Throughout the first night of Hard Day of the Dead at the Pomona Fairplex, a new sound tore through the air. It was the shriek of fans, strapped to a cable 100 feet high, barreling down a zipline over the tens of thousands of ravers below.

More than any new bass drop or drum pattern, the defining sound of Hard Day of the Dead on Saturday was dance music fans longing for a sense of danger.

Over the last decade, electronic music events have grown from a weird and marginal subculture to a highly polished, corporate-sponsored concert circuit. The edge hasn’t just been taken off. It’s been purposefully removed.

This is music that’s supposed to feel dangerous and disorienting, but by and large these professionally produced raves have become a relatively comfy place to spend a Saturday night.

The headliners at the two-day Day of the Dead festival were similarly safe and familiar. The corny Australian electro-dubstep duo Knife Party, the Colorado beat producer Pretty Lights and pop crossovers Calvin Harris and Zedd are all staples of EDM festivals.

The crowds didn’t seem to mind, however. Though Hard’s festivals have had to find new venues this year while its usual grounds at that Los Angeles State Historic Park are under construction, the Fairplex staging was compelling and varied. Outdoor sets were given blowout lighting fixtures, and indoor stages were rigged to feel like warehouse nightclubs.

Despite having the worst project name in dance music, the British producer who performs as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs filled the cavernous Pink Stage with thoughtful house music that never pandered.

France’s Gesaffelstein was the night’s overachiever: His set of harsh industrial noise and stylish techno pulses had the crowd clamoring to get into that same, capacity-packed room.

The elusive L.A. project Zhu had a sense of humor about itself, projecting sherbet-hued images of a buxom babe playing saxophone onstage. But the music was unironically enticing -- airy, lean productions full of eerie pitch-shifted vocals.

Ty Dolla Sign, one of a few rap and R&B artists on the weekend’s bill, had a big turnout for his suave, hit-packed set. “Why did they choose Ty Dolla Sign for Hard Fest?” he asked. “Lord knows,” he answered, starting a song of that same title whose invitations to randy, amoral behavior were very well received.

Deadmau5 and Eric Prydz have each played top slots at Hard fests before, but here they teamed up on the smaller outdoor stage where they traded off DJ duties, mixing tracks into each other’s sets. Collaboration like this is normal on record, but live it was a bit of an event. The set crackled with new energy and felt like the kind of experimental show you don’t see many EDM megastars playing anymore.

The main stage acts did their tour of duty. Diplo was clever and self-deprecating about his set of boneheaded trap and electro; Pretty Lights admirably tried a more live, spontaneous set but couldn’t overcome his frat-stoner sound. Knife Party remains a scourge representing every lazy impulse in EDM; if only fans had been redirected to Jamie Jones’ funky but near-empty closeout set instead.

Kids looked for their fix one way or another, and if there wasn’t danger to be found in the music, they found it on the zipline.

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