Day for Night’s Winners, Losers and Lasting Takeaways: 10 Things to Remember from Houston’s Maturing Music Festival

Year three of Day for Night went more smoothly than year two, in spite of a Saturday night downpour that was the most unpleasant weather Houston’s young music festival has endured so far, and a smattering of cancellations (none having to do with the rain) that deflated my initial excitement for the weekend (the scrapped Sky Ferreira, Gas, Andy Stott, and Solange‘s Saint Heron showcase Friday night were all on my to-do list).

Still, the Day for Night exceeded expectations. Here are 10 thoughts from this year’s edition as the fest heads toward its fourth year:

1). The campus design was more thoughtful, and worked better. The Red Stage faced downtown, greeting incoming festival-goers, the indoors Blue Stage wasn’t tucked away in a corner, and there was no Yellow Stage set up on the backside of a loading dock. To my knowledge there were no overflowing toilets and the through-line layout of the second floor art installations made more sense and felt less haphazard than last year.

2. The cancellation of Solange’s Friday night showcase was disappointing for a few reasons, but mostly because it left only Boots, Jenny Hval, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kaytranada on the docket for music on the first night. Boots, Hval, and Earl are not exactly Friday-night-festival artists (I love Earl but he’s more of a Saturday afternoon guy), but Kaytranada brought the 90-minute long dance party.

Kaytranada is the rare producer/DJ who has the respect of electronic music diehards and casual fans alike — his textures are crisp and soulful and rooted in a deep love for music, and his beats undeniably bang, which is a combo just about anyone can get down for. He hit the 99.9 percent  highs of “Glowed Up,” “You’re the One,” and, of course, “Lite Spots,” but also dropped Goldlink‘s “Meditation,” a song he has a production credit for, which was a reminder of how swiftly he can transition through different forms of pop music. His microphone wasn’t working, so he couldn’t address the crowd, but his wide, beaming smile was an appropriate reflection of the wide, beaming smiles in the audience that finished their joyous first night of DFN with him.

3. I started my Saturday with Houston’s Deep Cuts, a rising band that seem poised to break at any moment now. Their indie-rock feels decidedly contemporary – their older stuff was shaggy, Smith Westerns-esque garage that feels dated, even now, but their new stuff is more laid-back, better produced, and more in line with what’s big now. Think Destroyer, Ariel Pink, or the AM-radio throwback style of Mac Demarco, The War on Drugs, etc.

They have a sax player that reads more than a gimmick — it’s an expansion of their sound, and another sign of their evolution. I want their 2018 record to be a breakthrough, and their first singles, “Friends,” “Take Me Back,” and “Endlessly Refreshing” are all great.

4. Lil B was phenomenal even if he kept mistakenly saying Dallas instead of Houston. He said he loved Texas and name dropped literally every rapper from Houston, but called the city Dallas on multiple occasions. It was almost distracting enough to make you forget about how amazing the Black Ken (his most recent mixtape) songs translated live,.

Effortless bangers like “Go Stupid Go Dumb” and “Still Run It” sounded as good as classics like “Vans” and “Wonton Soup” (which he also performed). He started with a Houston-friendly “based freestyle.” It was everything I ever dreamt I wanted from a Lil B performance, except not as many kids were doing the cooking dance.

5. Of Montreal, a band I have not really thought about since college, sounded surprisingly vital Saturday afternoon. Of course, it helped they were performing their most vital record, 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? in full, but with the band in head-to-toe regalia they sounded tight, focused, fun, and reminded you of why you liked them once upon a time.

6. Due to cell phone issues and a missed connection with a friend, I missed about 10 minutes of Cardi B’s set. No worries, I thought, she’s scheduled to perform for an hour. I gave up and went outside alone and caught two songs before her DJ thanked the crowd and then she was done. However, few people seemed disappointed by this.

Through Snapchats and Instagram stories I got an idea of her performance, and she really does rap well (no overwhelming back track), twerk, and bring tons of energy — people can be skeptical of her longevity as an artist, but it’s hard to be skeptical about how much she cares about performing. I missed my chance to rap every single word of “Bodak Yellow” aloud, though, as I had been planning.

7. Tyler, the Creator was my favorite performance of the weekend, and like a lot of festival memories, it’s not because so much of his performance but the circumstances around them. Tyler performed right at the moment the sky opened up Saturday night, and he remarked the forecast meant he couldn’t have his full stage set-up but he was going to bring the house down anyway. And he did, set against a minimal black backdrop and wearing a plain GOLF (his clothing brand) tee.

But what upped the ante was the rain, which at first was manageable, but came down in sheets as his set was climaxing. He performed a lot of Flower Boy, his 2017 reckoning with adulthood set to Stevie Wonder chords and tender songwriting. On “9/11/Mr. Lonely”‘s recorded version, Frank Ocean interjects with a “CHIRP CHIRP” exclamation that is a wonderful moment of joy on record, and live, Tyler stopped the song so the entire audience could “CHIRP CHIRP” repeatedly for about an entire minute. It was a chance to live inside a perfect moment of music, performed live, in the rain, at a festival, surrounded by friends.

8. Surprises of the fest: NNOA, a producer who brought raucous energy to the amazing in-the-round Yellow Stage, which was the hangout for electronic music in an interactive, intimate setting. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, sounding surprisingly alive and relevant; Shlohmo, who did his white-LA-dude-R&B-but-set-in-space thing very well, at a deafening volume (he even remarked about how great the bass sounded), however I was disappointed he didn’t drop any of his collaborations with Jeremih; and Nina Kraviz, someone I was unfamiliar with but turned out a huge crowd Sunday night, seemingly the place to go for everyone who was too cool for Thom Yorke.

9. Solange was predictably great, too, the emotional climax of the weekend. When A Seat at the Table dropped in 2016, it felt like a balm for a post-election world. A year later, however, it sounds timeless, a defiant new R&B classic that is a statement of independence as well as a joyous ode to self-care.

Solange kept non-A Seat at the Table cuts to a minimum, and so, Sunday, after a stormy day, a year removed from the madness of 2016 and months after Harvey, to feel the bayou breeze seep in from across the Red Stage was a healing moment, as her now-familiar stage setup complete with sharp angles, dramatic colors, and jumpsuit-clad dancers impeccably synchronized was a soothing backdrop for the tail-end of 2017.

10. Day For Night’s light installations are great and remain a huge draw, even if the art names aren’t always as familiar as their music choices. The transformative nature of the festival has become a new end-of-the-year tradition, where you can take in some of Houston’s rare nice weather days with surreal art and an excellently curated musical lineup, a year-end palette-cleansing experience that is a far cry from the overwhelming chaos of most music festivals.

It was nice to see that in spite of a few setbacks, year three of Day For Night still felt necessary, went fairly smoothly, and above all, was a ton of fun. Here’s to Year Four.