Rushing over to Electric Daisy Carnival’s opening night

By Spencer Patterson

Saturday, June 25, 2011 | 11:59 a.m.

I’m pretty sure I’m the only human being on the planet who saw Rush at MGM Grand and made it out to Electric Daisy Carnival Friday night. But hey, music is music and fun is fun, so after standing for almost three hours on the Strip, I drove to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to spend some more time on my feet.

After overhearing an MGM valet attendant remark that “the freeway is completely closed,” I skipped the 15 altogether, hooking up with Las Vegas Blvd. Downtown and taking it all the way to the Speedway. (Turns out the freeway closure probably had something to do with a stabbing near MGM, not EDC.) But it turned out to be a good choice; I made it from lot to lot in under an hour.

The parking scene I witnessed ran smoothly, though they fed us into an area that seemed miles from the venue, while multiple lots in between sat empty. Still, the walk over was relatively painless, and it wasn’t long before I arrived at Gate A.

That entrance didn’t appear to be functioning, so most ticket holders were sent farther along to Gate B. A security guard told me Gate A had experienced “a riot” early in the night, but that no one had been hurt. Judging from the lack of corroborating information, I’m thinking his definition of riot differs from mine.

Once inside, I beelined straight for the Cosmic Meadow stage, where Röyksopp was already on. The Norwegian group behind 2001’s sublime Melody A.M. album provided early proof that EDC isn’t all about DJs headbobbing behind laptops. These guys had actual instruments—okay, mostly synthesizers and samplers, but I definitely saw one cymbal up there, too—along with guest singers to augment their dance-music-you-can-listen-to-even-when-you’re-not-dancing brand of sound. They also had dancers and trampolines at the foot of their stage. Fun.

“It’s going off over there!” Vegas-based photographer Richard Brian called out, pointing to the Neon Garden stage as we crossed paths post-Röyksopp. He wasn’t kidding. Italy’s Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 drew a packed crowd, almost all of which bounced manically for the short portion of the set I caught.

I wandered over to the big Kinetic Field stage for the start of Tiësto. Promoter Insomniac said that area could hold 40,000 and there had to be at least that many with eyes and ears tuned to the Joint’s resident Dutch DJ. One note about the Kinetic stage: The VIP area at stage left does a really good job of cutting off sightlines and creating bottlenecks, but hey, bottle service pays the bills around here, right?

I made the rounds—scoped out the many free carnival rides, the multitude of crazy costumes, and the other stages, all of which seemed well attended—before returning to Cosmic Meadow for Plastikman, aka minimal techno maestro Richie Hawtin. I caught Hawtin’s set at Coachella a few years back, and it was okay, but this was something else completely. Darker, pulsating beats emanating from a cage-like structure that doubles as a hypnotizing LED array. Think: the toddler son of the Daft Punk pyramid. Also: Cosmic Meadow is the only stage that opens onto a grassy expanse. As much as I enjoyed Night 1 of EDC, I couldn’t help wish there’d been a similarly lush surface everywhere. Asphalt and gravel were simply not meant for dancing