The Best Things We See in Life Are Beautiful 2024: Day 2

below the approaching The eyes of the Plaza and Golden Nugget hotels, Life is Beautiful It’s back for the second night of the “Big Beautiful Block Party,” and tonight it was all about the tracks: jams and train tracks. The festival site is located adjacent to an active railway line, with many train conductors providing side-by-side views of the stages from the vehicle. Freight trains slogged by during sets many times throughout the two-day festival, prompting conductors to honk their horns and draw festive applause from the crowd.

In some ways, train cars are the perfect metaphor for this scaled-down version of the Las Vegas-based festival because we’re all in for the ride.

The festival once took over 18 city blocks in downtown Las Vegas, but the 2024 adaptation is more manageable and even linguistic. Inspiring quotes such as “You Are Beautiful,” “You Are Strong,” and “You Are Dazzling” flashed on the screens between sets. Quotes from the festival’s visionary, the late Tony Hsieh, also appeared on the signs, creating a visible connection to the previous 10 Beauties sections. “Celebrate being a little weird and incredibly brave,” one message attributed to Hsieh said. Another read: “There is beauty to be found all around you.”

Music was at the heart of the block party, though, and Saturday saw things like: LCD Sound System, Forest And Peggy Gou They all go on stage.

LCD Sound System Shows Range, Not Age

LCD Soundsystem did not disappoint in arguably the most anticipated set of the two-day festival. Preparing for a 12-show residency in New York, the electronic rock band took the stage with their 2007 big hit “Get Innocious”. They went on 12 more tours with their music that mixes dance, rock and percussion. Singer James Murphy talked about the heat in what became a theme throughout the two days. “We are very happy to be here. It is very hot. I don’t know why you came here,” he said, and the mercury rose stubbornly to 95 degrees at 22:30.

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Throughout the band’s 22-year lifespan, LCD has seamlessly broken electronic music’s “supposed to be” norms, diversifying from the rock-infused “You Wanted a Hit” to the rhythm-focused “Tribulations.” While the disco ball spins above our heads. Perhaps no one has bigger beat drops, and this one often acted like a shot in the arm for the crowd as they hung on every note throughout the 90-minute set. Even though Murphy’s T-shirt says “memorial”, LCD Soundsystem’s days are numbered.

Welcome to the Jungle

A familiar face returned to the Life is Beautiful stage in the form of Jungle on Saturday. The trio (including new official member Lydia Kitto) delivered a strong performance, opening with “Busy Earnin'”, a song about neglecting life due to being a workaholic in 2014. Jungle then worked hard, pumping up the energy and getting the crowd pumped (as did the freight train honking its horn during the set).

“Back On 74”, which went viral earlier this year, was a real crowd pleaser as it was hard to find anyone standing still. Singer Tom McFarland addressed the sweaty crowd and asked: “How are you? Are you hot? Imagine being from England. This sucks.”

Although Jungle mostly stuck to their hits throughout their hour-long set, they did manage to sneak in their latest single, “Let’s Go Back.” The track’s title couldn’t be more apt, as Jungle returned to the Vegas-based festival for the first time in six years, serving as the penultimate performance in 2018. Much like the band did at the time, Jungle’s fun, upbeat voice fit the song very well. especially after the acid jazz sound thundercat. Jungle claims 2023 song “Us Against The World”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Big Beautiful Hiccup

That’s why we can’t have nice things. The Technology Gods just reared their ugly heads Toro and Moi‘s DJ set. “We’re having a technical problem,” a voice over the speakers said 30 minutes into the godfather of the “chillwave” sound, a microculture known for mixing psychedelic music with electronic pop.

As the next 15 minutes passed, bewildered festival technicians began hovering over the monitors and turntables to the left of the stage. Meanwhile, Toro’s microphones, keyboards and drum kit sat hopelessly neglected in the center of the stage, the blue lights casting an ominous shadow. Finally, Toro came out and told the crowd that his equipment was “fried” from being in the sun. Instead of cashing in his chips, he grabbed a guitar and performed an impromptu acoustic set of four career-spanning songs: “Tuesday,” “Undercurrent,” “Heaven” and “Sandhill.”

“This feels very nostalgic,” he said, noting that this was his first time playing solo guitar to a crowd. “Let’s see what I got. I really apologize for the change, y’all. As he strummed the guitar and searched for a song, he added, “I feel like Ed Sheeran.” Somehow the set, even if it was only 12 minutes long, was a bit grandiose—just one guy and his guitar. Very short acoustic After finishing his set, Toro promised to return but insisted he would play any club in Vegas to make up for his missing DJ set. “Vegas, I owe you,” he later wrote on Instagram.

Peggy Gou Don’t Be Late

While most of Saturday’s acts skewed toward an older demographic, Millennials and Gen Z waited patiently for Peggy Gou, who had a decidedly younger clientele waiting for her midnight set, which ended at 1:30 a.m. he does on his biggest commercial hit, “(It Goes Like) Nanana” — his focus on Saturday was on spinning and dropping old-school deep grooves his crowd has probably never heard, including Inner City’s 1988 song “Good Life.”

As other artists have experienced, a freight train arrived 20 minutes into his set, but he paid no attention to the conductor’s horn. The South Korean DJ often threw his hands in the air, danced to the music, and didn’t shy away from adding songs in his native language. The crowd didn’t seem to care. Music was his language.

Thundercat Takes Risks

There may be no more well-rounded artist than Thundercat. The Los Angeles native sprinkled jazz, EDM and R&B into his set on Saturday. However, his soulful voice rose significantly as he projected it to the crowd; It’s something he’s more than qualified to do as a former member of Suicidal Tendencies. “Are you ready to party?” he shouted.

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The bassist dominated the stage with long jam sessions. He once joked with the crowd that he once got married in Las Vegas. “They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. This shit definitely stays in Vegas,” he said. He took the risk before singing Overseas, a song about doing the job at 35,000 feet. “Let’s talk some Vegas ass shit. Anyone a part of the mile high club? This one’s coming to you,” he said before launching into the 2020 tune.

With a sassy delivery that didn’t go unnoticed on some of them, she quickly moved into tunes about “pussycats,” including “The Orange Cat’s Special Time Outdoors,” which she performed live for the first time (she performed the song on the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabbaland” on Apple TV+.) “Girls Did you think I was singing about it? “No,” he said. Meow!