{"id":25985,"date":"2019-12-08T07:08:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/kacey-musgraves-flying-drones-intersect-at-las-vegas-festival\/"},"modified":"2019-12-08T07:08:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T12:08:10","slug":"kacey-musgraves-flying-drones-intersect-at-las-vegas-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=25985","title":{"rendered":"Kacey Musgraves, flying drones Intersect at Las Vegas festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kacey\"KaceyKacey Musgraves sings songs from her Grammy-winning album, Golden Hour, at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"The\"TheThe first night of Intersect Festival is underway on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Beck\"BeckBeck performs his set at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"The\"TheThe crowd goes wild for Kacey Musgraves at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Tanner\"TannerTanner Owens of Las Vegas poses for a portrait in his "winter festival wear" at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Rosa\"RosaRosa Garcia of Las Vegas, center, throws plastic balls into the air in the ball pit at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. The ball pit has more than 200,000 balls. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Kennedy\"KennedyKennedy Zimet of Los Angeles experiences the Lost & Photon light show at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Luke\"LukeLuke Yeager, 15, of Las Vegas, views the "I Am Therefore I Am" art installation at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. The piece records people and returns a composite video image using all of the people standing around the 360 degree screen display.(Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Sudan\"SudanSudan Archives plays electric violin during her set at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Jackie\"JackieJackie Markowsky, left, and Jeff Markowsky, right, of St. Augustine, Florida, view the "I Am Therefore I Am" art installation at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. The piece records people and returns a composite video image using all of the people standing around the 360 degree screen display. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"A\"AA drone performance with more than 500 drones is watched by the audience to the tune of Kacey Musgraves' music at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Kacey\"KaceyKacey Musgraves smiles as the crowd cheers for her at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Marco\"MarcoMarco Villareal, who owns The Vegas Iceman, does a live ice cutting performance at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Derek\"DerekDerek McCaughey, left and Sarah Holeton, right, play a game in the arcade at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Beck\"BeckBeck invites the crowd to put their hands up at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Tanisha\"TanishaTanisha Tavares, left, Raina Brown, center, and Jennifer Paloma, right, take a rest while watching an art installation at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_\"Festival-goers\"Festival-goersFestival-goers leave the main stage at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_ <\/p>\n

The sky aglow with bursts of color, necks craned upward, it was like the Fourth of July on the 6th of December, albeit with remotely flown aircraft in place of fireworks and a woman\u2019s awe-suffused voice substituting for the boom of spent explosives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, these are real things,\u201d Kacey Musgraves sang in wonder-struck tones on \u201cOh, What a World\u201d as 500 Intel Shooting Star Drones flew into formation.<\/p>\n

Musgraves would perform the song in the flesh shortly thereafter in a nearby Quonset hut the size of a couple of football fields.<\/p>\n

But for now, it was a recording of the tune that played at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Friday as the drones floated into view, first amassed together, like a flock of luminescent geese, then spinning off into a variety of patterns \u2014 a jellyfish, stars, the female form \u2014 before culminating in a giant, rainbow-hued smiley face.<\/p>\n

The show, which was programmed by an all-woman team in a nod to women\u2019s contributions to technology, came at around 11 p.m. during the opening night of Intersect, a new music, arts and tech festival with a CES-meets-Coachella kind of vibe, though not nearly as sizable as either.<\/p>\n

The idea for Intersect sprang from AWS\u2019 re:Invent conference, a learning seminar for the cloud commuting community that also features a live music component, which is held here annually and has grown to 35,000 attendees.<\/p>\n

Intersect essentially takes that private party public while expanding it into a two-day festival.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a substantial endeavor: With the festival footprint occupying over 1.5 million square feet, it took 350 crew members a day and 250 trucks worth of production to construct the site.<\/p>\n

Their efforts came to loud, flashing life on Friday.<\/p>\n

Seventeen live acts took to three different enclosed stages: Supernova, the largest, which Musgraves headlined; Infinity, where dance music artists reigned; and The Dome, which was largely the province of various singer-songwriters, performing amid clouds of dry-ice, laser lights shooting through the haze.<\/p>\n

Outdoors, the fest\u2019s courtyard glimmered and popped with abundant visual stimuli and a chainsaw-wielding ice sculptor amid a crowd of thousands of concertgoers.<\/p>\n

The centerpiece was The Monolith, a six-story video tower displaying the works of video artists such as Kadavre Exquis and Destruction Club, the latter of which focused on immersion with a presentation akin to walking through a holographic corridor, like you were crossing the threshold into the realm of \u201cTron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting beneath the thing, surrounded by palm trees, was akin to getting swallowed in a vortex of swirling colors and shapes.<\/p>\n

Nearby was Spanish studio Tigrelab\u2019s interactive \u201cMixed Mirrors,\u201d where attendees could stand in place in front of a cylindrical video wall and have their picture taken, which then would be incorporated into a black-and-white pastiche of body parts.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, distractions were the attraction.<\/p>\n

Though Intersect may have an eye to the future, it also acknowledges the pleasures of the past. To wit: the Experience tent was a maze of vintage arcade games, quarter gobblers of the \u201980s like Ms. Pac-Man and Joust, in addition to hands-on throwbacks like Pixel Pistons, a massive inflatable ball pit where grown-ups could indulge in this kind of fun without fear of getting booted from the local Chuck E. Cheese.<\/p>\n

Just outside was the Battleball field, enclosed in a chain link fence, flanked on each end by a drummer pounding out primal rhythms, as short games of dodgeball ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, do not throw the balls at the ground,\u201d the Battleball host instructed his charges at one point. \u201cThe ground is already sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music rules<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, the music was the main draw, Friday\u2019s lineup deep and diverse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first year of the festival,\u201d alt-rocker Beck announced during his impressively invigorated set at Supernova, where he delved into new album \u201cHyperspace,\u201d airing the ghostly, ethereal \u201cDark Places\u201d for the first time. \u201cWe\u2019re breaking it in, like a new pair of shoes, scuffing up the bottoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dancing shoes got more than a little scuffed during Jamie XX\u2019s alternately blissed out and bracing set at Infinity, which ranged from vintage techno to full-contact electronica.<\/p>\n

A similar blend of the \u201980s and now came from Scotland\u2019s Chvrches, whose sound mines several synth pop staples \u2014 shimmering keys, robust bass lines, arcing guitars \u2014 to form a musical bedrock for frontwoman Lauren Mayberry to practice her vocal calisthenics, her stage presence suggestive of caffeine incarnate.<\/p>\n

Chvrches were followed on the Supernova stage by H.E.R., aka 22-year-old soul upstart Gabriella Wilson. When Wilson strapped on her guitar to lead her band in by turns aching and concussive R&B, it was a cue to steady yourself in the face of the power and poise to come.<\/p>\n

Musgraves\u2019 moment<\/p>\n

And then, reducing all of the high energy to a low simmer was Kacey Musgraves.<\/p>\n

Her opening number, \u201cSlow Burn,\u201d was a mission statement of sorts, a laid-back country pop mood enhancer about taking your time in the pursuit of whatever it is you\u2019re pursuing, secure in the knowledge that you\u2019ll get there eventually.<\/p>\n

Musgraves favors understatement over aplomb, easing into her performance, backed by a six-piece band in matching suits. Even when singing of emotional anxiety, as she did on \u201cHappy & Sad,\u201d it felt reassuring somehow.<\/p>\n

In one of the more ironic moments of the night, Musgraves had to deal with technical issues at a fest dedicated, at least in part, to technical advancements.<\/p>\n

Early on in her set, the video screens displaying her performance began freezing on and off. At one point, the computer screen controlling the video presentation was briefly displayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to my TED talk,\u201d Musgraves quipped on cue.<\/p>\n

Oh, what a world indeed.<\/p>\n

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kacey Musgraves sings songs from her Grammy-winning album, Golden Hour, at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_The first night of Intersect Festival is underway on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_Beck performs his set at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_The crowd goes wild for Kacey Musgraves at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_Tanner Owens of Las Vegas poses for a portrait in his “winter festival wear” at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt\/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidt_Rosa Garcia of Las Vegas, center, throws plastic balls into the air in the ball pit at Intersect Festival on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. The ball pit has more than 200,..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}