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Adam Jensen: SnowGlobe’s little names can be just as moving

South Shore’s SnowGlobe Music Festival announced its lineup this week, and the show’s bill definitely contains some big names in electronic dance music. Artists like Skrillex, Zedd and Porter Robinson will be familiar to just about every dance music fan out there. Minnesota rap group Atmosphere will also be recognizable to a lot of people at Lake Tahoe, as Slug and Ant have played a few shows here in recent years.

But, for me, it’s farther down a festival’s lineup where it really gets interesting. It’s interesting because I have no idea what most of the smaller acts sounds like. Having grown up on hip-hop, punk rock and a touch of hippie jam bands, I’m still cataloging what I like when it comes to the ubiquitous dance music scene. Past SnowGlobes have certainly helped. The festival’s previous iterations have introduced me to acts like Big Gigantic, Justin Martin, Dillon Francis, Beats Antique, Paper Diamond, Robotic Pirate Monkey and the Polish Ambassador (see page 9), performers I probably would never have discovered without seeing them live. Many of those artists are now in my regular rotation.

I can’t say I’m familiar with Trippy Turtle, Branchez, Thomas Jack, Overwerk, Tasty Treat, Lady Leah or Wooly Mammoth, all performers at this year’s SnowGlobe. I can say that I’m excited to dig into the lineup ahead of the festival, which takes place Dec. 29-31, and find out who I might like. Discovery is one of the best aspects of multistage music events. Wandering around and finding your new favorite artist at a festival takes the minimal amount of effort.



Sure, music festivals have their drawbacks. Short sets, large crowds and blue plastic restrooms come to mind. Despite the occasional discomfort, being in an environment dedicated to music is a dream for the rhythmically inclined. Seeing live music has been one of my favorite things since I was a teenager. Whether a group can perform live often determines whether I’ll keep listening.

Granted, the EDM scene, with its abundance of laptops, is not quite as dependent on live chops as its stringed counterparts, but moving a crowd always takes talent. Organizers at SnowGlobe have become experts at picking artists with a knack for moving the crowd in recent years. So, even though I don’t know everyone on the lineup, I’ll take a chance that Trippy Turtle and Wooly Mammoth will be worth checking out.



Adam Jensen is the editor of Lake Tahoe Action. He can be reached at ajensen@tahoedailytribune.com.


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