The more things change, the more they stay the same. The 11th annual Life Is Beautiful Festival kicked off Friday, but the downtown Las Vegas staple looked a little different this year. In previous editions, the festival has taken over eighteen city blocks of downtown Las Vegas – about five miles south of the famed Strip – but organizers have put a different spin on this year, opting instead for a two-day ‘Big Beautiful Block Party’ near the original site. Due to the smaller footprint, the stages were next to each other and the sets did not overlap.

Despite relocating to “old Vegas,” as the area is commonly referred to, Life Is Beautiful retained that familiar flair, with sponsored bars, local street food, glittering clientele, excessive daytime heat, fireworks shows and buzzing indie electronic headliners. .

Jamie xx, Justice, James Blake and LP Giobbi were just some of the highlights from day one, but check back with our coverage all weekend long, while superstars such as LCD Soundsystem, Jungle and Peggy Gou will headline on Saturday night.

Jamie xx brings mysticism and challenges the audience to dance

Jamie xx, the headliner of the day, started his set on Friday and finished it on Saturday. This is not his first rodeo, as he previously attended the festival in 2017 with his indie pop group the xx. To no one’s surprise, the English producer gave fans an earful In waveshis latest album and first in almost a decade, featuring ‘Baddy on the Floor’ and ‘Treat Each Other Right’. While some performers used a colorful or bright production to energize the crowd, Jamie xx went in the opposite direction and kept his stage dark for the first third of his nearly two-hour set.

Black and white videos of the audience flickered on large screens behind and around him – only rarely was color used, creating a sinister atmosphere and almost challenging the guests to dance. The mood fittingly brightened, as did the production, as “Gosh” and “Loud Places” dropped, both from his critically acclaimed album. In colour album. But because he was backlit all evening, Jamie xx sometimes seemed like a ghostly shadow. What he lacked in flair on stage, he made up for in mystique, relatively speaking.

…And justice for all

French duo Justice just wanted people to DANCE, and once they did. Like Jamie xx, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay – the duo that makes up Justice – are intimately familiar with Life Is Beautiful, having nabbed a primetime slot at the 2018 festival (they performed before Weeknd). On Friday they proved that they had not. didn’t miss a beat. Arguably the best production of the day, Justice’s stage featured floating lights that illuminated the Grammy-winning electronic duo’s glittering jackets. Those same lights transformed and danced through colors and shapes to the music, almost as if they had a mind of their own.

In addition, ten hanging TVs behind the group projected various graphics that coincided with the music. The crowd erupted in applause and screams when the beat of “We Are Your Friends” hit, proving that the 18-year-old song has staying power. ‘Neverander’, their collaboration with Tame Impala, also drew a huge response from Justice’s adoring fans, as did ‘Electric Feel’. Justice didn’t say a single word during the 75-minute set, but he didn’t need to. The music did the talking.

James Blake is so moody on his birthday

Blue and white strobe lights illuminated the stage and smoke rose into the air as birthday boy James Blake brought his soulful harmonies, stunning falsettos and moody music to the festival. Although he started the evening with a churchy feel, the tone changed when the voices of Travis Scott and Metro Boomin came through the speakers during “Mile High,” from Blake’s 2022 album. Take shape. Blake’s voice was especially powerful for ‘Retrograde’ and the moving ‘Say What You Will’, the latter a song about making peace with where you are in life. “It sounds a lot better when you sing along,” he said before the song.

Although his set was full of live singing, Blake dabbled in electronic music and then made a not-so-subtle stab at other unnamed artists (even those at the festival). “We do all this shit live, no laptops, nothing. he said. Shots fired?

LP Giobbi shows range, energy and keyboard skills

Between the colorful production on the screens behind her and the deep bass set, LP Giobbi displayed a touch of psychedelic flair. On stage at home, the classically trained pianist often switched between the turntables and her adjacent keyboard. When she wasn’t tinkling the ivories, she energetically danced, jumped, threw her arms in the air and spun 360 degrees during her 50-minute set. A smile never left her face and it seemed genuine.

Giobbi showed off her range, mixing Barry White’s 1974 hit “Baby Blues” and moving into more sentimental melodies as the message “Black Queer People Created Dance Music” flashed on the screens. The name of New York-based writer and DJ Juliana Huxtable followed the message. Giobbi’s set and her infectious energy really got the party going.

Empress van is in heat

Empress Of kicked off the block party as the sun scorched the early-arriving EDM-loving crowd, but the Los Angeles native wanted to spice things up on stage. The Empress seemed nervous early in the set and it took her a few minutes to find her flow. She sat down as she remixed Modjo’s Lady, a club favorite. “Be good to yourself,” she told the crowd, many of whom fanned themselves for air circulation. “Thank you, life is beautiful that you have me.”

In the first week of her For Your Consideration tour, Empress Of gave the crowd what they wanted, playing electronic favorites “Losing Your Mind” and “Take Your Vibes and Go,” originally performed by Kito and Adam Beyer, respectively. She also boldly leaned into the obvious, playing Toni Braxton’s “Making Me High,” with the lyrics, “You make my temperature rise.” A temperature reading on top of Binion’s hotel could be seen from the stage. It was 102 degrees at the time. Before leaving the stage, Empress Van said, “It’s hot. This shit is crazy. I love you.”