With a great lineup in place, UC San Diego’s annual Sun God Festival took place Friday. The 27th annual event brought out an audience of thousands for everything from music to stand-up comedy to rock climbing.
Though it was a daylong celebration, RIMAC Field remained pretty empty until the late afternoon, as most of the student body was too busy preparing for the event rather than being there. More people started trickling in for the bigger name acts such as Iron and Wine, which consisted of a fully bearded Sam Beam and his acoustic guitar. Beam gave a beautiful, passionate performance and didn’t get the reaction from the audience he deserved. Then again, you can’t expect a mass of intoxicated college kids to respectfully sway to folk rock when there’s a perfectly good inflatable slide within walking distance.
For the less musically inclined, the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade was there to try to make the crowd laugh. With members such as Rob Huebel ““ most recently seen on “The Office” ““ and former “Saturday Night Live” regular Horatio Sanz, this group had so much potential to be a hit. Too bad it totally bombed.
The quintet of comedians took turns with individual stand-up and definitely attempted to take advantage of the audience’s buzz by going for cheap laughs with jokes about sexual blunders and delivering jokes about being Asian to a predominantly Asian crowd.
An almost unrecognizable Sanz did an abominable impression of Dr. Phil that left one reflecting that Dr. Phil jokes haven’t been funny since … well, since Horatio Sanz was funny.
During his set, Sanz analyzed audience members’ dreams while in character. When a girl described her dream in which a dinosaur swoops her mother away, Sanz tried to make this funny by interpreting it as the girl’s fear of losing her mother, perhaps to breast cancer. That was just awkward for everyone.
Fortunately, attendees could count on the aptly named Dance Tent, housing performers like DJ Nu-Mark and the highly anticipated Girl Talk. At any given moment, people could be seen moving to the beat, whether it was with jazz hands or your everyday bumping-and-grinding. The only thing cooler than seeing images of the stage projected onto the tent’s ceiling was that you could simply turn around and see what was happening on the main stage all the way across the field.
The main stage had a gigantic screen to the left side that gave such a crisp image of the stage that fans could see everything, including Motion City Soundtrack’s keyboardist headbanging and the cute little crinkle Sara Bareilles got in her nose whenever she smiled.
The crowd only got truly pumped up when Gregg Gillis, also known as Girl Talk, took the stage with an army of dancers up there with him. Gillis really is his own biggest fan, in the best possible way.
His incessant enthusiasm kept everyone moving without any breaks. He constantly stood up on the table to make sure everyone in the back was having as much fun as those in the front. The man just wanted to party, and bless him for it.
The night came to an end with a performance by N.E.R.D., and the crowd went wild ““ particularly the ladies.
If the group’s energetic music didn’t get the crowd moving, Pharrell Williams’ dance moves sure did. Even for the non-N.E.R.D. fans, it was always easy to appreciate the performers’ energy, a common theme throughout the whole day.
Sun God may normally be more about the experience than the music. However, thanks to the performers’ energy this time around, it came pretty close to being about the music this year.
E-mail Mohtasham at smohtasham@media.ucla.edu.