When we first realized that Jay Watson was going to be doing a DJ set under his moniker GUM at this year’s Desert Daze, we had no idea what to expect, but now having witnessed it in person, we were simply blown away with the selection. Do yourselves a favor and relive with the experience with us in our review below.

Playing at The Sanctuary stage at this year’s Desert Daze Festival in Lake Perris, California, Jay Watson was arguably the hardest worker musically over the weekend. He played his set with Tame Impala, Pond, and treated fans to this DJ set which was memorable almost beyond words. The only caveat was that it was outside on Sunday, right in the middle of the hottest part of the day. However, that didn’t stop festival goers from crowding the stage and grooving down for the entirety of his hour and fifteen minute set. Through the sweat, dust, and heat exhaustion, the music shined through as bright as can be and the vibes were immaculate to set off our first concert of the day.

Now we’ll be honest, through the whole thing we weren’t 100% familiar with all of the songs that were played. Of course we recognized the bigger hits such as GUM’s remix of Tame Impala’s “Reality In Motion” and even some fun remixes of his own like “The Fear” off of The Underdog. With that being said though, it honestly didn’t really matter not knowing the names because the overall tone and mood of these songs was generally vibrant, well put together, and kept people moving. It’s a DJ set at the core so it’s never going to be boring, but we trust Jay’s taste in tunes more than enough to be able to know that it was going to be wonderful in the first place.

With so many incredible albums to his name though, here’s to hoping more is planned in the works in terms of future releases and individual shows. Tame’s tour is continuing on in Australia this month, but maybe in the near future the spotlight can shine down on the perfection that is the music of GUM. If you happen to be unfamiliar, do yourselves a huge favor and enjoy his whole discography, it’s a masterclass in production.

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Photo by Debi DelGrande