Hard Summer delivered exactly what its name promised this time around, and Saturday’s show was exploding with some of the hardest bass blasts and pulsating dance rhythms that LA has seen in awhile. The electronic music festival started around noon, but the real excitement didn’t set in for the thousands of attendees until the sun began sinking down behind the main stage during Diplo’s set. The notorious electronic/dub-step producer shook the main stage with some of the grimiest dub-step beats to ever infiltrate and destroy an eardrum. I’m not usually the biggest proponent of dub-step, and Diplo didn’t do a whole lot to change that perception, except for his decision to drop Bassnectar’s remix of the Pixies classic “Where is my Mind?” as his closing track. At the time when electronic beeps and bass explosions made me feel like I was being tossed around in a washing machine, the vocal howling of that track added a certain humanizing element to the set that had been lacking. Diplo left the stage, but would return shortly to perform with Switch as the Jamaican beat makers Major Lazer.

The next main stage act would be one of the top two performances of the evening, and definitely the best showing by this group that I have ever seen. The darkly-artsy champions of vocal manipulation Crystal Castles provided a mind numbing set. They opened with the panic-inducing track “Fainting Spells” off of their new album before literally jumping into the rave worthy electronic pulses of “Baptism.” I say “literally” because during this song lead singer Alice Glass leapt into the crowd and sang a few verses while held high by her thousands of ecstatic fans. Crystal Castles continued with an amazing set of tracks from their latest self-titled album Crystal Castles, as well as tracks off their debut album …which is also called Crystal Castles. Newer songs like “Celestica” and “Doe Deer” proved that they could be amazing live tracks, while “Alice Practice” and “Courtship Dating” reminded us all of why we fell in love with their music in the first place. The sound quality of their performance was phenomenal, which is more than I can say about the last time I saw them live, and somehow they made every track sound a little more fun this time around. I think the best way to summarize the difference would be to say that when I saw them a year ago people were moshing, but on Saturday people were dancing.

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The main stage took a drastic turn after Crystal Castles because it was back to the dub-step grind with Major Lazer. To be quite honest, I was not impressed. I couldn’t stand their debut album, but people kept telling me to go into their live show with an open mind and I would be pleasantly surprised. I went in with a mind so open that I was actually excited to see a group that I usually can’t stand, but it didn’t take long for them to remind me why the first time I put on my headphones and played their album was also the last. It felt too much like noise and not enough like music. At one point members from Major Lazer brought out a ladder, climbed about halfway up, and then jumped off. It wasn’t terribly impressive visually, and It didn’t necessarily look very difficult either, so I stood there confused. I did my best to grin and bear it, but you won’t find me near another stage with Major Lazer on it anytime soon.

The reason that I didn’t leave the Major Lazer mob to head over to the Harder stage and listen to the incredibly talented Tiga is because I had to work my way up as close as possible for what would come next on the main stage. As I had hoped they would be, Soulwax was by far the best part of the evening. Their mix of electronic music with hard rocking sensibilities is perfect for an event like Hard, and the crowd ate it up. I don’t think a single person in that crowd stopped moving during their set. There was head banging, fist pumping, shouting, and sweating. It was everything that I had hoped it would be. The anticipation was incredible as the white tuxedo-clad members of Soulwax took their places on the stage, and adjusted their bow ties for good measure. They opened with their recent collaboration with Crookers “We Love Animals,” which sounded every bit as good live, if not better (and it was also featured in my Weekend Playlist if you want to venture a listen). That was the best surprise of the night, but the hits were far from over. Soulwax played almost an entire set of live remixes of their songs, including incredible versions of “E-Talking,” “Miserable Girl,” “NY Excuse,” and “Accidents and Compliments.” Those tracks left me completely in awe, but nothing could compare to the raw energy of their live version of “Washing Up,” which may or may not have been one of the most amazing songs that I have ever head live. It was raw, it was overflowing with energy, it was Soulwax. It was the first time that I have ever seen the mighty Belgians, but I certainly hope that it wont be my last. Hard Summer, and especially Soulwax, demonstrated that you can take all of that energy from a hard rock show and bring it out through an electronic medium. Hard got it right this time around, my faith has been completely restored, and now I have a Hard Haunted Mansion to look forward to.