All photos by Brittany Nelson & Christine Campbell

I sure hope that any dance-hating Bay Area citizens were far away from Treasure Island last Saturday, because the first day of the festival was a 12-hour ass-shaking, arm-waving, beat-dropping, jump-up-and-down, pump-your-fist-in-the-air-like-you-mean-it kind of day.

Our day of music started at the Bridge Stage where LA’s Murs threw down awesome, conversational rhymes about his dreads, (”some people got a hundred, I got about nine”), his girlfriend and his desire to hang out with girls he meets at shows. He was tight, and I would totally kick it with him if ever given the chance.

Also tight: personal space in the second row at Passion Pit’s afternoon engagement on the Bridge Stage. Crammed hoodie to hoodie with the excited young crowd assembled there was the perfect vantage point from which to really take in PP’s fully satisfying and impressively cogent set. Everyone young (the joyful quartet of underage girls), and old (me, next to them) tore up the singalongs, and there was no place I would have rather been at 3-ish p.m. on Saturday than there, screaming “higher and higher and higher” under the hot Indian Summer sun with the joyful youth of greater San Francisco. Vocalist Michael Angelakos’ upper range wail held up impressively well, and I think we all appreciated how happy and encouraged keyboardist Ayad Al Adhamy appeared to be when he stood on an amp and gazed out at the sprawling, dazzled crowd while his smiling bandmates looked on. Good moment for them. Good moment for us.

Next came DJ Krush on the Tunnel Stage. And Hells to the YES! The Tokyo turntablist did a chill, ambient set of trip hop that included base we all felt in our feet, stomachs and throat. It was the perfect show for the late afternoon stretch, and he seemed sincerely appreciate of the enthusiastic crowd response. Always cool.

A bathroom break/beer run/food grab (the knishes were killer!) trumped most of Brazilian Girls‘ set, but singer Sabina Sciubba’s pretty, sexy voice was the loveliest soundtrack to the spectacularly orange sunset over the bay during the part we caught.

Being generally uncool, I had no idea what was in store when MSTRKFRT took the Bridge Stage. The Toronto duo completely engaged the sea of bodies in a high-energy dance party, set off from samples from JUSTICE and Queen. The electronica get down was made all the more impressive by the shimmery, frenetic on-screen visuals that accompanied the beats.

And then Girl Talk happened. I know I whined about his subpar performance at Bonnaroo, but the man took the stage at Treasure Island and proved why he’s the best in the mashup game, end of story. The inspired set included very danceable material from E.L.O. and Tears for Fears, and the highlight/showstealer was a perfectly timed finale of fireworks that coincided with the climax of “Shout”. It made us wanna.

No sooner had the final strains of Girl Talks’ signature “Juicy/Tiny Dancer” mix ended than the instantly recognizable opening chords of “Time to Pretend” wafted from the Bridge Stage, inspiring the crowds to run across the field towards MGMT while singing “I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life,” and feeling very much that we were. It was a good scene. The band ripped through the best of Oracular Spectacular immediately and then launched into a glut of new material, which proved unequivocally that the Brooklyn-based band is a full-on force of psychedelic rock, a notion exacerbated by their great big kaleidoscopic visual show. Their live show is a force to be reckoned with and the performance bodes very well for the band’s forthcoming second LP Congratulations.

And just when all the tired bodies thought the day and the dancing were over, the Bay Area’s DJ Morale threw down one last set of dance tracks that provided the dedicated with one more chance to get down. And we did. And it was an ideal ending to an ideal day.

While waiting (and waiting) to get on a bus off the island, we ran into Robert Bose, the man responsible for the festival’s whimsical balloon chain in the sky. Bose said the chain he created for Treasure Island included 120 (ish) balloons, each attached to an LED light and secured to fishing wire. (He created a MILE-LONG, 250-balloon chain awhile back at Burning Man). Check out his website and thank him for his pretty ripple in the sky.