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It was a warm Wednesday night when I hopped on the T in Boston, Massachusetts with a group of six energetic college students sporting low cut sleeveless T-shirts and booty shorts. As we got in line, I couldn’t help but notice the variety of people around us on this Wednesday night such as rowdy drunk college students, thrilled adults seeking something different from their usual repetitive schedule, and exhilarated Bass Heads who, if you didn’t know better, might mistake tonight for being their birthday because of their gleaming smiles. It didn’t matter what age or what kind of person you strove to be; on Wednesday, April 18th you attended the House of Blues for one reason; Bassnectar had finally come to town.
Every component of Bassnectar’s show is well prepared and prepped. He’s not only become an icon of the electronic dance music scene, but he also has become a ideal figure for fans to latch on too. His music has developed into an easily recognizable and distinct sound that traverses between genres in order to keep his fans on their toes. One simply doesn’t know what Bassnectar will produce next, whether its something within the Dubstep realm or a Glitch-Hop remix of a song from the 70’s.
Fast forward to the juicy part: “And now, I will give you music,” Bassnectar said after thanking the crowd for coming. Suddenly, the room radiated in a red light and the audience felt the pounding bass from the floor. Shouts and cheers for Bassnectar filled the room once again as his single “Wildstyle” blasted on the speakers and sub woofers at full volume to start off the night.
As one of Bassnectar’s most well known songs, “Wildstyle Method” showcases Bassnectar’s incredible production quality. The combination of drums at different rhythms mixes with the easy to follow vocals. When the synths and wobbles come in, “Wildstyle Method” becomes one of the grimiest, funkiest songs to dance to. Bassnectar’s influences– post modern heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Nirvana– were embodied in the punchy and dirty wobbles, all kept in line with the assortment of drum patterns. Sometimes his synths will even switch to a synthetic Electro sound, just to give the listeners some variety and catch them off guard.
Flawlessly, Bassnectar mixed from track to track, effectively pumping up the energy with each new record. He flowed smoothly between a myriad of genres such as Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Glitch Hop, Drumstep, Drum and Bass, Electro and Breaks, and he constantly interacted with the crowd, saying: “Boston, you’re fucking awesome” and “Put your hands up at the drop!” In turn, the crowd reacted with shouts of appraisal, screams for more music and incoherent slurs regarding the happiness his music brought to their daily lives. Plus, he had helpers running throughout the venue, putting smiles on the faces of dehydrated teenagers by giving them free water.
The real fun began when Bassnectar dropped songs off of his new album, Vava Voom. An eclectic collection of Bassnectar’s production skill, Vava Voom crosses numerous genres just like his mixing. Some songs such as “Empathy” shift between melodic Dubstep and a 90’s Hip-Hop mood while others such as “Ping Pong” stick with a simple traditional Drum and Bass beat and easily followable lyrics, much like “Wildstyle Method.” Just when you think you know his style, Bassnectar would switch to a song such as “Butterfly”, an atmospheric track at 140 beats per minute that makes you feel as if you’re floating through the air, guided by the soothing lyrics of Mimi Page. A jack of all trades, Bassnectar also played “Laughter Crescendo” off his new album, a song that is inherently made up of happy synths, glitches and childish laughter that brings with it a free-flowing tone.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until Bassnectar played “Vava Voom”, his collaboration with Lupe Fiasco, that I realized that this man had risen to superstar status. ”Vava Voom” takes Bassnectar’s traditional sound, mixes it with the clever lyrics of Lupe Fiasco and halfway through drops you into one of the nastiest Dubstep measures you could imagine. The wobbling synth compliments the drum beat to a point of perfection as Bassnectar switches up the rhythm, chopping up the synth and adding more drums into the pattern simultaneously. Immediately, when the crowd heard the familiar crescendo of the beginning of “Vava Voom”, shouts rang from everywhere. Behind him on the towering LED screens played the music video, with the occasional psychedelic image.
Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of seeing Feed Me perform with his epic Teeth at the Royale in Boston. Let me begin my tale from the start: with the venue. The Royale is a very well placed and intimate club. In addition to being located in the heart of Boston, a mere two blocks from Emerson University, the Royale attracts many world-reowned DJs, producers, and bands. I’ve only attended Feed Me’s show last Thursday, but some past EDM headliners have included: Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, Axwell, Ferry Corsten, Gareth Emery, Laidback Luke, Paul Van Dyk, Tiësto, etc. In fact, Alesso played the day before Feed Me! Talk about having great concerts all week at a very accessible club.
When I arrived, the line was pretty long and full of excited college kids. You could say it was as long as any other club, but interestingly, the line advanced fairly quickly (lightspeeds faster than Ruby Skye or EPR in San Francisco). The bouncers did not really seem like bouncers, first off because none of them wore anything that was obviously bouncer-like clothing, and second because they weren’t harassing anyone. Hip hip hooray for nice bouncers. Inside, the club looked fantastic. The Royale is a sweet club filled with couches and carpets. The dance floor is very big, the balconies are nice and the ever-crowded bar had plenty of drinks for everyone. The speakers were nice and loud, and I could hear every aspect of Feed Me’s music while still being able to feel the bass.
First up was Kill The Noise, with a tiny stage and not that great lights, but most openers have to deal with this. KTN was a great opener for Feed Me. He was a funny guy, interacted with crowd a lot, and got the audience pumped for what was coming. I know him as filthy Dubstep and Drumstep producer with a little Electro mixed in there as well, so I was expecting him to play mostly heavy Dubstep. Even as a humongeous lover of heavy dubstep, there were some times when the moshing just became too much and people were pushed around. Sure, I guess it comes with the territory, but I was also relieved and pleasantly surprised as KTN mixed flawlessly from Dubstep to Hip Hop to Electro and back to Dubstep. Some highlights of his set include his remix of Must Be The Feeling by Nero, his collab with Dillon Francis Dill The Noise, Doctor P’s remix of Reasons, and Unison by Porter Robinson.
After a couple interlude songs, the curtains were raised and Feed Me’s Teeth were visible under the dark lighting. They were 21 giant LED triangles shaped into the classic Feed Me wicked smile with a pair of leering eyes included. They completely covered up the entire stage of the Royale, so they were huge! Upon viewing the Teeth, the crowd started screaming and the floor was lit up with cell phones recording the first few minutes of Feed Me’s show. Feed Me started with an intro edit of some new track he’s been working on (or perhaps it’s just a track he uses as his intro to his set). It was a creepy intro with plenty of eerie organ sounds and some of his signature Feed Me “solo guitar” sounds. The first part of the Teeth to turn on were the eyes, contributing to the very spooky atmosphere that Feed Me was creating. After what felt like 10 minutes of just buildup, a drop finally arrived, and the crowd went nuts (as did I).
For the rest of the show, my brain was blown several times, my eyes melted out of their sockets, and I could not seem to keep my mouth from gaping open. Feed Me’s entire show was awesome, from the fantastic visuals to the incredibly smooth transitions. A word about his transitions: Feed Me played his songs in their entirety. It usually peeves me when artists do this, but with Feed Me I had a completely different opinion. I was very happy that he played out his entire songs because it meant that I got to enjoy every single part of them. This is because Feed Me’s tracks are nearly perfect, so he doesn’t have to do much with his tracks to make them extremely enjoyable for the crowd. For example, if you’ve heard his originals Embers and Muscle Rollers, you know what I’m talking about. Both of these amazing tracks either consist of new material throughout the song or of little subtleties that keep the song interesting throughout. In fact, I would have been extremely disappointed had he not played the entirety of those tracks (he did play them both, and the crowd went wild for both of them).
The visuals on the Teeth were something out of this world in my opinion. Not only were they synced perfectly with the music, they displayed sick images appropriate to the song that was playing. For example, for Blood Red, they exhibited a great combination of blood stains and red visuals. I don’t think I’d be able to explain how awesome they were, you’d have to see them yourself. Fortunately, we have some pictures to show you!
Feed Me’s show is one that shouldn’t be missed. If you have a chance, go to Feed Me’s website and check out his remaining tour dates! If you couldn’t make it out to any of the shows, you can still enjoy Feed Me’s great music on Beatport or iTunes and you can keep up to date with the scary and playful creature on Facebook, Twitter, and Soundcloud.
Metrojolt has teamed up with Talenthouse to offer you a chance to open for Rusko!
This past weeks Metrojolt made its way to the House of Blues in Boston and Aargon Ballroom in Chicago to see Steve Aoki and Datsik’s Deadmeat Tour. I had seen Datsik a couple of times in San Francisco and I caught the last 30 minutes of Steve Aoki’s set at EDC last year, which was just enough time for me to see him dump a bucket of water onto the poor saps in the front of the crowd. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see him again. However, what I ended up seeing wasn’t really a concert. Instead, I found myself among a rowdy crowd of belligerently drunk fans all watching and praising the artists for consuming mass amounts of alcohol on stage and crowd-surfing on giant mattresses. It was awesome. Later, champagne would find its way onto the drunk fans as they screamed and shouted their approval and their love for Steve Aoki’s antics. But, before we get to the entertainment of the rockstar that IS Steve Aoki, first up was Datsik.
Datsik is definitely more into the art of DJing than Steve Aoki. His skill in mixing is admirable and impressive for a mainstream Dubstep DJ. What sets him apart from the other DJs is his variety of music. House, funky Hip-Hop and grimy Dubstep all came together in Datsik’s set to create a fluid, interesting, and exciting show. Songs ranging from Hip-Hop by Dead Prez, Internet Friends by Knife Party, Ante Up by M.O.P, Reptile by Skrillex, Paper Planes by M.I.A and Bass Head by Bassnectar made up a small portion of Datsik’s set, but you get the picture. He started off with Levels by Avicii which made every teenage raver love him just a bit more. The man can mix any genre and he has no trouble changing up the mood for the crowd. In fact, I think he must enjoy changing the mood because the response from the crowd was a drunk roar of approval every single time.
When Datsik got on stage there must have been an influx of people strolling into the House of Blues. I swear every minute that I turned around there would be someone begging another person for some type of drug, whether that was mollie, ecstasy or something else. I guess when you’re up on stage guzzling beer and dumping it on the crowd, people are gonna want some drugs to be on your level.
The great part about Datsik is how his personality shows through in his performances. Not only is he a crazy DJ, he’s also a pretty funny character. When he crowd dived, I remember someone stealing his hat and Datsik wanted his hat back so badly that he stopped playing his set. Usually, I hate it when DJs stop their sets but something about when Datsik did it had me laughing so hard that it didn’t matter. I think my favorite part of his set was when the phone in the song Internet Friends started ringing and he picked up his own phone. He then pretended to talk to someone on the other end saying, “You blocked me on Facebook, and now you are going to die”. People who had never heard Internet Friends went absolutely wild when they noticed the trick he had played on them. Of course, Datsik simply smiled and laughed a bit at his successful ploy, and continued mixing.
About midway through Datsik’s set the rockstar himself, Steve Aoki, came out onto the stage and danced around a bit. Everyone in the crowd acted like they had seen a god as they shouted “Steve Aoki!” at the top of their lungs. Girls went nuts. Then, Steve Aoki left the stage, probably to go to his tour bus and consume more alcohol. It should be no surprise that at that point, the crowd was anxiously awaiting his return.
After standing around for awhile (there are no seats in the House of Blues so you’re standing for a long time) Steve Aoki finally came onto the stage around 10:30. His light show was well equipped with 4 giant LED screens behind him as well as what looked like giant glow sticks covering the entirety of his DJ booth. Each one illuminated the room with crazy visuals that matched the LED screens behind him. If that wasn’t enough, he also had 4 giant letters on the perimeter of his stage which spelled out A-O-K-I and displayed some crazy visuals. Although these letters would sometimes match up with the other LEDs, most of the time they’d show something even cooler, such as displaying clocks during Warp 1.9. It was definitely a sight to see. There were points in the show where the entire room would blackout while purple, blue or red lights would stream through the House of Blues, completely illuminating the crowd in a single color. Once again, it was awesome.
When Steve Aoki first got up on stage, he didn’t even start playing music for the first five minutes. Instead, he decided to look at his phone as he sat on the front of his DJ booth in front of the crowd. Anxiously awaiting Steve Aoki’s first words, the crowd’s roar of applause started to die down and the “Aoki” chant started up once again. Steve Aoki smiled, looked at the crowd and held up his phone. ”I’m gonna tweet this shit out right now” he exclaimed as applause from the crowd erupted. ”I want everyone who follows me to know how fucking amazing you guys are; fucking Boston. You guys ready for some crazy ass shit? I’m gonna play a set of all my music! Are you fucking ready?” Needless to say, the crowd’s response (and my own) was another wild exclamation of approval. Then, Steve Aoki jumped down into his DJ booth and flipped his headphones on as the lights went out.
When the lights came back on, so did his tribute to Steve Jobbs. Screams could be heard at every part of the House of Blues as the melodic riff filled everyone’s ears. White lights shone over the crowd while the riff built up to the pounding bass that everyone loved. Finally when the drop hit, yellow beams of light streamed through the crowd as the catchy-as-hell track began to become imprinted in everyone’s head. It would later become known as THAT track that started off a crazy night with Steve Aoki.
Steve Aoki is a rockstar and a crowd pleaser. He doesn’t mix nearly as much as Datsik does (or any DJ for that matter), in fact Aoki only focuses on transitions between songs. Otherwise, he simply lets the song play out and leaves the DJ booth to emcee the entire show. He yells into a microphone, jumps up and down on stage, and chugs beer and champagne in front of the crowd. The point is, Steve Aoki doesn’t need to mix because the show is already crazy enough. His fans don’t mind it at all. It’s almost as if the moment you walk into a Steve Aoki concert, you have to accept that it’s not going to be a normal concert. Instead, Steve is going to guzzle champagne in front of you, spray some champagne on the crowd, and do as many crazy antics as he can in the time allotted. Some of these include taking out two (not just one but two) giant cakes and caking somebody next to the stage as well as getting a giant mattress and sending it off along the crowd. He then proceeded to jump from the 2nd story floor onto the mattress and for those that don’t know the House of Blues, that’s a BIG fall. Later, he would stop his set and have his photographer take a group picture of the concert, which I thought was unnecessary but just added to the character that IS Steve Aoki.
He ended his set beautifully at 11:45 with Pursuit of Happiness and dumped a giant bucket of crushed ice onto the front of the audience. The crowd shouted for him to come back and do an encore, and, like an energetic kid he ran out again from backstage. Not more than two minutes had passed but no one was complaining. Finally, Steve Aoki played Cudi the Kid featuring Kid Cudi and Travis Barker and made his exit by throwing a free t shirt into the crowd.
Too top everything off, at the Chicago show, Steve married a couple. What DJ can brag that?
Bottom line, he’s a nut but he’s also an awesome performer. Like I said before, Steve Aoki is a crowd pleaser. He knows his fans well and he knows what they want, which just happens to involve him getting fucked up and caking people. I fully suggest that you go to see Steve Aoki and Datsik on their Deadmeat Tour since you won’t see anything like it.
After the show, he signed my friends boobs.
In what might be the most high energy, bass heavy turn of events, Dim Mak record label founder Steve Aoki and none other than Datsik have teamed up to go on an American tour. The Dead Meat tour, in support his upcoming album, Wonderland, will be Steve Aoki’s largest tour ever.
Steve Aoki has spent over the last decade developing his record label, Dim Mak. I had the opportunity to discuss his upcoming album release, Wonderland, which drops just eight days from now on the 17th, in our interview. I’m looking forward to hearing the album live. Steve Aoki absolutely destroyed at his sold out San Francisco show at the Warfield. As an added bonus, a number of the other of my favorite Dim Mak artists will be opening on the tour. The names include Alvin Risk, Mustard Pimp, Autoerotique, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Terravita, who will perform throughout the trek on alternating dates. To see who is playing when and where, click here.
Datsik was an interesting and amazing choice to partner with Steve Aoki for a tour. I can only imagine how the audience will react and enjoy the combined energy of Aoki and bass of Datsik. I’ve seen Datsik a number of times, and his destructive sound never fails to obliterate eardrums. Tracks like Firepower kill regardless of who plays them, check the energy when Rusko drops the track on Starscape (with the man himself standing close behind).
With all these excellent artists, where could you go wrong? Make sure to catch one of the many stops of the Dead Meat tour.
