I'm definitely one of the people that this new style caters too.
I've been an EDM fan my whole life thanks to my parents and when I turned 18 and started going to shows the scene was just starting to transition from underground to mainstream (My first show was Guetta at whiskey for 20 bucks, two years later he sold out the Big 4 for $80 a ticket and Sexy Bitch was on the radio). Because of this I still got a glimpse of the old guard where mixing abilities were still very important and house sets didn't contain "big peaks", and just consisted of repetitive grooves. I also saw some dj's who scratch and do all that as well during those first couple years.... I have to admit, I hated it. I guess I don't really appreciate DJ'ing skill in that sense. I'm not undermining it by any stretch and I know what guys like A-Trak do is very impressive, it's just not my thing.
I go to EDM shows to hear my favorite productions mixed in an interesting way. Stuff that guys like Alesso and The SHM guys do very well. Maybe I'm easy to please but when I hear Alesso drop some really crazy unrelated acapella over one of my favorite songs or pull off a really cool and surprising transition, I feel like I get my moneys worth. I know that stuff is relatively easy to pull off with pre planned set pieces but that doesn't make a difference to me. I guess it's become more about the music (to the fans) and less about the DJing.
I do agree that the people attending these shows are getting more and more annoying. I can't stand the shirtless d-bags that seem like they just came to pick fights with people. It's funny cause you get a mix of people who popped, and are probably the nicest people on the planet because of it and then you get pricks who want to fight you cause you bumped into them. It's like raver roulette.
Also, I've seen the SHM documentary too. They acted like total #######s the whole time. Too bad too cause Axwell played an awesome set when I saw him a couple years ago.
Last edited by polak; 05-03-2013 at 12:17 PM.
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Seeing Swedish House Mafia last year was mental. One of the craziest shows I have ever seen. Personally, I prefer being in a field with 50,000 other people going nuts and watching a massive elaborate show with pyrotechnics/fireworks/lazers/video screens than being in a basement with a couple hundred people watching someone spin records....but that's just me.
And that's exactly it. It's all a matter of personal preference. In my opinion the best set I've ever seen was Carl Cox spinning some beach/latin/laidback house on a small beach in Cannes.
With festivals you do get the crazy amounts of people, pyro, lazers, video screen but in order for all that to go smoothly you also get prerecording sets, boring mixes, and a healthy dose of songs you've already heard 1000x before. With the small nightclubs you don't get the crazy amount of people or visuals but since that is missing the DJ tends to need to compensate for it by playing something that not prerecorded, dropping a track you've never heard before or showing of his amazing technical skills.
Personally, I'm a fan of the later, and would take a one off show at a club like Footwork (Toronto), Stereo (Montreal), Output (NYC), or any of Weekend/Berghain/Watergate (Berlin) to a big festival any day.
Seeing Swedish House Mafia last year was mental. One of the craziest shows I have ever seen. Personally, I prefer being in a field with 50,000 other people going nuts and watching a massive elaborate show with pyrotechnics/fireworks/lazers/video screens than being in a basement with a couple hundred people watching someone spin records....but that's just me.
That's fair. I still like the big massive shows with crazy lights and all that. I guess I was just never a fan of how the pyrotechnics and production super-seeded the music is all. After attending many festivals and many smaller shows, I just personally prefer the smaller, more intimate parties.
I've also found that often times the music at the smaller venues ends up being higher quality then the larger festivals. At a small club a dj will do more to cater to the crowd and their reactions, while at festivals most goers want to hear their favorite tracks from that artist so those sets are more planned out.
Last edited by Huntingwhale; 05-03-2013 at 01:31 PM.
And that's exactly it. It's all a matter of personal preference. In my opinion the best set I've ever seen was Carl Cox spinning some beach/latin/laidback house on a small beach in Cannes.
With festivals you do get the crazy amounts of people, pyro, lazers, video screen but in order for all that to go smoothly you also get prerecording sets, boring mixes, and a healthy dose of songs you've already heard 1000x before. With the small nightclubs you don't get the crazy amount of people or visuals but since that is missing the DJ tends to need to compensate for it by playing something that not prerecorded, dropping a track you've never heard before or showing of his amazing technical skills.
Personally, I'm a fan of the later, and would take a one off show at a club like Footwork (Toronto), Stereo (Montreal), Output (NYC), or any of Weekend/Berghain/Watergate (Berlin) to a big festival any day.
ha ha, on a side note, one of the craziest nights of my life happened at (((STEREO))). Wild place.
I totally think there's a time for both. I also had an amazing night a few months ago when James Murphy came through town and spun some records at Commonwealth.
It's become the same kind of thing as rock, where you can go and see these insane over-produced shows like U2 or Metallica, or you can head down to the Republik and see the Japandroids or The Dudes. Both are great.
I think with EDC though, it seems like you have the opportunity to do both. You have the main stage with Tiesto, Avicii and whatver...and then you have these curated stages, like I think Carl Cox had one last year and Richie Hawtin has one this year. That would be pretty amazing to see.
I really enjoy the big shows - moreso than the smaller ones. SHM at Coachella last year were incredible. I was given free tickets to Calvin Harris last year in Calgary and I thought he was terrible. Basically went up there and pressed play while occasionally waving his arms in the air. If I was him I would have been embarassed.
I get goose bumps watching this......silently praying they will tour again
My first show was Guetta at whiskey for 20 bucks, two years later he sold out the Big 4 for $80 a ticket and Sexy Bitch was on the radio.
I was at the those parties too. David Guetta is a funny guy. Me nor any of my friends are fans of his productions. He's got that cheesy house sound that I don't like. But as a live dj, man that guy is amazing. At both those parties he played more dirty house sets, back when dirty house was big, way different then his own regular productions. To this day I still think he's one of the best live djs. His set at UMF 2 years ago is still fresh in my mind.
I stand corrected polak, I just checked more of his other stuff and as a non-trance fan found it pretty likeable - I 'assumed' his work continued along the pop line.
takes a while to scan that lineup but there is a fantastic mix of edm there....
Yeah, since Prydz left the Swedish House Mafia guys he has been making some of the most exciting EDM music around. Dude is unreal. His live shows are insane these days.
