Tag Archives: A-Trak

Last night was an insane mash up of some of the greatest talent. A cocktail blend of both up and coming artist and veterans (Morgan Page, The Crystal Method), plus some Celebrities (Tommy Lee).

When I first entered the Playhouse venue I was impressed with it’s setup. A bar/stage/dance floor below and a more club/bar scene with decks up top. And the acoustics on both ends were impressive. Each room was loud and powerful, but the sound was confined to those rooms – so there was no bleeding into the other.

I was first greeted by the sounds of Religion, Nick and Kevin. Previously I had only the pleasure of hearing them privately in their home. I was definitely impressed, but it was short and left me hungry for more!

At about 845 I was greeted with the famous Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll remix, their set began at 830. Many things about Religion’s setup were entertaining and impressive, but most of all was their ability as a DJ Duo to play at the controls together.

Instead of dividing their time together at the controls, each person playing a couple tracks and switching off, they stuck it out together at the decks, tangling all four arms and 20 fingers together in perfect sync to rock the floor. After they set was over there was a quick Q & A over the mic, ‘Give it up for Religion’ “yeaaaah!!!!” “now give it up for Religion the DJs.’

I found those mic sessions after and before each performers set to be a cool feature. After all the event was for Charity and people had been kind enough to donate presents to the show, the person in front of me donated Transformers!

Up top where Religion played there was a more ‘intimate’ feeling for the crowd and DJs. First of all there wasn’t a stage  and therefore there wasn’t a real ‘backstage area either’ separating the DJ from the crowd. This was awesome because many of the performers who had just performed and were about to go on were mixed in at the bar and dance floor.

By the time 12th Planet rocked the controls the room was rumbling with bass. Now I only previously had the pleasure of witnessing his surgerical production at EDC and I was highly fascinated with his ability to FILL the room in this much smaller venue.

The whole crowd was on fire and wound up from all the impressive talent that went on before and with Planet’s menacing bass we danced harder than ever!

Just in case the crowd wasn’t hyped enough, Nick from Religion was up at the Mic hyping everyone even more as Planet continued to spin those mean noises. He ended the set with his Apocalypse Theme remix and then faded out on West Coast Dub!

Besides 12th Planet and Religion, both DJs I had the pleasure of meeting before, last night was also a night of introduction to some other great talent. It was the first time I heard and met Hyphy Crunk and his set was nothing short of mind numbing! I hope everyone gets a chance to listen to his battle cries from the deck! And Eli Smith, a man who needs only his name mentioned, because everyone by now should be familiar with his talent!

And if you haven’t been blessed by any of these artist, well you’ve got some homework to do!
I didn’t spend much time in the lower area to be honest, but I did catch a segment of Tommy Lee & DJ Aero’s set. Interesting mixture of tunes, playing ‘Where’s My Money’s’ dubbey tones and then paying tribute to his friend Deadmau5.

Other than Lee and a few other favorites (Morgan Page, TCM) I found the lower area to be a bit more on the trance side of things and when the heavy electro and thundering dubstep are fidgeting their way around upstairs I don’t think anyone can enjoy the transition downstairs! Personally I would have loved for my upstairs friends to be in the main room with it’s flashy lights and screens…but then again it was more fitting to have the trance down there. After all it fits that stereotype better…and the first time I heard dubstep was in an intimate club in Cambridge, England called Fez!

Big thanks to Nick (Religion) and Fresh (Felipe Cuevas) for being kind and introducing me to your talented friends. There were so many great performers from that night that weren’t mentioned, but still much love & respect!