Social The Live Show Review Thread

ChemicalSmiles said:
Paparazzi 9/10
I will have to ID it, but Paparazzi started with the lion king electro banger I mentioned earlier... I heard this 3 times while at Ultra. He played the Root Society Dome and it was the first stage you saw as you entered Ultra.... I didnt see any headphones being used so I assume Ableton was being used.... There were no slow ups at all, just non stop electro nastiness. People literally were flocking from every which way to get in this dome and the DJ got into it like his career depended on it. The most memorable moment was when he dropped that familiar line "they know what is what but they dont know what is what, they just strut, what the fuck" He let that repeat several times before finally dropping the bass on everyone, and when it hit. The crowd went absolutely nuts. This guy did a GREAT job doing an opening set at Ultra and he got the crowd in a great mood. Smiles were everywhere and NO one looked bored at all.
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You're not talking about the young (like 20-something year old) DJ with medium-long black hair are you? Man if so he's either gotten extremely good in the past year or so..or...idk what....but that's crazy if we're thinking of the same person.

He DJs at a number of clubs out here, and every time I see him im left thinking "eh..."

He's opening up the stage at Coachella this year, so we'll see how good he really is as I havent seen him in months....huh...

He's a nice guy though (once again, if we're talking about the same person). Met him a while back and talked with him for a small bit.
 
(I don't listen to trance much, so these reviews might be crap...also I was extremely not sober =D )

Kamui @ trance energy 2010
Good hard trance set, I liked it very much :D 10/10

Alex Kidd @ trance energy 2010
Started with the hardest possible trance and went to hardstyle very quickly, liked it very much also :D 10/10

Nic Chagall, BT, Marcus Schulz, Armin van Buuren (20min set via satellite link), petterson & tyas @ Trance energy 2010
I liked them all, specially schulz, buuren was nothing that special (#1 hype).
 
Emancipator + Pretty Lights

10/10

Pretty amazing. Danced my face off all night.
 
Infected Mushroom - Epic, Minneapolis 3/19/2009 - 9/10

These guys put on an amazing live show. It is especially cool to have live instruments combined with dj gear. The track selection was leaning towards newer albums, more of the stuff that I don't really know, but the crowd was digging it! The energy in the room was absolutely electrifying and being on the dance floor meant being lifted up and jumping with the rest of the crowd, that's how packed it was (Epic has capacity of around 2500-3000 i think). The only reason it gets 9/10 and not 10 is that the show they did the year before was also crazy and amazing, but was on a more intimate level, with the stage being on the same level as the dance floor.
 
James Ruskin

6/10

I was supposed to be seeing Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch and Regis on Friday night. But due to this Icelandic volcano, none of them could make it. So the promoters called in The Advent, James Ruskin and Inigo Kennedy as late-replacements.

Ruskin was good, but he played a little slower than I was expecting (possibly due to him being on fairly early in the night). I guess I'd describe his sound as 'good minimal' - not really slammin', but still with enough drive to make it good to dance to. I would definitely check him out again if the opportunity arose.
 
The Advent (live)

9/10

The Advent played a 2-hour live set and absolutely killed it! It was just one sick techno groove after another - slammin' beats, sick techno rhythms and nasty basslines. He played a couple of Advent vs Industrialyzer tracks that I recognised ('Terra Nosa' and 'Not Guilty'), as well as a load of stuff I didn't recognise, but still thoroughly enjoyed. A common trick in his set was to cut the beats out, bring in a melody or weird sound that made you think there was about to be a big breakdown, but then straight away (after like 3-4 seconds) cut the melody (or weird sound) back out, and bring back the slammin beats :) - it certainly made me dance anyway!!!

If I was being ultra-critical, I would've liked a few more melodies (or dare I say it even a vocal). But his set was still sick, and very good to dance to!!!
 
Planet Of The Drums '10

8.75/10

lol, getting serious with the ratings ha!

I was thoroughly impressed with POTD @ Ultra this year. It had been years since I have seen the POTD crew and they are in the best form I have ever seen them in. MC Messinian is still tagging along unfortunately and his blabbing took away from the performance ala steve aoki invading a perfectly good beetroots show. I heard a few late 90s and early 2000 tracks that brought back A LOT of memories..... the whole set was flawless, no trainwrecks or slowdowns.... and they definitely brought the new dubplates everyone craved...... I used to be an exclusive jungle head for years and was almost converted to back to the slightly jaded junglist of my past. I managed to see POTD 4 years in a row 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, and saw dieselboy twice on other occasions.... This was my favorite POTD set by far... and they actually had all three up there most of the time Ak, Dara, DB and the fourth being Messian, which usually doesn't happen. Its normally one after another... they did each have a little solo time on the decks but were tag teaming on 6 turntables (and serato from what I could tell) very nice... nice indeed. Good way to start out Ultra day 2, it was about the 3rd hour into the day... If the heat was any hotter I would died from dancing. Only a few songs I didn't like, and if Messinian would have shut up, I woulda gave them a 9.5 probably.

Caspa

7/10

I was really hyped to see Caspa and haven't seen manty dubstep shows period so I was really thrilled to get there about 10 minutes into the set. Although it was a small stage, it was pretty packed..... The lights and special stage FX were non existant but what counts is the bass.... and caspa let the crowd have it. For the first 30 minutes I was there I heard nothing but top quality dubstep ... a few tracks all the dubstep heads know, and a few underground or white label tracks that I was unfamiliar with... regardless it was very good... it was odd, near the end the set mbegan to slow up in pace and the songs were rather boring and repetitive so I left jsut before he finished. If he woulda had a solid ending I would have rated him higher, but still a good enough show for me to dance and convince me to see him again.

Orbital

3/10

The only thing that was cool about orbital was the cool light headsets the wore.... besides that nothing impressed me AT all about them. I was not exposed to much of their msuic in the past and it exactly isn't my style but I was intrigued to see what they had to offer, and will give any Dj a shot (even if it is only 5-15 minutes) But I will give a DJ a good half hour if I have heard a lot of good things about them. Well, the girl I was with really wanted to see them (she had been a party kid for 14 years and used to see Orbital in the late 90's apparently and she said she had lots of fond memories regarding they're sets. So I settled in and nudged my way to the front right of the stage... the same stage that the bloody beetroots aka Deathcrew 77 tore up only 2 hours prior. I got to orbital about 25 minutes into the set and they were playing some melodic music that I really couldn't call any specifc gere or sub genre.... I mean im sure there is a name for what they were playing biut I hadnt heard anything much like it before.... It was really slow and boring the transitions to the next song were drawn out and at times for 4 minutes you would hear the same BS playing over and over on a loop.... at one point they built up a song for 11 minutes or so before moving on to the next track.... I LOL at the "build-up" they did. Well, maybe it was a bad night for them... maybe it was due to the fact it had been years since they have played together. Whatever the reason was they put on the lackluster show they did.... there was no excuse for it being the most UTTERLY boring set at Ultra. My partner in crime agreed the set was lacking and we sped off to catch a bit of Carl Cox, which was great btw.
 
ChemicalSmiles said:
Planet Of The Drums '10

8.75/10

lol, getting serious with the ratings ha!

I was thoroughly impressed with POTD @ Ultra this year. It had been years since I have seen the POTD crew and they are in the best form I have ever seen them in. MC Messinian is still tagging along unfortunately and his blabbing took away from the performance ala steve aoki invading a perfectly good beetroots show. I heard a few late 90s and early 2000 tracks that brought back A LOT of memories..... the whole set was flawless, no trainwrecks or slowdowns.... and they definitely brought the new dubplates everyone craved...... I used to be an exclusive jungle head for years and was almost converted to back to the slightly jaded junglist of my past. I managed to see POTD 4 years in a row 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, and saw dieselboy twice on other occasions.... This was my favorite POTD set by far... and they actually had all three up there most of the time Ak, Dara, DB and the fourth being Messian, which usually doesn't happen. Its normally one after another... they did each have a little solo time on the decks but were tag teaming on 6 turntables (and serato from what I could tell) very nice... nice indeed. Good way to start out Ultra day 2, it was about the 3rd hour into the day... If the heat was any hotter I would died from dancing. Only a few songs I didn't like, and if Messinian would have shut up, I woulda gave them a 9.5 probably.

Caspa

7/10

I was really hyped to see Caspa and haven't seen manty dubstep shows period so I was really thrilled to get there about 10 minutes into the set. Although it was a small stage, it was pretty packed..... The lights and special stage FX were non existant but what counts is the bass.... and caspa let the crowd have it. For the first 30 minutes I was there I heard nothing but top quality dubstep ... a few tracks all the dubstep heads know, and a few underground or white label tracks that I was unfamiliar with... regardless it was very good... it was odd, near the end the set mbegan to slow up in pace and the songs were rather boring and repetitive so I left jsut before he finished. If he woulda had a solid ending I would have rated him higher, but still a good enough show for me to dance and convince me to see him again.

Orbital

3/10

The only thing that was cool about orbital was the cool light headsets the wore.... besides that nothing impressed me AT all about them. I was not exposed to much of their msuic in the past and it exactly isn't my style but I was intrigued to see what they had to offer, and will give any Dj a shot (even if it is only 5-15 minutes) But I will give a DJ a good half hour if I have heard a lot of good things about them. Well, the girl I was with really wanted to see them (she had been a party kid for 14 years and used to see Orbital in the late 90's apparently and she said she had lots of fond memories regarding they're sets. So I settled in and nudged my way to the front right of the stage... the same stage that the bloody beetroots aka Deathcrew 77 tore up only 2 hours prior. I got to orbital about 25 minutes into the set and they were playing some melodic music that I really couldn't call any specifc gere or sub genre.... I mean im sure there is a name for what they were playing biut I hadnt heard anything much like it before.... It was really slow and boring the transitions to the next song were drawn out and at times for 4 minutes you would hear the same BS playing over and over on a loop.... at one point they built up a song for 11 minutes or so before moving on to the next track.... I LOL at the "build-up" they did. Well, maybe it was a bad night for them... maybe it was due to the fact it had been years since they have played together. Whatever the reason was they put on the lackluster show they did.... there was no excuse for it being the most UTTERLY boring set at Ultra. My partner in crime agreed the set was lacking and we sped off to catch a bit of Carl Cox, which was great btw.
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Thizz, you went to coachella right?

Did you get a chance to catch Plastikman?


If so let's hear a review.

If not, then you're a goat.
 
^ Lol did I see Plastikman, that's funny =D

Wasnt gunna do this till I had all my reviews done, but ill do a few now.

Plastikman
10/10

Words cannot explain the amount of awesomeness that this set unfolded. Positioned in the back of the tent I could see every aspect of the visual performance. Although Hawtin's tent lighting guy was stuck in Europe due to the volcano, I was not phased as the silo visuals blew me away. Perfectly in sync with the beautiful sounding beats, I was lost in a trance of pure amazement.

The music was out of this world. Beautifully crafted, the music flowed with such power that I was nearly blown out of my shoes.

Ill never forget this performance, as it was one of the best ive seen to date.
(and probably will ever see in my entire life!)

Orbital
8/10

Although I left a bit early to catch the beginning of Thom Yorke, the 45 minutes or so of Orbital that I saw was absolutely stunning. Beautifully crafted the music never stopped and transitioning was absolutely fabulous. I wasnt that big a fan of Orbital to begin with, but when I left I knew Id be listening to a hell of a lot more Orbital than I previously have been. Visually they were pretty nice. Their moving screens were cool, and their stage lighting was great to watch as it synced up perfectly with their music.

If I get the chance to see them again (which I hope I do) i'm going to take it as the set was absolutely wonderful.

Club 75
7.5/10

For those who dont know, Club 75 is made up of DJ Mehdi, Cassius, Busy P, and Justice. Now, separately im not that big a fan of their music, but when they hit the decks together I was blown away. Mixing was great, and I didnt feel at all that they were straining to match a beat or mix in a sample. The set was non stop energy as well. Banger after banger, they pleased the crowd with thumping beats and great samples. I felt that they were the Bloody Beetroots of this years Coachella, that is, full of excitement and energy. I found myself going ape shit over songs I dont normally go nuts for, but the energy they emitted with each drop and each mixing lifted me into a state of pure electronic joy. Now this could have also been due to the large amounts of LSD that was in my system, but i'd like to think it was the music ;)

Bassnectar
10/10

Wow, I mean really, WOW. Blown away into Hyperspace at the first drop, I was in pure ecstasy for the entire set. Bassnectar's mixing was great (although his mixing usually consists of just dropping in samples that bleed into each song, but even so it was fantastic). He's a complete master of puppetry when it comes to music, and he can really get in deep to take a part the different elements of a song which he uses to make up his live sets. Words cant really explain the intensity of the set. Blown away from the start, I was left with a permanent smile on my face the entire time. Bassnectar doesnt confine himself to one specific genre, which I love. His set consisted of Dubstep, Drum 'n' Bass, Hip-Hop, and DUMDUMDUMMM BREAKS!! I thought it was absolutely amazing that he brought back the old-school in his set. (For those who dont know, Bassnectar got his start as DJ Lorin playing Breaks). Usually his newer stuff doesnt consist of breakbeat, and he usually doesnt paly it live, but when he dropped it in I was amazed and pleased with what he had done. His energy was out of this world. Besides the fact that his music generates immense amounts of electonric joy, his stage presence is great! He knows how to work a crowd, and you can really tell he loves what he does.

I cant wait to see him again.

Flying Lotus
10/10

OH. MY. GOD.

Ive seen FlyLo before, but nothing like what he did at Coachella this past year. Nonstop joy came out of those speakers, and I was blown away from the start. His composition was absolutely wonderful, mixing in Electro with Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop with Funk. He mixed in songs that I thought couldnt really be mixed at all (although keep in mind he uses Ablteton and a midi controller, but still, it takes some skill to do what he does). A nonstop smile was not only on my face, bus his as well. You can really tell he loves what he does!

I cant wait to see him again.

alright...last one for now, but plenty more to come.

Craze & Klever
4/10

I was expecting a lot more from them to be honest. While I am impressed with their skill involving vinyl, I just wasnt blown away with their set like I hoped to be. Their song selection was horrible, playing extremely generic and overplayed songs. I was very tempted to leave at more than one point, but stuck around thinking "well..maybe it'll get better...", well it didnt, and im sad I stayed around for it. The only thing I can say that was nice about their performance, was their scratching and cutting skills. Other than that, I dont think their set was anything special.



Still to come:

Deadmau5 (With THE CUBE)
Wolfgang Gartner
Proxy
Nosaj Thing
Rusko
The Ianator
MiM0SA
Eskmo
2ManyDJs
DJ Lance Rock (possibly the funnest set of my life)
 
Thizzerfershizzer said:
^ Lol did I see Plastikman, that's funny =D

Wasnt gunna do this till I had all my reviews done, but ill do a few now.

Plastikman
10/10

Words cannot explain the amount of awesomeness that this set unfolded. Positioned in the back of the tent I could see every aspect of the visual performance. Although Hawtin's tent lighting guy was stuck in Europe due to the volcano, I was not phased as the silo visuals blew me away. Perfectly in sync with the beautiful sounding beats, I was lost in a trance of pure amazement.

The music was out of this world. Beautifully crafted, the music flowed with such power that I was nearly blown out of my shoes.

Ill never forget this performance, as it was one of the best ive seen to date.
(and probably will ever see in my entire life!)
)
Click to expand...



Nice, glad to hear it.

The only other plastikman performance he's doing in the US is Detroit for DEMF and i'm extremely excited, even more so now that so many people have given this project the thumbs up.

ONE MORE MONTH!
 
I update the thread, and then people gotta post mad reviews haha. Ah, well....

thizz, its crazy how our experiences at Orbital varied so much.....
 
Idk, I thought they were great. Beautifuly crafted music that flowed like water through a creek. It was subtly great, and I thought their light coordination was fantastic.

Time for some more! :)

Deadmau5 (with The Cube)
6/10

This even shocked me, as I cant stand Deadmau5. Although he played most of the same songs he always plays (like the robot he is), he actually changed it up a bit which I found to be nice. Sound production was nice as always (I respect him as a producer, just not as a live artist), and his lighting/stage production was fabulous. Although it annoyed me that he ripped off Daft Punk's pyramid, I still thought his glowing head and the cube were quite nice.

Woflgang Gartner
8.5/10

Now this was a good set. Absolutely brilliant mixing (where I didnt even realize he had mixed in a song until the beat dropped) and song choice was great. I found my self dancing like a madman along with my friend who had never seen him before but was now a total fanatic. The set was absolutely electric and fun, full of energy and bass-tastic beats. I cant wait to see him again at EDC!

Proxy
8/10

Absolutely fantastic!!!! His entire set was thumping with insane bass and choppy synth-work. His mixing was fantastic (CDJ's) and the party didnt stop for his entire set. A russian master at his best! He played all his amazing songs (Raven, Dancing In The Dark, etc) and mixed them with intense bangers that usually arent played in normal electro sets (In other words, he didnt play the cliche songs we've all heard a million times but everyone still goes nuts for, for some odd reason).

His soviet visuals in the background were entertaining as well as revolutionary (literally! haha).

Overall the set was a total win and I hope he decides to come back to the states sometime soon so I can witness it again.

Rusko
4.5/10

It might just be because I dont really like that type of Dubstep any more (I like artists like Scuba, Mala, Loefa, Benga, Skream, Excision, etc now days) but I just found his set to be a complete bore. Song selection wise he played all of his overplayed songs, as well as all the other overplayed songs all dubstep fans have heard a million and one times. I didnt feel that his bass was all that epic at all like I expected it to be, and that goes for his set in general. His mixing was better than the videos ive seen (not quite as rushed this time), but I didnt really feel like there was a lot off "umph" in his set. Im thankful that his annoying MC wasnt there, or I probably would have just walked out. Very dissapointed with this set.

Nosaj Thing
7/10

Nosaj Thing runs kinda like Flying Lotus (well...birds of a feather do flock together [they're both Pure Filth artists]). I found his set to be a very nice combination of IDM, hip hop, and mellow dubstep. It was very nice and relaxing for being part of the afterparty after a long day of going nuts to Bassnectar, Flying Lotus, 2ManyDJ's, etc. I would love to see him again to see what else he has to offer, but this set was really great as it is and i'm now more a fan than I previously was.



Still to come:

The Ianator
MiM0SA
Eskmo
2ManyDJs
DJ Lance Rock
 
orbital
9.5/10

i caught orbital at the warfield in san francisco about a week ago. epic, epic, EPIC! whether or not you're familiar with these legends, if you walked out of that venue without your mind blown then you probably don't appreciate electronic music. these guys were true pioneers and they definitely still have something magical. the sheer amount of gear on stage was unbelievable - this is how a 'Live PA' is done my friends, none of this low-budget laptop + midi controller shit!

this show was all about orbital and they were quite a spectacle. most of the classics one would expect to hear were included, although the boys didn't start the night off with any of them. i rushed the dance floor when they finally played "halcyon + on + on" (yes, with the infamous bon jovi/belinda carlisle bits) and the whole place blew up. orbital is perhaps the highest expression of any music that could be reasonably referred to as trance and this crowd really understood.

i've seen this version of a setlist and it seems pretty accurate:

Out There Somewhere Part 1
The Moebius
Out There Somewhere Part 2
Lush 3
Lush (Euro Tunnel Disaster 94 mix)
Impact
Remind
Satan
Belfast
Chime
Crime
Know Where to Run
Halcyon
One Perfect Sunrise
---
(Encore)
The Box
Doctor Who

this was a high quality performance, but not quite perfect. i subtracted half a point for two reasons: one is that some of their transitions had annoyingly discordant tones. come on orbital, surely you're familiar with key and harmony and all that, being the musical geniuses that you are? the other issue for me was their visuals. the content was way too dark. had they been playing some of their more industrial sounding material, i could have understood the creepy apocalyptic imagery but that wasn't the case. the screens themselves were cool but i seriously did not get what was being projected on them. at least they had a stellar lighting rig to remind us that we were witnessing something beautiful.

overall this was one of the best electronic concerts i've ever seen, and all the old schoolers gushing out front after the show seemed to agree. LEDGE
 
Maybe its an East vs West (best) coast thing. We on the Best coast have gotten the amazing Orbital performances :D
 
@lterEgo said:
i've seen this version of a setlist and it seems pretty accurate:

Out There Somewhere Part 1
The Moebius
Out There Somewhere Part 2
Lush 3
Lush (Euro Tunnel Disaster 94 mix)
Impact
Remind
Satan
Belfast
Chime
Crime
Know Where to Run
Halcyon
One Perfect Sunrise
---
(Encore)
The Box
Doctor Who
Click to expand...

OMFG I would seriously lose my shit with a setlist like that!!!!!! - some real hidden gems that they don't often play (like the Euro Tunnel Disaster 94 mix of Lush; Know Where To Run; and One Perfect Sunrise).

I saw Orbital twice in 2001, but haven't seen them since. I really need to put that right!
 
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