Tiesto and Porter Robinson are currently on a college tour across the nation, called the Club Life College Invasion Tour. This is almost as insane as being able to say that Jay-Z and Beyonce are your parents, but for now, this takes the gold medal. I had the personal pleasure of taking in the madness at my alma mater of the University of Rhode Island last Tuesday in humble Kingston RI. Lets just say that after this show ended, Kingston RI was left in a shell-shocked state of mind in regards to what had just occurred in front of their sheltered eyes.
Getting to the show just as Porter Robinson let loose his first pulse-riveting drop of the night, I knew that everyone was in for a treat. Making my way to the front right of the stage, the arena was not yet at capacity. Between that and the goofy looking asswipe behind me screaming “Tiesto!!” all through Porter’s set, I could tell that the hard hitting dirty Electro was still in motion of making strides in Kingston. However, once the Ryan Center began to fill in, and Robinson’s music got heavier, people started to realize this 19-year-old’s producing/DJ skills. Within minutes of getting settled in, he dropped into Dada’s Life newest single “Happy Violence”. The crowd seemed to react to the catchy melody and began jumping off its feet once the booming bass intertwined with the intro. It was all madness from there. Using his polished mixing skills, Porter dropped samples in from Wolfgang Gartner’s “Space Junk”, to Daft Punk’s “One More Time” along with numerous singles off his new Spitfire EP. The highlight of his set was the extended version of the song that started it all, Porter’s “Say My Name”. Transitioning into the heavy drop and getting everybody to practically jump right out of the arena, he used a 3+ minute build up to get people going insane, and then…silence. With the crowd going crazy and wanting more, Porter stared out over the crowd with the lights fully on taking in the sights of URI going wild. Then in a split second, with a smirk on his face and hands in the air, he dropped back into the song and finished his set…. I’ve never seen people dance so hard in my life, my mind was officially blown, and this was only the beginning.
Then there was Tiesto. Essentially it seems that’s all you really need to elaborate on these days after attending a Tiesto performance, but I will share a few highlights. The best highlight of all was that pure enjoyment of knowing almost 90% of people there had never been to a true EDM show and most importantly, never a Tiesto show. He did not disappoint anyone in that building including the security staff who were often seen with stares of amazement on their faces. Using his masterful DJ skills and unmatched productions, he dropped everything from Alesso’s “Pressure” in the early going, to a 5-song set of some deep Trance from his earlier works, and bringing it all back together with “Feel it in My Bones”, and the club thumping “C’mon” ft. Diplo. The party never stopped. He was determined to once again prove to everyone why he is the world’s greatest DJ, and as always blew the roof off of the venue that was presented to him. This being my fourth and most likely final time seeing Tiesto this year, I highly recommend beginning your search for tour dates in early 2012 (look no further than Dallas’ New Years Eve festival Lights All Night). Tiesto showed an immense amount of love to the US this year and he is sure to continue his grasp on the balls of worldwide EDM.
Here are a couple stand-outs from the show:
Grant Smillie ft. Zoe Badwi – Carry Me Home (Tommy Trash Remix)
BONUS:
GBallz here. Tonight Mord Fustang takes over the basement of The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. Although he has already kicked the ass of our Denver grew, this should be a treat for all his Boston fans. After talking to a lot of my friends who are supposedly into EDM, I was surprised to hear many of them didn’t know who Mord Fustang is. I have to say these people might want to reconsider their allegiance to the genre, because if you haven’t heard the song “Lick the Rainbow” over the past 6 months you have truly been living under a rock.
Mord’s newest remix has surfaced and it is his take on LMFAO’s newest single “Sexy And I Know It”. Personally speaking, the song comes as a deviation from his typical sound, although towards the end we hear that MF sound we’ve become used to. I’ll spare you my overall opinion of the song and let you decide for yourself. Comments, as always, are welcome.