After an absolutely wild night in Atlantic City, staying in the brand new hotel REVEL and seeing the one and only Tommy Trash shake down HQ nightclub, I brushed off the confetti, counted my losses on the roulette table and took a train to Brooklyn.
Walking up to the venue in the crowded streets of down town Brooklyn I could hear the booming bass kicks of TNGHT’s Buggn reverberating off the heavily graffitied wall as hipsters and hype beasts alike pedaled and skated up to the entrance gate. My group and I were a little confused on how they were going to do it this year, we all had to RSVP on facebook and a few of us hadn’t and were a little worried they would not get in, it was actually a breeze they were just letting you and slapping a wrist band on you, and it was surprisingly uncrowded for a free concert on a sunday.
Unfortunately I arrived a little late, by a little late I was only there for the end of someones mediocre set (I am not sure who it was, cell phone was dead and had no set list) and by the time the next act got fully going on the only stage, the whole thing was called off due to some really intense thunderstorms, yes a few people did comment on the irony of my name. From what I did experience, the venue was not crowded, it honestly did not feel like a whole lot of people were vibing on the music and the sound…well the sound was absolutely atrocious. The levels were completely maxed out and it sounded like trash, not the good trash like tommy trash, like someone more or less farting into a microphone. The venue ending early may or may not have been a bad thing because later on that night the Mad Decent crew had something spectacular lined up.
As we ducked cover of the rain and piled into some cars, we sorted out our whereabouts and reconvened in a local pub to decide our next move over a few pitchers of brew. We soon found out that Mad Decent was not done, and a few blocks away there was an official after party going on. We met at a friends apartment near by, showered, got dressed and headed out to probably one of the coolest venues I have been to in a while. The venue from my understanding was called “The Music Hall”, the facade was two large metal doors, a ticket window, some ropes and a security guard, not really much to it. Walking into the venue after you are thrown in a dark, black lit hallway leading the way to an even darker staircase. Up the stair case we were thrown right in the middle to a horde of New Yorkers, partly closed and entirely getting down to Diplo and the rest of the Major Lazer crew.
Diplo ended up playing a near four hour set that was absolutely fantastic. The full Major Lazer experience was in effect complete with the staple daggering and booty shakin they are known for. I have seen Major Lazer / Diplo a few times and this absolutely blew me and my friends away. The venue was steaming hot so people were almost half naked everywhere. The energy of Brooklyn was thick in the air as everyone jumped and danced in unison to some awesome dancehall music. Diplo seemed to be really digging the whole thing and even inflated a giant beach ball-thing ran across the crowd, came back and did a stage dive from the second story of the music hall.
Overall it was an incredible experience to be had by all. At first we were all pretty bummed out by the block party getting rained on but the after party sure made up for it. Below check out a video I took of the one and only Diplo cruising the crowd plus a few of my favorite Major Lazer tracks.
Major Lazer – Get Free (What So Not Remix)