Everyone can relate to seeing a DJ they’ve never seen before for the first time, but it’s unusual to get to see two in the same night (outside of a festival, that is). This past Thursday, I had the pleasure of catching the old school and the new back-to-back in the same night and couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. Gemini, a young 22 year old dubstep producer out of the UK, was first up at Royale in Boston. I have always been intrigued by Gemini’s varying style, especially when compared to some of the other UK dubstep greats, and was curious to see the energy he would bring to a live set. When he came on, despite being almost 45 minutes late to the decks, the energy in the near empty room immediately cranked in parallel with the volume as Gemini opened with some incredible high-energy song I’d never heard before. He continued to drop an interesting mix of dubstep, electro and trap – a surprise considering I was expecting heavy dubstep throughout.
After catching about an hour of his set, we took our leave from Royale to head to Cambridge’s newest venue, The Sinclair, to catch 20+ year veteran Sasha lay down a much more subdued house set. While it was certainly a change of pace coming from Gemini’s much more high energy material, it was a great set filled with low-key Ibiza grooves, a departure from the small part of his set we caught at Electric Zoo. What impressed me the most about the show was the venue, which is easily the best I’ve been to in Cambridge. A big dance floor with a wraparound balcony and a more sophisticated crowd had me excited to catch some of the great acts coming through there soon, including Disclosure, Boombox and Crystal Fighters. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it. Check out Gemini’s latest and Sasha’s amazing Hot Chip remix from last year below!