Pictured left to right: Ardalan, T.Williams, Mija, Anna Lunoe, Destructo, GLENJAMN, Justin Martin
Take a cruise ship and put some of the world’s best Electronic and Dance Music acts on it for three days. Sell it out three years in a row and add a second sailing in its fourth year. Now put a North American tour between those two sailings, featuring some of the most entertaining DJs in the dance world, and bring your party from coast to coast. That’s what the folks at HARD Presents did this year, not even two months into 2015.
This past Thursday the Ship2Ship tour rolled into Audio Nightclub for its home stretch, after nearly four weeks on the road. Slated to perform were T.Williams, Anna Lunoe, and DESTRUCTO. Unfortunately the tour’s fourth member, Motez, was away on tour for this particular stop and even though I would have loved to see him, T.Williams, Anna, and Destructo supplied us with more than enough of the freshest beats a dance floor could handle.
When I walked in T.Williams was already on the decks, slaying thumping House beats over Audio’s superb sound system. It pains me to say this but I didn’t catch T.Williams aboard Holy Ship this year but his performance at Audio surely made up for that. While I’m not able to nail down many of the songs T.Williams played, they packed a punch and got the party started in a huge way. Big ups for closing with his new song “Back & Forth” which was certainly the club thumper I expected it to be.
Without missing a beat, Australia’s queen of House music Anna Lunoe was off to the races, bopping along to the funky beats she was laying down. Now I’ve seen Anna DJ a bunch of times, most recently at Denver’s 1Up (July 2014) and during Miami Music Week in March 2014 for the OWSLA party, but this was hands-down the best set I’ve seen her play. Maybe it was the amazing vibes in the room, maybe it was being surrounded by some of dance music’s finest, or maybe Anna Lunoe has taken her DJ game to a whole new level, but she fucking killed it. Some of the gems Anna Lunoe laid down included a dope remix of Tiga’s “Bugatti”, an equally dope remix of Anna’s own “Bass Drum Dealer”. We got to hear the crowd favorite “9TS” by Redlight, Jimmy Edgar’s “Whip” remix, Anna Lunoe & Treasure Finger’s “Bad MF”, a sick Deep House track sampling Dr. Dre’s “Next Episode” and a whole lot more.
As Anna Lunoe rocked her set, things really started heating up. I’ve been to Audio a lot since I moved to the Bay Area but this was by far my best experience there. When you couple good music with great people there’s no going wrong. Shipfam really is the best fam and it was great seeing new friends, old friends, re-meeting people and meeting people for the first time. Oh yeah, and it was pretty cool having Dirtybirds Justin Martin, Ardalan, and J. Phlip in the House as well as OWSLA rising star Mija.
The crowd went into a frenzy when Destructo arrived fashionably late, stopping to take photos and get acclimated to the already-wild party as he made his way to the booth. Once Destructo got on the decks the party couldn’t have turned up any harder. Gary wasted no time throwing down some of his tried-and-true beats, that slammed the dance floor hard. In particular Destructo’s tracks from the West Coast EP “Dare You To Move” and “Party Up” got HUGE reactions from the crowd. Of course it isn’t a Holy Ship party without O.T. Genasis’ “CoCo” being played, which Destructo mixed into his set thanks to a House remix (ID?). With all the Dirtybirds in the house, and because Dirtybird was celebrating its 10-year anniversary the following night, Destructo paid tribute to the label by throwing down Claude VonStroke’s latest track “Big Ten” – an absolute gem.
Overall the night was possibly one of the most fun I’ve had in my 10 young months living on the west coast. Thanks as always to the HARD team and to the folks at MSO PR. To all the people getting ready to sail away on the Holy Ship February edition I wish you safe travels, nonstop parties, and the time of your life. Play safe!