After a long week of attempted decompression following a weekend of taking a serious internet and social media break, the idea of being around a crowd of unknown composition just made our skin crawl. Plus, one of our intended compadres bailed at the last minute after a day of a smudge too much pregaming. We were not in the mood.
That being said, we waited and waited at home until we absolutely HAD to leave. No offense to the rest of the folks on the tour, but we really wanted to see our headliners and go crawl back into our hole. Somewhere close to midnight, we rolled into Stereo Live reluctantly, just chanting to ourselves that we didn’t want to be there at all.
When we walked through the door, we have to admit, we were pleasantly surprised. The music was fantastic, and we were quickly won over by some of our favorite Anjuna songs. We’d been wanting to see Andrew Bayer for years, and have always been delighted to see Ilan Bluestone throw down tracks anywhere. The set was a swirl of cheers, melody, and a very active confetti gun. We were not disappointed.
However, something still felt a little off. During the B2B set, while one was playing a track, the other was a hype man, hopping around in front of stage. This is a bit of a personal pet peeve, normally only reserved for Bass, Dubstep, or Trap shows, that poked its annoying head into my sacred trance space. After having seen trance shows all over the world, this was the first time we’d really seen this consistently outside of the EDM spectrum. Again, this is just minor, and the guys still put on a heck of a show.
By the time Jason Ross hit the stage, we’d been dancing hard, and ducked out for a bottle of water. From the back of the room, the crowd had thinned a bit, but was still full of vigor. When we hopped back to the dance floor, we were greeted with an actual slick dance floor, coated with a layer of confetti, that acted as a wonderful buffer against the usually oddly sticky floor of Stereo. More singalong ensued, and cheering fans still draped their various flags off of the balconies.
Pros:
Confetti makes a non-sticky floor. Delightful melodies and high energy track selection masterfully executed, taking the crowds on a wondrous ride. The crowd was friendly, and let us scoot to the front so we could see.
Cons:
Hype man and no headphone mixing brings out the old fogey jaded raver. Mixing was solid, but not eventful. No risks were being taken. Also, Jason Ross’ logo kinda looks like macaroni art.
Rating: B+
Solid show, solid talent, but overall, not the highlight of our year so far.
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
