A couple weeks ago, we ended up with a surprise Friday off in town. The original intent was to fly to New Orleans for family time, but with the delay of this trip, we realized this meant we would be able to check out Eric Prydz while he was here in Houston. Although we truly hate the term “bucket list,” he truly is one of our bucket list artists. Once Pryda came out nearly 5 years ago, the “Call On Me” guy was transformed from a gimmicky songster (in the eyes of some colleagues) to a true production powerhouse in our eyes. This was reinforced by our colleagues catching him at Euphoria Music Festival the year before in what was described as a “damn near religious experience.” After a slurry of texts and pathetic Facebook pleas, we managed to find a couple of tickets to this sold out show, and set off again to Stereo Live.
Sadly, we got there after he had started, so we missed any to-do that might have happened on his arrival (darn you, Uber!). We skated in, located our horde of friends, and put a drink in our hand. “Everyone’s here, you know” we were told as soon as we located our first group. They weren’t kidding. Stereo Live was packed to the gills for a Thursday night, with the patio and VIP/Bottle service areas completely full. The music was a little more on the chill side when we arrived, but as one of group 2 of friends put it: “This set is definitely a grower, not a shower.” We couldn’t have put it better.
As the night led on, the tracks became darker, the mixing became more complex, and we scooted closer to the front of the crowd. Prydz was creative, artistic, and masterful with this set, which was a complete contrast to the play-the-hits sets we have been witnessing lately. No Jesus behind the decks poses, no hype men, just MUSIC. Blissful, thumping, melodic music, swaying in from darker techno, tech house, and litlle touches of everything else in the spectrum, masterfully woven together on 4 decks. At one point, we heard a mix continue for at least 2 minutes. We admit, we didn’t take photos, or even really care about the visuals (although they were simple, yet clear and outstanding) because our eyes were closed and we spent the time dancing our stumpy little hearts out. He could only be compared to a world class level boxer, bobbing, ducking, and weaving music into a sacred dance. Yes, this set grew with ferocity and intensity as the night went on, to the point where the mellowness was a brief memory. He took you on the ride that only a master could, never too much, but stretching your limits. The set was very Pryda era heavy, with some glimpses (according to my partner for the evening) of his work with Deadmau5 and other Mouseville tracks. Simply glorious.
Shortly after the 2:00AM mark, this ride sadly ended. The venue was still packed to the gills, and we used our ninja stealth to get a ride before the mob came pouring out of the venue. Oddly enough, we heard some negative feedback from people complaining that this was not very Opus heavy, mainly that he didn’t drop “Generate.” We personally couldn’t have cared less.
Pros:
Friendly crowd, on point visuals and in house mixing. 3 hours of solid music that was all about the music was beyond amazing. Possibly the best set we’ve seen so far this year, and the best since ADE the previous year.
Cons:
Whiny patrons that went simply to see him play “Generate.” The fact that this was on a Thursday night.
A+
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.
