Krewella & Crew Rock Starlight Ballroom

On Saturday, December 22nd, a sold out crowd packed into the Starlight Ballroom in Philly for an event that will not soon be forgotten: a night headlined by Chicago based trio, Krewella.

Presented by Art of Electronica, CollegeEDM, and Jump Up, the evening kicked off at 10pm with an extended B2B opening set by David Vaux and Amenzo. From the moment the Starlight Ballroom opened, a line extended out the door of the venue, and well down the block.

The line stayed pretty solid for several hours. This wasn’t an indication of a slow rate of entry, but rather the sheer number of people who had turned out to play hard, and party harder with Krewella.

It didn’t take long for the venue to start to fill in nicely as the opening DJ’s swapped on and off the decks during their B2B set.

After two hours, it was time for DotExe to take over on the tables and he popped onto the mix seamlessly to keep the party going. At this point the venue was well packed from those in the 21+ area at the back to those pressed up against the railing in the front row. It was hot, it was sweaty, it was just what we’d expected.

Krewella, who consists of sisters Jahan & Yasmine Yousaf, and Kris “Rain Man” Trindl, had already played a show earlier in the evening in Freehold, NJ, but if anyone thought that this would lessen their energy level when they hit the stage in Philly, they were sorely mistaken.

Known for their filthy beats and killer vocals, Krewella has taken the world of EDM by the balls in 2012 and has yet to let go. Taking turns on the mic, the tables, and even a bottle of Jameson’s, the trio rocks themselves into a sweatier mess than many in the audience.

Head banging, dancing, jumping, and singing their hearts out, they simply blasted the sold-out crowd with two full hours of audible euphoria, lasers, and even some champagne.

When the music finally ended, all three of them took the time to sign countless autographs, hug, and pose for photos with a rabid collection of fans who stuck around to meet these humble rock-stars of the EDM world.

We can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store for Krewella and we imagine it will include numerous trips back to the City of Philadelphia.

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[photo credit: Steve Garfinkel Photography & D. Jacob Miller Photography]

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Great Night of EDM From A to Zedd

On Thursday night, September 20th, Steez promo, NV concepts, and Mass EDMC brought a lineup of epic proportions to Philly with headliners Zedd and Lucky Date and opening sets by Khadafi Dub and Speaker of the House & Amenzo.

The doors opened at 9pm with a small line waiting anxiously to get inside. First up was local Philly producer Speaker of the House alongside Amenzo. Who is Speaker of the House? Just one of the most up and coming producers in the city. If you haven’t heard of him, look him up – the bandwagon has left the station, but its not too late to catch a ride. Speaker of the House and Amenzo played from 9-10pm to a great sized crowd for the first hour of the show. Having an arsenal of original mixes at their disposal, they had the crowd going crazy. When the clock hit 10pm things would only get more wild.

Up next was Khadafi Dub. Khadafi Dub, who just recently was awarded the title of “Best Dubstep MC/Host” at the 2012 Dubstep Music Awards, played a mixture of trap music and dubstep. Regardless of the genre of music, he played banger after banger that had the entire crowd, which at this point was filling in most of the dance floor, going absolutely nuts.

Up next was Lucky Date. As if the energy was not already high enough in the venue, Lucky played such great music that the crowd just didn’t know what to expect next. If concert goers are wondering why they were so sore the next day, they should point fingers in Lucky Date’s direction. Amazingly, the night was nowhere close to being over.

At 1215pm German born Anton Zaslavski, aka Zedd, made his way out onto the stage. At only 22 years of age, Zedd, who was labeled a “prodigy” by the New York Times, has come a long way in an incredibly short amount of time. Playing alongside big names such as Skrillex and Deadmau5, Zedd has quickly become a world-class DJ with a bright future ahead of him. Once on stage, Zedd quickly began playing incredible songs one after another. And while many call Dillon Francis a party animal for his wild on stage antics (such as getting up on stage and giving Zedd himself the middle finger at a Los Angeles club) Zedd showed that he has a sense of humor as well with his track collection. Its not everyday that a DJ puts a remix to “Who let the dogs out” or “I like to move it move it” in their set. With the attention of the audience completely captivated, Zedd played until about 145am. When Zedd left the stage, the audience had only one hope left, scream, yell, chant, and shout as loud as they possibly could with the hopes that Zedd would come back out for one more song. Guess what? It worked.

Zedd walked back on stage, grabbed the mic, and screamed, “Philly! I fucking love you! You guys are awesome!”. He then said, “I am going to play you my favorite song in the whole world!”…(if you have seen the video of Zedd and Skillex after Ezoo, you may know where this is going)… he then played the beginning of Avicii’s Levels, picked up the mic, and said, “this is Levels by the Swedish House Mafia!”. The crowd loved it. After levels played for a about 30 seconds, he quickly transitioned into his “actual favorite song in the world”, and gave the audience exactly what they wanted.

Starlight Ballroom is a far cry from the fancier venues that have popped up around the city in recent years. It’s the type of place in which patrons are guaranteed to taste the steaming, hot, sticky sweat dripping off of the people dancing nearby. But you know what? Sometimes its nice to be treated to a world-class DJ in a setting reminiscent of the times of yesteryear, when “EDM” was not an everyday term and was still an underground movement whose concerts weren’t even called concerts but just simply, “raves”.

And while Skrillex has his spaceship, Avicii his massive human head, Datsik his vortex, and Deadmau5 his Cube, Zedd reminded us all that you don’t need to perform in high-tech futuristic fashion in order to succeed. While a show is all about the experience, we tend to forget that its really about the music, not the lights, lasers and strobes. Zedd played with a constant smile on his face. Why? Because it is clear that he is doing what he loves, and his fans love him for that. Zedd doesn’t need a multi-million dollar stage setup to have a good time, and neither did we. We commend Zedd for staying true to what this movement is truly all about, the music.

[photos and article by Steve Garfinkel]

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We Like Our Nights Hot and Our Tunes Swanky

We felt like screaming with joy when we heard that Planet House was bringing Swanky Tunes to Philadelphia on Thursday, July 5th. Ironic because they were playing at Whisper in Rittenhouse Square.

Just one day after celebrating Independence Day in the city where America began, it was time for a Russian invasion in Philly.

It seemed like a heavy day of partying in the extreme heat on Wednesday kept the crowd at Whisper a little more thinned out than usual, but everyone who turned up was treated to a night of stellar house music (and had a great time in the process).

Aside from the headlining set by Swanky Tunes there was also a bevy of local support from DJs Amenzo & Speaker of the House, Johnny V, Zathan Radix, and Dirty Dave.

By the time Swanky Tunes hit the decks around midnight, a nice sized crowd had formed on the dance floor. The room could have been more packed or more empty and it wouldn’t have mattered. This was clearly a case of quality over quantity (of any size). The headliners threw down a tech infused house set that had everyone shaking their ass.

Need further proof? Check out some additional photos for your Swank bank below:

Hardwell & Bingo Players: Double Dutch DJ Invasion at Starlight Ballroom

On Wednesday, April 25th, fans at the Starlight Ballroom in Philadelphia were treated to a double dose of Dutch DJs.

The event, presented by MASS EDMC and NV Concepts, was a make-up date from a postponed show on the Winter White Tour (originally scheduled for several months ago in Trenton, NJ) and featured two huge names in the world of EDM, Bingo Players, and Hardwell.

The event kicked off with opening sets by Amenzo, Fratello, and TEGA who all did a great job getting the venue warmed up as the huge line of people outside of the venue slowly trickled inside. As often happens at the Starlight Ballroom, the crowd grew, the temperature rose, and by the time that Dutch duo Bingo Players took to the stage around 11pm, the place was already going bananas.

We caught Bingo Players on the the Main Stage at Ultra Music Festival in Miami last month as well as their gig at No Sugar Added at Nikki Beach. Paul Bäumer and Maarten Hoogstraten killed it at both of those shows and Philadelphia was no exception. Their high energy track selection had the Starlight Ballroom going crazy.

We had a chance to chat with Maarten Hoogstraten for a bit after their set and he expressed his love for playing gigs in the U.S. and loved the energy that the Philly faithful had shown them. Just in case you were wondering, they took the name Bingo Players from a friend’s AIM screen name.

While Bingo Players could easily receive top billing for a show, it was Dutch wunderkind Hardwell that took the headlining honors on Wednesday night. Just 23 years old, Hardwell has set the EDM world on fire. With #1 hits, his own radio schedule, a bevy of remixes, and an insane touring schedule, we’re  not quite sure where he finds the energy to thrill crowds night after night.

Thrilling the crowd would be an understatement for his set on Wednesday. For 90 minutes he laid down a auditory onslaught on Philadelphia with a barrage of bass heavy tracks and club bangers.

At the end of the night it was apparent that Philadelphia needs their Hardwell fix and we wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in City of Brotherly Love before too long.

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