Audien

Saw Audien 7th Dec 2015 in Vegas. As a producer Audien's older tracks from when he was emerging were promising, although his newer tracks tend to be heavy on vocals and build time with somewhat lacking drops. Hearing him on Above & Beyond weekly podcast gave me enough motivation to go check out his set, especially since it was a Monday in Vegas. The set started out ok, some popular vocal tracks to start the set that everyone would recolonize and get motivated to dance to. But as the set continued I noticed he would not transition his songs but instead stop a song and then play the next song starting on a vocal build. Without proper transitions, heavy reliance on popular vocal tracks, and no mood building it was hard to really get dancing for more than a minute or two before the song stops and changes. While Audien might have great producing skills he needs to work on his live sets so that he builds a non stop dance environment, one where you don't need to stand still every couple minutes to wait for the next drop. Overall a little disappointing since i never really got to dance for more than 2 minutes at a time. Perhaps at a rave his sets would be more non stop dancing but this particular set felt like it could have been mixed by pandora.

Electronic Dance Music is at the forefront of the charts with artists such as Avicii, Calvin Harris and Zedd tearing it up using their arsenal of beats and hooks that without fail sells music. Lets talk about Audien, the progressive house producer and musician who is also making some pretty big waves in the scene at the moment with some of the remixes and singles that he has been putting out as of late.

Punters appear to have been with him from the beginning, some sporting Audien shirts upon entrance whilst others mosey around at the merchandise stand. Everyone looks ready to dance this evening as the house lights go down with the flicker of strobes as the main event, Audien walks out on stage to the helm of his setup with consists of decks a mixer, a keyboard and a laptop. He opens with one of his most current releases from this year, a song called “Hindsight”. In hindsight, I knew full well that this would be an experience but had no idea it would be to the caliber of this EDM odyssey that is.

Nathaniel Rathbun better known by his stage of Audien is another product on America's growing obsession with electro, house and EDM. He follows in the long line of DJs making a name for themselves globally and attempting to overthrow the dance matriarch of central Europe.

He is on the right track with a large string of well produced singles, some great original remixes and a debut album said to be on the horizon. He brings a party with him whenever he performs and you get the impression he would be happy to be part of the huge crowd dancing along beneath his decks. There is no real need for over the top visual tricks as his music is more than enough to keep the crowds jumping and dancing along throughout the hour long set. He applauds high above his head during the finale before disappearing backstage, you get the impression he is off to enjoy part of the festival as he clearly lives for dance music and at just 23 years old who could blame him?

Absolutely disappointed with Audien. Has a 3.5 hr set list but doesn’t show up until 1:30 am for a “concert” with the ticket expiring at 3 am. I’ve been a fan of his music for 6 years and for the being able to see him play for the first time was extremely underwhelming.

Best show of my life. Audien brings it every time he performs. I saw him at Irving Plaza a few months ago and he did a great job of keeping his core songs that everybody wants and expects to hear while playing new stuff. I'd recommend him to anybody.

Unbelievable show. Easy and efficient security and entrance. Venue was adequately filled and not overcrowded. Show was flawless and worth every penny. I would absolutely recommend the Warfield to SF residents, and I recommend an Audien show to ANYONE.

I about crapped my pants when he dropped Bastille (Audien Remix). Audien is a demi god of EDM. He is a lot of fun live! He loves mixing it about every 60 seconds, cycling through different genres.