Tiësto

It’s hard to capture the energy of a Tiësto show by simply writing about it. The EDM powerhouse has become the epitome of a commercial success, having managed to break out of EMD-heavy countries including his native Holland, penetrating formerly untapped markets to become a global reference for EDM in the past decade. His music has changed significantly over the past few years, mostly in an effort to break into the commercial market, which he’s managed to do with a range of female vocalists featured on tracks which have since become club anthems. Still, that means his shows have only become that much bigger, performing with synth-heavy, beat driven tracks in front of massive crowds all over the world. From headlining EDM festivals like the world-renowned Tomorrowland in Belgium, to hitting all major hotels along the Las Vegas strip, and even having a regular residency on Spain’s party island Ibiza, there’s no limit to where Tiësto will go.
His ever-expanding shows project an incomparable aura and energy from crowds heavily under the influence of his music (and likely other substances). His In Search of Sunrise and Club Life series albums epitomize his live sets, while his five studio albums with their countless remixes ensure an insane amount of ammo for his live performances. It seems like Tiësto never stops performing, and it’s almost like there’s nowhere he wouldn’t go to rouse the crowd.

Wow Swedish House Mafia.. Where do I even start?! I guess I'll start where I first heard them, I was on the bus home from school when "Save The World" came on & I was hooked. I began watching their concert videos and I knew I had to go to one. Especially after hearing it was their last tour :( Months after Months of begging for tickets, I had them! It was March 2nd, 2013, I had woken up with my two best friends next to me so excited to finally go to our first rave. The night before that we had spent hours making bracelets that read "We came. We raved. We loved" & other cool slogans. We had finally gotten to the arena & let me tell you, right from the outside you can tell its gonna be a crazy night! Everyone was dressed in crazy colors, SHM was blasting from portable radios and people were just dancing around having a great time. When we went inside we got our bracelets & went down to the pit where we had front row! When the music started we lost our minds and the rest was history. Swedish House Mafia sure didn't let us down. The laser show was incredible & the music flowed through our ears so loud yet so heavenly. Good vibes all around, probably one of the best days of my life. If I had the chance to see them again, I SO would. It breaks my heart that they're broken up but makes me smile that i actually got to see them live. I still listen to their music today & they sure have made history in my eyes.

Did an amazing job performing 3 songs. A great pleasure to have her perform close to home. She did everything she did to make the concert experience lively, while also performing. She also seemed very nice and energetic to the audience.

I hope she returns here soon for a future concert anywhere in the Bay Area. I wish one thing that could be done is to meet the artists after the concerts. Definitely some room for improvement, With that being said, it was a great first time concert experience.

Songkick did a wonderful job of tracking my artist if they toured close to home, and promptly announced the dates when scheduled and I bought my tickets once they went on sale.

Four Tet – aka Kieran Hebden – is probably the DJ I’ve seen live the most times. He’s a fairly ubiquitous figure, seemingly DJing at every single festival, both in the UK and Europe. As a producer, Four Tet is one of the leading artists in UK electronic music, having pushed the boundaries of intelligent dance music with his early forays into folk and jazz-laced electronica. But it’s his take on house, garage and bass music that really changed up the game, ever since his There Is Love in You album dropped in 2010. Hedben has an otherworldly talent for incorporating accessible melody into an otherwise authentic dance song, and his downtempo productions are often layered with pretty sound effects and samples.
His DJ sets are impossible to predict since he is such a versatile selector and moulds each set to his surroundings, but they are always thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve seen techno heavy sets, such as at Plastic People in London where he dropped his Burial collaboration ‘Moth’, as well as jungle and house sets at certain festivals like Field Day. I personally think Four Tet is at his best when he pulls from all shades of his palette during one set, such as at Worldwide in France where he effortlessly mixed his own heady productions with latin jazz, soul and contemporary techno music. Lovely.

The moment I heard Tove Lo was playing at The Nottinghill Arts Club in London, I felt like my weeks of obsessing over her newest EP were going to conclude with a bang.
Her music is an odd blend of electro and pop, but together with her unique lyrics and singing style, she brings out a novel side of new indie music. She's smart, beautiful, and incredibly talented, and you can see all of this plastered across her behaviour on stage and the way she performs. When she sang 'Stay High', the newest single from her EP, it was like a semi-intoxicated haze fell over the entire audience. She sings the kind of music that makes you want to cruise in your car, thinking about your life so far. She comes out in her high-waisted white shorts, white shirt, and signature messed up hair. Whenever I see Tove Lo I always think she's slightly high, but she takes the microphone close to her mouth and pulls out a clear, poignant note, and then another, and another. She's a serious performer, and she takes herself and her own work with pride - a quality that really shines in her music and demeanour.
The first time I discovered Tove Lo's song, 'Stay High', I listened to it on repeat for days, before obsessing over 'Not On Drugs', and then the rest of her EP. Hearing them performed live only made me more of a fan of this upcoming Scandinavian star - she's going places, and it's only a matter of time before she starts hitting up the stage at some of the biggest festivals in Europe and the US.

It’s important to point out that, just because 2manydjs and Soulwax involve the same people - specifically, David and Stephen Dewaele - and just because the pair often play shows that involve both sides of their musical careers, with both of those acts involved, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t entirely distinct entities, not least sonically. Where 2manydjs, perhaps unsurprisingly, have always been very much a dance act, Soulwax has seen the brothers explore the alternative rock scene, instead; for proof of their early credentials, consider the fact that their debut record under the moniker, 1996’s Leave the Story Untold, was produced by none other than Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Chris Goss. In the years since, they’ve gradually begun to work in more and more electronic, synthpop and dance influences into their sound, whilst keeping it entirely separate from their work as 2manydjs. Their live shows, as Soulwax, continue to incorporate a full live band, similar to, say LCD Soundsystem, with the rhythm sections key to a sound that, with its repetitive and often droney nature, is not too far removed from krautrock. The pair continue to play regular Soulwaxmas events at the end of the year across the UK to packed rooms; nothing’s been announced for this coming December yet, but certainly keep your eyes peeled.