Kygo @ Navy Pier 1-23-16 [Recap]

Kygo_CloudNine_FinalOn Saturday January 23 Kygo made his final Cloud Nine Tour stop for his North American leg of the tour. Unfortunately I’ll have to report that his show did not put me on cloud nine, in fact this could have been the worst show I have been to in a long time. Fortunately for Kygo this isn’t a review about the actual music he plays.

***DISCLAIMER: I am not a Kygo hater, in fact I do enjoy his music and tropical house as a whole, though it’s not my first choice of EDM sub-genre of choice. This is my opinion of the show which can differ from yours and that’s fine.***

 

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Borgeous @ Concord 1-31-2015 [Recap]

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After our exclusive interview with Xonic, a local DJ whose stock is rising around the windy city, the WhySoChi crew headed over to Concord Music Hall for a sold out Borgeous show. That night we were treated to an opening set by Xonic, followed up by the high energy set from the Porn n Chicken Crew. LooKas was up next, dropping some trap before Borgeous himself took the stage.

It’s safe to say that the locals stole the show with their back to back sets. Xonic played to a good sized early crowd with his opening set. He dropped a few remixes of local artists while blending in some hits from Kaskade and Deadmau5. He also transcended genres; starting out safely with familiar tracks only to drop some dirty hard beats towards the end of the set.

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That transitioned well for Orville Kline, Phives and Dom Brown to take over and raise the energy to a night high.  If you didn’t know that the Porn N Chicken go hard and put on a hell of a show, you sure did after that performance. With Dom behind the mic spraying the crowd with whiskey and champagne, to Orville and Phives having a blast mixing tunes to their topless, pasty wearing, saw in hand ready for crotch sparks support performer; you got to experience what Porn N Chicken is all about at evilOlive every Monday. Well, almost. What happens at Porn N Chicken stays at Porn N Chicken. It was a delight when they dropped a remix of System of a Down’s Chop Suey.

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Lookas was decent for a trap artist. The songs I knew I enjoyed and the ones I didn’t, left no impression on me. Trap for me is a way to fill the timeslot of a show. Though I do not hate any genre under the EDM umbrella, trap is definitely towards the bottom of my list and it takes a really good artist that mixes in some good 90’s tunes to get my approval. It’s getting old hearing “No Flex Zone” and “CoCo”.

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Borgeous came on to a packed Concord Music Hall, with a long and loud cheer from the crowd. He started his anticipated set with his hit “Tsunami” Feat. Dvbbs. The place went nuts, especially when the main melody kicked in everyone jumped and sang along. A definite highlight had to be when Borgeous dropped his upcoming single “They Don’t Know Us” in sync with a confetti drop. The crowd reacted well to that combo. The only downside was, I felt that “Tsunami” or at least the main rhythm part seemed to be dropped throughout the entire set. It could just be me, or it could be the fact that this set was livestreamed on Sirius XM’s Electric Area, so Borgeous felt the need to keep his best known track playing for the livestream. Regardless the set was good.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PL2t5-jdbNyFR0hO4HIz1aZaci0ssnfCBq&w=560&h=315]

Flosstradamus @ The Aragon Ballroom 12-26-14 [Recap]

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The major duo of Josh “J2K” Young and Curt “Autobot” Cameruci were clearly a must see as they made a stop in their hometown of Chicago during their HDYNation Tour. The anticipation grew so large for Floss; who can be best remembered for their legendary parties at the Boystown dive bar Town Hall Pub, it was no surprise that the whole Aragon Ballroom venue was sold out. The crowd brought an interesting mixture of both EDM and hip hop lovers.Floss 12-26-14  (2) logo

GTA warmed up the crowd right before Floss came on to destroy. After seeing GTA this past summer at Electric Forest my expectations were definitely set high. GTA rocked the crowd playing the perfect mixture of trap and house. GTA clearly set the right mood for Flosstradamus to come on stage.

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Floss opened with a bang and blue smoke which soon revealed their gigantic stage that stood high with the HDY Nation flagged dropped down from the top of it. Josh “J2K” Young popped out with his HDY Nation flag and commanded all the HDY grlz and HDY boyz to raise the Floss symbol in the air. When “Original Don” came on everyone went insane, after all it was the song that started it all for Floss.Floss 12-26-14  (3) logo

Floss threw it down dropping hit’s like “Roll Up”, “Coco”, “Climax”, “Stoner”, “Pillz”, and of course “Mosh Pit.” Floss took immediate crowd control commanding the 5,000 people in the crowd to take out their lighters and phones while all the lights were shut down. Simultaneously the crowd swayed side to side as the music slowed down. The show was overall great, but I do admit I had bigger expectations for Floss going harder considering Chicago is their hometown. Looking back to seeing Flosstradamus almost two years ago, this show can be considered just a bit disappointing.

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Electric Forest 2014 [Recap]

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Rothbury Michigan  is home to a few hundred country folk, but for 4 days a year for the past 4 years it plays host to Electric Forest Music Festival, the most unique music festivals in the Midwest if not the entire US. Don’t let the name fool you, this is not an EDM only music festival which automatically puts it in a different category than Ultra, EDC and our own Spring Awakening. The lineup will not blow you away if you only listen to EDM, as jam bands, hip hop acts and a mesh of electronic/psychedelic rock bands (STS9/EOTO) fill up a good part of the festival lineup. This might not sounds like it’s for you, but believe me each artists is so well thought and have such a great following that you’ll find yourself walking away from bass drops just to see what all the fuss is all about a few stages over.

My First Electric Forest experience was in 2012 and in this short amount of time the production and experience was increased for the better dramatically. You won’t find the most intricate stages here, or the largest crowds (this year’s totals were around 35,000) but what you will find is a great sense of community, acceptance, and freedom and of course Sherwood Forest, the main attraction.

It sounds redunphoto 10 editeddant, you’ve probably already heard and read all about it online but nothing compares to experiencing it in person. No picture can do it justice as well (not even ours). The entire forest is transformed into a wonderland. You feel as if you fell down the rabbit hole with Alice. If you walk too fast you might miss an art installation that might move you. If you come at a specific time you can catch some of the unscheduled performances by the hoop troop, geishas or other performance artist. You can escape to the silent disco or solon for some off music choices. You can literally spend a majority of your 4 days inside the forest and not have the same experience twice. If you own a hammock or choose to buy one, your experience gets more festive, you’ll know what I mean when you look at our photo gallery.

Below find the first EForest impressions of WhySoChi’s team members Cathy and Iza. Stay tuned for our photo gallery. See you in the Forest!! -Marcin

Electric Forest can simply be described as the time of my life. As soon as you enter the grounds of Electric Forest it’s clear you aren’t at your average summer festival. Within minutes of entering this fairytale like adult playground, you know that you have found yourself  a whole different you. Electric Forest is a virtual 180 from other festivals like EDC, Spring Awakening, Coachella, or Ultra, especially when it comes to the people. People here seriously share the love everywhere you look; everyone cares for one another, respects each other differences, and in a very NON- cheesy way stands for the ‘real PLUR’.  Zed’s Dead, Zedd,  Steve Angello, Kygo, Destructo, Glitch Mob, Moby, Cashmere Cat, Grandtheft, Dirty Phonics, and Cash Cash all blew my mind into pieces with their out of this world performances! Magic is the only word I can use to describe this experience. This mythical environment filled with TRUELY good people is what left me thirsty for more of Electric Forest. May the forest be with & will we ever find Carl?! – Cathyphoto 19 edited

I would be lying if I said that my opinion about Electric Forest has changed throughout my time at the fest. Since this was my first year attending, upon arrival I was not really excited for how the next couple of days would look like. Depending on when you got to the camp ground, the entrance to the fest could have been a long walk for some. The stages were pretty cool, and everyone seemed nice. After experiencing MysteryLand in New York, this was not as great. However, once I stepped into the forest on Thursday night, I was amazed. I finally began to understand what the hype was about. The whole forest was a playground for us. There were so many visual effects from lasers and disco balls, so many different people dressed in costumes, and so many art displays. I wanted to go everywhere and see everything – I didn’t want to leave the forest. All of the artists I got a change to see did a phenomenal job with their sets. By the end of the festival I realized that Electric Forest is one of a kind. It cannot be compared to any other festival….not with all of the lights, lasers, people dressed as animals and Smerfs and geishas, the art displays, trees and hammocks, and experiences.  My recommendation? Go see it for yourself! You will be amazed with what you will find. – Iza

Spring Awakening Music Festival 2014 [Recap]

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Marcin:
Over the years React Presents’ Spring Awakening Music Festival has grown exponentially: expanding from 2 days to 3, raising the stage production, bringing in some great artist and of course having more attendees. On paper all of this looks great, but in reality if wasn’t this year. The heavy hitters for the most part didn’t seem to bring their A game in terms of production or set arrangement. Some recycled sets from previous festivals and some didn’t do anything to make their sets memorable. I can’t say everyone was bad as Diplo, Knife Party, Benny Benassi and Kaskade all and good sets and are definitely my highlight.

There was good variation this year among the EDM sub-genres  with stages hosted by specific labels, but in my opinion the music was lacking as opposed to the last 2 years.

The larger crows created a logistics nightmare at the 2 entrances into the fest and having just 2 tents to divined up the will call and guest list lines was definitely not a good idea. It took people upwards of an hour if not longer to get through the lines and security just to get in.  That shouldn’t happen in Chicago’s only EDM festival which is becoming THE festival in Chicago besides Lolla that many will want to attend.  A third entrance would be highly suggested for next year.

The highlight of the entire weekend was meeting all of you. From our official meet up on Day 2 to just walking around the stadium, it was great to meet some new fans take pics trade kandi and even bump into fans that at this point have become acquaintances and friends. I’d like to thank YOU for that.

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To check out our entire picture gallery from Spring Awakening Music Festival 2014 FOLLOW THIS LINK!!!

Iza:
Last year’s Spring Awakening blew me away as far as production and artists. This year, I can’t say the same thing. Although the stages were changed up, I can’t say that I was wowed. The artists used minimal lazers, if any, and did not put a lot of effort into their sets. They were very overplayed and bland. The only artist that I will compliment is Diplo. His set was very lively and did not have any dull moments. He played a variety of his work as well as other popular tunes. Everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves finally.

Pricing of vendor alcohol did not change much from last year. This year, however, did have more options for food. This gave it a more festival feel. Port-a-potties were available throughout the festival. However, they were not clean and most of them had no toilet paper before the end of the night.

Although my 2013 SAMF experience was amazing, this year has shown me that I would have two options for SAMF 2015: VIP tickets or none at all. The fest is all ages, and that is a problem. Chicago teens do not know how to behave and can’t control themselves. I saw too many people get carried out on stretchers, heard too many people ask for drugs, and saw too many people get ditched by their friends at a time of need. I was disgusted with people.

We also had a chance to INTERVIEW Chicago local talent RJ Pickens, to read our entire INTERVIEW and check out one of his better sets of the year FOLLOW THIS LINK

Pictured from left to right, Cathy,Izabela, Rj Pickens and Marcin post interview after his Silent Disco set at SAMF14 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Pictured from left to right, Cathy,Izabela, Rj Pickens and Marcin post interview after his Silent Disco set at SAMF14 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

We’ll be seeing you at North Coast

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