Zedd & Porter Robinson Poseidon Tour Makes Waves in NYC

Posted by on October 7, 2012

The concept of this tour was unique to begin with. Back to Back sets seem to be a dying art as many DJs are given their set time, play it and let the next guy step up and do their thing. It is planned this way and there is little room for flexibility. There is always the surprise guest who hops on for a little, which may be more frequent in Ibiza or during events like WMC or ADE, but in general B2B is not too common, especially for a prolonged tour. I saw a B2B2B in Toulouse in January with Michael Calfan, Adrian Lux and Jesse Voorn where there as a relatively fluid change from one artist to but you could still tell the difference between each of them. With Zedd & Porter, they had the chemistry on stage of a duo who had been together for several years. They didn’t really play a traditional B2B, taking turns on the decks, instead they acted more as duo, both working the decks simultaneously. Porter seemed to be the dominant force choosing the majority of the songs, which made sense since Porter is a very skilled DJ, but Zedd still had his say throughout the night.

The night started with a good opening set from DJ Gian that gave way to OWSLA man Nick Thayer. Nick Thayer brought a eclectic array of different genres from trap to dubstep to electro and straight hip hop. He made the most of his 1:30, keeping tracks for only a minute or two before mixing into another, keeping the crowd on their toes. He started with a bang with the discovery remix of the year by Torro Torro of “Go Deep” that also saw a play later from Zedd & Porter and then moved through a heavy list of eclectic electro and dubstep. Towards the end of his set he played a trio of “Empire State of Mind”, much to the delight of the crowd, the classic “Party Up” from DMX and even “Baby Got Back”.

Zedd & Porter finally stepped on around 1:40 drawing a huge ovation from the sold out, overflowing Pacha crowd. The set started with dizzying array of quick transitions and bootlegs that have become synonymous with a Porter Robinson set. The tempo was very fast, mixing together bass heavy, festival tracks like Alvaro “Make The Crowd Go”, Tom Staar’s remix of “African Drop”, “Atom” and more. They both went through selections from each of their discographies, running through the hits of the Spitfire EP, “Say My Name”, a staple Porter’s sets, and even “The Legend of Zelda” from Zedd. I was expecting a few more tracks from “Clarity“, with “Clarity” and “Codec” getting plays with the Gregori Klosman & Tristan Garner remix of “Spectrum” and “Shave It” as well, which was slightly disappointing, but you don’t want to overdo the tracks off the bat. Zedd brought his anti-Levels trolling to the live venue by bootlegging “Levels” and “Shotgun” in a hilarious manner.

The set seemed to lose a little bit of steam towards the end with crowd pleasers like “In My Mind” and “Internet Friends”, but they kept on spinning and dancing well past 3:30am, much to the delight of the packed crowd on the floor and those upstairs waiting all night to get down. Their youthful exuberance was on full display the entire time, dancing and pumping up the crowd the entire set, spinning an exhilarating set filled with heavy bass and subtle melodies. Hopefully as this tour finished on the west coast, it will encourage others to try something like this and make B2Bs not just a one time thing, but a regular occurrence.

Photo Credit: Michael Elezovic

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