“Rave Reviews” – Global Dance for Life
Despite the horrible weather on Saturday February 20th, 2010, Triad Dragons Entertainment hosted Global Dance For Life, a benefit rave for the survivors of the recent Haiti earthquake.
Since I had to drive down from Fort Collins to the Denver Coliseum in practically a blizzard, I didn’t get there until something like 8:00 pm. I grabbed my ticket at the will call window and got in line to get into the show. After a rather intrusive security pat-down I emerged inside. If you have never been to a large-scale high production rave, it is a pretty unreal experience. There are all kinda of people running (or standing) around and there is nothing normal about any of them. Hispanics with spiky hair a foot tall, girls in nothing but their undies, new age hippies, endless bizarre accessories, and I even saw a guy dressed completely up as the “Cat in the Hat” from Dr. Seuss.
Link to stage layout and artist lineup
Right inside the main entrance was the “Peace Stage”, so as soon as you walked in the door your eardrums were bombarded with beats. The talent on this stage was minimal until later into the night, so the first place I went was into the arena where the main stage was. From the portal where I went in I could see the whole dance floor from above. It looked awesome, thousands of people dancing in the dark with every kind of glowing object imaginable. I forgot my good camera, so I took a picture with my cell phone. It definitely does not do justice to the scale of this event.
When I made it down to the floor DJ Hycloud was spinning. His sets are good and he is a good DJ, but his style is not my favorite. He played some dirty electro and some hard house, but nothing impressive. I stayed for a few of his songs then headed out and downstairs to catch Technical Endeavor on the “Respect Stage.”
Technical Endeavor plays drum and bass, which, if you haven’t heard any, is a really fast and aggressive style of electronic dance music. He started his set off with one of my favorite tracks by Pendulum, a staple drum and bass group. He powered through his hour set and even threw one of his new original tracks into the mix. His set was really enjoyable and if you are a fan of drum and bass and have a chance to see him play, I’d say to take it. Here is another cell phone picture I took of him playing.
After watching Technical Endeavor’s set I headed back to the main stage to hear DJ Trajikk and DJ Shake play. I usually like Trajikk’s song selection and style of mixing but tonight was a little different. On the stage a live drummer was set up and the DJs spent a lot of time playing around with effects on the drumset. It took a full 20 or 30 minutes before they were fully into the substance of their set. I didn’t get to (or want to) hear much more of their set because at 11:00 pm DJ Soulshocker was scheduled to play up at one of the smaller stages.
Soulshocker is one of my favorite local DJs because his style of dynamics is so wide. For example he will build a song up for a really long time and when he finally drops in the beat, it hits you harder than you expected, and even the most boring listeners will find themselves smiling and bobbing their heads. Unfortunately when I got to the stage where he was supposed to be spinning they had apparently experienced some sort of technical difficulty and the stage was dark and quiet. This put a little bit of a damper on the night because I had been real excited to hear him play.
Luckily though, this is where this rave finally hit its stride. Back at the main stage my personal favorite local resident DJ Dragon and Shawn Astrom were about to start their set so I headed back there to listen. Once I found a good spot in the crowd towards the front of the stage I stayed there. Dragon and Shawn Astrom played a terrific set, hammering through an hour of pure club/house songs and getting 10,000 people dancing. I took another couple of pictures at this point, because of the awesome light show and visuals on the stage.
After Dragon and Shawn Astrom, DJ Kostas took the tables. Kostas is another one of my favorites because of his deep-driving afterhours vibe. Most of the songs he plays are very deep, simple, and chill, but still have the drive and energy to keep you moving. He played for an hour and he mixed in a lot of songs I really like, and a few songs that the crowd knew. I really enjoyed his set, and when it was over I felt pretty bummed that the night was over.
When they turned on the lights I could really get a perspective on the amount of people that showed up, so I took another picture.
Overall I’m glad I went to this event. It took a little longer than normal to hit its stride and become a really deep intense rave, but once it did it was a blast. If you have never been to a rave before, I would definitely suggest trying one out (Global Dance Festival 2010 is going to be absolutely killer), but be careful. Drugs and alcohol are everywhere at these things and if you choose to partake make sure it is controlled, fun, and safe! Check out the link on the right to Triad Dragons’ myspace for more upcoming shows.
Don’t forget Morgan Page at Beta nightclub this Thursday Feb. 25th, hope to see you there!
Hey, cool post! Thanks for the info and the insight.
I almost went to this…if it hadn’t have been for the horrible weather, I would have made it! Anyway, this is a good post that tells us a lot about the rave, who played, and what the general ambience was like. I especially liked that you included pictures (even if they’re not the best quality, they still give me an idea of what it was like being there). I also liked that you reminded me about the Morgan Page show, I’m going to try to go to that as well..