3LAU / Majestic Theatre (Madison, WI) / 11.09.12
Published: November 14, 2012
By: Allegra Dimperio
Coming off the high of a summer spent spinning everywhere from Camp Bisco to Spring Awakening to Global Dance Festival, mashup master 3LAU hit the fall tour circuit running, crisscrossing the country with his 3LAU Your Mind tour. On Friday, November 9 he stopped at The Majestic Theatre in Madison, WI as a part of the tour’s Big Ten leg.
The 21-year-old DJ is no stranger to college campuses, attending St. Louis’s Washington University himself, and his Friday set felt more like a rager than a show. Girls in skimpy skirts? Check. Guys fist pumping? Check. Radio hits? Check. Alcohol? Check. The crowd was buzzed and buzzing, feeding off of the night’s mishmash of electro beats and eating up 3LAU’s stage antics.
Though the ubiquitous “Internet Friends” and “Lights” were played in the first ten minutes, the concentration of pop and popular electronic thinned out over the set, giving way to longer transitions, fewer vocals and more in-depth builds from less familiar tracks. That’s not to say there was a shortage of crowd-pleasers, however, as 3LAU mixed everything from “Milkshake” to The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Other Side” to his “Petty Language” mashup of “Call Me Maybe,” a track 3LAU proclaimed was “for all the ladies out there.”
While the crowd may not have recognized the Pendulum sample in 3LAU’s “Guilty Pleasure” mashup or have any idea who made “Block Rocking Beats,” they certainly knew they liked bass drops and that they weren’t afraid to throw their hands in the air. For his part, 3LAU wasn’t afraid to sing along to the tracks or engage in the Steve Aoki Jesus pose. Throughout the set heseemed to embrace his role as a young DJ, treating the crowd to a good old-fashioned champagne spray down, tossing t-shirts at eager fans and giving his love to the adoring front row.
3LAU has so thoroughly embraced the era of the sample as to not yet have any original music, and the set was a mix of tracks from his Dance Floor Filth mashup albums and 3LAU HAUS mini-sets, with some tweaks, transition work and new tracks like his latest mashup of Eva Simons’ “I Don’t Like You” and Kill The Noise’s brand new “Saturn” thrown in.
With minimal glow sticks, no candy kids and one lonely Spirit Hood the night screamed college, and the attitude of a backstage showgoer who thrashed around with a drink in his hand, paused to notice he was spilling everywhere, then just kept thrashing summed up the attitude of 3LAU and his crowd in general. But while the set mainly skimmed the surface of EDM, popular tracks are popular for a reason and the night had a positive energy where the crowd could sing to songs they know and dance to songs they didn’t.
Though the lighting was minimal, the only thing announcing 3LAU’s name was his laptop and there was no video, watching the DJ thoroughly enjoy his own set seemed entertaining enough to the crowd of his peers. The fact that the set sounded like an enhanced highlighter party soundtrack didn’t hurt either. For a college crowd on a Friday night, 3LAU played to his strengths and DJed one hell of a party.
Coming off the high of a summer spent spinning everywhere from Camp Bisco to Spring Awakening to Global Dance Festival, mashup master 3LAU hit the fall tour circuit running, crisscrossing the country with his 3LAU Your Mind tour. On Friday, November 9 he stopped at The Majestic Theatre in Madison, WI as a part of the tour’s Big Ten leg.
The 21-year-old DJ is no stranger to college campuses, attending St. Louis’s Washington University himself, and his Friday set felt more like a rager than a show. Girls in skimpy skirts? Check. Guys fist pumping? Check. Radio hits? Check. Alcohol? Check. The crowd was buzzed and buzzing, feeding off of the night’s mishmash of electro beats and eating up 3LAU’s stage antics.
Though the ubiquitous “Internet Friends” and “Lights” were played in the first ten minutes, the concentration of pop and popular electronic thinned out over the set, giving way to longer transitions, fewer vocals and more in-depth builds from less familiar tracks. That’s not to say there was a shortage of crowd-pleasers, however, as 3LAU mixed everything from “Milkshake” to The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Other Side” to his “Petty Language” mashup of “Call Me Maybe,” a track 3LAU proclaimed was “for all the ladies out there.”
While the crowd may not have recognized the Pendulum sample in 3LAU’s “Guilty Pleasure” mashup or have any idea who made “Block Rocking Beats,” they certainly knew they liked bass drops and that they weren’t afraid to throw their hands in the air. For his part, 3LAU wasn’t afraid to sing along to the tracks or engage in the Steve Aoki Jesus pose. Throughout the set heseemed to embrace his role as a young DJ, treating the crowd to a good old-fashioned champagne spray down, tossing t-shirts at eager fans and giving his love to the adoring front row.
3LAU has so thoroughly embraced the era of the sample as to not yet have any original music, and the set was a mix of tracks from his Dance Floor Filth mashup albums and 3LAU HAUS mini-sets, with some tweaks, transition work and new tracks like his latest mashup of Eva Simons’ “I Don’t Like You” and Kill The Noise’s brand new “Saturn” thrown in.
With minimal glow sticks, no candy kids and one lonely Spirit Hood the night screamed college, and the attitude of a backstage showgoer who thrashed around with a drink in his hand, paused to notice he was spilling everywhere, then just kept thrashing summed up the attitude of 3LAU and his crowd in general. But while the set mainly skimmed the surface of EDM, popular tracks are popular for a reason and the night had a positive energy where the crowd could sing to songs they know and dance to songs they didn’t.
Though the lighting was minimal, the only thing announcing 3LAU’s name was his laptop and there was no video, watching the DJ thoroughly enjoy his own set seemed entertaining enough to the crowd of his peers. The fact that the set sounded like an enhanced highlighter party soundtrack didn’t hurt either. For a college crowd on a Friday night, 3LAU played to his strengths and DJed one hell of a party.
