Review: AXWELL at GLO (sorry so late)

Hey Third Railers-

Sorry I've been really really busy and am FINALLY recovering for Ultra so I will TRY to catch everyone up on my adventures and reviews by the time i hit the hay tonight.

SO- Over the past few months the club GLO out on Long Island has been hauling some big name talent. For a club in the burbs, they've had Tiesto, Axwell, Avicii, and Laidback Luke all in just a few short months whereas prior they were unheard of. One has to wonder what changes were made in management, or if they just decided to invest more money in better acts.

The venue itself was pretty nice. It was weird to drive to a club and the venue itself being the only thing on the property...with a parking lot...and a smoking patio. Essentially the club was a large rectangle with one floor, decent sized dancefloor with VIP tables along one of the longer walls. The DJ booth itself is clearly a product of a time when the club was not hauling the talent it has recently, because while it was in the front it wasn't really the focal point of the club (not that it necessarily should be THE focal point of the room, but for the talent playing it should be MORE of a focal point than it was). The light show and sound system were clearly also a testament to the club's age and original purpose and branding. It looked however, as though they somewhat recently installed the large LED screens behind the DJ booth - these were pretty cool, but the remainder of the light show was very weak and while the sound system was loud, it was far from full or clear.

Pros to the club: its recent overhaul in talent, short waiting time on line, inexpensive tickets for big name talent ($20+small fees for Axwell!), large outdoor smoking area, cool LED boards, very sizable on the inside

Cons to the club: sound system, light show (minus LED effect), and overall crowd (very...umm....Ed Hardy and cheetah print if you catch my drift - I mean it's not like I didn't expect this, I am of course from New Jersey!).

Now on to Axwell--

Axwell was obviously awesome. There's not really much I can say which differs from my review of his show at Webster Hall back in November, because honestly it wasn't really very different. All his typical tracks, plus Flash, Babylon, Open your Strobe---typical double encore closing with Tell Me Why and Leave the World Behind.

Not that I was really expecting anything different, I mean it was pretty recent, and not that his set was bad by any means, it was awesome - it was just very similar - and hence I don't have a lot to report. That being said he is returning to NY and will be at ROSELAND at the end of April (details to come) on the same night as Aviici which, if I was not going away for Easter Weekend, think I may actually choose the Aviici show just because I still am not expecting that much of an overhaul from Axwell - even though he does have the new track "Heart is King" (listen here) and SHM as a whole has their new and STILL unreleased single Save the World Tonight - honestly I love them to death but between Axwell twice, Steve Angello on NYE, Ingrosso the night before Tiesto, and Masq Motel in Miami (all since November), I could def pass on an SHM opportunity to seek a little Bromance.

Sebastian Ingrosso and Tiesto @ Webster Hall

SO - last weekend Webster Hall hosted Joachim Garraud on Friday (which I did not attend, but heard it was awesome. One of my friends took a video of Joachim playing One on the keytar - viewable here. That's pretty awesome. Had I not had gone out Thursday and had tickets for Sebby and Tiesto, I definitely would have gone.

While he may be credited on less tracks than his than his team mates, in my opinion, Sebastian Ingrosso is the most talented to see live. Given he is a part of the Swedish House Mafia, and hence there is certainly a level of predictability that comes along with seeing any of them, Ingrosso's set seemed much more live than the other two - he seemed to be paying close attention and changing things as he went rather than have his set planned out like the other two. So again, track selection was indeed somewhat predictable, but his mixing techniques and progression seemed more customized. Straight up fun though, especially when he made everyone get down on the floor for Sweet Disposition - check it out here at around 1:10. Awesome show.

Tiesto was incredible as well. The vibe, however, was very strange. Trance shows in general certainly carry a bit of a different aura with them in comparison to house or electro shows. The crowd is always a bit calmer, more poised - I feel this is largely contributed to the crowd generally being a bit older, as the trance boom was on the low end, five years before my time. Another contributing factor to the vibe I'm sure was that it was 1) at Webster Hall (I'll elaborate more on that in a bit) and 2) it was in fact a Sunday night. He played a lot of his new stuff and a good portion of his classics. I was dissappointed I did not get to see Adagio for strings, but I undertsand he likes to keep that song somewhat novel, and since I saw him play it the last two times, I wasn't expecting to see it again. He did however play Miami2Ibiza which I was not expecting, and he dropped a pretty cool remix of the Martin Solveig and Dragonette sing "hello" which has been absolutely blowing up the industry in the past few weeks - here is a video of the remix, sorry for the low quality hopefuly a better one will soon surface. He also dropped Kaskade's Fire in Your New Shoes, which was realy refreshing to hear. Honestly I thought for Tiesto, he played a very solid array of music. While the show was certainly not as mind-blowing as his Asbury Park performance over the summer (single best show i have EVER been to), it was more of a mellow performance which was exactly what we needed to chill out from the night before and totally appropriate for a Sunday.

ALSO - a big THANK YOU to Area Events - since I got hit in the head with a bottle on NYE for Steve Angello (also an Area Event) I received me+3 comped tickets to any two Area Events of my choice! So me and three friends went to Sebastian Ingrosso and Tiesto for free this weekend! Thanks for hooking me up, awesome customer service.

District 36!?!? Viva the NYC club revival!!!

House Heads-

I guess I kind of missed the boat with this one but for house-heads in the tri-state the opening of District 36 was a really big deal. This club claims to be everything that NYC is yearning for - it's built around the sound-system and is extremely anti-VIP. I regretfully had no idea about this place until I began investigating it after hearing that Pendulum will be playing there tomorrow night. Apparently, it had a rough opening night but people seem to be liking it. The sound system - which has been getting more press than any other aspect of the club's opening - was designed by Gary Stewarts Audio (also responsible for London's Ministry of Sound and NYC's Club Love). They scooped Victor Calderone to run Evolve from there from now on which is actually pretty huge - they are even claiming him as one of their residents. Anyway, I think I am definitely going to go tommorrow night to check out both the venue and Pendulum. Between this and Sankeys it's no wonder why Pacha and WH have been stepping their games up!

Has anyone been to D36 yet? What are your thoughts? Could this be everything we've been dreaming of?

Here are some interesting articles on District 36-

Time Out NY Article

BlackBook Mag Article

District 36 Homepage

Miami Music Week Info Thus Far:

Due to the huge controversy in terms of the UMF/WMC split the week that is normally WMC (last week in March) has been renamed Miami Music Week. I have not found a centralized list anywhere yet, but this is what I have gathered from various sources.

Wed March 23
Laidback Luke Presents: Super You & Me @ Liv
-Laidback Luke, Sidney Samson, Skrillex, Sandro Silva, Congrock, Wynter Gordon

Th Mar 24
Anunjabeats @ Ice Palace
-Above and Beyond

Fr Mar 25
UMF Day 1
F*** Me I'm Famous @ Mansion
-David Guetta and friends

Sa Mar 26
UMF Day 2
Masquerade Motel @ TBA
-Swedish House Mafia, a-Trak, Armand van Helden, AN21, Calvin Harris, Dirty South, Kim Fai, Max Vangeli, and Pete Tong

Su Mar 27
UMF Day 3
Sunday School: Lost Weekend @ Ice Palace
-mar25-27 *check MadeEvents website*

UMF Phase II Line-Up Announced, TONS of Miami Music Week News

FINALLY the second of three phases of the line-up for the Ultra Music Festival 2011. See above.

More SHM, Tiesto, Max Vangeli, Joachim and much more for NYC

The shows just keep coming right up until March. Here's a list of shows I think are worth seeing to get everyone caught up.

Friday 2/4:
Junior Sanchez - Pacha
Drek Martinez - Lavo

Saturday 2/5:
Pendulum - District 36

Thursday 2/10
Roger Sanchez - Cielo
Chuckie - Lavo

Friday 2/11
Sleepy and Boo - Cielo
Joachim Garraud - Webster Hall
Alex Gaudino - Pacha
A-Trak - Lavo
Tiesto - Glo (Long Island)

Saturday 2/12
Sebastian Ingrosso - Webster Hall
Boris - Pacha

Sunday 2/13
TIESTO - Webster Hall


Friday 2/18
Martin Solveig - Lavo
Chus and Ceballos - Glo (LI)
Nero - Webster Hall

Saturday 2/19
Max Vangeli - Pacha


Friday 2/25
Axwell - Glo (LI)
Skrillez - Webster Hall
Bob Sinclar - Pacha

March:
DirtySouth - Pacha - 3/11
Laidback Luke - Glo (LI) - 3/18
BBenny Benassi - Pacha - 3/18

Wowzers.

UMF Update: HARD Miami Party! +Tiesto 076 FULL!

Hey Everyone -


Just a quick update that HARD's party has been officially announced for THURS MARCH 24th 10pm-5am at the Grand Central. This is the night BEFORE UMF begins, and tickets are just 25$ and the event is 18+. The line-up includes Tiga, Diplo, Tinnie Tempah, DJ Medhi, Busy P,Destructo and more. Sounds like a pretty sick event for just $25! Link to tickets and info here.

ALSO: For those of you who have not heard it yet, Tiesto and Hardwell's absolutely MASSIVE collaboration call "Zero 76" has finally been released or at least leaked in its entirety! The song literally transcends all electronic musical boundaries - learn it - it will be everywhere! LINK HERE!