AFK, Bare Noize, Delta Heavy, Datsik– Event Review 9/29

Posted by Nick on Oct 8, 2012 in Events | 0 comments

Well, Datsik’s eagerly awaited Firepower Tour came through Chicago a couple weeks ago, and if you read our preview you know we were excited about Datsik and the entire Firepower crew he was bringing along with him. The entire tour has had a stacked opening bill for nearly all the dates, Chicago is no exception.

Opening the night was AFK, if you’ve been to the congress then you can attest to how the energy level can go from 0-10 in a couple seconds, and AFK started the night right with a dope remix of DMX’s “Get it on the Floor.” After burning through some more bass and tracks, the familiar tinging intro of “Chain Hang Low” came in, and the floor was on fire.

Bare Noize was up next, straight from the UK and chain smoking cigarettes through his entire set, he only complemented AFK's energetic set burning through some hard hitting tracks. The highlight of his set for me was when he announced, "You all know this one?" And dropped "Scatta" his collaboration with Skrillex and Foreign Beggars.

Delta Heavy was the last opening act, and the highlight of my night. The most genre varied set of the night, Delta Heavy kept it heavy, and kept everyone bouncing at different tempos of 140, 128, and 110. They seemed genuinely grateful for how much the crowd loved them and fed off the energy better than anyone from the night.

Datsik, our headliner for the night was up next. The second the curtain revealed his long awaited 'vortex stage' the crowd erupted. The stage itself looks like a deep white subwoofer that Canadian producer, Datsik stands inside of it as a projector projects intricate 3-D mapping onto the stage itself. A very simple looking stage, the lights created movement inside the stage, making it look like Datsik was in constant movement. The sound system that Datsik brought with him was the best sound I have ever heard at The Congress Theatre. The bass and volume was the loudest it has ever been without it being overpowering, my nose was itchy after some bass drops because of how hard it hit. The set itself, fell a bit short. The highlights of the set were the slip ins of some killer unexpected songs, like "Wildfire" by SBTRKT and Pretty Lights's "Finally Moving" which had the entire congress in a sing along daze (the remix fell a bit short). The set itself was a tad too much of a generic dubstep set for me. Datsik's stage presence is something that a lot of todays DJs lack, he was on the microphone the right amount of time to remind people they weren't just listening to an iTunes playlist. I have never heard so many complaints of ringing ears in the Congress lobby on the way out.