We like to party...we like, we like to party. Do I like electronic music? Yes. Yes I do. Does Caitlin like it as well? Sometimes...but definitely in concert. Was I excited to see Deadmau5 this year? So much so that I did it twice. Here's the story.
Last July, you may remember Caitlin deserted me for 10 days and went to Idaho? Hard to believe, I know...but she did. No baby boy in my life, no wife? What's a man to do? I'll tell you what he does. He gets a bunch of 16-year-old kids to go with him to a Deadmau5 concert at Soldier Field. And that is what I did.
Now I know that sounds creepy, and it is I guess. But one of the boys in my Young Men's program at church shares a love for house music like I do. He heard I was going to go and knowing that having a church leader attend with him would extremely heighten the chance that his parents would let him go downtown to a concert all night. So we joined teams...and then several of his high-school friend joined along.
It was a freakin' amazing show. I danced so hard I sweat through the knee section of my pants. It was a very young crowd - so young, in fact, that I got asked how old I was three times and my friend Mitchell got asked if I was his dad twice. TWICE! A little offensive, but I also thought, "yeah, I'm cool even at the ripe old age of 31 (now 32)."
So when I heard that Deadmau5 was coming back, I wanted to go and do it right by bringing my woman with me. I knew Caitlin would have a good time at the concert and I love dancing with her at shows. It was at the Congress theater last night and started at 8:30. Our young friend from church and another guy from church that has since graduated from high school came along for the craziness. We really, really like this venue. Very open, roomy and the sound was wonderful.
The first DJ was Skrillex, who is much more dubstep and I found to be extremely awesome. I was really diggin' this guy. He knew how to hype his audience and get the dance explosions out of them, which I don't think is as easy since dubstep is more about unpredictability and style...not dancing. That guy played until about 9:45 and by the end I looked at the clock and couldn't believe how exhausted I was. A girl next to us said the night before the concert ended at 2am...that seemed impossible to dance another 4 hours.
But then Booka Shade came on. They were great and I was already familiar with several of their albums. They play electronic drums and stuff, so there is a little more going on on stage to watch. The time flew as they played an hour or so until 11. They finished with one of my favorite BS songs - Tribulations, which was a crowd pleaser in every way. Thousands of people, a sea of jumping up and down, hands in the air.
My favorite song of the night? "The Reward is Cheese" I love this song live. He also played more of my favorites like Strobe, Some Chords, I Remember, You Need a Ladder, and Complications.
We got home around 2:45. A friend of ours took Max for the evening and he was only a little annoyed when we pulled him out of his pack 'n play at 2:30 in the morning and drove him home. I love that baby. Our final take on the night was that our ears were beyond pleased, but our eyes were sometimes displeased. I know one would expect it at a club scene like this, but there were just too many whore-ish young girls and disgusting men at this concert, and their actions were often too obscene for the public. We had to really concentrate on staring only at the stage, which is hard to do for 5 hours. I wish we could have replaced the hookers with some hipsters - that would have made it a much better show. It didn't certainly make for some amazing people watching.
Next? LCD Soundsystem on Tuesday and Sleigh Bells on Wednesday. Then we need to take a break. I tired.
There are some things you just have to do in the morning before you get to go off and have the best time of your life at the Ultra Music Festival. The first thing you have to do is your physical therapy exercises for your blasted shoulder. Stupid shoulder. You may be wondering, "what if you got punched in the shoulder at this crazy concert you were at Jeff? Wouldn't you be screwed?" The short answer is yes, yes I would have. Mitchell was good to always flank my shoulder so no one could accidentally turn and hit it. It worked like a charm every time. 
The second essential thing you have to do is apply diaper rash ointment to your butt rash. I'm sorry you have to read this, but after standing and jumping for 12 straight hours in the humid sun, you will develop butt rash and it will sting unless you apply this heavenly goo. 
In order to fill our bellies with as much food as possible, we went to Tom Jenkins BBQ - a Fort Lauderdale staple for crazy amazing BBQ food. These guys are the freakin' real deal. 
Look at that brisket!!! Mac 'n cheese from the gods and one of the best potato salads I have ever eaten! 
And this is my sausage sandwich. Smothered in BBQ sauce and two gigantic sausages makes me say ga-ga, goo-goo with joy. 
Okay, so back to the show. The first thing we did was watch S*** Robot do a live DJ set. This guy was a lot older than I was expecting, and it showed in his technique. He was killin' it sans computer and rockin' this sucker analog style. He did live scratching and mixing and its purest form, and I basically aspire to be as awesome as him at whatever age he is. 
Mitchell opted to purchase some sunglasses on Saturday in order to protect his precious vision. He tried on a pair of Lady Gaga glasses, and I personally thought they really went well with his crazy personality. 
But in the end he went more classic Mitchell so he could look for some epic Facebook profile picture opportunities while we waited for more good acts to start. We thought this one was pretty money (taken by yours truly) 
This one before Steve Aoki wasn't bad either. Oh, speaking of Steve Aoki...I be like, "dang." His set was an explosion of energy and awesomeness all rapped up into an hour. He played some of his own amazing songs along with a few crazy hits mixed in like Warp 1.9 that basically drove the crowd into a frenzy. 
After Steve was Afrojack. This man knows how to throw a pure DJ party. He was pullin' hit after hit out onto the crowd, including a masterful mix of Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness" that I absolutely loved. Already Saturday was proving to be 10x as amazing as Friday...and that is saying alot given how mad awesome Friday was. 
Mitch and Jaymoo - completely sweaty and hyped for 2 1/2 straight hours of jumping up and down. 
After Aoki and Afrojack we took in a bit of Avicii, who was okay but a little bit too much "pop house with that chick singer who says the same lame thing over and over again" style. 
We noticed that the Heineken tent had some serious misters going on, so we soaked that up to cool off. It was hot dude. It was a good thing we cooled off too because we then walked over to watch Skrillex and man that guy was blowin' it up on the live stage. His set was unreal and people were freaking out. 
Right in the middle of his set, a Carnival Cruiseliner pulled up and whole deck was filled with people. He stopped to have everyone wave high to the boat. Then he played his hit "Sexy Lady" and blew the boat away. 
It was very obvious that Deadmau5 was headlining Saturday night because the Mau5 heads were out in swarms. I thought this balloon was a creative idea. 
We had to support our Mormon representative at Ultra - Kaskade. While he was a lot like Avicii and that isn't always my favorite techno, I'm glad someone from the cloth can make it in this scene. 
But what I was really excited about, and definitely a huge Ultra highlight for me, was Boys Noize (seen behind my ridiculous face in the picture above). I heard Boys Noize for the first time in late 2007 and was immediately sold. It was everything I would want to be if I were making dance music. Grindy, dance heavy, but irregular and shedding the typical beat repetition of dance music. I loved it. His set was equally amazing, and I'm hoping he puts out a new album soon because there were quite a few new songs played. 
Another huge highlight for Mitchell and I was seeing Rusko perform. I can't believe how much energy this dude had. He played Banga's amazing remix of Killin' in the Name Of as well as some new stuff off his upcoming album. It gave me a lot more respect for dubstep, a style I usually see as less danceable. I was wrong. 
And I was exhausted after that. I seriously had nothing left in me. 
We were almost out of water, energy and will to live. But we had one more to go. 
Deadmau5. I can't believe I have seen this guy three times in less than a year. We originally planned on watching other people, but then Deadmau5 released two brand new songs that are just fantastic, so we decided to see if he'd play them...and he did. Tommy Lee showed up to play drums on two songs along with Sofi live. That was pretty cool. Apart from that, the set was a little slow in comparison to the previous two shows I had seen. He has so many amazingly danceable songs, its surprising that in a venue like Ultra he would play so many slow songs. Either way, its always a pleasure. 
And that was Ultra. I'm so glad I went and that Mitchell could come down to join me. Its something I had to do at least once...just to see. It proved more entertaining than I even thought it could be. 
Plus, I got an excuse to eat Taco Bell two nights in a row. HALE YEAH! Thanks Mitch - hope you are getting use to being back in the cold while I continue here in paradise. Sorry.
