As many in Philadelphia prepared themselves for
Bassnectar's 4/20 performance, a select few of us were on our way to
Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA (about 2 hours outside of Philly). We were making the trip to see two acts: the 19 year old production wiz-kid
Porter Robinson, and
Dada Life (a Swedish electro-house duo comprised of Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom). Having had to choose between Wolfgang Gartner or Shpongle playing in NYC, Bassnectar or Thomas Gold at home, and Porter/Dada in the middle of Pennsylvania... well lets just say it was a tough decision to make. However (and not surprisingly) our decision did not disappoint, and was easy enough to make because of the available shows I had yet to see Dada Life live.... Ever! Initially I wasn't sure what to expect at this college since I had never even heard of it until I bought these tickets, and by no means am I hating on the Harrisburg/Carlisle area but when we got there I felt more than a little out of place. The show was held in their mid-sized auditorium allowing for a full setup including the stage, "dance floor" and stadium-like seats, and as a nice little bonus the first 100 people got free sunglasses that said "Dada Life" on one side and "Porter Robinson" on the other side. Our little group collectively felt pretty overdressed (rave wise) compared to this crowd but, but we didn't really care because we were there representing Philly, and we did it right! The attire for the night seemed to be graphic tees as the majority (for both sexes), with bro-jerseys being the choice for guys and tight black bodycon skirts with a mixture of crop top tanks and some sort of heel or wedge, the latter of which clearly made dancing a chore. All in all, I was exceedingly confused when I entered the dance floor but I soon learned to ignore these decisions the second Porter came on stage!
The crowd started to get a little rowdy and I was pumped to start dancing, but next thing I know my feet are getting stomped on while I almost get elbowed in the face. To be fair, I'm not exactly a giant but unfortunately, after a few minutes of this we decided to move from the main floor to the seating area because dancing in the pit was simply too difficult. This was my third time seeing PORTER (not Dada), and as always his performance reminded me why he's one of my favorite producers ever! I know his
"Essential Mix live from Hull" by heart, and was ecstatic when he changed up his set list for this show. He played a lot more of his own work, including older songs such as "Hello" and "I'm on Fire", and finished off the night with "Language" (which recently hit number 1 on Beatport). I realized that other than my group of friends and I were really the only ones going crazy for this track, and that no one else really seemed to even
know the song! Unfortunately, for whatever reason as soon as he finished he just walked off stage with no encore, which was also in contrast to his previous shows I'd seen, although this may have just been the consequences of being an opener at a college. We all sat around for about 15 minutes as the crew began to prepare the stage for Dada Life.
As soon as Dada life walked onto the stage, the crowd went BANANAS! They were so full of energy, dancing around and getting the crowd even more pumped up (if thats possible) as they opened their set with their biggest/most recent hit: "
Kick out the Epic Mother Fucker". The light production was a nice mix of powerful yet simple, with plenty of colorful lasers and spotlights as well as a back drop projector screen that would flash random cartoons, pictures, and lyrics throughout the show. Their set list was amazing and kept everyone dancing the whole time! As is apparently customary for Dada Life shows, an inflatable bananas and a giant inflatable champagne bottle were thrown into the crowd, as well as strange little masks that only covered the mouth and had a huge, smiling mouth printed on them. The audience continued their slightly over-the-top dancing as had been the case with Porter, so for better or for worse we stayed at our seats the whole night. They did let loose on stage for a while during songs like
"The Big Bad Wolf" and
their version of "Satisfaction" but the crowd wasn't really doing it for us so once we'd had our fill we decided to leave a few minutes early to beat the crowd.
All in all, Porter and Dada Life were amazing and definitely did not disappoint, even if the atmosphere was a bit different than we were used to! Both acts were so beyond full of energy and so on-point with their song choices and mixing, that if either of them come to Philadelphia I'll be on those tickets like
Deadmau5 on Madonna. These are two acts I can't recommend enough, just remember to be prepared for the epic rage-fest that their shows induce!
PS - As of 4/20/12 Dada Life has still not played in the Philadelphia [metropolitan] area.... Lets change that!
