Photo Credit: Catherine Couretas
As you should know by now, Kaskade has embarked on a nation-wide bus tour, the Freaks Of Nature tour, and has brought some friends with him. Last night was my first experience with Kaskade on this tour, but not my first experience with him over all, so I knew the how great the show was going to be. I saw this tour stop at Bogarts in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bogarts is a venue that I am familiar with as they have been throwing concerts for close to 30 years now, and I have seen a handful of shows in my 24 years being a Cincinnati resident. Never have I been more ecstatic about seeing a show at Bogarts, as I was when I saw that Kaskade would be playing in my hometown, as we are not known for getting big EDM acts.
The first of two friends that Kaskade brought along with him was a young progressive house producer out of New York City, Fareoh, whom I had the opportunity to interview before the show. Fareoh really made a name for himself with his track that he produced with Archie V titled 2012. Along with Fareoh, Kaskade hand picked Washington DC native and OWSLA producer Alvin Risk to be another one of his “freaks,” a great choice in retrospect.
Fareoh
The first producer to take the stage was Fareoh at 7:15PM. This was 15 minutes after doors opened, and he played to a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 50 that didn’t get much bigger throughout his set. Fareoh built a really good big room progressive house set that could get anyone’s feet moving. Within his set Fareoh dropped Avicii & Lenny Kravitz- Superlove, which is where the crowd first really got into it. Throughout his set, the crowd showed Fareoh progressively more and more love, even though it was obvious they didn’t know many of the tracks. One track that really stood out to me was Tim Berg- Bad Things. As I watched the crowd throughout this track, they seemed unsure at first, but after the second drop really showed the biggest reaction of his set. Towards the end of his set he played John Dahlback’s new track; Embrace Me, which was my favorite track of the whole set.
I think Fareoh did a great job really setting the tone for the night, but the only drawback I had was that people weren’t ready for what Alvin Risk was going to throw at them. Now this isn’t a knock against Fareoh at all, he and Alvin just have two completely different styles, with Fareoh’s being significantly more aligned with Kaskade’s. Nevertheless, I am really a fan after seeing him spin.
Alvin Risk
Moving into Alvin Risk’s set, there was a few minute break between them as the 4 CDJ’s were moved behind the screen. When the screen that was initially in front of Alvin Risk fired up, nobody knew what was going to hit them. After a brief intro, Alvin Risk opened up with Dada Life- Kick Out The Epic Motherf**ker which quickly dropped into the hardest track of the night; Congrorock- Ivory. After a few minutes of the crowd warming up to this significantly harder set, they really started getting into it. Once Alvin Risk played Porter Robinson- Say My Name, there was no turning back, as the crowd went absolutely crazy. Throughout his diverse set, the crowd just got crazier and crazier, especially when he played his own remix of FUN-We Are Young, and ended his set with Zedd- The Legend Of Zelda.
Even though this was a complete change of pace from what Fareoh played and what Kaskade was going to play, this was a phenomenal set that has made me a huge fan of Alvin Risk. On top of this, I think Alvin gained a lot of new fans with this set, and it was a nice break between the two house sets of the night.
Photo Credit: Catherine Couretas
Kaskade
The man of the night, Kaskade, took to the decks at about 930PM and opened up with Eyes (Intro Edit with Swanky Tunes Mix), which he also opened up with at Coachella. This was an amazing way to start the set as it got the whole crowd singing and set the mood. By now, about 1000 people had funnelled in and were ready to be completely amazed and entranced by Kaskade. Unfortunately, nobody really knew the set times before the show, which had a lot of people coming in after Kaskade had already gone on. In typical Kaskade fashion, he played his amazing bootlegs that kept the crowd constantly on their toes, not knowing what to expect next. The lights were big, and more and more features were unveiled as the set kept building towards the end of the night. The first moment that the crowd first really lost it was when Kaskade played his mashup of Kaskade- Fire In Your New Shoes vs. Swedish House Mafia- Antidote. Around this time there were huge balloons that were dropped on the crowd that everyone had bouncing and just added to the atmosphere. The second huge reaction that Kaskade got from the crowd was when he played Kaskade & Deadmau5 VS. Swanky Tunes, Matisse & Sadko – Move For Me The Legend (Kaskade Mash Up), which was one of my favorite moments since it is a mashup of two of amazing tracks, and the huge fan lasers came out with everyone singing the Move For Me lyrics. My favorite part of the whole night was when he dropped Kaskade & Impetto- How Long vs. Pryda- Allein (Kaskade Mashup) which had me singing “Allein, Allein” at the top of my lungs.
To end the night, Kaskade went into the original mix of his track Raining, which everyone was completely entranced by the maestro of the dancefloor. At the first drop of Raining, there was a huge confetti cannon that looked absolutely amazing, and culminated the build in the atmosphere of the whole night. Throughout his set, Kaskade kept increasing the production value going from standard lights with a screen, to adding huge CO2 blasts that blanketed the crowd, massive fan lazers, culminating with the confetti cannon.
My favorite part about seeing Kaskade live was that he truly is enjoyable to watch DJ. When I watch Kaskade DJ, I get the feeling that there is nobody that loves what they does more than him, and you can really see how emotional he is about performing and sharing his music and passions with the world. If you have never seen Kaskade, make sure you catch him at one of his shows on this Freaks Of Nature tour!
