Photo credits - http://www.rukes.com/ + Caesar Sebastian
Deadmau5 smashed up the Camden Electric Ballroom last week to a sold out audience of over 1000 people with a brilliant set of some of his latest tunes from album, ‘Random Album Title.’ The Ballroom played host to the Canadian DJ who took to the stage armed with a laptop full of thumping beats, his signature “Mau5head” and a legion of fans seemingly dedicated to the overexposure of their hero. The progressive house DJ has become one of 2008’s greatest success stories whilst also lining up an impressive array of festival appearances this year including Sonar, Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Creamfields.
The show kicked off to start with a projector playing a teaser of Deadmau5 latest video ‘I Remember’ over the crowd which features Snatch star Stephen Graham and Hollyoaks actor Warren Brown. The video sees two lads searching for the perfect warehouse venue to hold a party whilst Graham gives them a short speech on seizing the day, getting your voice heard and what it is to be a raver. His 10 commandments are 1. find the perfect location, 2. enter by any means necessary, 3. fear nothing, 4. send the word out to those that believe, (which is when the music starts up and the crowd start to cheer) 5. its not where your from, its where your going, 6. reject the mainstream, (which is my favourite!) 7. find the best sound system, 8. never fail, 9. the music has to be bang on, and finally 10. its your choice - at this point the song is now in full flow and the crowd are cheering to the mouse shaped head appearing on the screen behind the DJ decks.
After the video the mouse headed DJ gets the crowd going by throwing his hands in the air as everyone dances to his techno dropping beats and whilst he switches the tempo and remixes in the tune ‘His Friends,’ true mouse fans are singing along whilst some are seeing him for the first time and not really enjoying the sweaty atmosphere (as a couple of silly girls proved in front of me as they kept checking there hair in a portable mirror…come on girls really?!?) Back to the mouse (who is now without his head - no doubt there that he is probably as hot as the crowd) and the show is in full swing as a guy bounds around at the front singing the “you know what is what, but you don’t know what is what, you just strut….” with another girl filming the set on her mobile phone! Only a few people around me are familiar with the Deadmau5 tunes but as he drops in his remix of Daft Punk’s ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,’ the crowd start jumping in time with the beat throwing their hands in the air in unison with his! Half way through ‘Slip’ and the music cuts out!!! Small technical issue which leads to the crowd chanting his name and as Deadmau5, looking nervous tries to revamp his laptop, technical guys get the sound system up and running again. He recovers it well though playing a slower techno tune and later mixes in ‘Complicated’ as a small group of electro hipsters dance amongst the packed dance floor bopping their heads and shaking their hips whilst the stomping sound system pumps throughout the venue. The Ballroom has a brilliant lighting system and plaza screen behind the DJ booth which plays a collection of flashing graphics in time with the beat occasionally blinking up the mouse logo to a cheering crowd.
Later on into the set and the DJ puts back on the mouse head (and whilst cheekily smoking a cigarette underneath the DJ booth) he interacts with the crowd well throwing his hands up getting everyone clapping. He definitely brings the beat in well delaying it until the last moment and letting it go so the crowd jump in time; it is an introspective moment which is perfect for the techno/electro loving crowd who get involved…(whilst the silly girls just stand there!) The set ends (or that’s what you think) and on comes Stephen Graham himself accompanied by Warren Brown and a group of actors from the ‘I Remember’ video. Graham steps up on the mic giving an inspirational speech about this ‘being our time…and to seize the moment’…and for people who don’t know who he is, it seems all a bit too pointless until he says we are being filmed and the crowd whoop and cheer to the cameras on stage! Warren then grabs the mic and shouts ’DEADMAU5’ and as the crowd start cheering his name the skinny DJ returns (minus the head - which I found a tiny bit disappointing) and plays his last song ‘I Remember,’ probably the best song of the night along with the Daft Punk remix. Overall Deadmau5 played an outstanding set - minus the technical issue in between and interacts with the crowd well even messing around on stage pretending to shine a bald bouncers head! The random appearance from Graham and the gang certainly got the crowd going for the last tune and as we left the venue I heard all round good reviews from sweaty punters sporting the Deadmau5 sticker which was given to us on entry! If you can catch him live this summer at one of the festivals he’s definitely worth checking out!
Sound system - 4/5
Venue: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
By Kayleigh Bell of Underground Music kayleigh@underground-music.co.uk
User Comments
Comment by GUEST on 2009-05-17 09:39:07 Promo video is hot. Nice fotos
Comment by Fuller on 2009-05-22 04:27:07 Check this out! The whole night on video:
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