Last night I was fortunate enough to catch Dillon Francis on his Wet & Reckless tour in Rochester, NY. The tour stop was at Pearl Nightclub and support was provided by Clockwork and Baauer. It was election night and an excellent escape for those of us who were exhausted from the torrent of partisan ads and election coverage.
I arrived at about 8:30 to a small crowd and off-beat EDM fusion being played by the resident DJ. This was not what I expected when I pictured seeing Dillon Francis. Around 10:00 the crowd really started to grow and the DJ turned to heavy dubstep. At 10:30 Baauer took the stage and brought the heat (both literally and figuratively). We were in for one hour of hard hitting, bass heavy trap music. He dropped the Flosstradamus remix of Major Lazer‘s Original Don pretty early on in his set which really set fire to the crowd and set the tone for the rest of the night. Baauer also had an immensely energetic stage presence and the crowd followed suit.
Baauer-DumDum
[audio https://www.youredm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DumDum.mp3]
At 11:30 Dillon Francis took the stage but he wasn’t alone. What ensued was an unprecedented two hour tag team set from Dillon Francis and Clockwork. Their set was packed with a relentless onslaught of moombahton and trap music. Baauer also returned as support with extra energy, as if they needed some. Things really got going about halfway through their set when they played IDGAFOS 2.0 in to Porter Robinson‘s Unison (Knife Party Remix) with a low pass filter turned off right at the drop in to Knife Party‘s Sleaze. They truly pulled out all the stops even touching on Afrojack‘s new song, Annie’s Theme and Calvin Harris‘ Bounce. Clockwork also managed to fit in some tracks from his recently released Bootleg Pack including Seven Nuke Army (Wolfgang Gartner v. The White Stripes) and Who’s Right Here (Plastik Funk & Tujamo v. Fatboy Slim). They delivered an explosive set that won’t be soon forgotten by those of us that were fortunate enough to attend.
Clockwork-You Used To Llove Me (Kaskade, Dada Life v. Calvin Harris)
[audio https://www.youredm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/You-Used-To-Llove-Me-Kaskade-Dada-Life-Vs.-Calvin-Harris.mp3]
Doctor P & Dillon Francis-Music Is Dead
[audio https://www.youredm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Music-Is-Dead-Original-Mix.mp3]
Overall it was an impressive performance by all three artists and I would go back and do it all over again in an instant. The music had no soft spots and the sets had no weaknesses. They were, for the most part, seamless. The most impressive part to me was that there was no downtime, no breaks, it was a constant stream of big bass and great beats.
