To those of you who were there, you already know the greatness I’m about to speak of. For those of you who weren’t there, I wish I could take you back in time with me to the moment when RL Grime was king for a night and solidified himself as one of the best live performers in the game. Times like these I wish I was a poet because my lowly words will never do what he did that night justice… but someone must try.
It was one of those rare moments in life where everything goes exactly as it should. You walk down the small hill to find the perfect place in front of personally my favorite stage of all of Tomorrowworld–The Deep End–the stage with the calm, cool water as the backdrop (props Mad Decent and Fool’s Gold!). The crew is putting the finishing touches on the set up. An anxious crowd chants “ATL, ho! ATL, ho! ATL, ho!–which the world has now been introduced to as *the* battle cry of a good time in Atlanta. I look up, I see the inflatable Pink Elephant totem equipped with it’s powered-on Go Pro and a wave of relaxation and gratitude rushes over me because I know those amazing people are going to put this entire set on the internet one day. Praise you, Pink Elephant! Praise you! For some reason you have this unshakable feeling that something amazing is afoot… and it was.
The lights begin to flicker with growing anticipation, RL claps his hands like “here we go!”, the tempo picks up and suddenly my rage crew and I are on the best 90 minute ride we’ve ever taken. He starts off with Rustie’s “Slasherr” and your ears were hit with the most amazing sound system in all of Tomorrowworld. Penetrating bass that rattled your chest 50 yards away, but never distorted any other levels. Beautiful.
I feel like it goes without saying, but it would also be a crime not to mention, that of course RL’s song choices for his set were game changing and ahead-of-their-time. Even if he played an old song, that old song was still relevant and placed perfectly within the set that you were still so happy to hear it. That excellent sound system projecting his amazing song selection coupled with his expert ability to produce set dynamics like that… I’m speechless. He’s in a league of his own.
The stage unfolded its beauty slowly through out the set. The show began with a simple light show and great visuals, but grew into the best live production I have ever seen. An hour into the set you’re blown away by the color-changing water spouts that perfectly compliment the lake backdrop and the colors of the visuals. The lasers are mind-blowingly crisp and feel like they’re a foot above your head. You feel encapsulated in lights, lasers and amazing music. He’s been up there for an hour and the production is already at an amazing apex so you think to yourself, “This must be it–this must be as good as it gets.” and by no means is that depressing. He’s thrown down a great show so far–but no, RL hadn’t even begun.
Suddenly the mood and song choice drops to something calm and serene. Like the perfect conductor that he is, RL gets on the mic and directs the audience attention to the beautiful firework display happening just above the stage with a very apropos “Yo that shit is tight as fuck right there.” This chill, beautiful scene that captivated the entire audience set up the perfect downtempo moment for the mind-blowing adventure RL was about to take us all on. Suddenly the vocals drop away, the tempo quickens, and RL–like the master he is–times his live crescendo into the drop of Chase & Status‘ “Machine Gun” perfectly to the synced up mass explosion of fireworks in the sky. Music, sound dynamics, lights, lasers, water spouts and fireworks all working in perfect sync for the best drop I’ve ever seen in my life. Anyone who wasn’t jumping up and down was planted to the ground with their jaw dropped in complete awe of what they just witnessed. RL continued the assault on everyones senses without a second of letting up for another 30 mins to complete the best show I’ve ever been lucky enough to see in my life.
Like I said before, you would need a production poet to do this amazing moment in music justice. All I can really say is: RL Grime you had the best show I saw all weekend at the innaugural TomorrowWorld. I could have died happy. Please, please do this to me again sometime. Tomorrowworld, thank you for giving him an amazing platform and sound system to blow our minds with. I can’t wait for next year.
If you want to see or re-live the amazing moment I just described, start at the 1:02:00 mark in the video below. Big thanks to the crew with the Pink Elephant totem who put this entire set (as well as many others) from TomorrowWorld on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. Check out their YouTube Channel and give them a like for giving these priceless moments in music a forever home. Follow me, Sydney @ Your EDM, on SoundCloud for excellent songs you need to be listening to.
Photo courtesy of This Song Slaps
