United Kingdom artist Calvin Harris performed a DJ set mix with big sounds and bright lights this past weekend at local music venue Stereo Live. Harris experienced an increase in popularity in America last fall when his track with Rihanna, “We Found Love,” spent 10 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. | Christopher Lopez/The Daily Cougar
By now we have heard the famous top 40 track by Rihanna, “We Found Love.”
The creator of this latest dance anthem is Calvin Harris, a world famous disc jockey, singer-songwriter and record producer. He had created many self-defining tracks such as, “I’m Not Alone” and “Colours” before his ascension to the America mainstream late last year.
On Friday, Harris stopped by Stereo Live as the headliner accompanied by British DJ Burns and Houston DJ Josh DuPont as the opening acts.
DuPont is a deep house producer and DJ who was nominated “Best DJ in Houston” in 2007 and 2008 by the Houston Press.
Upon taking the stage, DuPont began playing unpopular dance tracks which just made him seem repetitive after 10 minutes.
This was expected since opening DJs are not allowed to exceed the talent of the upcoming artist, limiting their potential on stage.
The crowd began to grow as the night progressed and the lights dimmed.
Burns then took the stage causing a loud cheer and applause from the restless audience, who were pleading for more than just the basics of a dance beat.
The music thudded louder and the special effects lighting commenced to blind the audience as they moved to the bass of the house tracks.
There was an overwhelming enthusiasm from the crowd as they swayed and jumped.
This DJ had well-rooted transitions that were barely noticeable as well as perfectly-timed drops.
Though there was still much praise for Burns, he is still nothing in comparison to Harris.
As Harris walked behind the DJ booth, the crowd’s roar filled the dimly-lit venue and the previous echoes of the drop from DJ Burns faded.
The build that Harris created as he began his set on stage was astonishing, only to be outdone by the intensely compiled drop.
The sea of people jumped and screamed as the tracks commenced and Harris took full control.
Though he has a library of self-made tracks, he is also a DJ and mixed current dance songs in his set.
There was a wide range of tracks used, the standard ones that are currently heard across the world in dance clubs.
After some wait, he began playing his own tracks, causing the already enthusiastic crowd to get even wilder.
One of the first songs he played was “You Used to Hold Me,” a track he self-produced that caused a flurry of dancing bodies to move all across the venue.
He then went on and played some other house and techno tracks, still causing the tension and anticipation for his next and hopefully even better track.
This formula worked out well in the sense that it did not give the audience an overabundance of his personal songs.
As the night went on, he played “Bounce,” “I Feel So Close” and “Flashback.”
As he is producer and DJ, Harris was able to create a mix that awed the audience. It was composed of an intricate and well-defined house track and the now famous alternative track of “Paradise” by Coldplay.
He also did an impressive mix and elaboration to “Around the Word” by Daft Punk.
The final wave of well-grounded mixes, self-tracks and top 40 hits ended when Harris played “We Found Love.”
The crowd celebrated the world-renowned dance anthem by using all of their energy to dance and scream as the all-too-familiar beat blast through the already booming speakers.
Every light panel and fog machine turned on, working in unison to submerge the audience in a surreal environment.
Unfortunately this was Harris’ last self-made track showcased that evening.
As time passed, the songs turned to unrefined house tracks, which only had a small window of appeal to the audience.
They were not horrible or easily dismissed, but after the performance that was just bestowed upon the crowd, there was a higher expectation than having to listen to “Sandstorm” by Darude.
After that, the mix was composed of unfamiliar tracks. This then led to the crowd awakening from the trance that they were in and just swaying and moving to the music nearly forcefully.
It was only 1:30 a.m. when this began and it followed through until the end of the show.
Overall it was an experience worth seeing despite the amazing performance falling short at the end with a lack of originality and emphasis on the tracks of the artist himself.
It was worth the opening price of the venue but not worth a marked-up or scalped ticket price.
This great artist failed to showcase a lot of his work, which led to a small disappointment and let down to his fans.
Although the set was solid and the drops and builds were timed perfectly, it is hard to recommend seeing him again.
It felt more like a large nightclub than a performance by Harris.
It is easy to attest to the great contributions he has done to electronic music in the past few years, but his live performance at Stereo Live fell short of expectations.
🙂