You know a DJ is in trouble when his intro bumper is the best part of his set.
When he got on stage, 'DIPLO' lit up in 20 foot letters on the three screens behind him as a computer voice chanted his name. The drums were building, and the BPM was growing. Then came a single promising drop.
What followed this 'banger' intro, was crap. Diplo couldn't play a single full track; he kept switching tracks every minute---never played anything through--no real drops, no real commitment to any song. It was ADD music--an endless introduction that never took you anywhere, more an exercise in mixing (Diplo showing off) than anything else. He could only hold the crowd for seconds at a time, but it didn't seem to bother him. Fuck you Diplo.
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| A friend of mine took this picture. Fuck you Diplo |
Luckily the event staff dropped a ton of inflatable blow-up balls onto the crowds. This made the set more enjoyable, since it was temporarily no longer about the music. I still left early.
The problem with Diplo was that he was acting like a superstar, and not performing like one. I prefer my DJ's humble--and I believe all musicians should put their music first. Diplo, with his good looks and vapid stage performance seemed to enjoy the ego-jerk more than anything else. His music did nothing for me. He was on race to mix as many banger, big name tracks as he could in that short hour--playing each track just long enough for recognition, before moving on. It was hollow, forced, and didn't spark the [eager] crowd. I hate dumping hate, but it was just so unsatisfying--like eating a Safeway cake, or reading a free newspaper--that I can't help it.
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ASCE should invite an intelligent, no-nonsense DJ like Machinedrum to headline next year. Machinedrum delivers. He's amazing live.
