Deadmau5 – Earls Court

For years now, I have considered Deadmau5′ live shows to be some of the most exciting I have seen. His energy and magical presence on stage, combined with awesome visual displays and a very high standard of mixing that is both adventurous and playful, creates one of those experiences on a night out that makes it nearly impossible not to love every second. With heavy snowfall around London, and the roads/transportation services being slowed to a snail’s pace, could this weekend’s event in the middle of a freezing December, at the massive Earls Court, live up to these high expectations?

The promoters for the event boasted ticket sales of 15,000 for the two nights, which made it a complete sell out. With only one room, this meant that the supporting acts would have to be as powerful and engaging as the mau5 himself if they were planning on holding the interest of a room filled with almost 3 times the capacity that one of the super clubs like Fabric can hold in all three of its rooms. For the London leg of the tour, the supporting acts were scheduled to be Zane Lowe, Magnetic Man and Stanton Warriors. It was a good start.

Heading to the event on Saturday was no easy feat. The walk/ice skate to the station was not as straight forward for heel wearing girls in the group, and the jam packed tubes didn’t offer much comfort. I guess this was to be expected though and soon enough we were making our way into the venue.

We had slightly mis-timed our journey and as a result had missed out on Stanton Warriors, which was a shame but considering the event had started at 6pm, it had seemed awfully early to begin what we were planning to be a very long night. Magnetic Man were on the decks, so after a quick round at the bar, we were on the dancefloor. The huge space that is Earls Court is remarkable as a gig/concert venue. The sound system packs some serious power and although the room was about 2/3 full, I had a feeling that not everyone who had purchased a ticket was going to be successfully making the journey in the arctic conditions we had been dealt that weekend. We caught the last few songs of Magnetic Man which as expected consisted of their recent massive tunes feat Katy B, ‘Perfect Stranger’ and ‘Katy on a Mission’. It was a great way to get pumped up for the rest of the night.

Zane Lowe was next up and this was the first time I had seen him perform live. The first half an hour or so was decent. Mostly remixes of classic tunes, a commanding Dubstep rhythm taking a front seat but a nice bit of Jungle, Garage and some House-y sounds thrown in to keep everyone happy. A notable highlight definitely being Dead Prez (Adam F and Fresh remix) of ‘Hip Hop’. It was a massive crowd pleaser and although normally I am not a fan of DJs talking on the microphone during their set (with the notable exception of Annie Mac, who is a goddess and every world she speaks is welcome during any of her sets), but in this instance Zane did a pretty decent job of getting the crowd even more hyped up for the appearance of Deadmau5. The last half hour of Zane Lowe wasn’t for me, it was mostly rock remixes and I found it difficult to dance to and less than engaging, personally I don’t think it fit with the rest of the night, but I was happy to get another round in and chill for half an hour to mentally prepare for what was about to happen.

The last hour and forty minutes was assigned to the mau5 and as he walked out onto the stage, two things were very obvious. Firstly the room had filled to nearly capacity, which is a massive compliment to the DJs as if ever there was a night to bail on using the excuse of difficult travel conditions, this was it. Secondly the excitement in the room was nothing short of insane. The cheers and whistles didn’t stop until about half way through the first tune. The set had everything. A perfect mix of old and new, breath taking visuals, plenty of mau5 head light changes, and even live female vocals. The newer tunes from the most recent ’4×4=12′ album went down especially well. A sea of fluorescent glow mau5 ears could be seen bobbing around the vast dancefloor and all hands were in the air.

As the set neared the end, the lights were suddenly switched off in an attempt to trick the crowd into thinking the night was over. No one was buying it though, there was a huge sense of more to come and Deadmau5 really had saved the best til last. The classic ‘I Remember’ and the newer but equally excellent ‘Animal Rights’ each had a good five minute build up, huge drops, and even the mau5 walking over to a console that was in the middle of the crowd to finished off the set right in the thick of the action. It was nothing short of awesome.

The only criticism was that finishing at 10.40pm meant that the evening was over before a normal Saturday night would normally have begun. However with John Digweed headlining Fabric later that night, this may turn out to play an integral part in what was potentially going to be a seriously epic Saturday night. However you’ll have to wait and read about that separately All I’ll say now is that getting anywhere from the venue in sub zero temperatures, with 7,000 people attempting to get onto the tube and not a single cab anywhere to be seen, was not the ideal way to wrap up what was otherwise an unforgettable performance and quite possibly the best work I have seen from Deadmau5.

See you on the dancefloor.