Dada Life was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen; Sound Academy, on the other hand, needs improvement getting the crowd quickly in when having such an awesome headliner at their venue. With only two people working at the ticket pick-up station that night, the line was long and slow at a show that was oversold by 300. Waiting two hours in line, I didn’t get in until 12:30am. This was probably one of the worst lines I’ve ever experienced, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, my buddy who bought tickets to the show didn’t even get in because the doors were closed by 2am. Perhaps in the future they can eliminate the “Will Call” option and send us hard tickets or e-tickets. Whoever went to Digital Dreams this past summer knows that waiting in line to pick up your wrist band was hell. And doing that again for Dada Life was just ridiculous. I will likely pass on an event at Sound Academy if they don’t make improvements.
When I finally got in Adrian Lux was manning the decks. I have never seen him play before but I’ve heard his songs and thought, “yea this guy is going to be good.” Unfortunately, I was not impressed at all. He had a variety of music in his arsenal, but it did not mesh well together. He’d take you up with Ladi Dadi Tommy Trash remix and Greyhound and then bring you way down with some tech house. As a DJ, one is supposed to take their crowd on a journey with their mixing skills and song selections (Dada Life did this), but I felt as though Adrian Lux left me stranded in the middle of the desert. I like his music, he is a talented producer, and I hope one day when he comes back to Toronto he throws down a sick set!
As soon as Adrian Lux finished his set, Dada Life stepped on stage. The crowd went B-A-N-A-N-A-S! They started the night with Kick out the Epic Motherfucker and as soon as I heard that song I knew they were going to tear this building apart. The atmosphere was amazing, Stefan and Olle were stringing us along for the ride, and what a ride it was. They played mostly their own stuff and songs from their new album called “The Rules of Dada” which is coming out in October 16th, 2012. I highly recommend you pick it up and support the Swedish duo. After seeing this show, I am an even bigger fan of theirs than ever, so you know I will be grabbing that album. What I like about Dada Life compared to the other Swedish Dj’s I’ve seen, is that their songs are hard dirty electro beats. They played the entire crowd favourite’s, Big Bad Wolf, Feed the Dada, Rolling Stone T-Shirt and Happy Violence. My favourite part of the night was when they mashed up Calling with Gwen Stefani’s vocals from Hollaback Girl. All you heard was “The shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S” to the song. At that point the crowd was raging, jumping, and hands were flailing everywhere! People actually went BANANAS! I was so amazed by that mash-up that I kept saying “WOW!” through out the entire song.
If you guys haven’t heard of Dada Life yet, please check them out at http://soundcloud.com/dada-life they won’t disappoint. Overall that night was amazing minus the lineup, but I have to say it was worth it. Those guys started with Kick Out The Epic Motherfucker and that’s what they ended with as well. Pure filthiness, pure grittiness and pure epicness.
Tung Bui – EDM TOR
