Since uploading his Pop Culture live mash up video on YouTube to the praise of millions in the summer of 2011, Madeon has been a young star on the rise. I first fell in love with the young producer when I heard his remix for Deadmau5’s Raise Your Weapon and the release of Pop Culture only confirmed to me that this kid (only 16 years old at the time!) had some serious talent. After seeing him at Identity Festival this past summer, I did not want to miss the chance to catch him again at The Hoxton along with Toronto local, Andy Ares.
Anticipating a midnight start for Madeon, I arrived at the club at around 11:30PM to give myself some buffer time as the Thursday night show was completely sold out. To my surprise, there was no line and we walked right in to a half-filled club. The vibe was not ravey at all, with little to no neon, glowsticks, or sunglasses; nevertheless, you could still feel the energy and excitement in the room.
Andy Ares was getting the crowd warmed up with a set that ranged from progressive and electro bangers to trance. The trance tracks such as Ummet Ozcan’s The Box, W&W’s Liftoff, and the iconic Sun & Moon by Above & Beyond, seemed to be the most foreign to the crowd but were still received with smiles and excited “Why don’t I know this song?!”s. Around 12:30am, the club was completely packed and the crowd started to grow impatient, chanting MA-DE-ON.
Finally at 1am, the lanky French producer dashed on stage to a roar of applause and began his set of melodic electro/synth-pop. From start to finish, he had the crowd grooving as he played a mix of his own upbeat singles and remixes such as The City, Icarus, and The Night Out along with Porter Robinson & Mat Zo’s newly released, Easy, Deadmau5’s Professional Griefers, and A-Trak’s remix of Justice’s New Lands. When he played his remix of Raise Your Weapon, the whole club was singing along and I was amazed at his ability to control the crowd at such a young age. As we approached 2am, he picked up the tempo with a remix of rock anthem Song 2 by Blur, which had everyone jumping and yelling WOO-HOO. Finally, came the song that shot him to fame, Pop Culture, and I had a feeling that he might be wrapping up his set soon as he had already played most of his big releases. He mixed it flawlessly into a drum and bass beat before fading it out into the electrifying intro of his Olympic-worthy track, The Finale. Although he had only been on the decks for a little over an hour, it was a solid way to finish his set that had the crowd chanting for one more song. But just like that, he vanished as quickly as he appeared.
Madeon played a great, albeit short, set that made dancing feel natural and it was the perfect, cheerful start to my weekend. Not even legal to play in most of the clubs he’s being booked for, he’s got a long, exciting career ahead of him. I can’t wait to hear new material from him and look forward to the next time I’ll get to see him live – hopefully for more than an hour.
Links
Sarah Chiu – EDM TOR
