Porter Robinson concert

Last Friday (2/8), the Northeast got hit with a major snowstorm. While New York was not affected as much as other parts of the region, we got some snow here. The wind was brutal during the mid-afternoon, which I found out the hard way on my walk to and from CVS to get some food and cold medicine. My that night, it had calmed down, so I went outside to enjoy the snow a little bit.

Snow in Midtown

Reppin' Seattle proudly

By the next day (Saturday), the streets had been mostly cleared up. After an excellent start to the day with a tough, gritty win from Arsenal, I started to get really excited about the Porter Robinson concert that night. While there was snow on the ground and I was recovering from a cold, it takes a lot more than some snow and a slight cold to stop me from seeing Porter Robinson!

This concert was at the Roseland Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan, not far from where I work. The train ride there took longer than I expected, because the 2/3 trains were running local instead of express (meaning they stop at every stop on the way, which isn't normal for all 2/3 trains). All that meant was that I heard less of the opening DJ. I didn't even miss either of the two official openers, so nothing lost there.

The first opener was a one-man electropop act called Penguin Prison. While his music is not my favorite, his act combined singing and mixing music together, which was impressive. All told, he put together a nice opening act.

The second opener was Seven Lions, a producer of what I would best describe as trance-step (trance + dubstep). His musical style is quite unique, and while I hadn't heard a lot of his music, I was excited to see him. The bass was incredible on all of his songs, and while he did get a little caught up in producing crazy loud bass sounds, I really enjoyed his part of the show. His song "Days to Come" was the highlight for me, mixing in loud bass with smooth, slow, trance-like synths to create a really cool sound.

Then came Porter Robinson. What a guy. He's only 20 years old (pretty much exactly my age), but he's already produced some absolute masterpieces. My personal favorite song of his is "Language", a beautiful, elegant electro-house song that brings a chill to my spine every time I hear it because of how amazing it is. Listen to it, it's seriously incredible.

Back to the concert. He started off by mixing together his songs "Vandalism" and "The Seconds" with Deadmau5's "Arguru" which he has done before, and with good reason, because they work really well together. From then on it was a constant stream of EDM greatness, as he skillfully mixed together songs of his own creation and songs of other producers. One of the highlights for me was when he remixed Pendulum's "Slam" and transitioned it into Knife Party's "Internet Friends", which is cool because the two main members of Pendulum went on to form Knife Party, so it was a nice transition from past to present. Some of the other highlights were listening to "Easy" by Porter Robinson and Mat Zo, hearing him mix in Deadmau5's "Strobe" (another masterpiece), and hearing both Porter's original version of "Unison" and the Knife Party remix. 

Legend.

Basically, I'm a huge fan of Porter Robinson. His music is amazing, and his ability to put together an exciting mix live is amazing as well. After the concert, I stopped to buy a bottle of water because I was really thirsty from dancing and jumping up and down for several hours. The two concerts I've been to in NYC so far have been amazing, and I'm looking forward to the next one (Madeon).