Last night I was lucky enough to catch Deadmau5 in my home town. He was in Newfoundland for the Junos (Canadian Music Awards) where he won best Electronic Music album. He played previously on the weekend but with all the plane delays from the volcano he had another show which I was lucky enough to see.
All he was using in his set was a touch pad (Like an I PAD but bigger) and what looked like the clubs djm 800 mixer. The guy layers his sets like no other I have heard before. All on a touchpad where he was using ableton if I were to guess. Anywas, he has a great stage presents jumping around all over and pouring champaigne into the crowd and wearing the infamous mouse head. The club only holds about 400 people so the amosphere was great.
The touch pad he was using seeemed so affective. He was beatmashing and adding clips really fluently. I just had to share this because it was very inspirational. His dj set was like a live production adding vocals here and bass lines there and the crowd was eating it up. Imagine just showing up to the club with a touch pad and nothing else and rock it like that guy…mad respect.
I saw Deadmau5 live as well. He wasn’t using the touchpad at the time or pretty much any video I have seen with him. Anyone know what equipment he uses? He claims to not be a DJ and actually despises DJs (see Wikipedia).
He is a great producer but his live sets are DJ sets despite what he says.
i have heard him say that those things he said were blown out of preportion.
What he said is…that he is not a music affecionado.
He does not collect music like DJ’s would etc.
He does come off a bit poncy tho.
Saw a vid…where he was getting ink done…and chilling with Tommy Lee.
He gave Tommy Lee some shit…which i think was a bit off.
Apparently they mates…so I shoudl not read too much into that.
The best DJ i have seen…or experienced…would be Tsuyoshi Suzuki.
He used to play here every year…for a few years.
First time i saw him …he was on vinyl.
Second time (the best time) he was also playing vinyl…but the story goes that his one vinyl box was stolen at the airport…his main one…and was left with leftovers.
He managed to pull off a set that blew my mind. PROPER mashing of trax …
He played the original Born Slippy over some Psy…
This was really something no one had seen yet here in Cape Town.
there’s also some video floating around on youtube which is more recent (I think?) with deadmau5 talking about his live setup with ableton live, which is really interesting to watch if you can find it. it involves multiple mbps midi sync’d, all running ableton live coming out into a xone 4d, along with a monome and a lemur.
I saw Andy C at the final WEMF up in Canada. I’ve seen him since then, but that set was probably the one that sticks out in my mind the most.
Probably the best set I have ever seen performed live, and I strive to go to as much as I can, even driving all over the place. 3 decks vinyl and just going nuts with the drums and basses.
EDIT: I also want to say how disappointed I was with his set at Ultra this year. He was only on for 15 minutes and then took off, and Dieselboy/Dara/AK1200 (who were on before him) went back on. Apparently there was a show in Toronto that he had to fly to make, and so he split early. What I don’t understand is why he just didn’t switch set times with someone so he could actually play. It really bothered the hell out of me that he was only on for such a short amount of time.
The most interesting? The Glitch Mob.
Though to be honest with you, I hear Daft Punk is due to make an American tour next year to promote their new album and the soundtrack to the new Tron movie. So I’m really hoping to see them.
I feel like he was probably uing a xone 4d mixer, as I know he is partial to those. It might have been a different A&H rackmount thoug (S2 maybe?) He uses the lemur, and some other midi devices with ableton.
He used to bring his buchla on tour, until people threw beer bottles at the booth (it costs 20 grand)
After experiencing the sahara tent at coachella last weekend, i gotta say hands down benny banassi’s set was one of the best performances I’ve herd, deadmau5 had an awesome led mau5 head though, and Guetta raged really hard. Kaskade had an awesome set too with huge balloons dropping into the tent, it was sick! Bassnector was ok.. Tiesto had an amazing light show and performance but it’s not really my style of music.. Best weekend of my life..
Though to be honest with you there is a difference between DJing and Producing, and it varies person to person where they draw the line.
Lately to be honest I only go to shows where I know a producer is going to be spinning something big. I used to go to everything and it’s brother, but I find myself picking and choosing nowadays based on who is going to be there more often.
I’ve seen him perform a couple times, and he puts on a great set. But it does come down to, he does produce his own tunes and can be entitled to his thoughts about it.
