deadmau5
WaMu Theater, Seattle, WA
04.22.17
Men and women alike are covered in mesh so nude they might as well be naked. By the end of the night, many of them probably will be, when they peel themselves out of the sold out crowd at deadmau5‘s live show in Seattle. Crammed tight against one another in the cavernous WaMu Theater, the venue looks oversold, in fact. Bar lines wrap past the doorways, and squads of girls 6-deep clad in matching bodysuits, light up mouse ear headbands, and mini backpacks toggle for space against dudes dressed in the leftovers of Halloweens past.
This is one of those shows for the club kids, the folks who want to feel the effects of overstimulating audio-visual experiences streaming through their bodies. And deadmau5–née Joel Zimmerman–brings plenty of that. This “Lots of Shows in A Row” tour, in support of both his 2016 album, W:/2016ALBUM/, and this year’s compilation, stuff i used to do, introduces the Canadian producer’s Cube 2.1. And this latest version of his trademark structure is a monolith of impressive proportions.
When the lights go dark, the slow reveal of this LED structure–composed of independent moving screens that swirl around each other while displaying expertly synchronized graphics and projections–is the star of the show. Strobes flash, the melody goes up, and deadmau5 stands atop the cube, in his trademark mouse-eared helmet. The fans eat it up. His set covered a solid span of work, but there were definitely tracks that the crowd knew better–or preferred more–than others, and every time one dropped, the entire room exploded in energy.
From melancholy trance-like tracks to retro gaming effects, deadmau5 is an inventive producer, but this isn’t just about the bass drops. There is plenty of downtempo material and trippy synths in the mix, and the crowd even knows all the words, screaming them along, shouting their love from the back row, where the bleachers are shaking.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Alex Crick
deadmau5
