After an excellent first couple of months in 2012, things keep on improving at the premier Las Vegas nightclub, HAZE. The month of March is full of great events with lineups comprised of world renowned artists such as Fernando Garibay, Laidback Luke, Boys Noize, Dave Aude, & Bob Sinclair. Next week, Laidback Luke will be making his return after a massive show over NYE weekend. He’s expected to bring his usual veteran DJ-ing prowess, as well as his high level of showmanship, so we recommend you grab tickets now rather than face the possibility of regret. Check out a video from Laidback’s last visit & pictures from previous events after the jump!
HAZE, the latest venue presented by The Light Group, offers a colossal cutting-edge environment that challenges your sense of perception and reality. The attention to detail put into everything from the plush modern interior to the service and entertainment provides an experience that–when combined with the latest in technology and a one-of-a-kind sound system– provides you with a premier Las Vegas nightlife experience.
Read on for a recap of last week’s event with Dave Aude & Carlos Fauvrelle, the February/March lineup, and a video from Laidback Luke’s most recent show at HAZE. Continue Reading
If you’re an avid reader of GDD™ then first of all, thank you. Secondly, you might remember our recap of the Marquee Las Vegas One Year Anniversary party from the beginning of January. The kind folks at Marquee treated head honcho Jonah Berry and myself to one of the best dinners I’ve ever had, an informative and insightful panel discussion with Marquee resident Tim Bergling, aka AVICII, and one of the brains behind Marquee, Jason Strauss. The video above is just a quick recap (with a special guest cameo by Jonah and myself at 0:33!) with excellent footage from the festivities, where AVICII really had the place going wild.
With pool season just around the corner (launching sometime in April) one can only imagine how the summer is going to shape up at one of the best new venues in the World. Check dates for the Nightclub below, and stay tuned for more news about Marquee in the near future.
Check out all current dates for Marquee Nightclub after the jump!
Tiësto, who, whether you like it or not, was recently voted “The Greatest DJ of All Time” by Mixmag, has forged an exclusive residency with Wynn Las Vegas daylife and nightclub venues Encore Beach Club, Surrender, and XS nightclubs for 2012.
Happy Monday! I have news featuring the 2012 Marquee residencies, Skrillex, Bromance Record’s Pipes, and Boys Noize & Mr. Oizo’s tracks from their new project. Please read on after the jump.
It was a few short years ago that nightclub impresario Jason Strauss was in Ibiza, chatting with four of his main competitors regarding rumblings they had heard of his next venture. Rumor had it he was opening a nightclub dedicated solely to dance music that would be the 62,000 square foot, 128 times per minute beating heart of a brand new casino in the Las Vegas desert. He confirmed their suspicions…they told him he was out of his fucking mind, but as the saying goes, the great ones normally are. At the time, this simply just wasn’t a successful business model, despite the current budding reputation of Vegas as the new American Ibiza. Clubs were open format, mostly hip-hop, except for a few of the midweek nights. Just last January that new venture became Marquee Las Vegas, and in one short year the club has established itself as one of the premiere nightlife destinations on the planet.
Upcoming projects for Jason and his partners include announcing a new Marquee-brand venue overseas, giving a major facelift for their New York City location, and undergoing a complete overhaul of the Marquee Las Vegas Dayclub for next summer (that will apparently install some infrastructure to allow the outdoor club that’s featured some of 2011′s best pool party line-ups to send flying humans – amongst other things – through the air).
2012 will see exclusive Las Vegas club residencies (that means these artists aren’t ruled out for EDC 2012) from Above & Beyond, ATB, Benny Benassi, Chuckie, Dirty South, Erick Morillo, and Kaskade, and that’s just who is returning. The new residencies they plan on announcing in the coming month I’m sure will positively blow our collective mind.
Click on after the jump to see photos from last Monday’s events including our Q+A with Avicii and Jason Strauss, the pumping interior of Marquee, and more… Continue Reading
The last time I was in Vegas it was 3am and I wasn’t quite ready to let the party die. Naturally, I wandered over to Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, and Kaskade was in the middle of yet another of his marathon sets that have highlighted a stellar 2011 in Las Vegas. If there’s anything better than confetti, champagne, classy ladies, and choons by a world-class DJ to be had at 3am in Vegas then let me know, but until then I’ll keep coming back to Marquee and Kaskade.
GDD™ wants to help you be a part of the experience, and so we’re giving away two tickets to his show at Marquee this Saturday, November 12th. On top of that, the one lucky winner will receive his recently released ‘Fire & Ice’ double-disc CD that was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated releases of the year.
All you have to do is head to the GDD™ Facebook page, ‘Like’ it, and leave a comment with why you think you deserve to win, or follow us on Twitter and tweet @gottadancedirty with why you want to see Kaskade this Saturday! (21+ only please!) Winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon so you have time to plan ahead!
It’s a drizzly Tuesday morning here in LA and I woke up regretting that $30 double-Crown & Coke I paid for at the SBTRKT show last night. When I popped down at work (after 80 minutes in traffic due to rain/Obama’s being in town) and opened up my inbox there was a very welcome email and along came Nicolar Jaar to save the day.
This might not be up a lot of your dirty dancing alleys, but those of you who can appreciate it will find this might be just what you need to get you through this dreary week and onto the Halloween weekend festivities. Head to the Modular People Facebook to get a free 320 download of this mesmerizing remix effort.
The ‘Big’ EP is available worldwide today, and in addition to the Nicolas Jaar version, features remixes by John Dahlback, Oliver, and Goodwill & Black Angus. Oh, and don’t forget to watch the stellar video starring one of GDD’s personal favorite cities and Connie of SSS for the original track above!
It’s pretty much standard operating procedure for us here at GDD™ to leave for Vegas in the middle of the night. Nothing really beats pulling into Vegas at sunrise, begging to be allowed to check-in early, being denied, and then just getting cocktails and playing video blackjack at the bar until the pool opens. After our weekly VERSUS party in Santa Monica Jonah Berry, myself (Burn Unit, the artist formerly known as Matt Black) & Co. hopped on the 10E and headed towards our destiny in the desert. It wasn’t long – okay, like sixteen hours – before we were finally in a limo on our way to the festival. Traffic was pretty congested around the city but as we pulled closer and the excitement built it didn’t really matter.
First Impressions
The anticipation in the air was palpable as the entire crowd in line roared and started chanting. Finally walking through the tunnel and laying eyes on the new EDC festival home it really set in. Two of my favorite things in the world – Vegas and EDC – had collided to form a truly unique festival experience. We walked through the crowd for Bloody Beetroots and for the first time in well over a year I slightly enjoyed hearing ‘Warp‘ as we made our way towards the Circuit Grounds stage to check out the fellas in Cosmic Gate. The quality of the production all around me was incredible, there were dozens of people to buy waters from roaming the crowd, more than a few cops who actually seemed to be somewhat enjoying the sights and sounds, and rides everywhere. From top to bottom Insomniac had put together something special, considering every detail, and it showed from the beginning. We all knew this was going to be a weekend to barely remember but never forget.
Jonah: The Top 3
As Matt so eloquently described above, Insomniac outdid themselves this year and brought one of the best massive electronic events in the world to Las Vegas and succeeded. With production and talent being second-to-none, Pasqualle and the lovely people at Insomniac spared no expense on making the Electric Daisy Carnival the best overall experience you could ever ask for as a music and art enthusiast. Every direction I looked in I was dumbfounded by the sheer size of the stages, the fireworks that seemed like they lasted for hours, and the top tier artists on all stages at all times. Here’s a breakdown of my top 3 acts by day:
Friday – Richie Hawtin presents Plastikman — There’s not too much to say about Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman set that you don’t/should already know. The man is an audio/visual genius. After seeing the Plastikman show at Coachella a couple years back, I thought I pretty much knew what to expect from the show last weekend in Vegas, but once I glared upon that monstrous LED curtain while simultaneously getting rammed in the ear with body-vibrating Minimal Techno, I knew that Richie was about to amaze me once again. Lucky for me, I had remembered my Plastikman iPhone App, so I had a live streaming video of the man behind the curtain at all times. Lucky for the crowd, Richie came out in front of the curtain at the end of his set to prove he is, in fact, a human being. If you have not seen Plastikman, I highly encourage you to do so the next chance you get.
Saturday – Boys Noize – It seems that it’s standard now for Boys Noize to make the top performances of any festival we cover. I can confidently say that the man is a living legend, and his song selection and powerful DJ prowess have never, ever let me down. His set commenced with a new track, unknown to me at the time, which repeated ECSTASY about 15-20 times before launching into a massive drop that nurtured the crowd’s need for a big-time Boys Noize banger. Despite some festival-goers losing their marbles just after this first drop, the set went on and was as relentless as ever, with the staples of a BN set bursting through the Vegas desert including “& Down,” “Yeah/Swoon,” and “My Moon My Man.” As long as Mr. Alex Ridha doesn’t start playing top 40 mashups, I’m pretty sure he’ll always be at the top of my list wherever I witness his performance.
Sunday — Afrojack — Like many artists at EDC this year, Afrojack was slotted for two sets: Saturday night at Kinetic Field and Sunday night at Cosmic Meadow. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch his set on Saturday (though I heard it was fantastic), but fortunately I saw his set in its entirety early Monday morning at the Cosmic Meadow stage. It’s safe to say that the man is one of the best DJ/producers out there. With an arsenal of original tracks and a fresh Grammy under his belt, Afrojack is leading the charge across the ever-closing gap between Pop and House music. Thanks to the great people at Insomniac, we were able to watch this monuMENTAL set from the stage, as Afrojack wanted everyone up there to be right behind him for his entire set. He even moved his own monitors so the sound would project towards the people on stage and not him! There was ‘Bangduck.’ There was ‘Pon De Floor.’ There was ‘Take Over Control.’ And thank baby Jesus there was no ‘Sexy Bitch.’ I can’t wait to see this guy again.
BONES: EDC OVERALL
My two colleagues above seem to capture the energy of the festival and the top performances of the weekend, but with the opportunity to have all-access coverage of EDC what really made this weekend for me was the level of ease we enjoyed every aspect that was put in to making the festival a resounding success. With the festival going from literally 8pm till sunrise, it was the first time I was able to witness Boys Noize and MSTRKRFT (you better believe I went to both) from dawn til’ the break of sunlight.
The production of the stages uniquely complimented each lineup accordingly – the BASSPOD shaped like a transformer Ferris wheel with the DJs performing in the center, the main stage given a huge upgrade in size that made you feel like an ant when you came near it. All I can say is that the production throughout the festival was out of control.
With attendance reaching around 80 thousand each day the new location at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway made the crowds flow easily as we maneuvered through the masses to reach every stage and attraction. The layout of the Speedway also made it possible for Insomniac Events to really capture the carnival theme, and in a town full of performers it was clear that all of the dancers, jesters, bikers, and even fish people were truly skilled and appropriately matched to the night’s festivities. As if that wasn’t enough, the pyrotechnics and fireworks were enough to hold us over beyond the 4th of July. Everything just seemed to go right all weekend, with the hundreds of amazing performances and the problem-free atmosphere making for a spectacular first year in Las Vegas. With the news of all the success traveling far and wide, we can only imagine how much is going to be put into next year! GDD @ EDC: THE VIDEO Don’t just take our word for it – we were lucky enough to have our great friend and videographer Clare Wadsworth put together a highlight video of all we experienced during the weekend!
TUNEAGE: Fortunately @ EDC this year, many of the performances were captured on Sirius satellite radio, so you can relive some of the best sets from the weekend!
