Alesso returns to Liv Miami and put on a show for the ages

Every weekend, South Beach plays host to countless DJ’s spinning any type of music one could find appealing. Miami’s lavish nightlife always provides fun nights, but it’s the artists that top clubs bring in that make unforgettable nights. Liv always boasts a festival-like lineup with diverse acts booked months in advance. Being a music lover in Miami, clubs like Liv and Story make it impossible to stay away from their doors some weeks. Even if it was somehow possible to get tired of the nightlife scene that South Beach offers, the music would be more than enough for me to keep coming back time and time again. Last Saturday, Alesso made his way to Liv after headlining EDC Orlando the previous day. The hardest part about seeing an artist you’ve followed and seen multiple times is that they won’t live up to such high expectations. Nikky and I had no doubt that Alesso’s show at Story last year was one of the best sets we’ve witnessed…and that’s quite a bold statement.

Liv was the most crowded I’ve ever seen it when Alesso made his way to the booth at 1:30am. Starting things off like he so often does, ‘Tear Up The Roof’ began blaring from the speakers and the night was officially underway. After mixing his way through a half hour of vocal-less beats to prime the crowd, Alesso dropped a killer mashup of ‘We Like To Party’ and ‘City Of Dreams.’ Alesso had teased playing a few of his big tracks early on in the set but settled for big room tracks until the ‘City Of Dreams’ mashup. Following up on the first vocal track, Alesso played Axwell & Ingrosso’s new track, ‘Can’t Hold Us Back.’ From that point on, the crowd was in an absolute frenzy till Alesso left the decks almost two and a half hours later. The combination of new Alesso tracks were seamlessly mixed in with old favorites as he went from his new collaboration with Ryan Tedder, ‘Scars Of Life’ to ‘The Years’ and eventually ‘Calling.’ It seemed that the night was winding down two hours into his set at 3:30 when a surprise guest appearance from Jamie Foxx breathed new life into Liv. The pop culture icon took over as MC as Alesso played his ‘If I Lose Myself’ remix to an overly boisterous crowd that was certainly not ready to leave.

Alesso wasn’t ready to leave either, he transitioned into Calvin Harris’ ‘Blame,’ Hardwell’s ‘A Sky Full Of Stars,’ ‘Payback,’ ‘Reload/I Am,’ and ‘I Got You’ before what would surely be the last track of the night with ‘Under Control.’ As quickly as the night seemed to start, we found ourselves leaving the front doors of the Fontainebleau with nothing but smiles after Alesso had performed his magic once again.

Stay up to date with Alesso by following him on Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud.

*Thanks as always to Jona Araujo for making it possible for us to come out to these shows and review them for you all. It’s more than a pleasure!

**Photo credit to World RedEye Photography. Visit the entire Alesso album here: http://worldredeye.com/2014/11/jamie-foxx-alesso-at-liv/

Zedd @ Story Miami Friday + Alesso @ Liv Saturday

With EDC Orlando taking place a few hours north of Miami this weekend, the music gods have been more than generous to South Beach. Liv and Story will be bumping as usual this weekend but when Zedd and Alesso show up to the party, it’s far from an ordinary weekend. The two superstars are hands down some of the best in the business and have stolen the hearts of music lovers time and time again. While covering Electric Forest and Veld as press this summer, I had the opportunity to see Zedd twice. There are very few artists that diversify their sets as well as Zedd and that’s one of the countless reasons I’m beyond excited to see him again. Zedd’s remix of ‘Rude’ is an absolute thing of beauty and Alesso hasn’t been doing so bad himself with the recent releases of ‘Heroes’ and ‘Tear Up The Roof.’ To top it all off,  Alesso and Zedd have albums set for an early 2015 shelf date, so you can expect to be hearing some new tunes this weekend. Alesso has been sitting on a goldmine of ID’s from festivals so keep an ear out for his ‘Scars Of Life ft. Ryan Tedder,’ ‘Sweet Escape,’ and more!

Buy Tickets For Zedd @ Story Miami, Friday November 7th

Buy Tickets For Alesso @ Liv Miami, Saturday November 8th

Gareth Emery proves to be one of the best live acts in EDM

The amount of Gareth Emery reviews we’re written on KFT is verging on obsessive. But what can ya do when the guy just puts on phenomenal shows, especially since Drive, is perhaps my favorite album of the year. Coming straight from seeing Porter Robinson (absolutely incredible!!) at the Fillmore Miami Beach I decided to be a warrior and hike to LIV to meet Zach.

Mednas got the crowd swaying with an opening set that like usual exceeds that of most (if not all) residents we’ve ever heard. We can’t wait to hear what music he has in store, because something’s telling us he has some of his own music on the way!

Opening with the brilliant intro aka “Entrada” the crowd was feelin’ toasty from the start. Entrada of course meaning entry in Spanish, the track has become Emery’s iconic intro song throughout all of his Drive Tour. Mixing in a little “Dynamite/Locked out of Heaven,” got the show off to the races. It’s one of my favorite mashups of his that he plays out at all his shows, and it really flows naturally. Tiesto’s “All of Me” rework, his collab with Krewella “Lights and Thunder” as well as a rendition of “Sky Full of Stars,” Gareth gave everyone something to dance to whilst screaming their hearts out and channelling their inner American Idols.

Then he broke out “Beatiful Rage,” a trackI have mentioned before as maybe the sleeper off of the album. Not really overpowering but gentile trance and a really solid voice backing it up thanks to LJ Ayrten. Meanwhile, Emery commanded the stage, clearing showing the crowd LIV was one of his favorite places to be. Can you blame the guy? The place ain’t half bad.

 

But seriously, the thing that struck me was how many people actually knew every single damn word to every single damn song. Hands to the sky, we all serenaded shamelessly, reciting “Eye of the Storm,”  (video below) “Concrete Angel,” and “Million Years.” Following up the spree of Drive songs with Calvin’s “Blame” and Audien’s live set slayer “Pompeii” I didn’t think the crowd could handle it all! Finally the time came for the finale “Long Way Home.” I don’t normally use this phrase but that song is just 4 minutes of “the feels.” Goosebumps, shivers down the spine, the whole nine. What I love about the album is it has the perfect intro song (“Entrada”), and a really fitting closer with “Long Way Home.” I think it’s always advantageous when an album has a beginning, middle and end – Gareth’s does that. We just wish there was no end that given night…

Overall, it’s always a really refreshing experience seeing Gareth live. I firmly believe that he had the album of the year in EDM thus far, as Drive is flawless from top to bottom. The album is a real journey, and Gareth was able to accurately convey that journey on the decks of LIV that night. He connects with the crowd, uniting the room as a whole. Needless to say, the guy left everyone awestruck.

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*Shouts to our boy Jona for letting us experience the greatness, he’s pretty much an honorary member of KFT at this point.

**Credit to WorldRedEye Photography for the photos. Check out the entire album taken the night of the performance: http://worldredeye.com/2014/10/gareth-emery-at-liv-4/

Quintino Takes Crowd by Storm with LIV performance

This past weekend after having taken in the beauty that was Story’s Carnage/Dzeko & Torres/Paris Blohm show (review coming soon), we decided to double dip and step into LIV’s hallowed halls for Quintino! Saying he didn’t disappoint would be an understatement, he blew our socks off.

The opening act featured Story resident Dave Sol, who made his way over to LIV to grace the decks prior to the main act’s emergence. Sol’s beats always fuse the room with an incredible vibe, with a casual deep house tone from start to finish, cultivated with extra energy to lead into Quintino’s performance. He always seems at home on stage, and like fellow Miami Beach resident, Mednas, is simply one of the finest in the business.

Then the lights dimmed, the crowd packed the dance floor, the VIP table members stood from their seated positions, and Quintino took the mic. Shouting, “Miami are you ready?!”, the show began with a bang. The crowd immediately from the moment of his announcement leaped into the air in excitement for what was sure to be a memorable showing. He dropped his track “Go Hard,” appropriately enough – because that was about to be the theme of the night.

He got the floodgates going with intricate renditions of various tracks such as Iggy’s “Fancy,” his very own remix of Afrojack’s, “Ten Feet Tall,” and “I Got You,” the summer hit from the emerging Duke Dumont. Then the room darkened, only to be lit by sparkling blue lights above LIV’s iconic ceiling as Coldplay’s, “Sky Full of Stars,” fittingly began to play. This was simply a magical moment for any and all in attendance, as Chris Martin’s vocals pierced over the production bringing a state of upmost euphoria throughout the club. Quintino played Hardwell’s remix which is one of my personal favorites, as the intro/build is simply sensational and really adds to the emotion of the track. The drop certainly lives up to the potential, leaving for an all and all incredible production.

My next favorite that Quitino dropped happened to be a remix of a track we all know the words to, Capital Cities’, “Safe and Sound.” Quintino played out the Tommie Sunshine and Live City remix, a really well done piece that brought the house down. Of course KFT supports anything Live City touches, so it was cool to witness a piece of theres from over a year ago. The high pitched melodic synth is what drives the production home in my opinion. Listen below!

Quintino continued to keep the crowd pleasing vocals present with John Legend’s ballad, “All of Me,” he was especially proud of this one being his remix with AFSheen. He followed that up with another instant classic, Bastille’s “Pompeii.” While inserting Audien’s lead, he switched things up by dropping a big room electro drop, but then returned to Audien’s remix with the second drop. Many EDM enthusiasts would simply call Audien’s remix of “Pompeii,” the remix of the year. It is certainly up there in my books!

Quintino kept the catchy vocals going with Clean Bandit’s infectious track, “Rather Be,” and to my shear glee – he played out Cash Cash and Valley’s remix! While there are more than enough remixes out there, this one is my upmost #1.  For those unfamiliar and confused – Valley = Gazzo + Kalkutta. Furthermore, here’s the track itself. As one could imagine, Quintino was received quite well for blasting this baby out!

The night continued in glorious fashion with tracks like “Live For the Night,” from Krewella, and “Under Control,” the phenomenal collaborative effort from Calvin Harris and Alesso. In these drops, Quintino kept true to his style lacing in some big heavy electro percussions to keep the energy up. He even had a drummer emerge from the top balcony to perform alongside him on a few tracks. This was something I had never witnessed before – and I must say, it was pretty sweet. The guy was on point with the beat. Check out this shot of him below!

Then Quintino surprised me, and in a good way. As opposed of keeping the show going just as is – and don’t get me wrong, it was going really really well. He threw in some crazy variety, with a bundle of mainstream hip-hop tracks. I thought this was neat since it didn’t dominate the performance, yet gave it a slight change of pace.

Then he mixed in some deep house tracks to even more so change up the pace. This sort of felt like the relaxing part of a roller coaster ride, which gave the crowd a break, only to then be catapulted back into high voltage energy with the remainder of show being high paced electronic tracks, Quintino’s specialty.

The night finished off with a slew of tracks such as Showtek’s, reggae-house fusion track, “Booyah,” a mashup of “Feel So Close,” behind the instrumental of Bassjackers’, “Crackin,” and R3HAB + Deorros’ fun bouncy track, “Flashlight.” The evening ended strong with a few tracks from Alesso: “Calling,” and his ever loved remix of OneRepublic’s, “If I Lose Myself,” with video below!

Overall, Quintino far and away exceeded my expectations. He mixed in catchy vocals, played a ton of his own original material, but most of all – impressively orchestrated an incredibly dynamic, diverse set. Touching on electro house, progressive, deep house, and even hip-hop – Quintino left nothing to be desired. He laid it all out there, and gave LIV all it could have asked for. What a phenomenal show!

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Stay up to date with Quintino by following him on Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud.

*Thanks as always to Jona Araujo for making it possible for us to come out to these shows and review them for you all. It’s more than a pleasure!

**Photo credit to World RedEye Photography. Visit the entire Quintino album here: http://worldredeye.com/2014/10/quintino-at-liv-4/

twoloud @ LIV Miami

The question everyone in the EDM world is asking is “who are twoloud?” They never perform live, nobody knows of their identity, the rumors continue to float about them being Spencer&Hill, but that was put to rest when the duo tweeted denying the facts. All we know is this: they are supported by the likes of Tiesto, Hardwell, W&W, and Hardwell, and have put together a fine 2014 campaign. They took off with their single, “Big Bang,” which charted on Beatport in October of last year. Most recently, they released their remix with Tiesto of Galantis’, “You,” as well as their original “Greatest DJ,” which bears the name of their tour which kicks off tonight at LIV in Miami Beach. We’ll be there, not only trying to discover who are twoloud, but also just purely to enjoy great big room tunes. We hope to see you out there at this rare event to witness these two mystery talents take the big stage.

Buy Tickets: twoloud @ LIV presented by #JustDanceMiami

For the time being, take a listen to their latest podcast below which released today!

Gareth Emery @ LIV Miami

After having seen Sander van Doorn just two days earlier, my excitement to re-enter the hallowed halls of LIV  was beyond. What immediately struck me as I entered the venue was the increased crowd, increased energy, and increased anticipation even somehow exceeding that of two nights prior. People were patiently awaiting the man of the hour, British trance sensation Gareth Emery. If you ask Gareth himself of his music style, he wouldn’t limit it to just to trance. He describes it as ‘simples,’ a fusion of trance and progressive house. However what I like about the Brit is he hardly even limits himself to just two genres, and you’re likely to hear an assortment of approaches in his upcoming studio album, Drive. He’s been around for quite some time, having had his debut remix played on BBC Radio 1‘s live broadcast of the 2002 Mardi Gras – his career took off from there. Since 2006, Emery has easily ranked inside the top 100 of DJ Mag’s rankings.

But before Emery could grace us with his presence, we were delighted by the sounds of LIV resident Mednas. As in my last review, I mentioned that Mednas separates himself from other residents I’ve seen with his ability to captivate a crowd and build anticipation to perfectly lead into the main act.

Then emerged Gareth himself. He opened with some big vocal big room tracks such as “Revolution” and then transitioned into “Stay the Night,” from Zedd, which of course got everyone singing a-long. Anyone not fully invested at the start, was now. This place was about to lose it’s roof. He then mixed in a surefire soon-to-be public favorite, “Lights and Thunder,” his collab with Krewella. This one has been making waves for months but is finally getting released and remixed by several artists (and for good reason).  Emery then brought the bass with Showtek’s killer hit, “Cannonball,” with the vocal remake “Earthquake.” Then came my highlight of the night, when Emery dropped his new single, “U,” for which I have said time and time again is the most underappreciated track of 2014. Right up there for track of the year. Just listen to the energy and emotion and passion transcended in this video below!

Gareth kept it going with Hardwell’s, “Apollo,” and another Showtek record, “Booyah.” Just like Sander, he then dropped Zedd’s, “Find You,” which is quickly making waves through the EDM world! He then dropped a huge 2013 track that I nearly forgot all about – “Save My Life,” from Nicky Romero and Krewella. It was great to hear that track again, vintage Romero chords and the Krewella vocal is on point per usual. He then played one of his classics, “Meet her in Miami,” and appropriately so! For those who haven’t heard the track, it’s undeniably unique in its high pitched video-game like dynamic audio, and always grabs an audience by storm! That was one of the more pure fun moments of the show. Intestingly enough, like Sander two nights prior – Emery worked in an Avicii vocal, this time “Wake Me Up.” Once again, a moment where the crowd could unite and sing in unison. He closed out with a little Bruno Mars and his sensational single, “Concrete Angel.”

Overall, Gareth Emery was sensational, there is no adjective that would do the performance due justice. After having seen him at EDC NY, in a festival environment, and then twice at club venues (Pacha NYC and now LIV), I am convinced that he is one of the best acts out there. Emery truly understands the dynamic of a crowd, and just knows what to play before you even know what you want to hear – and then when he drops it your jaw drops. If you haven’t had the pleasure to witness him live, please do. It’ll be one of the greatest performances you ever see.

Afterward, LIV kept the party going as Mednas reclaimed the stage. Mednas threw down some big time tracks such as a “Bonfire Heart,” remix and Madeon’s “Technicolor.” Let’s just say anyone who had the mindset of bouncing home after Gareth’s set quickly turned around, re-laced their dancing shoes, and headed back out on the floor! I particularly enjoyed the seemingly perfect mashup of “Losing My Religion,” with “Reload.” That one made the place shake.

Without a doubt one of the more enjoyable live shows I’ve seen in my years covering events. Emery and Mednas never let you down, and I highly recommend you make it out to LIV at your next chance to experience what all the fuss is about! If these are just the pre-MMW festivities, who knows what next week has in store!