Scion Free Party Review

Yeah, I was pretty confused when I saw that lineup to. Dopplereffekt is basically Kraftwerk from Detroit, and I've had their cd for a while which is cool but definitely not danceable, and then I love Nadastrom (check our post on them HERE), and Discobelle DJs (Discobelle being a blog I check often). The night was free of charge since Scion is trying to appeal to us youth (and have access to the infinite funds of Toyota) so Jumpman and I had to check it out (unfortunately J is stuck in Boston because he still has to deal with that whole arrested thing).

First up, the Discobelle DJs. Great song selection. They played a lot of cool house, some of which was on the minimal side and very ravey. Unfortunately, not great DJs, they should really stick to bloging. They had very shakey transistions a lot of the time, and sometimes just flat out fucked up, more than once too. Their transistion into Shake It Down in particular was horrible, as it wasn't on beat and in the middle of a buildup. Oh well, they were only the openers, and they did a good enough job I guess but certainly not impressed.

Shake It Down - Laidback Luke Feat A-Trak (Removed)

Then the curtain went down, so Jack and I sat on the edge of the stage waiting for Nadastrom. But in 10 or so minutes when the stage rose, there was Dopplereffekt with the coolest stage presence I have ever seen. They (a guy and a girl) were standing in front of synths facing each other with creepy black masks on in front of a screen with strange projected images. I got really excited, but then her keyboard wasn't working and they had to leave the stage and bring the curain down again until it was fixed. They tried the cool intro again, but unfortunately their music just didn't hold the crowd. We thought the music was cool, but it was definitely the wrong venue for it. They just didn't have enough energy at all, and eventually people in the crowd just starting talking or occasionally yell things at them, like, "Drop the BASS!" At the end of their set they just quickly walked off stage. It says that this was their first live US performance... (LINK)

Here's a video of them playing live in Paris:


Then Nadastrom stepped up to the decks. The place had already emptied out a fair amount after that train wreck of a show, but everyone immediately got excited when they appeared. They had a good intro track (don't remember what it was), and then busted into their style of electro/house/rave and just killed it. The people that were there just started going nuts, and they were incredible. Their setup was something I'd never seen before too, as it was literally TWO set ups: one guy with a Serato set up and turntables, and the other with Serato and CDJs. I guess they mixed into eachother, which is really cool. And they were getting really into which helped the crowd get into it even more, and they weren't douchebags at all either. They stayed after their set to talk to the little crowd that was their, shake hands, etc. They're from D.C., and I highly recommened any of you if you have the chance to catch them live, and if you are unfamiliar with their tracks, check out our post on them HERE.

The crowd wasn't as big as in this video, but they played the same song and had the EXACT same stage presence:


Turns out Scion's throwing another free party at the same venue (that's The Roxy on Sunset), on June 17th with dubstep acts like Zomby and Joker. For you LA kids, you should go, all you have to do is RSVP and its free. And I don't think that's going to turn out like this one, since they don't have a revivalist headliner, and dubstep KILLS live.