WRITTEN BY: NATASHA LENART
Joel Zimmerman is easily one of the most prolific and influential producers of the last two decades. He is infamous for stirring controversy in the social scene of electronic music, and is better known by his stage name, deadmau5. Joel embarked on his “Lots of Shows in a Row” tour in early 2017, following the release of his album, W:/2016ALBUM/. The entire tour sold out within hours of ticket sales going live in December, and it’s an understatement to say that his fans all around the country were overflowing with anticipation for it to begin. In the weeks coming up to the start of the tour, deadmau5 teased short clips of the Cube 2.1- his new stage design, in which Joel personally built, modified, and programmed.
The final stop on his Lots of Shows in a Row tour was a 2-day run at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom. Feed Me opened, with nothing but a small table on the far right side of the stage and a few led screens. Although his set up didn’t have much of a visual aspect, he still brought the freshest electro, house, and even showed off his drum n’ bass roots, and had all of us grooving!
Deadmau5 opened with Imaginary Friends, and watching that curtain drop to unveil the monstrosity that is Cube 2.1 literally took my breath away.
The set featured songs from the album, like Let Go and Snowcone, but of course also included deadmau5 progressive classics like Strobe, The Veldt, and Ghosts N’ Stuff. One of my favorite moments of the night was when he dropped one of his newest released tracks, Polaris – see the video attached below.
By far the most memorable moment of the night, though, was the encore. Deadmau5 surprised the audience when he dropped the bass-heavy Noisia remix of Raise Your Weapon, and the whole crowd absolutely lost it. We all left wishing we could see this show again and again; words and videos honestly can’t do this incredible auditory and visual experience justice. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.
If you were lucky enough to attend the show at Aragon, keep in mind that he is headlining Movement Music Festival in Detroit, May 27-29, as his techno alias Testpilot- and you should fully expect a set from him like you’ve never experienced before.
In addition, deadmau5 returns to the Midwest one more time this year in September for North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, this time headlining the weekend in a mind-blowing back to back set with Eric Prydz. DeadEric is going to be one of the best festival performances of the summer, don’t you dare miss it.
If neither of those are an option for you, Joel has mentioned a Cube Lite in the works, a smaller, more portable stage setup so he can tour in more venues around the US, and even possibly Europe! Keep your eyes peeled.
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