Written By: Darwin Green (Senior Editor)
Photos By: Susana Capra
View all of Susana's DJ Tiesto photos here.
The Shrine auditorium boasts modish yet Moorish architecture. Gentle arches, in the style seen typically in a mosque, adorn the walls and some of the entranceways. One would, in a building designed like this, wonder if it lined up with Mecca if not for the glowsticks, fishnet stockings, dyed hair in all shapes and sizes, and oversized furry boots on its male and female patrons.
Before I walked in, I wondered how much the rave scene had changed since I had been to my last rave, about seven years ago. Not much had changed, and the variables were all there. There were the people already rolling, with their friends spinning light shows in front of their eyes with bright LED lights instead of incandescent lights. There were still the electric vibrators, though now I saw them on people’s fingertips like gloves instead of those awkwardly huge ones back in the day. There were the couples who lounged on pillows outside, caught up silently in their own state of bliss apart from the crowd. There were the candy ravers, with beaded elastic bands clear up to their elbows in their bright orange clothing. And there were also the dancers, who spasmed and spun in place. The differences were minor, at most. Everyone had a cell phone. All the raver toys had been updated. Looking on above the crowd one saw them like the fish found at the deepest depths of the ocean spinning and whirling through the sea of people.
The visuals behind the opening act were nothing but Heineken ads. Indeed, it looked like Heinekin placed its ads everywhere within eyesight. I wanted to grab a beer, but the bars only accepted cash, and the one ATM in the place was “offline.”
The music of the opening act took hold of the crowd strong enough and for a sufficient length of time that they swayed and danced as though with one mind. The energy started to build almost right from the beginning, and continued as everybody’s drug of choice started to kick in. I realized that I had on a nice sweater and a pair of jeans, coming from a post-Thanksgiving lunch with my family. I felt like the undercover cop who’s out of touch with fashion trends as I walked around the venue, though after sitting down for less than five minutes someone gave me a blunt and left me to smoke it by myself midway through it. Then a girl, walking past us, asked us one by one:
“Rolls? Anyone? Rolls?”
I felt less self-conscious after she asked me, as though the way I dressed, in a strange way, fit in enough for her to even approach me.
When Tiesto kicked on I happened to be at the right place at the right time. The openers left the stage with an intense, emotional track playing. Tiesto walked up to the turntables and CDJs and powered the song up to its peak amidst the rise of every IPhone, camera, blackberry, and other portable video recording device in the house. By this time the joint started to kick in, and suddenly I saw the incredible visuals displayed behind him.
In a moment I went from being a skeptic towards Tiesto to becoming mesmerized by the entire performance. The strobes in front of the visual display hypnotized me with the effects caused by the combination of both, synced perfectly with every little musical choice he made onstage, as though each sample, each fade and transition, caused the visual behind it to appear onscreen and timed with the strobes. Skulls, women who sang the vocals, wild patterns of light and waves, all drifted in and out of the view, sometimes accompanied with a burst of smoke and, occasionally, complete darkness where suited. The meld of music and visuals, to me, held the price of the ticket.
