With Gemini, Nadastrom, Khaos, and more
Club Cinema, Pompano Beach
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Better Than: Being stuck at home with your parents, stuffing your face with your fourth round of Thanksgiving left overs, you little piggy.
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Gobble gobble turned into wobble wobble real fast this weekend when mohawk'd mayhem-machine Rusko came to town.
He may be English and therefore find our holiday completely irrelevant, but the crowds at Club Cinema were more than thankful for the cornucopia of bass.
The neon-masses turned up in droves to dance away the sorrows of a recently cancelled Boys Noize show and postponed UR1 Festival. When we arrived at about 11 p.m., the bottom floor of the venue was already packed tight with reveling ravers, glowing in the dark, and well on their way to some wide-eyed, chemically fueled pandemonium.
Local trap-star Khaos was ruling the stage, going in hard on some dark and bassy bangers topped with plenty of tinny snare accents. The ruckus starter was jumping up and down, dropping massive beats from Miami-local JWLS to remixes of radio-friendly rap and trappy anthems like "2012" and "Spend It." The energy was brimming over into insanity as he finished off with Kickshifta's "Gangsta Shit," ready to hand it off to moombahton-originators Nadastrom.
It's not often a crowd is treated to a true Nadastrom set. You're likely to find a solo Dave Nada behind the decks. But Saturday night, both Nada and his partner Matt Nordstrom were in the building, and the set they delivered was funky as hell.
Nada, with his wild hair and penchant for grabbing the mic, is the clear hypeman of the pair. But Nordstrom was also getting caught up in the energy, jumping around and thunder-clapping to the beat. They took turns rocking the tables, tag-teaming through their hour-long set of moombah classics. You almost always know what you're in for with a Nadastrom set, but it's the best kind of predictability, honestly.
By 12:15, the second tier of the club had filled out as well, and the whole place was bumpin' as Nada grabbed the mic.
"Put your fuckin hands up!" he yelled, and the duo dropped local love with "Bashin'" from Miami's own JWLS. They finished their set on a hard note as they made room for the first English man of the evening, Gemini.
After a brief moment of calm and an introduction by the MC, Gemini hit the decks hard with some electro-house beats, waving his arms and rocking his whole body to the sound. He didn't need sexy dancers or crazy strobe-lights to get his crowd hyped up. He just read their bodies and gave them what they wanted, no holds barred.
Famous for his dubsteppy vibes but versed in a multitude of sounds and genres, he dropped a lot of original tracks with all kinds of grooves. He played lots of originals, like "Fire Inside," "Robots," and "Vision." But he also dropped contemporary hits from others, including "Make it Bun Dem," "Epic," and the Skrillex remix of Doors' "Light My Fire."
The crowd ate up every bass boom. Girls with glowing pacifiers in their mouths rocked out on dude's shoulders while more of them gyrated up on their boy-toys in the halls. It was a sea of electronic hula hoops and poi sticks, neon bras and natty dreadlocks. The commotion was a constant upward climb toward the final apex.
And it finally came as around 1:30 a.m., the stage was cleared and the lights brightened. The man of the hour was rushed to his standing throne and Rusko took control, ready to go ham for the next hour and a half.
He started his set off with some of the popular trappy vibes and never stopped for a second. He stayed jumping and throwing his hands in the air, somehow managing not to slip in his black socks, because apparently you don't need shoes to be a dubstep superstar.
It wasn't long before he got into the dubstep he's known for, keeping it funky and hard at the same damn time. He dropped classics like "I Can't Stop" and favorite Rusko remixes like "California Love" and "Pro Nails."
He threw one hand into the air as he dropped originals like "Somebody To Love" and "Everyday." The crowd chanted "hey" as he kept his head banging, and of course, the place went absolutely ape as he dropped his megahit "Woo Boost."
It was total sweat-drenched insanity right up until the end, and Rusko made his final bow at 3 a.m. before quickly being rushed out the door and into his tour bus. The place kept rocking under the divine direction of local spinner Chris E, but people began to make their way to the door as the minutes slipped by.
It was a massive night of bass and techy snares, moombah rhythms and housey hits. For sure most people managed to burn off some of those holiday calories and make up for recent cancellations. But even for all the fun we had, we're sure everyone is already looking forward to the next big show.
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