Laidback Luke sits down with
Chris Furnari at the
Liberty Hotel in
Boston before his show at
Royale on June 29th. He discusses his musical influences, how he seamlessly maneuvers through multiple music genres in one set without losing the audience, and the
EDM scene in Boston.
Concert Review: Laidback Luke At Royale Boston
BOSTON --
Timebomb.
Dirty Talk.
Till Tonight. For most people in Boston, those are "Techno
Songs."
Ask Laidback Luke about the Boston scene, and even he will admit it usually ends up on the backburner.
"Boston is not a primary market to be honest," said
Luke.
Let's face it, the EDM scene in Boston is almost nonexistent. With the exception of the occasional
Duck Sauce drop at Tequilla
Rain on
Lansdowne St, it's pretty unusual to have an act like Luke roll through town.
But when he took the stage last Wednesday night at Royale, you could have told me I was raging at
Ruby Skye in
San Francisco and I would have believed you.
Luke began his set with
Chris Brown and
Benny Bennasi's catchy tune, '
Beautiful People.' Dropping this popular track first immediately got the energy going in the club.
From there, Luke was rolling, stringing together a stream of recognizable tracks that even your regular top-40 listener could pick out. The mash up of his own banger, Till Tonight and
Pitbull's,
Give Me Everything got the crowd singing along and pushing closer to the stage.
As the crowd grew, Luke transitioned into a bit of a harder sound, but still kept the crowd's attention with the
Hardwell remix of
Robin S's -
Show Me Love.
But it wouldn't be a Laidback Luke performance if he didn't push the boundaries a bit.
Taking a page from his set at
EDC, Luke dropped his mashup of
Aloe Blacc's "I need a
Dolla" and his own collaboration with
Diplo "
Hey."
His remix of
Michael Jackson's Thriller, and
Wynter Gordon's
Dirty talk were instant crowd pleasers. The next track in his wheelhouse was Sweedish
House Mafia's '
Miami to Ibizia' and that laid the foundation for the second half of his set.
In order to fully appreciate a Laidback Luke performance, you have to understand his approach to a set. For him, it's all about experimentation.
"
Sometimes DJ's tend to stick to their own guns and are afraid to experiment more, " he said. "With me, it's all about the save. So actually, I am getting myself into trouble and how the hell am I going to get myself out of there again."
After playing his remix of
MSTRKRFT's '
Heartbreaker,' Luke toyed around with some rolling drum and base and his signature "bleepy" house.
It was just a tease.
Luke Instantly dropped
Beastie Boys' "
Fight For Your Right," waking the crowd up and getting everyone jumping towards the ceiling.
After spinning it back, Luke dropped his edit of
Kanye West's and
Rihanna's "
All Of The Lights," which got the entire crowd singing and fist pumping in unison.
Other highlights in his set included a collage of dubstep, most notably the
Jay Robinson -
Optimal Grime track he featured in his essential mix.
Not surprisingly, the one track that topped them all was "
Turbulence." At the moment, I was fairly certain the floor would give way and the ceiling would come crashing down.
The energy level was high, the crowd was amped and then Luke really turned it on. He moved from Turbulence into his remix of
Body Crash, just as he did in the essential mix. Luke then moved seamlessly from
Chop Suey (another takeway from EDC) into Dirty talk yet again.
Closing the evening on a high note, he finished with
Benny Benassi's
Cinema and his bootleg of
Katy Perry's
Friday Night, leaving the crowd chanting "one more song."
Overall, Luke did what he normally does -- put on an excellent show, crossing multiple musical genres all while keeping the entire audience begging for more.
Boston certainly appreciated his performance and for the event to be a near sell-out on a Wednesday night in the summer, is a testament to Luke's musical talent.
- Chris Furnari
- published: 13 Jul 2012
- views: 634