As per the previous report on Maddix OTC, the cool thing about Winter Music Conference in Miami, is all the DJs who are there in town for the week and many end up performing at various clubs during the week, in this case after Ultra in the evening. Because Ultra is in the middle of the city, it has a midnight curfew, and that's a good way to go to parties afterwards. For Trance, La Otra had us covered with a great trance lineup: Gabriel and Dresden, Aly and Fila, Ferry Corsten, Alexander Popov, Adam Scott, Kristina Sky, John 00 Flemming, Giuseppe Ottaviani, and more...
Got to see many friend DJs again, awesome!
I was slightly worried that security at the club would be picky and difficult, but they were super nice, which was a great surprise. Thank you.
Friday Night
lots of DJs came to hang out
Lovely night, eventually had to go to bed to get a bit of sleep before the next day that started at noon at Ultra
Saturday Night
The next night, the end of UMF didn't feel essential, and I wanted to avoid the guaranteed mess it was going to be to stay until the end and hope to get an uber, so we left a bit early and went back to Otra for more trance and hanging out with more trance DJs who were also there to enjoy the night.
One nice thing about Winter Music Conference in Miami, is all the DJs who are there in town for the week and many end up performing at various clubs during the week, before or during Ultra. You can actually spend the week in town and go to parties all week without ever going to Ultra itself.
Maddix did the first party we went to, a 7H OTC at Mad Club Wynwood, with lots of B2Bs with other DJs who were in town. It was an interesting mix of different kinds of techno depending on which DJ was playing for that slot.
I was slightly worried that security at the club would be picky and difficult, but they were super nice, which was a great surprise. Thank you.
nice neighborhood
Randomly found a few people outside while heading out ;)
So, every time I went to see a laser show, from someone else, including Gareth's Laser City shows (and honestly I preferred "laserface" to "laser city" as a name), my reaction was unfortuantely always "it was nice, but laserface 2018 was (so) much better. Nothing has come close since then". Until today.
Ok, Bill Graham is a very nice venue, so that helped, but this time was the first time that Gareth brought more lasers than 2018 and made a great show out of it, and it was super impressive. This is now the new benchmark as the best laser show ever!
warning, lasers will be in use, haha
Arrived early to meet friends and attempt to get a good seat for the show. To be honest, the 2 opening DJs didn't play anything to write home about, it was burning time for the next 3H until Gareth would start. I'm sure they're not even bad DJs, but I'm guessing they had clear instructions not to shine too much, bummer...
So it was a good time to meet friends and take pictures :)
maybe not visible, but I also had the new prototype of my thinner and flexible LED outfit
The 2 DJs I had never heard about before: Robot Sunrise and Vision V:
sold out!
and then the countdown for Gareth
And finally the real sho started at 22:20:
a lot more vertical lasers:
but I prefered this
One treat like previous shows, is having Annabel join and sing, and this time as per my previous feedback, they got the lighting right so that you could see them on stage, which was another nice improvemnt:
did Gareth manage to play live plus mix live by himself? If so, super impressive
The cyberpunk storyline was a nice addition:
The lasers got even prettier around the end:
The whole show was 90mn, it didn't last that long, but it was beyond excellent. Gareth didn't play as much trance as he did in 2018, but I didn't expect he would, times have changed and 7 years later trance is not loved by as many people anymore. On the plus side, I did like the music selection he picked, so that was all good.
The one question the engineer in me has, is whether the entire show was a playback performance on a pre-recorded track that was perfectly synchronized to the lasers, or whether Gareth found a way to play some, or all of that music live and still stay perfectly synchronized with the lasers (with Annabel also singing live and on key, which is always challenging in a loud concert environment). What do you think?
My answer is honestly I think it may have been live, at least parts of it, but I don't overly care either way, the show was flawless and really enjoyable, which is what matters.
well done indeed
elbow bump is the new fistbump :)
After the show was over, afterparty at August Hall (formerly Ruby Skye).
crew picture
Gareth arrived around 01:00 and played a bit random music, but it was a good way to end the night:
