first off, i know its the state theater. i figured i need to be somewhat official for all of the web searchers out there in cyberspace tryna get all up on this post. now, two show reviews two days in a row? well, last week was just that kind of week, which is never a bad thing. for all of you who hate these recaps of detroit music events, sorry bout your luck. but for the rest of you, there will be another one next week too, and then probably another the week after, so get excited for that.

ive been pretty excited to see deadmau5 ever since lollapalooza and i arrived at the venue at about 830 or so because diana and julie didnt have tickets and the show was sold out. after some sneaky detective work and a bit of negotiation, we found ourselves all with general admission tickets, which was pretty huge because it sounds like there were not too many tickets to go around after they snagged theirs. we waited outside for a half hour or so but finally made our way in. i took a lovely picture of the marquee outside, but i must have accidentally deleted it during my 3am deletion of all completely ridiculous pictures that could never be salvaged. so that was kind of sad. but i did see my next door neighbor zack just before going inside.

we made it inside after some thorough camera bag searching and got a couple of $9 drinks (i always forget how expensive the drinks are there) and i ran into niki who i hadnt seen since college many moons ago. in fact, i believe her quote was, “really? i havent seen you since college and i see you at deadmau5?” then we ran into jonny who we ended up hanging with for the better part of the evening. we wandered around for a bit noticing the large and elaborate deadmau5 masks that littered the crowd (i think i counted 7 or 8 throughout the night but its hard to tell) and finally burns began. he started out a bit slow but really pumped it up near the end of his set (i wonder if the opening djs are contractually obligated to do that because it seems like they usually do) and then it was on to the main event. (again, all pics plus many more can be viewed in higher quality on the dailybeatz flickr page.)

then it was time for the main event. we saw the black objects all over the stage and figured that they were probably some sort of lighting mechanism but when the show began, they all turned into mini video screens that worked together. it was sort of like a much smaller scale version of the radiohead set from last summers tour except coming up from the ground rather than hanging from the ceiling. which inevitably led to a conversation over stalagmites vs stalagtites. we decided that none of us knew which was which.

the crowd was just as wild as lollapalooza if not more (since they had not just endured an entire day of 90+ degree heat) and it turned into an all out party. we each acquired a glowstick bracelet so that we would have something around our wrists for the inevitable fist pumping that was going to take place and tried our best not to get trampled and/or contract shingles from the sometimes questionable crowd. i made my way to the front where i breathed a breath of fresh air and tried to snap some pics, which was made more difficult because of my short stature and the tall video screen in front of deadmau5. i was pleasantly surprised that i had some decent shots of the mask when i got home cuz i thought i had nothin.

as the night continued i made my way up to the balcony for some shots from the left and right and of course it never occurred to me to, you know, maybe take some shots from dead center. that would be way too logical for me. diana and julie headed out a bit early just in time to miss the crowd going nuts when daft punks “harder, better, faster, stronger” was mixed with muse’s “knights of cydonia”. i luckily had just returned to the pit up front a last ditch attempt to take some more pics before this. i think my favorite part of my recent stint shooting shows is just how much people love getting their pictures taken. the couple below asked me to take their picture, at which point the proceeded to try to eat eachothers throats, but hey, at a show like this, anything is fair game. to the two lebanese guys, i know i said your picture would be up here but i got home and the picture was complete shite. sorry about that. the energy was thick on this night, and deadmau5 delivered. please enjoy the photographs below and check out mah flickr page for more shots.

its pretty tough to review a dj set, because while you dont really remember more than one or two specific moments or songs that were played, you always remember how much fun you had. man, im exhausted just thinking about how exhausted i was when i got home saturday night. it was a total blast as expected. enjoy this song while you think about how much you wish you were there and how you will make sure never to miss a local event like this again. this song should strike your fancy as it features one of the most recognizable video game theme songs of our generation, but have no fear,in true deadmau5, the rest of the track does not fake the funk on a nasty dunk.

deadmau5 – you need a ladder