[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElyNSF5u-4s[/youtube]
JFK of MSTRKRFT took the stage at The Graduate Saturday night opening with a song full of bass and nothing short of his signature electro-dance music, which was the music of choice for the evening. The audience came ready to share their mutual respect for electro-dance music and the DJs who play it.
“The crowd was on point,” opening act and DJ Mikey Lion said. “Everyone is here because they like electro music, so it was super fun.”
Despite a strict dress code which did not allow men to wear sleeveless shirts and a technical problem during Casa St. Hooligans’ set, there was an unexplainable energy pulsating through the crowd for the entirety of the show. This made for an amazing night, according to many concert-goers.
Canadian-born DJ, JFK, said this is the first time he has visited San Luis Obispo since 1986. Although he is touring without the other half of MSTRKRFT, JFK said he was excited to be DJing.
“I just like DJing,” JFK said before the show. “If people want me to DJ, I’ll DJ wherever. They said tonight in SLO will be much better (than the show in Santa Barbara), and it already is.”
He said this show was particularly important because he doesn’t get to play for 18 and older crowds often, and this is the demographic which makes up most of his fan-base.
“It’s important for dance music to have shows that 18-year-old kids can come to because all music relies mostly on kids under 18,” JFK said. “If you’re only letting in people 21 and over, you’re actually excluding most music fans.”
The crowd — many dressed from head-to-toe in neon, “candy” jewelry and LED lights — didn’t stop dancing until JFK’s set ended at 2 a.m. They filled the dance floor shoulder-to-shoulder as they fed off the energy of both the DJs and the music.
People even danced on the platforms surrounding the outer edges of the dance floor, and a few select girls were able to dance on the stage as the DJs played.
Chelsea Lelito was one of the girls who made it on stage. She said she came out mainly to support the opening acts Mikey Lion and Casa St. Hooligans and enjoyed the extra excitement of being on stage with them.
“I love dancing on stages, it’s one of my hobbies,” Lelito said.
When the crowd is as pumped as this one, it’s easy to feed off of their energy to make for a successful show, Lion said. In this case it was the crowd’s enthusiasm and desire to dance the night away that helped the DJs perform at their best.
Lion said he initially had worries about the venue, but the crowd helped make the show, as well as the venue, a success.
“The Grad normally sucks,” Lion said. “You go as a freshman, you go for Hump Night, but now that they have good people (playing) here, it’s sick.”
The Graduate is a somewhat small venue known for its transformation into an 18 and older dance club on Wednesday nights called “College Hump Night.”
Yet, concert-goer Bret Contreras agreed with Lion when he said the venue helped make the night epic.
“The fact that it is a more intimate venue was my favorite part,” Contreras said. “(The Grad) is smaller so it’s cool to be up so close to JFK.”
Earlier in the night Contreras said he was one of the concert-goers turned away at the door for wearing a tank top. He said, of all the events, he was upset the venue chose this one to enforce the dress code.
“I know this is The Grad, but this is a DJ event,” Contreras said. “It’s obviously them not realizing what their demographic is.”
Once inside, many of the men in attendance took their sleeved shirts off and replaced them with sleeveless ones, and security didn’t stop them. So the dress code only proved to be a minor setback to some.
The only other problem came when the strobe and other lights, which were flashing to the beat throughout the night, created a power surge that interfered with the speaker system’s power, according to a stage technician.
The result was about a five minute pause in John Smith of Casa St. Hooligans’ set. After which he recovered and finished by playing some “dubstep” and was regarded by most as the second best act of the night — JFK being the best.
Overall the show made for an amazing night centered on great talent and electro-dance music.
“There are no words to describe it,” Contreras said. “It was just great.”