The City of Decadence: Night One Recap
While many fans were saving their energy for the second night of The City of Decadence, the first night provided an undeniably-epic set of DJs. The streets of Downtown Denver were buzzing with anticipation as the doors to the Colorado Convention Center opened and the crowds rushed in out of the cold. With an incredible line-up of about a dozen Electronic Dance Music DJs, an impressive 600,000 square feet of event space and two massive stage arenas, the end of 2014 was destined to be a memorable experience.
Presented by Global Dance, AEG Live and Live Nation, the City of Decadence's two-night celebration began at 7:00pm on Tuesday, January 30th. Lesser-known artists, such as Need & Necessity, Lost Empire & Jon Sidberry, were given some valuable exposure at the event while playing their sets on the two small stages -- Deep Garden Arena and Silent Disco.
The Bass Arena stage housed seven incredible DJs on Tuesday night, including Bassnectar, Disclosure, Paper Diamond, Claude Von Stroke, DJ Slink, Exmag and Manic Focus. Over at the Global Dance Arena, Ecotek, Armin Van Buuren, Zedd, W&W, DJ Mustard and Lindsay Lowend gave their fans some unforgettable performances.
Zedd, a 25 year-old German producer and DJ, lit up the Global Dance Arena when he played his number-one hit from 2012,"Clarity." The track features vocals from Foxes, a U.K. singer and songwriter. Zedd's vocal-infused tracks inspired the crowd to sing along to tracks like "Stay the Night," featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore, and the smash-hit "Spectrum" with Matthew Koma. Zedd's performance left the crowd begging for more beats from the City of Decadence.
Globally-recognized Dutch DJ, Armin Van Buuren, transitioned flawlessly onto the Global Dance Arena stage after Zedd's powerful set. Armin Van Buuren gave the crowd an extremely enthusiastic performance -- he could be clearly seen jumping, dancing and fist-pounding on stage to his own iconic, progressive-trance beats. His top-hit, "This is What it Feels Like," really got the crowd bouncing before asking the audience to "get ready to jump" for his last track of the night.
Meanwhile, as Armin's set was coming to a close, Bassnectar took the stage at the City of Decadence's Bass Arena. Lorin Ashton, known by his stage name Bassnectar, is a California-raised DJ and producer who first discovered his love for bass during a minor earth quake as a child. The fans bounced along with joy to his tremor-infused, bass-heavy tracks which dominated his set on Tuesday night. His top track, "Bass Head," laid out plenty of funky bass 'whomps' providing the crowd with an energized end to the first night of Decadence.
As the crowd began to flood into the streets of Downtown Denver, many scantily-clothed fans began to freeze -- literally. Groups of friends rushed toward their hotels, cabs and Uber drivers in desperate attempts to escape Denver's record-low temperature of -19 degrees. Fortunately, New Year’s Eve, the second night of Decadence 2014, promised another epic line-up of DJs to warm-up all the decadents in Mile High City.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
AUTHOR CREDIT: CHAD DAVIS