Fall-Funkin’-Tastic EDM Events
Thank God (who IS a woman, BTW): This summer’s heat waves are behind us, and in their stead we’ve got a smorgasbord of smoking-hot electronic dance music events (and the return of pumpkin spice) to look forward to.
On Saturday, September 22, celebrate the autumnal equinox at Platforms Dance Club in Providence when Tight Crew presents Yoshi’s Island. Headlining DJs will include S3rl, an Australian happy hardcore spinner who last graced us with his presence during the Crew’s 2013 Mario Party Tour (and supposedly this is his last world tour). Besides getting down to dope music, partygoers can catch a thrill by watching daring fire performers or jumping in a bounce house! This is a limited capacity event, so get your tickets now!
Once you’ve recharged from that exciting experience, it’ll be time to return to Prov for another night of dirty dancing. On Friday, September 27, Israeli producer, DJ, singer-songwriter, rapper and all-around dubstep/trap king Borgore will play The Strand. He’s known for putting on electrifying live performances complete with inspired visuals and high-energy tracks. If you’re going to this one, be wary: You may lose your voice from all the screaming you’ll be doing when the bass drops … which happens frequently. If I had to pick one fall event among all of these that you “can’t” miss, it would be this one.
Finally, FMH will be the spot to be at on Thursday, November 1, when Vegas-based veteran electronic duo The Crystal Method will hit its stage. These guys helped pioneer the big beat genre, and their tunes are infectious. You’ll want to get there early, cause Big n’ Dope (AKA DJs Soappy and FiG) are opening, and their breaks, dubstep and drum and bass mixes are pretty fab as well.
EDM Event Preview: Tight Crew’s Block Rockin Beats
This Saturday, August 18, Tight Crew will be back with another block party! The aptly titled Block Rockin Beats party is happening from 3pm to 1am at The Met (both indoors and outside in the courtyard) in Pawtucket.
After dabbling in indoor/outdoor events last summer for the Crew’s tenth anniversary party at Fete, they’re back and bringing the heat this weekend with indoor and outdoor stages (including a 45-foot boom lift DJ booth!), themed decor and radical audio/visual experiences (provided by Supreme Sounds & Lighting).
Headlining DJs are Of The Trees (bass music from Maine), Ill.gates (bass from Los Angeles), DJ Knowledge (high energy bass and house from Connecticut) and DJ Venom (hard house turntablism from RI). Sick, right? Well, this lineup will also feature 13 more New England-based electronic acts! Block Rockin Beats will showcase a range of EDM artists, having a strong representation of house music producers and DJs on-hand as well as bass, happy hardcore and trap spinners. There will be something for everyone in your group (or as an individual partygoer and music fan) to love.
Since this is Tight Crew, after all, the party doesn’t simply begin and end with the music. Other highlights will include fire performers, a ball pit, bounce house and life graffiti art by Paint for Peace (PfP). PfP is an international body painting organizations with artists from across the globe painting and sharing peace-and-love fueled creations. This year’s PfP theme is PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect), which makes this rave the perfect collaboration for the group.
If attendees want to take a break from the dance floors, they can play a variety of arcade and video games, make kandi in a designated area or enjoy drinks and food (including free fresh fruit!). Merchandise will also be available for purchase from several vendors, including Mutiny Apparel and Tight Crew.
This is an all-ages event (21+ to drink). Tickets are currently available online and will be available at the door (if they don’t sell out first!). For more information and to purchase tickets, visit tightcrew.net.
Sizzling Summer EDM Events Worth Swooning Over
While my lack of a moderate glow (even a farmer’s tan!) may disagree, summer 2018 is almost upon us! In RI, this season always seems too short. That’s why now’s the time to make plans and purchase tickets for upcoming concerts and parties. In the world of local electronic dance music (EDM), there are four funky happenings on deck to mark your calendars and prep your outfits for.
First up, Freq Fridays (this year’s Motif Music Award’s “Best Club Night”) is coming back to Club Alchemy in Providence on Friday, June 1 for Tight Lock!!! Tight Crew vs Morlock Musik. Tight Crew (TC) DJs Keither Woods and Craig Symonds will join forces with Rob Rowman and DGB from Morlock Musik. Attendees can expect to hear both classic and original tunes ranging from dreamy techno to down-and-dirty hardstyle productions.
Speaking of Tight Crew, on Saturday, June 23, everyone’s favorite event production company will present Underground Sound Volume 2. This is a limited ticket event, and the title rings true. Details on the to-be-announced Smithfield location will be shared with ticket holders via email. For now, just know that this BYOB party (for personal consumption only) will feature classic video games, a kandi-making area, and fresh fruit and bottled water.
Hopefully you’re good at making decisions, because that same night, veteran house music producer/ DJ DJ Dan will grace the stage at Fete for Blacklight Beach. This show promises two great themed rooms. Openers will include DJ DUPE, MFD, Jeff LeClair and HUGE. This event runs from 8pm to 2 am.
Conserve your kandi in August. On Thursday the 2nd, head back to Fete and experience Tight Crew’s Block Rockin Beats. If you plan on attending, you’d better buckle up! That’s because this block party rave will have indoor and outdoor stages, music, food, games and even rides! For more information on this or Underground Sound Volume 2, visit TightCrew.net
EDM Event Preview: Tight Crew’s Space Jam
On Saturday, April 14, Tight Crew will bring Space Jam to Fete for the second consecutive year. This will be the fourth installment of TC and friends’ (partygoers’) “epic journey” through an intergalactic world of live music, performances, aesthetic and vibes.
Melanie Bertoldi (Motif): Why did you decide to bring this theme back? Were people asking?
Tight Crew: Space Jam was one of the first events we did where we saw a huge jump in attendance. It was a hit with our crowd from the beginning. It had been a few years, and we just thought it was a good time to bring it back.
MB: Who are the biggest DJs/performers who’ll be there?
TC: This year we have DJ ill-ēsha, who’ll be making her first-ever appearance in Rhode Island all the way from Vancouver, BC! She’ll be joined by the “World’s Premier Female DJ,” DJ Shortee from Los Angeles. MB: Who are the biggest local acts who’ll be performing?
TC: Local legend DJ Venom will be appearing main stage, as well as Providence’s one-of-a-kind space alien puppet creatures, Big Nazo!
MB: What’s new/different this time around?
TC: We’re currently working on a new color-changing LED DJ booth, which will premiere at Space Jam this year. It’s also sound-activated with tons of programmed effects and patterns. We’re really excited to showcase this new project.
MB: It’s been nearly a decade since the first Space Jam. How has Tight Crew evolved since then as a production company?
TC: We were a much smaller crew back then. We had to evolve to keep up with the size and frequency of our productions. We have a team of friends helping either with making the decorations with us at our warehouse, or with setup and breakdown at shows — as well as a large group of street team members to help with marketing for each event. There are a lot of factors involved these days to keep things going and we are grateful for our Tight Crew family for all their support over the years.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit tightcrew.net.
School of Rock Opens North Providence Location
School of Rock (SOR) has opened its doors at 1270 Mineral Spring Ave in North Providence. The Attleboro-based music school franchise is all about helping students develop their musical abilities and learn how to thrive as a member of a band.
SOR North Providence offers a collaborative learning experience complete with private lessons and rock performance classes for students of all ages. After a successful two-year run at the location in Attleboro, that SOR’s owner and general manager, Dave LaSalle, decided to branch out and open a new location in NP. “North Providence is a great town with a lot of schools and businesses focused on kids,” he said. “We found that North Providence needed a place for kids to rock.”
The school offers an alternative to traditional music lessons by embracing contemporary rock and pop music of all genres (including funk, soul, metal, country, reggae, hip-hop and r&b) with a focus on performance and guitar, drums, keyboards, bass and voice. The school also provides specialized lessons for other instruments, like the ukulele and saxophone. According to SOR’s website, it is of the belief that, “the stage is the ultimate teacher.”
Rock 101 and Rock 201 are the names of the most popular performance-class programs that SOR provides. They opened in NP earlier this week, so anyone who’s interested in other program and events should stay tuned to SOR’s social streams and newsletter. “In the future, we’ll have workshops, camps, open mics and other special events — all family-friendly, all ages and all focused on music performance education,” explained LaSalle. The Attleboro location has held several week-long summer day camps so far, each centering on one artist, including the Beatles.
SOR music director (for both locations), Chris Brunelle, is ready to rock at the NP location. “As a Rhode Island native, I am thrilled to be the music director of the first SOR in the state,” he said. “Providence is where I started playing in rock bands 20 years ago, so I can’t wait to get our performance program in full swing and bring our student ensembles to the stage.”
One person who is “very excited” about their new role of studio coordinator for NP is Jax Adele. “It gives me an opportunity to connect with the kids and families … It’s amazing that I will be there for the beginning of these little rock stars’ musical journeys,” Jax said. “I can’t wait until I see their progress unfold in front of me.”
“There is a wonderful feeling of belonging that occurs when children make music with other children,” said Kim Washington, SOR Attleboros’s studio coordinator and music instructor. “Kids who might struggle to engage in activities with others because they are shy, have limited English ability or special needs, can, without restriction, participate when it comes to music activities.”
In terms of long-term goals, LaSalle explained, he hopes that SOR NP will work with 200 students during its first 18 months. This ambition stems from SOR management’s love of learning and helping young students grow. “I am an entrepreneur and love to start businesses,” he said. “I am also a musician. I spent many years mentoring high school students and really enjoyed helping kids find their way. Starting a SOR essentially puts all of these ingredients into one really cool project!”
In addition to checking them out online, the public is welcome to get to know the SOR at its grand opening on Saturday, April 7, from 1 to 4pm. The event will feature live music, facility tours, refreshments and the opportunity to meet the instructors and get a special enrollment rate. Guests are encouraged to RSVP on Facebook. Electronic Dance Music Event Preview:Tight Crew Presents “Magic Kingdom” at The Met
On Saturday, December 30, Tight Crew invite us to meet them at “Magic Kingdom,” but fret not. We don’t have to go all the way to Orlando to join the New Year’s Eve-eve celebratory shenanigans! Instead, the RI-based electronic event production company is transforming The Met at Hope Artiste Village and Breaktime Bowl (1005 Main St, Pawtucket) into a whimsically wondrous land where dreams really do come true.
“New Year’s Massive” partygoers will be able to move and groove among three floors — each complete with a full bar, stage and DJs (more than 20 are booked). Among the most exciting spinners
are Flap Jack (from Los Angeles), Run DMT (Texas) and DJ Venom (RI).
“While we have done a few different Disney-themed events over the years, this one is a culmination of all of them with new custom-built LED decor to provide that extra Disney magic!” explains Tight Crew.
Although this event falls the night before actual New Year’s Eve, an early commemorative countdown — complete with a digital firework display and/or champagne toast — isn’t out of the question for the notoriously fun and creative Tight Crew.
The Kingdom will be open from 6pm until 1am. Attendees can take a break from dancing their asses off to play a round of retro bowling or classic arcade video games — both are free with admission. Guests will be able to enter a themed costume contest, get crafty in a kandi-making area and even indulge in some fresh fruit (that’s “extra” done right!).
Magic Kingdom is an all-ages event (21+ to drink). Ticket pricing is tiered, meaning that it will increase incrementally between now and the party. To purchase tickets, visit tightcrew.net. Powerful Dutchman Performed at MMT
My mouth was open so wide that you could have shoved a Cortland apple inside it as I tried to take in all of the intensity. “How did we get to this point?,” I thought as the conclusion of Dutchman — Mixed Magic Theatre (MMT)’s take on Amari Baraka’s play from 1964 — unfolded before my eyes. I felt shocked at the turn of events, and wondered what it meant.
With a run time of about 45 minutes, somehow the tension between the straight-play’s two main characters bubbled over into person-on-person conflict that I had subconsciously hoped to avoid. Although it made audience members feel a bit uncomfortable, so had the play’s increasingly heated dialog up to that point, and in a way, the story’s climax was inevitable.
Directed by MMT artistic director Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, one of the only people other than the two stars to grace the stage at all throughout the performance, the play starred Yakim Parker as Clay, and Kerry Giorgi as Lula. Clay is a black man who was riding the New York City subway alone before being approached by Lula, a boisterous white woman who engaged Clay in discussions about race, class and gender. Lula’s anti-gay Jewish, gay and black rhetoric established friction that Clay first tried to downplay; however, eventually it got the best of him, and he payed a hefty price for his reaction to the woman’s taunts.
Looking back, the violent height of Dutchman was a critical part of driving its theme home. It made it impossible for viewers to downplay not just the racially charged subtext of Lula’s verbal attacks on Clay, but also the internal rage and hurt that it ignited in him. I appreciate MMT’s powerful rendering of the play and now understand why it won an Obie Award for Best Play and is considered a seminal work for the Black Arts Movement of the ’60s and ’70s. Most importantly, I agree with MMT that it is just as relevant today as it was back then.
MMT’s production of Dutchman was held at the theater’s renovated, historic complex at the Lorraine Mills in Pawtucket. Concurrently (just beyond a soundproof wall), MMT is showing its production of The Slave, another of Baraka’s works. Dutchman was performed in the more intimate theater within the complex.
Dutchman and The Slave are at Mixed Magic Theater, 560 Mineral Spring Ave, in an extended run through Jan 7. For tickets, visit mmtri.com
PVDLoop Returns!
From Friday, October to 13 through Sunday the 15, the Y2K17 Providence International Looping Festival will return to AS220’s main stage. The three-day event brings together 30 local, national and international live looping artists to celebrate, educate, demonstrate and spread their musical craft.
Live looping is the recording and playback of a piece of music in real-time. Every looper has their own style and creates music that spans a broad range of genres. Many amazingly talented musicians and multimedia artists will be on-hand at PVDLoop this year creating original music live, including traditional Americana/folk, poetry, rap, jazz and experimental.
Some of the biggest performers will include Osaka, Japan-based mandolin player/luthier Hideki Nakanishi-Mandoman, Martin Janiček (Prague), Philippe Ollivier (Paris) and Texas/Providence
collaboration WD-41. In addition, “We’ve got traveling artists who are expanding genres, such as Cindy Sawprano, the Coloratura soprano who is the Queen of the Musical Saw; Jules Taylor, whose music is true Americana; and Ian Bouras and Randy Branch, who will be creating new music from very specific experiences,” says PVDLoop founder Laurie Amat.
Amat describes the atmosphere at PVDLoop (a grassroots festival with a limited budget, it’s worth noting) as “friendly and flexible… We want our audience members to feel comfortable enough to talk to the performers, perhaps even be inspired to go and try looping long after PVDLoop. There will also be a chance to try looping at our Saturday afternoon in a workshop called Touch the Gear [when the public can see various looping programs and gear up-close, talk to musicians, ask questions and maybe even make music for themselves].”
In another workshop, Parisian musician Philippe Ollivier will demonstrate looping with his multitrack looping program “Logelloop 4” and AS220 Industries will be showing off their Arduino-based modules (including the Reverbalizer).
Amat grew up in Providence, but she left many years ago for San Francisco. As for what inspired her to produce this music fest in her hometown once she moved back, she explains, “Providence is a city where there is enormous local talent, and yet I see also as a vibrant international arts city … I wanted to create something that would allow me to show off my wonderful home to a very large cultural community, and celebrate Providence being the city I always thought it could be.”
PVDLoop is an official International Y2K Network event. For more information, visit as220.org/event/the-pvdloop-festival. EDM Events Worth Fall-ing For
Fall is without question my favorite season to experience in Rhode Island. If you don’t share my love for all things autumn (haunted corn mazes, hoodies and pumpkin everything included), fear not! A welcome breeze of exciting electronic dance music events is making its way to some of our most beloved local music haunts this season — so layer up.
Happening on Thu, Sep 28, Australian electronic dance group Mashd N Kutcher are hitting up Lupo’s for the Glow Campus Tour. Then, on Fri, Oct 8, the same venue will host electro-influenced, Boston-bred pop partners-in-crime Timeflies for their “Too Much To Dream” tour stop.
On Sat, Oct 28, Tight Crew is taking over three great Pawtucket venues — The Met, Hope Artiste Village and Breaktime Bowl — for their Goosebumps-themed Halloween massive. This all-ages event will bring together more than 20 DJs from around the country and world. Other highlights include a “vendor village” area for party guests to peruse and purchase cool locally made clothing, art and accessories. Attendees are encouraged to get into the spooky spirit by rocking some creative costumes (There will even be a contest for the best one!). Expect awesome sounds, lighting and decorations at this banger. It’s gonna be lit.
Be sure to save some energy (and request time off) for actual Halloween, though, since Lupo’s, now called The Strand, is celebrating All Hallow’s Eve (Tue, Oct 31) by hosting sisterly EDM DJ duo Krewella, who will be hitting up Prov as part of their “New World Order” Tour. This will be a good time to hear music off the self-described Mixed Kids’ (that’s name of their new label) latest release, which came out in June.
Dan Deacon fans and people who like live music are in for a treat on Thu, Nov 9, when the electronic composer and multi instrumentalist will perform on the main stage at AS220. Deacon is known for his signature high-energy, audience-engaging shows, so this is definitely a can’t-miss event. Event Wrap-Up: Ten Tight Years
When I arrived at Fete on July 8 for “Ten Tight Years,” Tight Crew’s tenth anniversary party, I wasn’t sure what to do first. Entry for the event took place to the side of the venue’s main entrance, where an outdoor block party was happening — complete with a bounce house, ball pit cage (you read that right!) and gyroscope ride (not for the faint of heart or those prone to motion sickness; this simulated zero gravity and flipped partygoers up, down and around). And oh yeah, fuck fidget spinners — they had fire spinners!!
Sensory overload aside, I can’t say that I expected any less from Tight Crew, the Rhode Island-based EDM event production company and beloved creative group of people.
Walking into Fete from the block party, attendees were greeted by a whirring array of retro arcade and console games provided by Shelter Arcade Bar and Robert S. Dunn, followed by the main room of music, deco and vendors, which featured banners, designs and photos slideshows from the past 10 years of Tight Crew events (and man, oh man, were there lots!). In total, there were three rooms of lights and sounds (provided by Supreme Sounds and Lighting and Alien TV) at this rager.
As someone who’s been going to these guys’ events since 2007, it was great to see many of the same smiling faces that have supported the Crew since the beginning — including DJ Venom on the main stage, who absolutely slayed lives and snatched souls (figuratively speaking!) — supporting the Crew once more. This helped to ensure that the 5pm – 2am party’s unique brand of energy, aka, the “Tight Crew family vibe,” was absolutely on-point.
One of the coolest things about “Ten Tight Years” was how above-and-beyond it was, even for Tight Crew. In addition to all the other attractions and features of the event that I’ve mentioned so far, which have happened at previous events of theirs, there were some new additions, like a BBQ food truck and performance by local breakdancers.
Congratulations are certainly in order to Tight Crew and everyone who’s been a fan/partygoer of theirs. I can’t wait to see what they come up with in the next 10 years!
Video by Jon Bettinger