Steve Aoki was at Pacha Ibiza last night, so we headed down to catch the world’s premiere cake tosser in action to see what all the fuss was about.
There are so many contrasting features between underground parties and EDM parties that it becomes very easy to compare them constantly and get caught up in the debate for credibility and argue about who is “real”.
However, sometimes it’s best to try and switch off and let the night speak for itsef.
I entered Pacha to find a very busy main room, Steve Aoki’s giant face silhouettes hanging from the ceiling and Danny Wade blasting garish EDM sounds from the DJ booth. To be precise, it was a remix of Benny Benassi’s ubiquitous ‘Satisfaction’.
Following Wade was Deorro, who also blasted through his set at a startling pace, playing a host of remixes and edits of well-known songs. This time I heard the likes of Simian’s ‘We Are Your Friends’, House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ all reworked into big brash EDM drops. I’m not sure how Kurt Cobain would feel about it the latter, but the crowd lapped it up.
It quickly became Steve Aoki’s turn to take over the reins and musically he trod a similar path to Deorro – lots of vocals, trance-like synths and big drops. Musically it was all very similar, but the crowd was going wild. I’m not using poetic licence when I say that they were going berserk. They couldn’t control their excitement – pogo-bouncing around the dance floor like kids on huge sugar rushes.
So far this season I’ve been to a handful of parties that have been particularly intense, where the atmosphere has been truly electric, creating a special party spirit in which the revellers have properly let loose. Marco Carola at the Music On opening and Steve Lawler at VIVa Warriors opening are two parties that immediately spring to mind in terms of this season’s animated revelry. The crowds were really going for it and it made for an experience that was truly a pleasure to be a part of.
Aoki’s Playhouse provided the most animated crowd scenes I’ve seen by a country mile. Echoing similar sentiments to Nina Kraviz when she wrote her Groove article and conveyed her reaction to the scenes she saw amongst fans – I found it pretty mind-blowing.
Aoki’s energy certainly rubs off on the fans, as he focuses on working the crowd and interacting more than anything else. It couldn’t be more of a contrast to the underground DJ, who we find hunched of the decks using their mastery of the art mixing and listening intently to their records in order to curate the vibe perfectly.
Aoki, on the other hand, is paying his full attention to the crowd and including them in every way possible. He was leaning over the booth pouring water on people at the front, spraying water from his mouth onto the crowd and shouting on the mic, demanding that he see “Some fucking hands in the air!” amongst other stock EDM DJ phrases.
As the evening drew on I eventually witnessed the now infamous Aoki moment. The cake came out and people were desperately begging to be targeted by Aoki as he surveyed the scene. One girl caught his eye, up on her friend’s shoulders, screaming with excitement at the possibility of being caked. Aoki pointed, smiled and as the drop came he threw, launching the cake square into the girl’s face.
It was a bizarre ritual and one of the more unusual dance floor moments I’ve witnessed. The music certainly isn’t to my taste, but it is for a lot of people – you can’t argue with that.