Well, it happened again: Steve Aoki blew my mind, and blew out my eardrums in the process. The epic-ness of a concert can’t really be evoked by mere words, but I’m gonna try. Here’s a photo that some random guy took of Mathis and me in the midst of the awesomeness:

Apparently it’s on some German concert website for all to see, but I guess I’m okay with that. And this was before the sweaty mosh-fest began and the exhaustion set in hours later, so we still have that anticipatory glow about us.

The concert was at Gasometer, which is comprised of four former gas tanks that now have shops and apartments and concert venues built into them. They are really huge and imposing buildings, the effect of which was definitely not as impressive at night. Also, seeing them from the ground up doesn’t convey how big these things are:

Upon entering the appropriate giant gas tank, we discovered that Steve Aoki wasn’t playing until 2:00 am, so we had some time to kill whilst listening to inferior DJs who are also part of the Dim Mak Invasion. The first set we heard was forgettable, and then we got to the front row in time to hear Atari Teenage Riot, who I knew absolutely nothing about, but they seemed intense enough to be opening for Asian Jesus — I mean, Steve Aoki.

In a nutshell, ATR was like having a seizure while on ecstasy, not that I’ve ever experienced either other those things. Flashing lights, heavy base, lots of screaming and thrashing from all three of them. It’s not the type of music I’d be into in many situations, but being a part of the pre-Aoki build up made them fun.

Here’s a video of the ATR set. If you look closely you can see Mathis at the 0:33 second mark, right next to the dude in the center. And there’s a quick, blurry pan a little later that kind of features us in the frame at about 1:10. Warning: the video doesn’t quite capture the magic.

The highlight was when the guy with the crazy side-mohawk jumped off the stage and got up on the fence, and he grabbed my hand for a good 10 seconds while seizing/moshing/screaming. Yeah, really felt a connection there. But after an hour or so of this, I was freakin’ ready for some Aoki magic. And yes, it was magical:

I was a little disappointed at the lack of copious amounts of champagne being sprayed over the audience at appropriate intervals, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless. Aoki played from 2:30 until 4:00 am, and then some other dude came on and everyone promptly left. Awkward for that guy. Mathis and I made our divergent treks home on the U-Bahn, and then I had to walk home after getting to my stop because the bus wasn’t running yet at 5:00 a.m. How inconvenient.

Until the next time, Aoki, keep doing what you’re doing. I dig it:

Next up during epic concert month: Ratatat on Wednesday!