Together as One preview

So Christmas is finally over…*EXHALE*. I appreciate the Holidays for bringing friends and family closer together, but fucking hell is it a stressful time of year, and I, for one, am glad to be through the last hoop of 2009, and hurtling toward a new, [hopefully] fruitful year. The only thing that lies between us and 2010 is, of course, the NYE celebration. If you’re at all hooked into the LA dance scene, you would know that there’s a ton of shit to do Thursday night. HARD is doing their thing at the Palladium with Boys Noize, A-Trak, & DJ Mehdi, and Giant is doing theirs at the Bonaventure Hotel with a trance-alicious playbill including Above & Beyond, Cosmic Gate, and Christopher Lawrence. The big bopper, of course, is Together as One at the LA Sports Arena, and that’s where I will be hailing the new year.

I’ve gone to TAO the last few years, and figured I might give it a rest this year (the lackluster David Guetta counting down to the new year to a bunch of underage candy kids? meh), but I realized that I’m still drawn to these massive raves and here I am with a ticket to TAO. There’s also the fact that the undercard is very strong. John Digweed is still a force to be reckoned with in the EDM world, and will prove so between the hours of 10 and 12 on the Main Stage (which, as it was for Monster Massive, will be outside). Dance patrons like myself who don’t get off to ‘Sexy Bitch’ can make their way to the SNS Arena after Diggers to watch Sander K count down to midnight and proceed to get annhilated by Dubfire’s vicious minimal techno (seriously: do not miss Dubfire!). Thanks to some great scheduling by Insomniac, Markus Schulz will close out the festival on the Main Stage from 2-4. This should be a very special set. I’ve been of the opinion (since seeing him at the Vanguard earlier this year) that Markus is the best working trance DJ these days. He doesn’t get the same name recognition as Armin, Tiesto, or Paul Van Dyk, but has a fresh, powerful sound that runs rings around their styles. Look for this night to vault his career to the next level. Kaskade, Marcus Shossow, and Swedish Egil are also on tap for the evening.

That’s all from me for now, need to catch up on some sleep. I’ll be back in a few days with my ‘Best of 2009′ post. Enjoy the final week of 2009.

-Rob

© 2009, Rob. All rights reserved.