Dada Life at LAVO NY, July 7, 2011 (review)
There’s no shortage of high end clubs in New York City, but one that stands out time and again in our minds is LAVO. Aside from Provocateur — one club we have yet to crack — there aren’t many high end lounges bringing in big name DJs on a regular basis. Our previous experiences there for Thomas Gold and A-Trak were among our best nights out in NYC, but what happened when Swedish duo Dada Life came to town was pretty much unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Hit the jump to find out why.
We’re used to clubs with big lines outside, but around midnight we saw a massive throng of people curbside trying to get into the posh below-ground lounge. We got inside fairly quickly, and were greeted by the sounds of LAVO’s opening DJ. His set was pretty standard, but things started to pick up around 12:30 when he started playing current big room hits like Calvin Harris’ “Bounce,” and an interesting bootleg of Dirty South’s remix to “Coming Home.” He also played the FMIF remix of “One Love,” before Mark Knight’s amazing remix of “You Got The Love.” The crowd started to get antsy as the track hit its final breakdown, and he played “Panorama” by Sidney Samson to round out his set.
Florence And The Machine – You’ve Got The Love (Mark Knight remix)
Finally it was time for the f**king Dada, and things started happening pretty quickly. Olle and Stefan got behind the LAVO turntables, and instantly made the NYC nightclub their domain. They came out of the stable with the amazing Cazzette remix of Avicii’s “Swede Dreams,” before dropping the Chuckie bootleg of “Memories” with “Heartbreaker.” By the time the breakdown for MSTRKRFT’s masterpiece hit, some of the silver letters hanging from the ceiling of LAVO had been made casualties of the intense crowd.
Though things can be considered conservative by Dada Life standards, the hits kept coming and the crowd kept eating them all up. AN21 and Max Vangeli’s remix of “The Island,” which was followed by Steve Aoki’s remix of “Pursuit of Happiness“, and then served as a intro to the club classic “Nothing But Love For You.” By now, nearly all the Dada letters were gone from sight, only to be replaced with giant inflatable bananas that were being manhandled by eager attendees.
Pendulum – The Island (Steve Angello, AN21 & Max Vangeli Remix)
Kid Cudi – Pursuit Of Happiness (Steve Aoki Dance Remix)
Things got kicked up to another level when the Swedish duo dropped “Just Bleep Me,” their very own version of the Benny Benassi classic, “Satisfaction.” We’re generally over the bootleg-friendly “Walking on a Dream” accapella, but Dada paired it quite nicely with the Afrojack track “Prutata” that had multiple DA staff members in attendance impressed. Following the hot mashup action came the Dada Life remix of “Born This Way,” before one of our favorite Dim Mak tracks from Autoerotique, “Turn Up the Volume.”
Just Bleep Me (Satisfaction) – Original Mix
Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Dada Life Remix)
The night continued on, and Dada did not let up at all. As Olle and Stefan’s bodies moved up and down in sync with the hard, fast bass of the songs, the crowd continued to move along with the spinning Swedes. They dropped Tiesto & Diplo’s, “C’mon,” before a somewhat refreshing (yet also oddly paired) bootleg of “Turbulence” with “Cotton Eyed Joe.” They also played the LMFAO’s summer-friendly “Party Rock Anthem,” before one of our personal summer favorites, “Mush Mush” from the Bassjackers.
Tiesto & Diplo – C’Mon (Original Mix)
Bassjackers – Mush, Mush (Original Mix)
To round out the set, they played what’s sure to become an absolutely monster track in the form of Deniz Koyu’s “Tung!” — a track we also heard from Sebastian Ingrosso at Pacha NYC just weeks ago. The last track we caught was a remix of David Guetta and Taio Cruz’s “Little Bad Girl,” which we couldn’t quite decipher. It was a great way to round things out, and when we made moves to head out, LAVO was still raging hard.
We had an absolutely amazing night listening to the musical stylings of Dada Life, and LAVO was an awesome environment to see them in. It was interesting to see them in a smaller club setting, and though they tailored their set to the non-festival crowd, it still had a distinctly Dada Life quality to it. The energy didn’t falter at any point at all, and we were actually blown away at how furiously the two were jumping around behind the decks for the better portion of the night. We can’t wait to get back to LAVO to see even more awesome acts, and to experience some more of the f**king Dada wherever Olle and Stefan happen to end up next.
Thanks to Adam, Zach, and Jon!
Categories: Music