Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 6

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder side

We’re no stranger to Kaskade’s music, but his set at this year’s Ultra Music Festival was one that went uncharacteristically hard for the man who brought us Fire & Ice late last year. Rather than playing all of his own tracks in their original form, he paired well-known acapellas from some of his most well-known offerings with some of the hottest songs of the moment. What resulted was a high energy set that went over quite well with the crowd, and as Kaskade put it himself on Twitter, it was “awesome, amazing, unreal… and more!!!” Keep reading for some of his combinations you need to know.

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 600 1

Kaskade kicked off the set with “Eyes,” a relatively mellow track — probably his most chill song selection of the night — that contrasted wonderfully with “Sending My Love” which followed. Gregory Klosman’s remix of “Room For Happiness” and “Angel On My Shoulder” also got airplay early on in the set. The visuals at the main stage were absolutely phenomenal, and there wasn’t any shortage of confetti or CO2 cannons blasting in bursts every so often.

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 600 2

After the string of familiar tracks, Kaskade started pulling out all the stops, dropping mashups and bootlegs with such rapid succession we could barely keep up. Sandro Silva and Quintino’s “Epic” was paired with the “Call Out” acapella, and then “Fire In Your New Shoes” was laid atop “Antidote.” We’ve heard this combination before and we’re still not 100% sold on it, but an endorsement from Kaskade is pretty hard to argue with. We should also mention that there was some pretty impressive pyro that shot huge turrets of fire into the sky from the top of the main stage truss, and that we definitely felt the heat from our vantage in the photo pit up front.

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 600 10

“Stars Align” was paired with Qulinez’ “Troll,” and Nicky Romero’s “Generation 303” “Toulouse” worked surprisingly well with the “Turn It Down” acapella. The hard electro style continue with Dada Life’s “White Noise Red Meat” (which isn’t played nearly enough these days), and then the classic track “Move For Me.” This was around the time the lasers at the Main Stage kicked in, and we were actually a little let down by them. Chalk it up to the incredible Main Stage LED array or it simply being too bright in Bayfront Park, but it definitely wasn’t like his Roseland Ballroom show (which still has the best lasers we’ve ever seen for ourselves).

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 600 5

He rounded out the set with a few tracks from his Fire & Ice album, namely the entrancing “Llove” and one-of-a-kind Skrillex collaboration, “Lick It.” He finished things off with Hard Rock Sofa’s “Quasar,” a gigantic track that would’ve seemed out of place in a normal Kaskade set but one that worked perfectly in the night’s fist pump-inducing selection of tracks.

Kaskade at Ultra 2012: America’s favorite DJ shows off his harder sideKaskade Ultra Music Festival 2012 600 7

Kaskade is a legendary producer and an awesome DJ, and his set at Ultra was nothing less than we expected it to be. We were pleasantly surprised by the energy he brought for the duration of his hour-long stint on the Main Stage, and we can’t wait to see what tricks he has up his sleeve for the Freaks of Nature Tour he’s set to embark on this summer.

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