Nicky Romero at Electric Zoo 2012: another day, another awesome DJ set
When making a list of dance musicians who have had a ridiculous year, it’s impossible to leave out Nicky Romero. A DJ and producer of just three years, he has already cemented his position on major festival lineups and in most of our iTunes libraries. He got his big break with “Flash” just over a year ago, and ever since then, he’s been cranking out quality production after quality production, rapidly taking the scene by storm. Well, he played the Electric Zoo main stage this year, delivering a set in the early afternoon that had the crowd fully attentive and fully bonkers the entire time.
Nicky generally stuck to his own productions for most of the set, peppering in upcoming and unreleased tracks just when the crowd thought they had a grasp on the music. He opened with “Toulouse,” “Generation 303,” and “Wild One Two,” before his upcoming collaboration with Calvin Harris, “Iron.” Fun fact: “Iron” is the first track Calvin Harris has ever recorded a vocal for that he didn’t also produce as well.
Deniz Koyu’s obligatory festival banger of 2012, “Bong,” was mashed with “Personal Jesus,” and then the German’s “Spectrum” remix got its moment. “Sparks,” “Here We Go,” and “I Don’t Like You” were also all thrown into the mix. It was John Dahlback’s upcoming track “Zeus” that brought a totally different vibe to the set, and caused me to uncontrollably shout emphatic “woo!”s. (Listen to the track below to get it.)
A new Michael Weermets track called “Bounce” was bootlegged with Chuckie / Promiseland’s “Breaking Up” vocal and played ahead of its upcoming release on Nicky’s Protocol label. He also played his track with Nervo, “Like Home,” and “Metropolis.”
The crowd went crazy when he played Tommy Trash and Sebastian Ingrosso’s “Reload,” and he followed that up with an unreleased Hard Rock Sofa & Swanky Tunes remix of “Lets Go.” That quickly faded away, only for the earnest piano chords of Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child,” which I surprisingly only heard once the entire day. He finished with his and ZROQ’s ultra-hard “WTF?!” track, which was given the “We Are Your Friends” treatment, just as that special touch to close out the set.
Nicky’s set was a very solid combination of his biggest tracks with unreleased gems from friends like Tommy Trash, Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa, and his own Protocol Recordings record label. He also debuted a number of new productions that proves he isn’t sitting still for a moment. Nicky delivered another quality performance for the New York crowd — hopefully he’ll be back to do it again soon.
Categories: Music