Shannon Nehls / OC Weekly

Swedish House Mafia

Swedish House Mafia
March 8th - 9th, 2013
LA Historic Park

Who would have thought that just after seeing the legendary Tiësto sell out the Staples Center on March 2 that LA would receive another one of the biggest EDM weekends since Electric Daisy Carnival was held at the Los Angeles Colosseum. Erick Morillo played at Avalon AND Sound Nightclub, Carl Cox brought the house down at Exchange, Sasha was also at Sound and Ben Klock saw the sun rise at an incredible warehouse party. But the biggest event of the weekend and probably year was Swedish House Mafia's Masquerade Motel which played it's final west coast dates of their "One Last Tour" on Friday March 8th and Saturday the 9th at the LA Historic Park. Only a group as big as Swedish House Mafia would be able to sell 35,000 tickets in minutes only to add more show dates, which included this Friday night event.

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Shannon Nehls / OC Weekly

Tiësto's Club Life at the Staples Center

Tiësto
Staples Center
March 2, 2013
This weekend, the mega-star Dutch DJ/producer Tijs Michiel Verwest, better known as Tiësto, returned to Los Angeles via the Staples Center after his epic, soldout show at the Honda Center in 2011 for 26,000 electronic dance music fans. This marks the second time an EDM artist has played a headlining gig at the legendary venue (Kaskade brought his Freaks of Nature Tour to the Staples Center just last summer). Thanks to powerhouse promoters Insomniac Events and Goldenvoice, the College Invasion Tour brought in DJ Alvaro & Tommy Trash as the opening selectors of the evening, which sent loud basslines all the way to Figueroa at an early 6 p.m.

See Also: Why Tiësto Became an Indie-Inspired Electro Chameleon
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Shannon Nehls / OC Weekly

Jack Beats and special guest Dillon Francis

CONTROL's Four Year Anniversary Party (Jack Beats, Carnage and Whiiite)
Friday, Feb. 22, 2013
Avalon Hollywood

On Friday night, we headed to Hollywood for CONTROL at the infamous Avalon Nightclub for its fourth-anniversary party, featuring sounds from Jack Beats, Carnage and Whiite. Ryan Jaso, who also manages several well-known DJs from Orange County and LA such as PeaceTreaty and Whiiite, has built an incredible Friday-night institution with CONTROL as one of the premier 19-and-over clubs discovering and bringing world-class DJs when it comes to electro, dubstep and trap EDM. You never know what kind of surprise guest will drop in at Avalon on this staple night, and this anniversary was no exception with Borgore, Dillon Francis, 12th Planet, Flinch, Kill the Noise, Rusko, Jillionare, Barestep, Craze to Krewella all in attendance to celebrate the milestone.

See Also:
CONTROL's Anniversary Party @ the Avalon

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Brian Erzen / OC Weekly

Sonar On Tour at the Shrine Auditorium

Sonar On Tour
Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall
November 10, 2012

To test its international appeal, Sonar, one of the worlds most prestigious electronic music festival promoters debuted its brand in North America with a highly-anticipated tour. On Saturday November 10th, the last stop on this eight-city excursion landed at the Shrine Auditorium with the help of Goldenvoice concert promoters and drew and eclectic mix of house heads and mostly rap enthusiasts ready to see Die Antwoord live. Starting early at 8 p.m., Sonar On Tour showcased an interesting array of artists including Paul Kalkbrenner, Seth Troxler, Nic Fanciulli and AZARI & III but failed to capitalize on the Sonar brand usually known for it's avant-garde artists and exceptional festival production.

Though we can't speak for the other stops, the Shrine LA show failed to give Angelinos a real taste of the Barcelona festival which has been a major part of the electronic music culture for almost 20 years. As you drove up to the parking lot of the Shrine which charged a whooping $20, there were noticeably a large number of spots open even when we arrived a little past 9pm. This venue which typically inspires lines around the corner for other events such as HARD Halloween in the past and Insomniac's Above & Beyond show a couple months back bared no resemblance of a festival of this caliber with little Sonar signage and most importantly little attendees. With the HARD brand hosting a show for Wolfgang Gartner at the Palladium in Hollywood down the street and the slew of other electronic shows over the the past months we can see why this event was passed up on many EDM fans radar.

See Also:
*Sonar Festival Brings EDM Insanity From Spain to the States
*Five Things You're Not Allowed to Miss at HARD Day of the Dead
*Damian Lazarus Plays Music For 24-Hour Party People...Literally

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TSOL back in the day

​The 4th annual OC Punk Rock Picnic is happening this Saturday, and the lineup of bands is epic. Six stages will showcase a few foundational American regional hardcore bands, as well as young up-and-comers that keep the scene alive today.
But first, we must pay our respect to our elders. Here are five locally grown bands that made their mark in the early '80s. (And yes, they are worth taking a break from drinking in the parking lot, I promise.)
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Most of the time, when you want to see an artist, you buy a ticket, drink a few beers, wait for an hour or so, see a performance (sometimes mediocre, sometimes stellar). Other times, you find out that waiting for the artist to go on for four hours is way more entertaining than actually watching the artist.

This is an account of my time with one of Wu Tang Clan's founding members, the GZA, last Friday at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

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• Orange County post-hardcore band Saosin performs Sunday at House of Blues Anaheim. In the OC Weekly feature, frontman Beau Burchell talks to our writer Eric Snider about the pressure to "deliver that single."
• Industrial dance icon Nitzer Ebb will be making bodies move Saturday at Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana. The band's feuding founders (they finally made piece after not speaking fro years) Douglas McCarthy and Vaughan "Bon" Harris spoke to OC Weekly writer Annie Wharton for this feature.  
• Metal muscleman Danzig performing with Pennywise Saturday at Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center.
• Indie acoustic trio Godric playing free show at the Gypsy Den.
• GNR drummer Steven Adler drumming--with a DJ--Saturday at Sutra.