DJ-party madness was in full effect July 5, as Gainesville celebrated the Fourth a day late with electro-droppin’, champagne-poppin’ Steve Aoki.
The 32-year-old DJ and founder of Dim Mak records dropped by The Vault Nightclub to share his unique and energetic brand of performance for the first time.
For those who managed to get their names on the meet-and-greet list, it was like stepping on pins and needles waiting for Aoki to arrive.
“I’m very excited, very nervous,” said Carlos Masquida, Gainesville- party-scenester extraordinaire. “I’ve been listening to his Warp remix to get ready. I’m like, starstruck. It’s gonna be cute.”
Fashionably late, Aoki showed up in the Vault’s second-story lounge area to sign merchandise and take pictures. Masquida, along with everyone else in the room, crowded around the merch table and wiggled viciously past one another to get closer in line.
But it wasn’t always screaming fans, spotlights and doe-eyed young girls. This DJ-ing thing is a pretty recent development for Aoki, relatively speaking.
Born in Miami and raised in California, Aoki is the third child of the Japanese Olympic wrestler who we all know better as the founder of Benihana.
While some siblings followed in his father’s footsteps, Aoki admits to being terrible behind the hibachi and went the musical route. He founded his label, Dim Mak, in 1996. Throughout the years, he signed and worked with some of the hottest artists on the underground. He helped push bands like Battles, Bloc Party and The Von Bondies.
More recently, he started working with some of the best electro-DJs on the scene. Dim Mak has signed MSTRKRFT, The Bloody Beetroots and Machines Don’t Care.
Aoki said he digs hard to find the artists he signs, but thanks the Internet most of all.
“In this day and age it’s so much easier to hear music than even four, five years ago,” Aoki said. “The Internet brings you music immediately and you get that immediate feedback.”
Aoki said getting up on the decks was a direct result of working with these artists.
He said he would throw label parties and lots of the band members and various DJs would be up there, and he just felt like it was his turn.
“Since it’s my party, I started DJ-ing,” he said. “I was really promoting and just progressed and excelled.” Aoki said his love and passion for the art of the craft developed alongside his talent.
“You do drugs long enough and you get addicted,” he said. “It’s the same with DJ-ing.”
Aoki’s first DJ-mix record, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, hit shelves in January 2008, and he recorded a BBC Essential Mix that same year in August.
He's best-known for his remixing, reworking tracks by Drake, Kid Cudi and Peaches. He calls his remix of Michael Jackson's "Dancing Machine," "the most impressive thing I've ever done."
But even more than his remixes, it's his live performances that set Aoki apart in his fans' minds.
After the interview, it was time to get the show on the road. The Vault had their downstairs lookin' like little Miami. The place was totally packed with about 1,200 people, one of the largest crowds they've pulled to date.
Neon lights shot off in every direction, giant flood lights flashed on and off, smoke filled the room and bass was dropped.
Aoki, who makes a point of it to interact with the crowd, wasn't set up in the crow's nest of a DJ booth the openers had used, but was nestled within the VIP section, surrounded by drunk crazies on every side.
The crowd was in a veritable fist-pumping frenzy from the get-go. Within the first twenty minutes of his set, Aoki had already climbed the PA and stage-dived.
That was just the beginning. Soon he was spraying expensive champagne all over the front rows, shooting water out of a Super Soaker and sending handfuls of glow sticks soaring over the crowd, who were damn near drowning in their own mess of sweaty bodies.
The crowd went bazonkers as he played his current mega-hit a remix of Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness", and I thought to myself, this is the biggest mainstream party since the RAVE Act shut the door on fun in the '90s.
Aoki's performance, however, was by no means flawless. He did make the mistake of playing both "I'm in the House," the song "Warp," twice in his one set, and he did let the music stop two times while distracted by his crowd-pleasing, but at the end of the night, no one but the die-hards seemed to notice.
Instead of chanting his name, the crowd yelled "Woop woop," until he came back. He closed his set with a surprise, Weezer's "Hash Pipe" and then walked off simply saying, "That was fucking crazy."
The show was over, there were after parties to organize and get to, and the crowd spilled into the street, dispersed quickly by yelling Gainesville Police officers.
It was the end of another awesome Monday night for the Swamp. Aoki's twitter status at 4:48 Tuesday morning said it best.
"Thank U Gainesville! U made it to the memorable list of cities across the WORLD that ive been honored to play in. Gnite."
