Fort Collins, COLO – When a supporting act at a concert threatens to be a better act than the headliner, it often makes for an awkward show. After all, they’re only supposed to be the support and not the star of the night.
For up-and-coming dance music stars Bro Safari and ETC! ETC! however, the awkwardness of two DJ’s spinning neck-and-neck was nonexistent, keeping a packed crowd at the Aggie theatre Thursday night jumping and fired up throughout their combined 3 hour set. Both artists, currently signed to Diplo’s Mad Decent label, demonstrated the unique mixing styles that have them rocketing up the dance music scene like a pair of fireworks.
Thursday night was the first stop of Bro Safari’s Animal House tour, which includes CRNKN as well as ETC! ETC!. CRNKN opened the show up with deep, soulful house music that deviates from the headliner’s trap based roots, and effectively got the crowd bouncing in anticipation. It wasn’t until ETC! ETC! came on, however, that the crowd really began to get rowdy.
As a part of Mad Decent, ETC! ETC!’s roots come from moombahton, a mixture of house and reggaeton that is quickly gaining a foothold in the electronic dance music culture. Since Mad Decent is run by Diplo, artists on the label have the option of dropping whatever they want from it onto the crowd, and ETC! spared no expense in mixing some of the biggest party bangers to come from the label. Taking a page out of Diplo’s playbook, ETC! had every girl who was willing to shake what their mother gave them the chance to hop on the stage for Diplo’s mega-hit “Express Yourself”. The heavy bass coupled with the hard, fast beat and around twenty girls getting down on the stage was reminiscent of every show the Mad Decent boss has put on, and got an extremely positive reaction out of the crowd.
Bro Safari had tough competition to go up against as the headliner but there was no way it was going to hold him back. Masterful mixing of some of the hottest trap, an electronic dance sub genre that derives from rap music, as well as an African safari themed setup lit up the scene for a bass heavy performance that set the tone for the rest of the tour.
It’s tough to decide who took the cake for the best set between the two, but music lovers were treated to two incredibly talented artists who cut loose for the first show on their on their tour. Bravo for turning the Aggie into an Animal House.