[Concert Review] - Abstract Festival presented by Reset Events

We applaud everyone at Reset Events for throwing Abstract Festival, It was a great event! Every effort was made to present a stellar event to the dance music fans of San Diego. Venue was great. Production was visually stunning. Sound was an audiophile’s heaven. People were friendly. Staff was very helpful. All in all Reset Events is on it's way to becoming the premiere destination for San Diego massives.

During our stroll around the San Diego Sports Arena we met a handful of locals who spoke highly of Reset Events. They described the fun they had at the previous Reset SD event and expressed the joys of having their favorite artists come to their own town to perform.

After a brief round of the San Diego Sports Arena we settled at the Main Stage/Out of the Box area to check out Skrillex's set. This being the second time we've seen him perform live, we have to say he's really growing into his new role as a producer/DJ. For those not familiar with Skrillex he was the front man of the band From First To Last (Epitaph Records) and for the past couple years has been spinning around the Los Angeles area getting his name out. Even with technical audio difficulties he played a solid set that got the crowd going.

Up next was the former Brit now turned LA native, Rusko (Mad Decent Records). It didn't take long for the crowd to burst in energy as he dove straight into the depths of the lower frequencies. His set included all of our favorites from his latest release, O.M.G.! (Woo Boost, Kumon Kumon, Scarewear, Raver's Spesh, You're On My Mind Baby, My Mouth) along with older Dubsteper/Dubstepah flavors (Cockney Thug, Jahova, Skream's Dutch Flowers (Rusko Trial Inna Babylon Mix)). I've never seen such a diverse set of dance moves to any one artist's set. I swear I saw everything from Jersey Shore fist pumps, Melbourne shuffles, grooving, grinding, slow dancing, daggering, and a mosh pit.

Rusko definitely killed it and it was clear that at this moment the party had really begun. He was having such a blast of a time he decided to share a new track. We'll call this track "I'm Going Insane" for now and let me tell you the crowd went 4lokos to this track.

"Major, Lazer, Major, Lazer, Major, Lazer!!!" is what the crowd chanted as Diplo, Skerrit Bwoy, and the rest of the Major Lazer crew took the stage. It was clear to everyone in the arena that a dancehall party was about to go down. Using tracks like Barrington Levy - Murderer, Swedish House Mafia - One, Laidback Luke/Steve Angello - Be, Ace Of Base - All That She Wants, Diplo proves you don't need to stick to one genre to get the crowd moving. Everything expected from a Major Lazer party was present but there was something different that night. I suspect it was the energy from the crowd. Eccentric and I saw Major Lazer perform at Avalon the night before and the performances were like day and night. Major Lazer definitely brought the party to San Diego and they didn't let the line go slack for the whole hour and a half performance. Skerrit Bwoy was able to do his trademark ladder jump to dagger on the floor with female from the LAzer crew. Speaking of daggering, there was plenty of daggering going on between the LAzer crew and random audience members. We at Dank Radio love audience participation and were very pleased to see plenty of if going on during their set. Not only did the audience participate during the usual ladies get on the stage and party with us for a couple songs bit, but they were even receptive to when security cut the music and said they wouldn't allow them to continue unless they got off the stage. The energy dipped for a moment during this transition but it was quickly brought up and kept constant throughout the remainder of their performance. Diplo finished strong with a new Major Lazer track and shared his thanks by sprays of Champagne and throwing a handful of free Major Lazer T-shirts into the crowd.

We caught the beginning of the Designer Drugs set which started with my favorite DD track, Drop Down and stayed for a few songs until they played Riot. Unfortunately we had to leave early to make the trek back up north to Long Beach and couldn't stay for their whole performance.

As stated above we were very happy about Abstract Festival but there are no concert experiences that are free from error or dissatisfaction. One major gripe that we had that was shared by many in the Arena was when buying a $5.00 bottle of water we weren't allowed to keep the bottle caps. First off, paying $5.00 is pretty rough in this economy. Yes we know the Sports Arena only had two scheduled events for the month of September and you need to pay the bills but when the customer pays for water at that steep of a price we expect to keep the bottle cap. We figured the reason why they did this was to make sure the kids wouldn't run to the water fountains and refill their bottles but they still did. We also saw 3 different people slip and fall from the slippery concert floor at different areas of the arena. If that isn't a liability or a lawsuit waiting to happen I don't know what is. End of complaint.

Thank you Reset and thank you San Diego for being great hosts! We look forward to attending your future events and more specifically Radius, which is set to go off March of 2011.



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