What started as an unlikely duo to tour to EDM fans across the country, became one of the most anticipated and crowded show the “Girls and Boys” parties at Webster Hall has ever thrown. This past Friday Baauer and Just Blaze returned to both of their home towns of NYC to tear down Webster. Wall to wall people with the most obviously diverse crowd these legendary parties are used to seeing. Add to that the recent viral success of Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” Webster had people packed in like sardines to see the once in a lifetime show.
Around 1 AM, the increasingly crowded room went from anxious to crazed as Just Blaze took the stage and dropped the iconic opening line to “Public Service Announcement” – “Allow me to re-introduce myself” – and having not been as prominent in the hip hop world as of late, Blaze surely did just that. Coming from someone that shaped the lives of so many hip hop fans this was a view of JB that few would have ever guessed they would see. Before you could even try and compose yourself from the excitement of hearing so many classic and iconic hip hop tracks, JB goes onto the mic to bring out “some friends” to join him, and then it was obvious this night would be different than most.
It was so wild inside the venue that when this “friend” came out on stage it was easy to miss, but suddenly we have the solid hip hop and true DJ talent of Fools Gold Records owner A-Trak. Spinning for a short set he showed off his skill, dropped some classics, dropped some solid EDM favorites, and even ended his short set with a big stage dive. At this point the anxious feeling in the Main Ballroom was palpable. People were getting anxious, they wanted to hear the low frequency bass that only Baauer was going to bring.
It was time to really start the show that was the “Big League” tour, Baauer runs unto the stage to join Just Blaze, both donning white tee’s and black fitteds. Baauer and Blaze played a b2b set that really made the crowd lose their composure because no matter your personal favorite, when jumping between DMX, Flosstradamus, Busta Rhymes, Clicks n’ Whistles, Dipset, and Diplo it’s hard the believe they didn’t get around to something to make you lose your mind.
Then the time came, the reason this show was so incredibly sold out that it even baffled seasoned Webster Hall veterans. CON LOS TERRORISTAS! The iconic sample from Baauer’s viral sensation “Harlem Shake” screamed out over the speakers and it’s almost hard to recall what happened after this point, until the duo dropped their track “Higher” which somehow took the already absurdly high energy crowd and turned it up to 11. The remaining of the night followed suit, almost 3 hours of high energy everything should have seen the crowd thin out a bit but no one wanted to leave for even a moment. The chance that you might miss an iconic moment seemed almost inevitable if you left at this point, so the room stayed as crowded as it was, as wild as it was, and as happy as it was from the beginning to the end of the night. This was a truly once in a lifetime concert that only the truly fortunate got a chance to experience.
–Ian Copeland