Evan McGrath
If you were one of the lucky Girls and Boys at Webster Hall this past Friday, you got one hell of a show. After a slightly delayed start to the night, Crizzly led off with his unique Texas-infused blend of dubstep, hip-hop and electro that he calls crunkstep. There’s no denying that Crizzly makes party music and knows how to get a crowd moving. His devoted fans that attended the show were proof of his talent, as more than one Crizzly die-hard took the shirt of their back asking to somehow get it signed. Soon, the crowd was primed and ready to go. Out of breath but full of energy they had grown impatient waiting for Alvin Risk, the Argyle Assassin to take the stage.
A friend of mine asked me at Electric Zoo this past summer what kind of music Risk made, I thought about it for a moment and told him, “Alvin Risk just goes hard.” Upon further reflection I realized the sound I was so affectionate towards was a grungy combination dutch electro with a super-aggressive style of moombahton. Alvin dropped some tracks off his “Infinity EP” like the strange but amazing “Survival” with Sirah, a track that is utterly relentless, bringing the noise from all over the frequency range. He put on an impressive show taking the crowd on a quick trip, singing along, and really engaging with the people who were sweating to his music in that ballroom. Close to 3am the packed house finally learned the truth of the rumors they’d been hearing all night; Skrillex was dropping by to wish Alvin a happy birthday and to crush a sick set in one of the first major venues in the country to book him.
Alvin Risk barely got through introducing Skrillex before everyone in the building started screaming. Then the crowd I had already witnessed go wild, got a second wind and became one giant teeming mass of humanity bent on dancing Webster Hall into the ground. Playing without a laptop Skrillex delivered a hard, heart pounding set that kept almost every single person in that room until almost 5am. Sonny Moore is a man that I suspect doesn’t know how to dissapoint an audience. A fact that the out of breath, exhausted hordes that spilled out of Webster’s doors were a testament to. Alex English and the whole Girls and Boys crew showed once again why Webster Hall holds its reputation as of the country’s best clubs to see dance music. Crizzly definitely got some new fans on Friday and Alvin Risk and Skrillex put the talents of the Owsla family on full display. Together they all gave NYC a show we we’ll never forget.