Kaskade is one of the few bonafide superstars in the dance music scene today, cemented by numerous headlining festival sets, and a huge show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center earlier this year. That’s why it was such a shock to many when the DJ announced a stop at Brooklyn’s Output on his ‘It’s You, It’s Me’ tour, celebrating the 10th anniversary of his breakthrough album. While Output boasts one of the soundsystem and top notch DJs, it was hard to imagine the sub 1000 cap room containing the massive superstar.
But, on a Tuesday night, as the line snaked around the block, Kaskade took to the booth for over three hours, switching his style from festival stage to small room. Weaving in somewhat darker beats, with a deep house vibe, Kaskade strayed away from most of his megahits, instead, piecing together a musical journey throughout the night.
Of course, mid-set, Kaskade dropped his most recent megahit – ‘Last Chance’ – a collaboration with Project 46, and you could hear some reworkings of his other classics at certain points, but for most of the three hour plus set was full of instrumentals, smooth beats, and experimental sounds with exciting drops.
This set was a perfect celebration of the 10th anniversary of Kaskade’s breakthrough album – it showed how far he’s come since ‘It’s You, It’s Me’, and it showed exactly what the man is capable of. Because of his overwhelming, ‘main stage’ success, Kaskade is often lumped in with the ‘bubble gum pop’ genre of dance music – but sets like this tend to educate those in attendance of the producer’s pure talent.