OWSLA Skrillex & Friends – Story Miami

If you have been to Miami since December and you haven’t been to Story Nightclub, you really haven’t been to Miami. Once known as “Amnesia”, Story is the newest upscale nightclub, almost like LIVs bigger and better older sister. Not just the venue itself, but the people, the production, the layout, are all absolutely breathtaking.

Although I’ve been to Story more times than I can count, there is nothing better than seeing one of your favorite artists, at your favorite club, during WMC. Not only were a large majority of other artists in attendance for this event, but Leonardo Dicaprio, Shaquille O’neal and Michael Phelps all had purchased tables as well. The amount of diverse talent under one roof was incredible.

Music wise, the lineup for this night was impeccable. Brodinski, Gesaffelstien, Crookers, Jack Beats, Alvin Risk, and Alex Metric all played hour long sets with Skrillex as the main headliner. Crookers surprised me the most, playing quite a few different genres of music that you wouldn’t expect to hear in an upscale Miami club, but kept the crowd hooked the entire time. However, the show was and always will be, stolen by Skrillex.

Playing all the original songs, some as new edits, some as new remixes, Skrillex dropped everything from Weekends, to trap, to closing with his forever famous, Cinema, alongside Benny Benassi himself. I don’t think I could describe the expressions on the crowds faces even if I wanted to.

Skrillex at Story Miami.

The Skrill CO2 gun!

Beautiful overview of Story thanks to WRE photos.

BackstageHope goes Ultra

With Ultra Music Festival 15 being over, I feel it is only correct to make my first post dedicated to the festival. UMF was by far, the best music event I have ever experienced. An absolute stellar lineup, the best production at a festival I’ve ever seen, along with several new additions to the festival itself, took Ultra to a whole new level. With the addition of free wi-fi, water stations, an all new (and beautiful) merchandise store, I’m not sure how they are going to top this next year.

Evaluating all the performances I saw, which were quite a few, it would be impossible to pick a favorite. However, there were several I was extremely impressed with. I’d like to touch on Krewella first and foremost, who played a total of four sets between both weekends. Their first performance Weekend one at the Live Stage packed the stage out like no other performance did either weekends. When the artist after them failed to arrive on time, the girls jumped back on and took matters into their own hands. They also played second weekend on the Ultra WorldWide stage, as well as a set on the Live Stage B2B with Adventure Club.

As always, Kaskade proved to be extremely impressive, with a beautiful mainstage performance as well as two sets in the MegaStructure, picking up the slack when Calvin Harris could not make his flight. Each set was individual and unique, nothing less to be expected from this legend.

However, the final question comes down to who REALLY stole the show? Deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia were by far the two biggest must-see artists on the lineup and both gave top notch performances. Joel brought back the cube for some of the best production ever branded by an artist. However, music wise his set did not change from weekend 1 to weekend 2. Regardless, he played both new and old Mau5 classics and the overall set was spectacular.

I hate to say it (not really), but the true show stealer of Ultra 15 was Swedish House Mafia. Playing on Saturday Weekend one and closing out with their final performance ever Weekend two, the crowd was a sea of people as far as anyone could see. Not only was their set crowd pleasing though, production went all out for these guys. Pyro, Fireworks, water coming out of the stage, you name it, Ultra provided. Although i’m not particularly a SHM fan, even I felt the love these guys were pouring into their set. Truly a milestone in dance music history.

Krewella at the WorldWide stage Weekend 1.

Calvin Harris Weekend 1 Mainstage.

Kaskade – MegaStructure Weekend 2.

Albert (EDMSnob) and I backstage with a Rukes official photo.