Nocturnal Wonderland Performances That Got Me Even More Excited For Upcoming Shows

Over the past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to San Bernadino, California to experience Insomniac‘s 20th Nocturnal Wonderland. While there were countless performances and fixtures around me that had my jaw dropping, there were a few artists I saw that will soon be coming to AZ that got me pumped up for what’s to come.

Throughout the remainder of the year, Relentless Beats is cooking up some delicious lineups that are bigger and better than Arizona has ever seen before. With this years Wet Electric being the first two-day event relentless has hosted, they’re passing up expectations with this years Decadence taking place over a two-day period on New Years Eve. Last year had an incredible lineup featuring Seven Lions, Kaskade, Flosstradamus, Savoy, Fedde Le Grand, and DVBBS, and although only three for this year have been released so far, its looking up to par. As of now, Borgore, Odesza, and Pretty Lights have been announced to play at this years Decadence NYE.

Pretty Lights performed the first night of Nocturnal and I can easily say I was blown away. Pretty Lights, real name Derek Vincent Smith, is an electronic music artist from Colorado. The name comes from a Pink Floyd concert poster that read “Come and watch the pretty lights!” Smith’s music relies heavily on digital sampling and crosses many genres, forming a combination of “glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, vintage funk, and soul samples”. Smith usually considers his music as “Electro Hip-Hop Soul,” a mix between elements of electronic based music, and beats from hip-hop and soul music. Pretty lights being the last set i saw on Friday ended the first day perfectly. Derek had the whole crowd loving his sounds and the visual aspect of his performance lived up to his name as well. Pretty Lights was just recently announced to perform on the first day of the two-day Decadency New Years event, along with Odesza. This has me so excited because not only are they two of my favorite artists, but they have worked together to make some of the most beautiful song collaborations which I can’t wait to see live.

Another artist I saw that will be coming to Arizona is Deorro. I was having a blast during Flosstradamus’ set at one stage when I heard one of my friends say that Deorro was about to finish up on a different stage. As hard as it was to walk away from Floss, I am so glad I did because I got to squeeze my way to the front and catch the last 15 minutes of Deorro’s set. Erick Orrosquieta, also known as Deorro, started his DJ career while playing local gigs when he was just 14, and had a single on the top 50 on Beatport by the time he was 17. It’s no secret this guys’ been on fire for so long because he sure knew how to get the crowd amped at Nocturnal. For it being my third time seeing Flosstradamus, they definitely had the crowd going like they always do, but Deorro’s energy was different and had a sense of unity throughout the sea of people. Although I may not have known every song he was playing, it was easy to pick up on the talent Orrosquieta posesses, and when he played ‘Five Hours’ for the ender of his set, there was a grin on everyone’s face and I definitely saw a few people crying. Deorro will be making an appearance at this years Global Dance Festival in November, and I can’t wait to experience his music bringing people together in a smaller crowd.

Although I didn’t get to see the entire performance from Armin Van Buuren or Bingo Players, I saw enough to know I’ll be catching their entire sets here in Az. I only saw a short bit of Armin’s set after Pretty Lights, but the portion I did see was Buuren asking the crowd to hold up their hands and close their eyes so he can show them what trance music should truly feel like. I thought this was pretty cool considering the stage and atmosphere around the crowd were so beautiful to look at, but all he wanted was to deliver a message through his music. Armin has been named number one in the prestigious DJ MAG Top 100 poll four times in a row, and has his own radio show ‘A State Of Trance’ which 15 million listeners tune into every week to hear his 2 hour selection of trance and progressive. Relentless Beats is bringing Armin Van Buuren to The Pressroom at the end of the month and I am pumped to see the show he puts on at such a nice venue.

I also only caught a song or two from Bingo Players on the way to another stage, but this guy had the crowd partying to his electro house music. Bingo Players (Maarten Hoogstraten) is a Dutch dance and electro house DJ and record producer. Bingo Players was originally a duo including Paul Bäumer, and after the passing of Paul, Maarten announced that Paul had said to continue with the Bingo Players. They are best known for their hit songs “Cry (Just a Little)” and  “Rattle”. Cry (Just a Little) was a Top 40 hit in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe and Australia. Bingo Players will be at this years Foam Wonderland, and I’m looking forward to partying to some electro house covered in foam.

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