For the second year in a row, Electric Zoo was plagued on Sunday, this time with severe thunderstorms that forced the festival to close up shop early at Randall’s Island. However, not all hope was lost as legend Fedde Le Grand was slated to perform at Pacha NYC later that night, with Danny Avila as late night support.
With the cancellation of day three, demand was high for this Pacha show as thousands of dance music fans in the area still needed their fill of throbbing bass and hard kicks. Fedde took to the throne around 1am and performed a seriously impressive set that left DJ veterans Liquid Todd and Chachi in awe. In between brief transitions, I was able to get a word from Chachi, who said, “Fedde is flying!” The Dutchman was indeed flying, mixing records at an incredibly fast pace and crossing off crowd-pleasing big room hits by the minute.
Fedde played everything from Alesso’s remix of “Lose Myself” by OneRepublic to his own track’Twisted‘. As Fedde soared through his set, I was surprised to see that he used his headphones sparingly. To give you guys an idea as to how little he used his headphones, imagine his headphones was a cell phone, in which he received a call every two minutes, but each call dropped one second later and then he’d put his phone away. Additionally, I also found it impressive that Fedde Le Grand is quite built. Rocking a slim fitted black v-neck, he looked like the Mark Wahlberg of DJs.
Near the end of his energetic set, Pacha attendees received an exclusive vocal edit of his hit record, ‘Don’t Give Up‘. To say the crowd went wild is an understatement. Fedde brought New York City back to life as he lit up the packed venue with his brilliant two hour set. Shortly after the clock struck 3am, one of the scene’s younger DJs went behind the decks, Danny Avila. Known for his lively and animated presence on stage, Avila lived up to his reputation and left me wondering why scouts weren’t analyzing his vertical jump during each drop.
All in all, it was a sweet ending to a rather hectic and stressful day. With the unfortunate cancellation of the majority of day three at Electric Zoo, Fedde Le Grand and Danny Avila knew they had a great amount of responsibility on their shoulders to lift the spirits of New York. Without a doubt, the two artists did just that and chalked up another excellent night at Pacha NYC for the books.
