Deadmau5 Owns Congress Theatre

By Jake Guidry in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 25, 2010 7:20PM

Dance music posterchild of the moment, Deadmau5, played a set of sold out shows this weekend at Congress Theatre. When he was last here a few months ago, we found it to be a great show despite the crowd, complete with a light show that was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Friday's show was more of the same, Deadmau5's trance-techno igniting a full-on dance party presumably aided by a considerable amount of mind-altering substances.

Joking aside, it's really not important if a single person was on drugs for Deadmau5. We'll admit we're not sure why Deadmau5's ascent to popularity has been so rapid or extreme, but nevertheless, his show is a lot of fun. Although the set was nearly identical to the one he played back in July, it's still a really good set, one that would get the most sober of minds to at least bend a knee or two. Like anyone would expect, all of the hits were played, the most exciting of which was "Strobe", one of his best tracks.

Again, the light show was quite incredible. The entire stage was adorned in LED lights, continuously changing colors and graphics throughout. The light show is such a critical part of the entire production that it is nearly as important as the music itself, something we aren't to used to seeing. It's a game changer, for sure, and it will have musicians rethinking their live setups for some time. Really, if there is a better light show in the world, we'd love to know about it.

The best part of all, though, is the crowd. There aren't many places in Chicago that you'll find raver kids, hipsters, hippies and Jersey Shore body doubles (sort of) coexisiting.