We can’t speak for any other New Years Eve festivals, or even Decadence Arizona (though our wonderful writer Bianca can, read it soon) but we can tell you is this: Decadence NYE Colorado was one beautiful ride to take us out of one crazy up-and-down rollercoaster of a year. If the year 2017 is gearing up to be like the two nights we had at the Colorado Convention Center, it is going to be one happy, gleaming, uplifting, and lively year.
One massive building held ravers from all walks of life, covering all genres within. In total there were three stages, Daydream and Timekeeper were of equal size and a lineup that kept you running back and forth nonstop. However, the Silent Disco area (it was not simply a stage) really did live up to the hype.
The silent disco. A massively long corridor leading up to the stage, you were greeted by chilling-out areas of all kinds. One was an open dome with lights all through it, flickering, glowing, and forever changing. A big hill covered in soft turf with a brightly glowing green tree to relax those feet and and take pictures with transported us into Avatar. Over yonder, another comfortable plus turf gave sore ravers somewhere to lay down under streamers of lights hung from the ceiling, pulsating and dripping with changing lights, a perfect to remember all of the great sets that you had seen, and would experience later.
As you head deeper down the rabbit hole, a huge screen that projects your body’s heat pattern welcomes you the silent disco stage/dancing area. The choice now began, as you were handed headphones that light up blue, green, or red depending on the channel you chose marching into a huge ring of silence and dancing. A large stage was dead center, including lasers, flashing lights, and three DJs simultaneously throwing down. Depending on the color-coded DJ that you selected, you would be part of the head banging electro-bros, deep divers, or the nu disco/house/90s remixes/2000s throwback channel. Out of no where, competing DJs would whisper into their stream to try and convince their comrades to help convert others. But that wasn’t truly necessary, as each channel had its own high points, low points, and just hilarious points (such as when green had us all doing the Macarena). A magical experience, and one of our favorites from the whole weekend.
Now that we’ve covered the Silent Disco experience, how about the Timekeeper and Daydream artists. Each day was in no way short of immense talent. Our first night began a little tardy because everyone wanted a hotel party, but we got into the venue just in time for a triple threat at the Daydream stage, starting off with catching the Mello Gang go ham with their favorite s’more ingredient, Marshmello. A mix of catchy and poppy house, along with his signature visuals kept everyone smiling, bouncing, and getting those legs warmed up for the rest of the night.
From there we got that funkadelic favorite of Colorado, Griz going ham as usual with his sax, his passion, and his positive vibes. We’re pretty sure that with every show that we’ve seen with the guy, no one frown or vibe has ever been found.
But after those positive vibes had been collected and charged, our main head-banging-meister Bassnectar came through with his yearly New Years Eve Eve tradition of converting the Colorado Convention Center into a heady and sweaty symphony of bass heads. Although we were saddened to have missed 360 this year, Bassnectar didn’t hold back granting us with rare favorites including “Pink Elephants on Parade” and what is lovingly called the “Frog Song” to all fans.
After those back to back to back sets, it was time to grab some water, and head on over to the Timekeeper stage with a throw-down of immense proportions starting off with Zeds Dead. With a mix of aggressive electro house, smooth chillstep that we have been lovingly following since the early 2010s, it was packed to the brim, and we’re still trying to see straight after those lasers happily blinding us for an hour.
And to top it all off, Adventure Club sent us into a whirlwind of heavy hitting tracks, fun and danceable remixed hip hop, and threw in those classic tracks of “Gold”, “Crash 2.0”, and “Fade” just to name a few. It was really hard to leave, but we knew that we had another night to go, and the Claude VonStroke afterparty was calling.
After two-stepping until the sun came up with Claude VonStroke and a Denver brunch for the ages, it was time to head back into the thick of it, and we first started it off with Sunsquabi. Their catch phrase “If You Feel Good About It, I Feel Good About It” couldn’t be more true with the crowd during their set. With a mix of electronica / downtempo and glitch hop, we were all jamming on our air guitars and loving every moment of us.
After taking a quick trippy pit-stop at Silent Disco, it was time to change the pace and the experience, with one of our favorite producers, Eric Prydz. I’m sure you’ve seen the lasers, the cube, the lights, and all of the other amazing production that Eric puts on for his fans at every single stop that he makes, and Decadence was no different. Just watch our video below, and you’ll understand.
Switching back and forth between fast and upbeat vs darker progressive, it was journey, with enough unreleased tracks that had us in shock, and being reassured once again that Eric Prydz isn’t even close to being done with his dominance.
To close out the night, and to close our with hundreds of balloons, it was Tiesto that brought in positive warm vibes as we all hugging, kissed, and welcomed the new year in love, peace, and harmony. Switching between a bass-heavy and classics filled set, we had to also head on over and show Snails some love as well, as it was the new year. Gotta collect them all!
We would like to thank Global Dance and all of the staff and organizers for allowing us to cover Decadence Colorado. We can’t wait to see what next year brings for this amazing event.
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