This past Monday night The Black Magic Mystical Wonder tour with Kill The Noise, Brillz, Style of Eye, Codes and special guest 12th Planet gave me a run for my money, when I thought I was unstoppable. On Tuesday, I was completely worn out, and coming from a college girl living in New York City who attends 1-2 shows per week is unsettling – in a good way.
Everyone knows that dancing room is completely necessary for any Kill The Noise show, and for a sold out event, the intimate Highline Ballroom wasn’t overcrowded at all. The majority of the audience was calm and respectful, decked in kandi bracelets and flat-brimmed hats, carrying plenty of lollipops to go around. I saw a bunch of people wearing bandanas tied around their necks, foreheads, and faces too – not a single person forgot to accessorize. I happily chose from a few differently colored glow-bracelets from a guy handing them out (I took the purple one, obviously) as my group and I staked out a spot in the crowd. As soon as I got settled Codes spoke out to the entire venue:
“You guys got mad fuckin’ energy tonight, yo!”
He threw down a lot of groovy trap music, and even some newer progressive house tracks like ‘Wakanda’ by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. From the late hours of Monday night to the early hours of Tuesday morning, the crowd brought an unwithering amount of energy – which made the show that much better. When Codes finished up, Style of Eye supplied an hour long, upbeat follow-up set. He dropped a healthy dose of house music and it was a welcomed chance of pace, in my book at least.
At around 11:00 PM Brillz took the stage, wearing a rad Keith Haring t-shirt and a hat with dreadlocks (or something?) attached to it and getting right into his time-slot with his own remix of Pharaohe Monch’s ‘Simon Says’. There was no doubt that Monday night was a special night, for the fans, Brillz, and his mother, who was present for the first time at one of his performances. He let her and the audience in on one of his big secrets, but you had to be there to hear what it was. It’s kind of an inside joke.
After throwing in Drankenstein’s remix of Dada Life’s ‘Happy Violence’, Brillz used his own remix of Kill The Noise’s ‘My World’ as a segway to bring the man himself on stage. KTN’s set was mystical and magical – makes sense, right? We heard tunes ranging from ‘The Devil’s Den’, to ‘Express Yourself’, and even ‘Bassline Skanka’. VIPs stood on ledges and girls sat on shoulders all night long, the security guards didn’t have any qualms with either.
Most of the crowd seemed pretty young (all ages were allowed entry) and it was a school night, so that might explain why the room started to empty after 1:00 AM. Kill The Noise played till around 1:45 and then was joined by Brillz and special guest 12th Planet. It was weird, actually, with all three of them kind of playing back to back to back, sharing the decks in small segments. When it was 12th Planet’s turn he was super animated, and his constant motion behind the DJ booth meshed well with his track selection – I was ecstatic to hear Alvaro’s ‘Make The Crowd Go’, and even more so when I heard Diplo and GTA’s ‘Boy Oh Boy’. It was sometime after 2:00 AM when things really began to wind down, and my energy was gradually depleting. The entire show was closed out properly, with a brand new KTN track that he claimed to be “very experimental” at the moment.
In short, if the The Black Magic Mystical Wonder tour is coming to a city near you. It would be in your best intrest to attend. Overall the show was of the highest quality, from the production, to the crowd, and of course the DJ’s. The Highline Ballroom proved to be a very suitable venue – I’d like to see more big name artists book there, the entry speed was fantastic, the bathroom lines were short, and getting a water bottle to stay hydrated wasn’t a fifteen minute process with 2 bars on either side of the stage.
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