Show Review: Pretty Lights, Compuware Arena Sat. Nov. 17

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Pretty Lights

This is the second show I have seen at Compuware Arena,normally a place to see no-frills prep hockey, transformed into a concert hallcapable of holding over 3,000 and a massive sound system. While the place isn’tbuilt for great acoustics, similar to past shows at the old Silverdome, it’slike hearing a performance in a large tin can. The advantages are a large openmain floor and lots of open space. Give credit to the folks at Crofoot and therest of the promoters for successfully pulling off a show of this scale withcompetent security, EMS crew and an overall successful way providing a safetybuffer and still letting thousands of kids have a great time.

Paul Basic

Paul Basic, the first DJ to perform, played a set of hip hopelectronic music that served mostly as background music as the crowd milledabout staking a space on the main floor or trolling around for friends.TOKiMONSTA, an Asian female DJ, came on next and played a more diverse set thatpulled from several genres, she also used the mic quite a bit to let the crowdknow she was really enjoying herself.

TOKiMONSTA

Pretty Lights aka Derek Smith took the stage about 10:30pm and that waswhen the stage show really began. Pretty Lights stage set was a dazzlingdisplay thousands of lights, a huge background of ever-changing scenes andspotlights shooting out above the crowd.  His set was largely his originaltracks that blazed a path of searing electronic overtures with the crowd movingalong to it like a tribal war dance.  Like most of the audience I wascompletely won over by Pretty Lights genuine enthusiasm for sharing his music.This was my first time seeing him and his performance stands out as among thebest of the many electronic artists I have seen over the past few years.  
Like all the electronic shows I go to, the crowd was a scoreof fashionistas and I got plenty of snapshots in this slideshow as evidencethat the revolution is indeed in full swing:

This Post by Mikel O.D. of