Dirty South’s “City of Dreams” Tour Storms into NYC

Simply enough, there is one word to sum up last night’s “City of Dreams” tour at Roseland Ballroom: Wow.

The almost overwhelming, tastefully neon infused crowd was given a tremendous performance by all three artists, leaving a sure mark on everyone who attended. This leg of the tour included openings by the heavily electro-house influenced Gregori Klosman  and the super talented Mord Fustang who both did their due diligence in bringing the attendees energy to the next level. Klosman dropped a very hard-hitting, in-your-face set, featuring songs across various genres. He worked his banging style into the set, establishing a bouncy and roaring bassline that persisted through the entirety of his performance. He gave the crowd what they wanted to hear, playing his summer release “Minibar“, and the response was appropriately what I’m sure Klosman was looking for. Mord Fustang jumped right on after the french producer, unleashing his signature MIDI controlled set style. Each song was tastefully reworked on the fly, amplified by various samples, cuts, and effects from his sound machines he uses as his “weapons of choice”. As his set progressed, one was definitely able to hear that the Roseland sound crew was slowly pumping up the levels to get ready for the main attraction.

The timeframe on the ticket for last night’s event was a pleasantly surprising 9PM-4AM. At first glance, one would wonder how they would divide the set times up, somehow splitting the three artists over a span of 7 long hours. However, the way they did it proved not to disappoint. The crowd was vocally curious about Mord Fustang ending at approximately 12:45 AM. You could overhear people in the vicinity say things such as, “Is Dirty South really going to play a 3 hour set?”. The tone was much more hopeful than surprised. Sure enough, promptly at 1AM, the intro to the song that inspired the tour’s title began to blare out of the speakers, and the crowd began to sing along in unison, as if not a single person did not know the words. The long buildup climaxed with an explosion of streamers and fog, and a significantly louder bass volume than the previous sets. It was an amazing and unforgettable kick-off to a 3 hour long performance, which was confirmed by Dirty South as he came over the microphone for the first time to show his excitement for being back in New York. “We’re going till 4AM”, he said, followed by a roar from his fans which was essentially their way of responding “…and we’ll be here the entire time.”

The progressive house demi-god continued to unleash some of past year’s biggest singles and remixes. His first three songs included the previously mentioned “City of Dreams” single, followed by his massive track collab with Those Unusual Suspects featuring vocals from Erik Hecht, “Walking Alone”, and progressively getting even larger into the explosive summer release by Hard Rock Sofa, “Here We Go“. ‘Here we go’ was definitely an appropriate starting song choice, as it was letting the crowd know that the Australian native was just getting started.

The night continued on with a constant flow of tracks, nothing overplayed, nothing underplayed. In addition to dancing and jumping to the high energy coming through the speakers, fans could gaze at the ‘dream’ inspired decorations, and dancers appropriately holding dream catchers throughout the night. Even the bartenders were donning dream catcher tattoos. Nothing special, but a delightfully subtle touch.

As the night approached 3AM, it was incredibly clear that the vast majority of the crowd was not going anywhere. The dance floor was more packed at 3AM than it was at midnight. Then again, why would you leave? Dirty South was putting on such an incredible performance, it would be impossible to try to walk away from. Dirty South’s performance was almost like a steadily slow 3 hour buildup. Every song seemed to deliver slightly more energy than the last. It kept the crowd curious as to what was next, and I’m sure from a DJ’s point of view, they love nothing than to see their crowd stay consistently dense deep into the early morning hours. The sound system also seemed to get progressively louder as well, most likely adding to aura of energy filling Roseland ballroom. Then finally, as the night was coming to a close, Dirty South humbly thanked the crowd and promised to play one more song – and what song none other than one of the biggest progressive house anthems of all time, Axwell and Dirty South‘s timeless remix of “Sweet Disposition“. Of course everyone in the crowd knew the lyrics, bringing everyone still there at 4AM together into a spine-tingling unified group.

From a more subjective side of things, I can honestly say that, recently, there are very few events that truly leave a lasting impression on me. When you have the opportunity to see many, many shows and events, you can sometimes get bored with some of them. I say this without any reservation, and I say this assuming that a lot of people could agree with me here. Just like anything else, when done often enough, things can begin to feel redundant or repetitive. But, with that in mind, there is one thing that keeps all fans in this industry coming back for more, and that is for the hope and assumption that (insert particular event here) is going to be a fun-filled night that you won’t forget. Last night was one of those nights. Dirty South has personally been one of my favorite artists for a long time, and it is mostly because of things like this. He simply delivers. He gives all those fans that night they want. He gives them a night they won’t forget. He gives them an opportunity to come together with friends and truly escape from reality for one night, and to dance and live like there is no tomorrow. The City of Dreams tour was no less, leaving everyone who left there last night saying one thing: “Wow.”