On July 7th Sunset Events brought in Illenium to The Ritz Ybor, and with the help of TriVecta and some Resident DJ’s (D3V and Nate Verde) Tampa went on an amazing emotional trip together. Throughout the night Illenium drummed and DJ’d as the crowd went wild, really leading the way to a night of laughing, crying, and cheering. While Illenium recently played at Sunset Music Festival in Tampa, FL, the show easily sold out. This was without a doubt one of the biggest shows of the year for The Ritz, a center piece of the Tampa EDM market.
The night began with Nate Verde throwing some saucy house music to get people in the dancing mood. Then moved into a set from the newest resident DJ in Tampa D3V, who hasn’t let anyone’s hype down since destroying the Tampa audience upon his arrival with his own style of bass and dubstep. Then came Trivecta, which not a single soul in Tampa was ready for. Everything that Trivecta dropped complemented what Illenium was about to play. Everything was heavy, bass driven, and nothing was what anyone can call a “vanilla” play. Every song he played was either a special mix, remix or a custom edit for the set. The dubstep and future bass he dropped was fantastic and got people headbanging.
Then came Illenium, who surprised Tampa with some live elements from his electronic drums and keyboard setup. These live aspects really synced everyone in the whole building together as one behind him. The sound he created with these drums, the way they reverberated through the dance floor, really drew the entire crowd in. The night was his, everyone knew it, and everyone was watching in awe as the set opened.
This set up did not prevent him from mixing in the well known Illenium sound and many other distinct styles. The most notable style that kept creeping into the Illenium future bass sound was the recent industrial sound that has been sneaking into EDM, very comparable to K?D that keeps getting in an almost Nine Inch Nails style of sound into the genre. Listen to K?D‘s EDCLV 2017 set for a good example.
As the last song faded out, cheering and chanting started (louder than the club’s sound system). Everyone was requesting one more song even before Illenium finished his set or even tried to say goodbye. This was not a night where the DJ was going to play with the crowd’s emotions, he barely got time to pick up the mic before he acknowledged the crowd and played that very last and special encore song.
The night came to a close. It was easy to tell by the blissful laughter, joy, and happy tear struck faces that were all around as the lights came on, that everyone bore witness to something amazing. Like you just lived inside a piece of art for the last 2+ hours. That special feeling you normally only get from festivals. That is what Illenium brought back to Tampa for only one night. The club set was intimate, emotional, uplifting, and fun.
Photographer – Rudegirlphotos
Photographer – RudegirlphotosClearly, Sunset Events and The Ritz knew what they were doing bringing this artist back after what they saw in May from him. One can only imagine whats in store for Tampa in July as a few more Sunset Music Festival DJ’s return to Tampa with shows at The Ritz like K?D and Ghastly.
https://www.facebook.com/sunseteventstpa/videos/1404719109643192/
All photography courtesy of Rude Girl Photos
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