iTunes Festival 2014 Blasts Off With Deadmau5

Summer may be slipping away from us, but Camden’s Roundhouse knows how to make September all that more bearable – by putting on a 30 date festival with A List names from the world of music.

This year’s iTunes Festival has been officially kicked off in spectacular style with Canadian electro behemoth Deadmau5 last night (September 1) launching proceedings and setting the bar very, very high.

Feeling: With tickets free for all, the audience was an eclectic blend of mouse-hat toting super fans, bleary eyed workers in need of their Mondays livening up and a few people with no idea what their ears were about to behold!

Kate Simko and the London Electronic Orchestra officially cut the ribbon on the festival before Renegade DJ/producer Friend Within brought the tempo (and the bass) up a notch. As the lights twitched on set in preparation for dance music’s favourite animal aka Joel Zimmerman, the feeling was as electric as the forthcoming music…

The Look: Which headgear did he opt for you ask? Shiny and violet with a golden grin, naturally.

And the set? Usually reserved for the world’s biggest dance festival main stages, rising from centre stage was the mau5’s monolithic, deconstructed LED cube. 

All set in front of an X-shaped lighting rig and surrounded by the Roundhouse’s epic 360 lighting set up, we were witness to the mind of Deadmau5 with projections ranging from comic books to 80s computer games to atomic explosions.

Tunes: It was liver-quivering basslines a plenty as the Ghosts N Stuff hitmaker built up the tension with trademark melancholic tracks like Acedia and Raise Your Weapon to the devastating drops of Cthulu Sleeps, Superliminal and Where My Keys.

Less of the big hits were present but when you’ve got a back catalogue as extensive as his, you can’t fit it all into 75 minutes. However, Zimmerman ended the epic journey on the anthemic crowd pleaser Strobe. Job done.

Banter: Who needs words when a MOUSE is tearing the roof down?!

Special Guests: The mau5 needed nothing but his impressive production but it was Friend Within who surprised us with no less than four PAs from artists he’s remixed over the past 12 months. Joel Compass, Eliza Doolittle, Lethal Bizzle and Ella Eyre all took to the stage to perform their own tracks with that Friend Within twist.

Sweat Factor: If the beads on the brows of the floor-dwelling crowd were anything to go by, hearts and sweat glands were pumping as fast as the BPM. We dread to think of the situation in Joel’s mau5 head though..! 

Summary: As theatrical as it is musical, a Deadmau5 live a show is a sight to behold and should be on every dance lover’s – nay music lover's – bucket list. 

The 2014 iTunes Festival bar has been set with noisy effect! When basslines can make the hairs on your legs shiver you know the mau5 is in town.

Over the next four weeks David Guetta, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Jessie J, Calvin Harris, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, Kasabian, Pharrell Williams and heaps more are sure to keep up the momentum. Bring it on!

Deadmau5 iTunes Festival Setlist 2014:

1. Gula (Redeux)
2. Coelacanth II w/ Raise Your Weapon (Acappella)
3. Your Ad Here (You There? Edit)
4. Cthulhu Sleeps
5. Superliminal
6. My Pet Coelacanth w/ Coelacanth I w/ Morgan Page feat. Lissie - The Longest Road (Acappella)
7. Where My Keys
8. Phantoms Can't Hang w/ Inner Universe - Ghost in the Shell SAC OST+ (Acappella)
9. Moar Ghosts N Stuff w/ Ghosts N Stuff (Acappella)
10. Ghosts N Stuff
11. Suckfest9001
12. Infra Turbo Pigcart Racer
13. Acedia w/ Drop The Poptart (Acappella)
14. Somewhere Up Here w/ Drop The Poptart (Acappella)
15. Fn Pig
16. The Veldt (Tommy Trash Remix)
17. Strobe