Dada Life at Electric Zoo 2012: Champagne and bananas, but no magicEZooday3 30

Dada Life at Electric Zoo 2012: Champagne and bananas, but no magic

When I saw that Dada Life was playing the mainstage on mid-day Saturday of Electric Zoo, I knew that I had to catch the crazy duo. Their sets are usually high energy and electro-heavy — perfect music for breaking it down. After Sander Van Doorn set the crowd off during his set, Dada had hopes to do the same. With a new album slated for the fall, we were excited that this wasn’t going to be your average Dada Life set. Opening with “Kick Out The Epic Motherfucker,” Olle and Stefan were trying to set the tone. This track has become somewhat like “Levels” in that it’s everywhere and everyone loves it. After that they quickly progressed into their remix of Kaskade’s “Llove,” but the crowd wasn’t feeling it until they dropped “Top of The World.” This track got everyone going before the ominous cry of a wolf told us that the “Big Bad Wolf” was coming. The instrumentals of “I Don’t Like You” was a nice touch, but the crowd was waiting for some “Happy Violence.” Once this track was played I realized that Dada wouldn’t be bringing anything game-changing to the table, but was simply playing tracks back-to-back-to-back. Dada Life at Electric Zoo 2012: Champagne and bananas, but no magicEzoo 2012 Djs Day 2 36

“Rocksteady” (Gigi Barocco Remix) – The Bloody Beetroots

After what seemed like too long, Tiesto & Showteks’s “Hell Yeah” kept the crowd going. Now, I personally might not have been loving the set, but the crowd definitely was. Inflatable letters spelling out ‘Dada Life’ flanked the sides of the DJ booth, inflatable bananas floated across the thousands of hands fist pumping in the crowd, and, of course, the champagne bottles were present too. Gigi Barocco’s remix of “Rocksteady” was something that was not easily recognizable, but it was fun and led into the original “White Noise / Red Meat.” Things showed no sign of slowing down as R3hab’s remix of “We’ll be Coming Back” kept the electro madness going. “Bonny” was a nice touch and probably the only Basto song we heard all weekend.

Another downfall was playing “Kickout the Epic Motherfucker” for the second time. Listening to the track all the way through for the second time was my least favorite part of the set, and they followed it up with “Million Voices” and “Rolling Stone T-Shirt.” The crowd was into it, but I was craving more.   The set picked up a little with Ralvero’s “Rage” and but the Dada mashup of “Fight For Your Right to Rage Valley” — which was welcomed after hearing “Rage Valley” in too many sets to count at Zoo. They also pulled combined “Calling” with the vocals for “Hollaback Girl” in a signature Dada move, before progressing into their newest track “Feed The Dada.” The crowd seemed to know the words and people were loving the newer track.

In retrospect, Dada gave the crowd what it wanted to hear, but we wish that they had played some newer stuff as well. The set just wasn’t that special; it was composed of all their biggest hits without really any risk. Dada Life hits the studio with tons of energy and produces great tracks. Now, I’m ready for them to spend a little more time behind the decks gaining some technical experience. We know they can make us go Dada — but we want to know what else they can do.

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