Regardless, considering I didn’t have to pay for this festival, I’m satisfied with the set that I was able to see from Steve Aoki. I really wish that I could have seen him in a better setting, and plan to eventually see him again, maybe for his Afroki collaboration with Afrojack. Spinning things like “Warp,” “One More Time” remixed by him and, my personal favorite remix of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” His transitions and fade-aways are flawless! What this really meant was that there was no crowd surfing of any sort, but the set was still sick. He was the headliner for the EDM stage at Heat Festival at the University of California, Riverside but by stage, it was really just the third floor of the Commons area in the middle of campus. Unfortunately for me, the set that I caught him was very mild, mainly due to the location in which I saw him. EDM sets are always energetic, but Steve Aoki seriously takes it to another level.
He clearly does what he does for no other reason than “because its fun.” He’s been known to crowd surf, spray champagne all over the crowd, and crowd raft…yes raft. There no denying the Steve Aoki is epic when it comes to his live shows. With the release of the first part of his new double-album, ‘Neon Future’ on Dim Mak, Steve looks set to continue to be one of the most popular electronic artists in the world. Even while performing an average of 250 shows a year he still finds the energy to be crowd surfing and dancing with his crowds all of which helped him to achieve 6th place in DJ Times magazine’s ‘America’s best DJ competition’ in 2013. To support his music Steve tours constantly and has become known for unpredictable and exciting live shows. Featuring artists as diverse as Weezer’s River Cuomo to Kid Cudi it was a huge success with every song on the album being released as a single with its own remixes. The label’s profile was further boosted with the release of Aoki’s first album ‘Wonderland’.
The label soon began to focus more on Steve’s specialty, electronic music, and is now recognised as one of most influential establishments in the dance music world. In its infancy, Dim Mak was known for working with a diverse range of artists from all genres and has been instrumental in launching the careers of artists like Bloc Party and The Gossip. While still in his twenties he found the time to form a record label named Dim Mak in homage to his childhood hero Bruce Lee. Born in 1977, he was the son of a famous Japanese wrestler and restaurant-chain owner Rocky Aoki eventually going on to graduate from the University of Carolina.