That’s a wrap on 2023. Insomniac, the foremost promoter of North America West Coast raves, simply capped off their thirtieth anniversary 12 months with Countdown NYE on the NOS Occasions Heart in San Bernardino. That includes unimaginable performances from Tiësto, Oliver Heldens, Kayzo, Eli Brown, the Chainsmokers, deadmau5, Porter Robinson and plenty of extra; all amongst the theme of an impending alien invasion. This 12 months’s Countdown simply bought even larger and higher, as Insomniac all the time appears to do.
As per traditional Countdown was held on the NOS Occasions Heart in San Bernardino, so for those who’ve been to a different Insomniac pageant there, it’s a reasonably simple place to navigate. Headliners have been greeted by a photograph opp that includes the invading Lazer Rayz in addition to the Ravebots from final 12 months’s version of Countdown. Insomniac once more comes via with a brilliant immersive atmosphere that includes all types of alien performers, alien craft and only a basic feeling like you’re within the Twilight Zone. It’s all in good enjoyable after all, the principle hazard is alien probing.
The phases and manufacturing have been larger than ever. The principle stage at Countdown is the Mothership and it’s a gigantic display within the form of a flying saucer geared up with a mind-blowing quantity of lasers and pyro stacks alongside the underside a part of the stage. Whereas it might be kinda cool if there was a large alien behind the stage, just like the Grimm at Escape, there’s one thing to be mentioned for simply blowing away the group with the utmost quantity of lighting, shade and lasers.
The second stage was Nebula and it was primarily a mini model of the Mothership. The display on the stage was extra trapezoidal, however it was the identical idea, full with lasers and pyro. The third stage was Space 51 which hosted Bassrush for the weekend. Head bangers have been handled to sick stage design that includes screens formed like capsules with aliens floating in suspension have been broadcast on the stage.
One main change from Escape was that the Manufacturing unit 93/Insomniac Data stage, the Twilight Zone (not the present) bought moved indoors to one of many hangars close to the south a part of the NOS Heart. Not solely have been the vibes on level, however an indoor stage could be very welcome when the climate is on the colder facet. (Sidenote: This was one of the best climate I’ve skilled at Countdown in so long as I can bear in mind. See final 12 months’s recap.) A fifth stage, Galactik Gate, was additionally added. It was an outside stage simply south of the lagoon, the place the Psycho Circus is normally situated for Escape. It hosted Area Yacht and Misplaced in Goals over the weekend. Whereas I didn’t catch a set at this stage, it appeared prefer it was going off at any time when I walked by.
As all the time, the lineup was completely stacked. And, heading into 2024, it appeared like all of the artists have been embracing arduous techno and arduous dance normally. For Saturday I made a decision that I needed to discover as many phases as I might and that I’d attempt and take a look at some artists whose units I don’t normally get to catch. I arrived simply in time for Morten’s set on the Mothership and met a buddy, and similar to that, the weekend was off! Morten dropped a bunch of his Future Rave hits and simply introduced unimaginable vitality.
After that, I knew that I needed to get some techno in, so I headed to the Twilight Zone and caught a few of Layton Giordani’s set. Like I discussed earlier than, the indoor stage was such a pleasant change of tempo, and heated too! After that I headed again to the Mothership for Mau P’s set. Exhausting to imagine it’s been a 12 months for the reason that Dutch producer burst onto the scene with “Medication from Amsterdam.” Quick ahead a 12 months later and his set was full of different hits together with “That Bounce” and “Metro.”
Subsequent, Alison Wonderland took the stage, and that is the place the arduous techno actually took over. She began out with a few of her extra old skool entice stylings and her psychedelic visuals have been thoughts blowing. Finally although, the thumping kick drums of her arduous techno took over. Right here’s hoping for extra of this from Alison in 2024.
I headed over to the Nebula stage for 4B x JSTJR and so they dropped an unrelenting set full of arduous techno. The intro was really JSTJR’s simply launched single, “Bassline.” These two understood the task and delivered possibly essentially the most energetic set of the weekend.
Though, that honor may go to the person who adopted them on the Nebula stage, Kayzo. Kayzo completely killed it with a powerful and modern set of arduous dance music. This man dropped all the things, heavy dubstep, hardstyle, arduous techno, hardcore, Kayzo placed on an absolute masterclass.
For Day 2, I just about simply planted myself on the major stage, the lineup was too stacked. SOFI TUKKER began the night time off and so they have been unimaginable. They mainly went from their hit with John Summit “Solar Got here Up” into blistering techno, all of the whereas their backup dancers introduced the vitality. This was the proper set to kick issues off on New Yr’s Eve.
One of many quirks of Countdown is the typically unusual scheduling, since prime tier artists are most likely enjoying a number of exhibits. That’s why the Chainsmokers took the stage at 6:40 PM and completely packed out the Mothership. Having simply buzzed his hair, Drew and Alex, unchanged, took the stage and mesmerized the group with a set that included all of their traditional hits like “Don’t Let Me Down”, “Paris”, “Nearer” and “One thing Simply Like This” with quite a lot of drops and mashups throughout the spectrum. Techno, psy-trance, drum & bass, Alex & Drew threw all of it down. Oh, and of the course, the lasers.
After that Oliver Heldens took the stage, and he blew the group away with a mixture of some Oliver Heldens classics, some new Hello-Lo tracks, and all the things in between that Oliver all the time incorporates into his units. His remixes of “Push Up” and Dua Lipa’s “Let’s Get Bodily” have been additionally highlights. Lastly, deadmau5 was up on the principle stage, and he stored the nice instances going. Joel opened issues up with some darkish techno, however ultimately he began mixing in all the deadmau5 classics, from classics like “Some Chords”, “Channel 43”, “The Veldt”, and, after all, “Ghosts N’ Stuff”.
I lastly broke from the principle stage to take a look at APASHE’s set at Space 51, and, oh boy, the classically skilled entice lord didn’t disappoint. The Belgian-Canadian producer confirmed why his mix of classical and digital is on the leading edge. It’s all of the vitality of a dubstep set with the exact musicality and instrumentation of a John Williams’ rating. 10/10 suggest trying out APASHE if he visits your city.
From there, there was no query the place I used to be going to ring in 2024. On the Mothership stage with Porter Robinson. This was Porter’s first look at Countdown since he closed out 2019’s version. The fan favourite didn’t disappoint, dropping a few of his classics from his Worlds interval, together with “Straightforward” and “Language” at midnight. After that Porter thrilled with some arduous dance tunes. At one level, he advised the group, “I do know you want ‘Shelter’ however we’ve bought 10 extra minutes of rawstyle earlier than that.” What a approach to herald the New Yr.
There you may have it, Insomniac continues to dominate. Even with no scarcity of choices on one of many largest celebration nights of the 12 months, Insomniac nonetheless managed to tug collectively one of the spectacular lineups of any pageant that went on this weekend. Countdown 2023 was enterprise as traditional for Insomniac. I’d anticipate nothing lower than excellence in reside occasions in 2024. Past Wonderland might be returning to the NOS Occasions Heart in March, and tickets are additionally obtainable for EDC Las Vegas in Could. Preserve following Insomniac’s socials for updates on festivals in Southern California.
