DJ Hardwell proves superior at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Friday

The LED lights might have spelled DANNIC at the beginning of the evening, but by the end, they really said “worship me.”

The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, notorious for hosting a line ten years long, housed a steady current of raving apostles for the young DJs on its marquee Friday evening. To start, Dannic turned the lights down and the volume up, and the people reciprocated with their “woh! woh!” chant like a good flock of minions.

Then Robbert van de Corput came pre-packaged (as Hardwell) in pitch black, illuminated only by blinking paraphernalia from the masses below. In the background, there lay an earth like a crescent moon. The show started as his shows always do — with the booming, triumphant monologue of Hardwell proclaiming, “He dared to be different.”

It was a “Hiel Hitler” to dubstep. A brewing pot of Raver’s delight. Like a DJ in heat, he made sounds with his body that we absorbed into our bone marrow. The vibrations were the brain damage we’d been looking for. Bass as medicine for the chakra. Those who jumped high enough thought they might fly, only to land on the bass drop. And each drop was like a wound up Tasmanian Devil.

The people around us, adorned in kandi, invented new ways to dance. The effect of a sound could be determined by the reaction of the masses. In a sea of strobe and confetti, we were lost.

Hardwell decorated our fantasies with fan favorites, including “Don’t Stop the Madness,” “Arcadia,” and “Dare You.” Relive the chaos below!