Ekali takes DJing to another level at the Warfield

On the biggest headlining tour of his life, Vancouver-based producer Nathan Shaw, better known as Ekali, delivered a stunning performance to a sold-out crowd at The Warfield. On the back of his recently released debut EP, the Crystal Eyes Tour began a new era of live production for Ekali.  Backed by a festival-esque visual display and flanked by two 3D LED cubes, Ekali’s set surrounded his impeccable DJ skills with a polished and massive visual exposition.

Ekali’s performance was preceded by two opening acts.  Jaron, a 16-year-old producer on the first tour of his life, immediately brought life and energy into the crowd.  Blending future bass, trap and rap into a single set, Jaron perfectly set the stage for a night of hard-hitting drops.

1788-L took the stage afterwards, and may have delivered the most impressive performance of the entire night, even over Ekali himself. With a show centered around a futuristic reality in which the world has been overtaken by machines, 1788-L delivered synthetic and distorted bass stabs and intermittent waves of euphoric chord stacks.  Original songs such as “Destiny” and “Multiverse”, stood out throughout his set with impeccable production quality, while collaborations such as “Hex” with Rezz and remixes of industry headliners such as “Sound of Where’d U Go” by Illenium and Said the Sky and “Rinzler” by Daft Punk were met with enthusiasm from the crowd. Multiple live-edits of Porter Robinson and Virtual Self songs found their way into the set, further affirming the deep level of influence Porter seems to have had on 1788-L’s music.  The set had an extremely cohesive vision of a dark and synthetic future and transported the crowd directly into it.

Ekali began his set with a cinematic visual representation of the artwork on the newest EP, bringing the crowd ever closer as the camera traversed a never-ending corridor surrounded by flashing red lights.  Ekali came out just as the intro visuals ended, and immediately threw the crowd into a raucous set of trap drops separated only by percussion-heavy builds.

Ekali’s set featured many of the top future bass and trap producers.  He seemed to be especially attracted to RL Grime’s new album, dropping songs such as “Feel Free,” “Shrine,” and “I Wanna Know.”  He also pulled out multiple classics by Australian producer What So Not such as his remix of “Innerbloom” by Rufus Du Sol and Ekali’s own remix of “Gemini.”  Fellow Australian producer, Flume, was also featured multiple times. In an especially outstanding moment, Ekali played his mashup of Odesza’s newest track, “Loyal” with Flume’s “Say It” feat. Tove Lo.  The mashup began with the signature Odesza snare rolls before transitioning into Tove’s effervescent vocal line. Just as the song built to a climax, it transitioned back into the classic trap horns in “Loyal”, and the drop came in full force.  

Ekali masterfully blended genres throughout the show.  “Power” by Kanye West was a massive crowd-pleaser and transitioned beautifully between two drops, while live edits of songs by Cardi B and Sheck Wes furthered the hip-hop infusion.  His inclusion of artists such as Martin Garrix, and his bold fusion of House beats, stood out as an expert display of technicality and skill in adapting 128BPM songs into a 150-160BPM set.

The highlight of the night came when Ekali announced he was going to play his unreleased collaboration with 1788-L, and brought him back out onto the stage for it.  1788-L couldn’t contain his excitement, as he proceeded to flail around the stage while Ekali debuted the song. This led into the final section of Ekali’s set, in which he played some of the slower songs from the Crystal Eyes (2018) EP.  “Leaving” (feat. Yuna) stood out as Yuna’s vocals led the crowd into a swaying sing-along.  He finished with the eponymous “Crystal Eyes,” a massive future bass drop that washed the crowd with powerful chords and silky lead lines, before departing from the stage.  

Ekali’s show was an interesting blend of incredible stage production and high-end DJing.  However, while the show delivered incredible energy, it lacked much of the cohesion and vision that 1788-L brought with his performance.  The show never felt like it was as much about Ekali’s music as it was about simply playing his favorite songs relentlessly . On the other hand, perhaps that is the true beauty in his performance.  Between his impeccable song choice, varied mashups and original live edits, Ekali has perfected what is essentially a normal DJ set. He may not have completely immersive songs that you can listen to on repeat at home, but he is simply the best live DJ around.  And that alone makes for a pretty incredible show.

Written by Jacob Green