You would have thought that it was somebody’s birthday there was so much cake and champagne inside of Echostage (and all over the crowd) this past Saturday night.  But this was no birthday party; it was all part of the crazy, balls-to-the-wall antics of Steve Aoki.

The crowd came out ready to party all night long.  Echostage was sold-out for the evening, but even amongst the mass crowd you couldn’t help but feel the intimate experience of seeing Aoki inside a fantastic venue as opposed to a large festival-like setting.  This allowed the dancing, jumping, and singing crowd to get closer to Aoki—who matched the enthusiasm by saying how happy he was to get to be playing in DC with such a great group of people!

The night started off with Montreal power-duo Botnek, who had the crowd bumping through awesome remixes, including the 70s rock-ballad “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.  What’s always so appealing to me about getting to Echostage as soon as humanly possible is getting to witness the sheer energy of the guys opening up for the headliner, and Botnek was no different.  Throughout their set they were constantly trying to amp the crowd up for Aoki, always building up the excitement and driving people crazy by letting the bass drop right when the crowd seemed to be at peak energy.  As Botnek left the stage, the pulse of the night came to life on the screen.

Aoki came on in full force, throwing in his new banger “Rage the Night Away” ft. Waka Flocka Flame early in his set. Later as the first few notes of “Turbulence” came on, and the crowd started singing, you could see Lil John’s face come on the screen as the crowd went nuts and steam began to fire out of the cannons—with Aoki jumping on-top of the DJ booth. It was also during the extended version of “Turbulence” that the first bottle of champagne got popped for the night—leaving the crowd only wanting more. He didn’t disappoint, soon cruising right into playing his newly released song with Machine Gun Kelly, “Free the Madness.”

The night continued on, and right in the middle of the fan-favorite “Boneless” Aoki decided he, or rather the crowd, was looking a little hungry—for cake.  The first of four cakes to be tossed into the dance mob before him provided everyone with what they were coming to see, and making dreams come true of people all shouting “Cake Me!” every time he looked like he could remotely be looking for anything behind the tables.

One more prop had to make its big appearance for the evening, and that was the famed giant yellow raft.  Security was seen trying to steady the boat for Aoki’s impending jump onto it to ride the crowd, but before he got a chance excited ravers snatched the boat away and began to float it on their own, with anyone close enough begging to be thrown on top.  As if he couldn’t tell from their taking of his raft just how little DC cares about being told to stop partying, he threw on the Cleveland-born anthem “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi, to which the crowd chanted—along with the graphics on screen—“F**K THAT” at a volume that surely every police officer outside could hear in full clarity.

Aoki came and brought a thoroughly high-energy and crowd-connecting show to Echostage just a day after playing at EDCLV.  Back-to-Back shows, and the master of cake didn’t dwindle at all in his energy and his desire to show DC some serious sugar-filled love.

Washington, D.C. Selfie w/ @botnek https://t.co/b6B60GY87k

— Steve Aoki (@steveaoki) June 28, 2014

Article by Matt Shlonsky