This might’ve been one of the greatest shows I’ve ever attended. Yes, it was 5 hours of house, and it was 5 hours of pure bliss of the best electronic music. Nothing too crazy like heavy dubstep or anything too melodic like future bass. Personally, I do not attend too many outdoor shows since a lot happens at indoor venues, but this was the best use of an amphitheater that I’ve seen.
As the sun set into the trees during Joshwa’s opening set, it was like the scenery matched the rest of the beautiful day and foreshadowed an amazing night. What I loved particularly about Joshwa’s set was that there was a great amount of guests that were there just 45 minutes after the doors opened. A crowd I believe he was well deserving of too.
In terms of arriving at Frost Ampitheater, I do say that Stanford is a large campus that has parking spots everywhere and that I do have a place that I believe is very handy, given I only had a 15-minute walk, which is not bad considering the walk it takes to get inside large scale festivals. Call me cliche, but the weather was absolutely immaculate too. The beginning of November calls for warm evenings and mellow nights, and even if it is colder, that would not matter if you’re in a crowd and having a drink or two.
Coming up on Walker and Royce’s set, we got a sneak peak of John Summit halfway through when he came out to the stage to wave around to everyone, the crowd was going wild. Personal anecdote, but seeing Walker and Royce at Audiotistic 2021 actually got me into Tech House and that entire scene, so if you’re a crazy house head, you would have loved this lineup.
I must add too that this was the first time John Summit’s record label, “Experts Only” has had a show under their current name. Just for background, the label was formerly known as “Off The Grid”, but then had to change their name due to some legal and trademark complications. Nevertheless, the show was a total success and the brand has totally established itself as a new big player in the house scene.
Moving forward with John Summit’s set, it was a perfectly curated 2-hour set of his music and remixes, and the rest of the tracks under the Experts Only label. Some of the most hyped tracks I can see looking back on videos were probably “Losing Control” by Oddmob and Omnom, and of course his very own “Where You Are” featuring Hayla. “Where You Are” could be considered one of the most played electronic tracks by DJs of the entire year (last year was “Laserbeam” by Ray Volpe”). It’s just something you have to throw in because of its production and the powerful voice of Hayla, literally anyone who listens to EDM will sing it. Also note that it was quite literally a goosebumps moment and time to think, “Wow, I’m hearing this song live and thats so crazy”.
This article wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t talk about the stage production as well. For being at an ampitheater, and being a House show, I would rate the stage an 8.5/10. The only thing I would’ve loved to see would maybe be some flames and some swivel lights. Going into the stage, there were platforms for Summit’s invited guests and guests from the crowd. A part of this type of house vibe is having people on stage with the DJs to make it seem more inclusive. John’s managers actually went down to the crowd and handed out stage passes to a handful of random lucky people. And it was great - no problems with anyone on stage either, and just a whole lot of good vibes. Sound engineers also killed it on this too. I’ve been to just under 100 live music events, and DJs often redline a lot. But this show… literally a chef’s kiss.
Overall, I would have to rate this show a 9.9/10, as it was the best overall for its genre and maybe even at the top altogether.