A crowd that peaked around 150 flocked to Buffalo Wild Wings' bar area for Mayfest’s annual Battle of the DJs Thursday night. The competition saw six student DJs competing for a slot on Dillo Day’s lineup.
Each DJ had a 30-minute timeslot between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. McCormick freshman Nick Hall, or DJ NN, performed in the 10-10:30 slot. Kicking things off is no easy task, but he did it right with an eclectic mixture of trap (originally rap combined with electro house or dubstep but has become its own entity) and more traditional hip-hop influences.
DJ KaitoS, or Weinberg sophomore Mike Lee, then played a bunch of progressive house music with electro vibes, including a sample of “Call on Me.” Each DJ had the opportunity to display a light show on BWW’s multiple flatscreens, and KaitoS’s was a psychedelic explosion of color that would’ve felt pretty at home in a rave.
KaitoS was followed by Dj Luccii, or McCormick junior Luc Mickael. He played mostly electro-house, in that his selections progressed to a drop, like progressive music, but used heavier synths and harsher sounds to create a more “electric” vibe.
Next up was another McCormick freshman, Patrick Franks, whose DJ Wade persona was a slight departure from the earlier three. In the Fatboy Slim mold, he used an ironic lightshow that combined traditional color saturations with repeated images such as Bill Cosby face-palming. A trend in EDM is to galvanize excitement through nostalgia, through such song choices as “Losing my Religion” by REM. Wade closed with R. Kelly’s "Ignition," a continuation of his goofiness.
Weinberg sophomores Shyam Anand and Sam Sullivan formed the duo Snad + James Bluntz, which played mostly electro-house like KaitoS, again with the pulsing beats that have a repetitive hit-stop-hit-stop structure.
Closing the night out was Behind the Eyes, or Bienen sophomore Lucas Messore. Like DJ Wade, he incorporated goofy images into more traditional EDM lightshows and played a mixture of progressive and trap music.
Twenty-one student DJs applied to the competition this year, up from 17 in 2012.
“You can see the interest in electronic music growing,” said Mayfest Promotions Co-Chair Louise Hunter. This year’s event was the most attended on record.
Weinberg freshman and EDM enthusiast Maddie Higgins described the importance of electronic music in college communities.
“At parties that’s what you get,” she said. “It’s the high that gets people going.” She further commented on how impressed she was with the night’s arrays of DJs, with each hitting the right output of expected and unexpected song choices.
Weinberg sophomore Delia Privitvra said that she came because one of her friends invited her and because of her love of house music. “I always look forward to Dillo Day’s EDM artist,” she said. She also commented on how, with the competiton, it gave students a voice in Dillo Day choices.
“We just try a lot of fun programming,” said fellow Promotions Co-Chair Bri Hightower. Especially when most other college students are on break, events such as Battle of the DJs bring students together to just have fun during the last month of school. Another factor in bringing students together is the decision to announce the daytime headliner at the end of the battle, which garnered even more student interest.
The DJs were judged by five panelists on a set of five factors: Creativity/originality, audience interface, talent, preparedness and the obvious question of “could they play Dillo Day?”
Mayfest announced the top three DJs at the end of the night. DJ Wade placed third, DJ KaitoS finished in second and Behind These Eyes placed first, winning a spot on the Dillo Day lineup.
Walk the Moon was also announced as Dillo Day’s daytime headliner.