U Street Music Hall & Steez Promo presented The New Moon Tour with Alvin Risk at the 9:30 Club last Saturday night. Alvin Risk first starting dropping tracks in early 2011 and ever since has garnered recognition from artists Skrillex and Steve Aoki. The Skrillex and Alvin Risk neon mix “Try It Out” under the OWSLA label has exploded since its October release.
Alvin Risk is a local talent who has been fiercely touring since cutting tracks for “Two Strokes Raw” under the Plant Music label in early 2011 with local producer and co-owner of U Street Music Hall, DJ Tittsworth. The title track “Pendejas” was a pretty sick outcome from that project. I first heard of Alvin Risk through Dim Mak when he opened for Steve Aoki and Datsik on the Dead Meat Tour in February 2012 at The Fillmore Silver Spring. Steve Aoki gave Alvin Risk mad props after the show identifying him as a local. Alvin has since laid down a barrage EDM tracks and remixes. One of the main draws to his sound are chiptunes. A dubstep dance remix of Zelda is a steady hit on the dance floor.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mdScyqHat8]
Alvin presents a variety of styles. Some of his older music like “At Last” and “Someone” off his The Making Of album are a big contrast to his newer material like Junkfood. It’s a good contrast, Alvin keeps it fresh by including live vocals into a portion of his shows. I wish he’d sing more often. Maybe I didn’t stay long enough but “At Last” and “Someone” are some good vocal tracks I’ve yet to hear live. Some other sound elements he included were hip hop, moombahton, electro house and drum and bass. I thought I even heard some “Baltimore Clap,” maybe a Benga remix.
As diversified as Alvin’s sound library is, the atmosphere is the concerts main draw. It’s more like EPM (electronic party music) than anything else. At any given moment you could be jumping up and down, raising the roof, dancing, backing it up, mosh pitting or my personal favorite free styling to dubstep. This party started at 10pm and I had to wuss out and call it quits around 3:15am with the music still going strong.
https://soundcloud.com/knoxboxbass
Additional acts included Knoxbox who sounded ripe throwing down Dub Nation mixes. This was a great opening act for Alvin, Knoxbox reminds me of Datsik but I only say that because I heard Datsik first. Still, a great local dubstep DJ getting it in. Knoxbox has some good instrumentals you can flow to; his dubstep is highly influenced by hip hop.
This was a great concert – a Saturday night party! If you like music, alcohol, a favorable ratio and an occasional hint of some DC decriminalization, you should definitely check out an Alvin Risk show.
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