Toronto played host to some of the best live performances in 2011 spanning all musical genres. This alone is not news, but the big change worth noting was the increase in electronic artists that entertained the city and the enormous growth in popularity of electronic music (if you’re still not convinced, check out the list of electronic acts on the Coachella 2012 line up)
Whether they were stand-alone shows in one of the city’s countless intimate venues or a large-capacity stadium, electronic artists recognized Toronto as a must-play city in their tour circuit.
Now a recap in order of perfromance date, complete with a photo slideshow, of just a handful of the electronic shows I was fortunate to catch last year.
Robot Bomb Shelter aka Jake Brower visited during Canadian Music Week and wowed the audience with his on-the-spot electro grooves. He’s a name to watch as popularity in the genre continues to grow and we hope to see him for 2012’s CWM.
Visit his website for more info and to sample his amazing dance offerings:
http://www.robotbombshelter.com/
Who will ever forget Alice Glass complete with leg cast at the Sound Academy? Along side Ethan Kath, the duo better known as Crystal Castles had the audience in a frenzy.
http://crystalcastles.com/releases/
Top-rated DJs Tiesto and Wolfgang Gartner tranced out the Ricoh Coliseum late in April proving why they break DJ Mag’s Top 100 list (3rd and 56th respectively) time and time again.
http://www.tiesto.com/Tiesto-home
http://www.wolfganggartner.com/
Finally, the top electronic performance (and performance, period) of 2011 was from Toronto’s own Deadmau5. The first Canadian artist to headline a show at Roger’s Centre, the Meowingtons Hax tour in early November was one for the record books in more ways than one. The event featured performances from Sydney Blu, MSTRKRFT and the aforementioned Crystal Castles, and cemented Joel Zimmerman as one of the best electronic music exports this country has ever seen.
Honourable mention must be extended to Moby and his awesome October performance at The Phoenix. He is one of the pioneers of techno and still going strong.
So what does 2012 have in store? So far….Dada Life, A-Trak, and Steve Aoki but more will be announced, so keep watching!
For more music news, photos reviews and trivia, please visit Play It Louder Toronto.
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