“The Queen of Techno”. Read the flag raised behind one of modern technos biggest DJs by the hands of fans in the boiler roomesque set up around Charlotte’s DJ set up. The Belgian DJ, Record Producer, and Label Owner swung thru California for her last US dates of 2023 for some special events CRSSD down in San Diego and Portola up in San Francisco between the two was an incredibly special event for electronic music fans.

Charlotte de Witte’s first even open to close in Los Angeles!! Six hours straight of Techo from the hands of the Queen herself. We got there just before she came on stage. While we were walking around it was hard not to notice the informal dress code of pretty much all black. I only saw one pair of bright raver boots but lots and lots of big ol hand fans (with no audible clacking so thank you Charlotte fans!). The crowd was so incredibly nice to start off with turning so their fan would hit you when they were using or being courteous while trying to move around us in the crowd.

The room is not that full when Charlotte comes on but every single person who was in there screamed like they were a kid on a surprise trip to Disneyland. She started off incredibly minimal. Slowly building and building. As the crowd grew, so did the sound palette. I think it took around 45 minutes for her to bring in the kick drums and by then the room was over half fun. Perfect amount to have a lil room to yourself to get lost in the rhythm before the crowd started to get sloppy. We saw people stumbling and someone even openly throwing up in a trashcan.

The stumbling made dancing a lil harder so we took a smoke break and when we came back in we decided to try out the back of the room. This is when we really got to see the incredible light show that Charlotte’s team came up with. Three simple frames, one behind Charlotte, one around the front of the stage, and finally one long triangle on the ceiling starting at the front of the stage and stretching to the sound/light booth.

Throbbing with simple color pallets and Charlotte’s beautiful face. Halfway into hour two is when my feet really started to pick up the acid techno that was being blasted into this beautiful historic hall. The room got warmer and warmer and warmer (that's when those beautiful folks with the big fans saved our lives! Thank you again!!!). We fell into a dancing trance for a whole while but we finally popped out of it for a bit and decided we needed to get some water and let our puppies rest. The crowd was still going incredibly strong as we headed out The Shrine’s door and out into USC’s campus. Hearing the thumps and bumps coming from the Expo Hall till we got in our uber.

Review by: Ben LaCross

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