This is a fish out of water story. I am no stranger to EDM or seeing DJs spin live (or prerecorded). I have seen many big time DJs at a festival like Coachella but I have never been to a show purely for one of them. So when my editor reached out about this show I took the chance in the heartbeat. Who doesn't love a new experience?! Especially the day before a tropical storm hits my hometown for the second time ever.

The day started out beautifully. Nothing like having a Dodger dog before watching the real boys in blue sweep the floor with the marlins in the quickest baseball game I have ever seen in my life. Took a nice brisk jaunt down the hill and across the highway to Chinatown where I got the perfect french dip sandwich at the originator of the thing at Phillipe’s. Before walking my way up Spring St. to the beautiful ground of The Los Angeles State Historic Park. One of the most perfect spots in all of the city for live music. Tucked in the back corner of the park was a pretty large and raised DJ platform with a long as hell runway coming out of the front of it. LED screens everywhere telling everyone in attendance that The Party Never Ends. Which to some may be ominous but tonight I'm ready to take on the challenge.

First on the stage was Swedish electronic music phenoms NOTD (pronounced Noted). A solid way to soundtrack walking around the venue space and feeling the vibes of the crowd as they poured in steadily and I always love when a Dj throws on a guitar to shred over a drop. Up next was a duo I still cannot easily find much information on, ARMNHMR. Now that sucks for me because they were my favorite set of the night. I have never been all that excited by what I have been told is Future Bass in the past but these guys were dropping some of the filthy drops I have heard in a long while. There was so much beautiful happy energy during their whole set. Everytime i looked up at the DJ platform I saw the biggest teeth bearing grins from behind the decks. Now I feel like I have been seeing the penultimate DJ duos name up high on festival lineups for the past few years. Two Friends are a dance pop DJ duo that have been working their way up the DJ rankings for the past fifteen years.

Their set was filled with mash ups on classic rock songs mixed with EDM beats for a short build up and drop that left the fans going crazy but left me wanting a lot more but if the kids are diggin’ it I must be out of touch. They brought out a friend of theirs multiple times to work the saxophone all up and down the aforementioned runway. Several small fireworks and medium pyro later the Two Friends were bouncing off stage and the crowd was ready for who we all came here to see. The Grammy winning EDM duo themselves, New York's very own, The Chainsmokers!!

They came out hard once their Star Wars crawl pre show video ended and we all waited a little. Some of the most aggressive pyro I have ever experienced came soon after (I had to check if my eyebrows were still there several times throughout the show.) Everyone around me knew pretty much all of the words to these songs that I've honestly never heard before or I haven't heard since I used to use the gym at my grandma’s YMCA.

Now I cannot tell these two men apart from each other but one of them pretty much was running up and down the runway or bouncing on top of the DJ stand who hyped up the crowd and sang with them. While one of them held down the decks almost exclusively, a couple tracks later they quietly brought up a live drummer who brought a really needed rhythmic lawyer under everything going on that propelled us all through the rest of their I'm assuming hit laden set. Beating the massive crowd rush to come I dipped out a little early but what will stick with me is the new mantra I picked up that night that was above the gate too on the way out. The Party Never Stops.

Review by: Ben LaCross

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