If any of you out there were still doubting how memorable Big Game week will be this year (freshmen especially), doubt no longer, Stanford Concert Network (SCN) has come through BIG. SCN is bringing Steve Aoki and Kid Sister to Stanford for a concert Tuesday, Nov. 16.
Electro-house artist Steve Aoki will bring the energy to Stanford with well-known tracks like “I’m in the House” and his remix of “The Pursuit of Happiness,” as well as the primal scream of “Warp 1.9”.
Female rapper Kid Sister is a bit more of a wild card. She’s most known for her Kanye West collaboration “Pro Nails.” However, despite her low celebrity status, Sister should put on a unique performance at the very worst.
Both artists, combined with the natural energy and Stanford students’ tendency to drop work during Big Game week, are poised to make this year’s concert a great success. As SCN publicity director Kevin Chow ’13 notes, “expect crowd-surfing, confetti, craziness.”
Some students also have the chance to open for Kid Sister and Steve Aoki with Stanford’s DJ competition, which began last Tuesday and runs through Nov 14. The contest pits six Stanford DJ groups against one another other for the opening slot. The winner will be determined by popular vote.
In attempt to get their sound out, each of the six groups, “DATAKISS,” “AstroRanch,” “Rob Noam Deniz,” “DJ iN,” “Thelonius” and “DJ SG” have released a mix online. The mixes illustrate a wide range of styles and approaches, from Noam Ben David’s self-described “sexual intercourse between Electro House and remixed popular music” to DATAKISS’s “Dutch house music with a couple ridiculously tasty bass lines.” Yet, the only way to really get a feel is to take a listen.
These students promise to add their own dynamic to the SCN show, and their genres hint at a growing trend around the Stanford campus.
“A couple years ago, you would be shot if you played anything besides Top 40 or Journey. Now, people are starting to like the banging beats of electro,” said Evan Huck ’11 of AstroRanch.
One conceivable problem with the contest, however, lies in the length of the mixes, 20 minutes apiece. Not necessarily bad in and of itself, it only becomes an issue when we take into context how little free time Stanford students have. This has, in some ways, seriously affected the valuating criteria.
As DJ SG lamented, “Whenever we asked people like ‘Oh, did you vote?’… It wasn’t like ‘I really liked that DJ so I voted for him,’ it was like ‘I know that DJ’ or ‘I’ve heard about him I think,’ that has a huge influence who wins this contest.” In other words, the main issue may not be talent but popularity.
Yet the overriding feeling of the competition and the concert as whole is very positive.
“Ultimately, Steve Aoki is awesome – everyone needs to come to the show. It will be epic no matter who opens,” said Tony Jin ’13.
You can find all the mixes and vote at http://soundcloud.com/scn-2 .