Rafting with Steve Aoki by Brice Milano

As we walked up to Koko Nightclub in Camden Town, the first thing I saw was perhaps the longest cue in the history of cues. At this point, I found myself thinking “Is this even worth it? Why did I buy tickets to see this guy?” After what seemed like half a lifetime, we finally reached the metal detectors. After we got through security, we waited in another line and then finally got into the club. The venue itself was completely different than I had imagined. Koko originated as the Camden Theatre around the year 1900 so to a point it still feels like an old theatre. Mixing classical theatre design with eardrum-splitting bass was an experience in it’s own. We started on the railing of the third floor of the venue. About three minutes into DJ Steve Aoki’s set, he dropped possibly his most famous song Warp 1.9. I looked over to my right at Sam, and we took off for the main floor leaving the less adventurous behind.

We ran down the stairs to the main floor. I’m sure to the annoyance of many of our fellow concertgoers, we pushed, elbowed and shoved our way to the railing, meters in front of Steve. As the beat played out, the near 1500 people in attendance all jumped and chanted the only relevant lyrics of the song, “Whoop…whoop!” in unison. Aoki, had the crowd at his fingertips. I’d never seen an artist be that involved with his audience.

As enjoyable and entertaining as Steve Aoki’s performance was, I don’t really know what exactly DJs do during concerts. He spent over half of his set away from his equipment. He acted more like a hype man than a musician. I guess he and other DJ’s alike simply show up with a Fancy MacBook, open up iTunes, press play, and their good to go. Judgments against electronic music aside, Aoki put on quite a show. As we were in the front row, Sam and I were treated to some complimentary champagne served by Steve Aoki himself. I have to say more got on my shirt and in my hair than in my mouth, but the Bubbly shower was quite refreshing. One of the highlights of the show was the stage dive Steve did from the second level into an inflatable river raft. He climbed the side railing and took a leap of faith right into the crowd. As he got closer to the stage we held him up for a while. He finally jumped back on stage just in time to press next on his play list, but left the raft for us. I made an attempt to board the vessel, but someone had beaten me to it. After Aoki’s set ended, some awful dub step duo came on stage performing what sounded like laser beams attacking industrial power tools. The sloppiness of the following act just proved how entertaining Steve Aoki had been.

Overall that night at Koko was a great time! Steve Aoki put on an amazing, high-energy show, with a fantastic connection to the crowd. Koko as a venue mixes the right amount of modern energy with classic influence making it one of the best clubs in London.