STEVE AOKI

Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Sun 28 Jan

Steve Aoki is not a DJ who thrives on subtlety, or indeed DJing. The dance music king may be one of the most highly paid electronic music artists on the planet (according to Forbes, anyway), but his appeal has always been rock star stage spectacle rather than technical substance. Cake is thrown, Aoki surfs the crowd in a rubber dinghy, and the decks are often left to play their premixed tracks unmanned behind him in a proud middle finger to music critics and EDM purists alike. It’s Michael Bay for ravers.

The formula hasn’t changed much for the Kolony album tour. As you’d expect, the live DJ show retains much of the same brash trap DNA from the 2017 studio release, which relied heavily on features from the new generation of American rap royalty like Lil Uzi Vert, Migos, and Lil Yachty. It’s shameless big room party music full of messy bass and pounding drops, underscored by simple choruses you can still remember no matter how off your face you get – probably a calculated choice, given how much vomit has hit the floor before Aoki has even set foot on stage. For a 7pm Sunday night show, it’s downright impressive.

Kolony cuts like Lit and No Time hit hard and loud. Mostly loud. Older progressive house tracks like Boneless offer some much needed variety, as do thumping remixes of Jason Derulo’s Whatcha Say and Owl City’s Fireflies. The expected stage antics that might elevate the less distinct beats are slow to materialise. Aoki works through the usual hypeman lines over the mic (“Are you ready Cardiff?”), and… hands out water.

The first proper crowd interaction comes an hour in, with a spin of Dimitri Vegas’ Crowd Control and the traditional left-right crowd bounce that accompanies it. It’s a rote EDM staple but marks a welcome shift up in gear, and the second half of the set that follows is far superior as Aoki seemingly accepts his strengths as party orchestrator rather than DJ. He’s soon topless, launching champagne froth into the crowd with gusto.

Then comes ‘caking’. The ritual of fans begging to be hit in the face with a sheet cake is so silly you can’t help but enjoy it, and it earns the loudest cheers of the night – certainly more than any one tune. For the crescendo, Aoki pulls out two CO2 blasters and hoses the front row. This tour isn’t going to win him any new fans, but as an entertainer he succeeds through sheer fratboy showmanship.

words and photos JASPER WILKINS