This past weekend was the 2010 ACL Music Festival in Austin, Texas. It was my third year in a row to go and I was excited as ever to see the acts coming to perform. The Strokes and MIA have been personal fav's of mine for quite awhile and it was incredible to see them. Yet, one of the best parts of the weekend was spent dancing to the sick nasty beats of Deadmau5. I have been a fan of his work for a year or so now, becoming ever more interested in his work and him personally as an artist. My ex-roommate and best friend, Dimitri, had told me that Deadmau5 truly was a one-of-a-kind "experience" and that I, "Just wouldn't understand until you see him perform his stuff live." So for Deadmau5 to finally make it to Austin was a real thrill for me.
I arrived to his show super early on Saturday evening and got a great spot just to the left of the stage. I had been doing a tad bit of background research on Deadmau5 and found that he was actually much more intelligent than people know. He quickly realizes how easy it is to make the same kind of music that he does. What makes him stand apart is his incredible ability to market himself. Deadmau5, deep-down, is a just a brand - something to differentiate his performance from his competitor's (I noticed the Flaming Lips doing the same sort of thing with their famous man-sized bubble-boy costume, the very next day). It was true though; seeing Deadmau5 was quite an experience. His electronic "Mau5head" and accompanying table were something else....both moving independently yet still connected at the same time. All of my friends, both fans and non-fans of Deadmau5, enjoyed the show tremendously.
So after finally seeing him perform once at ACL and once at a post-ACL aftershow on Friday (see picture insert), I began to do a bit more digging into what Deadmau5 is all about. I found out some very interesting things, such as his dispute with another famous DJ, Rusko, in Denver backstage at a show. I also realized how involved he is with social media: Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, Ping on iTunes, etc. He is extremely efficient at communicating to his audience in a very approachable way, which I believe just helps make his fans able to easily relate to him and believe that they are seeing some other side of him that most people just do not see. In turn, his fans become more avid and follow him on a more consistent basis. He is just so incredibly clever at his profession! The sad part is that most people just do not realize this and think he is just another random house-dj (as I mistakenly did in the past), when in reality, he is anything but.
For a random, HD video of the Deadmau5 madness at this year's ACL, click here.
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