In January, Canadian electronic music producer and artist, deadmau5 announced the ‘retro5pective: 25 years of deadmau5‘ — a handful of select shows showcasing the breadth of his discography and collaborations. The retrospective was performed at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Brooklyn Mirage, and Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater. On May 2nd, mau5heads from all over the tri-state area converged in East Williamsburg at the iconic EDM venue, The Brooklyn Mirage, to the first of two nights of the retrospective. It spanned across deadmau5’s entire discography, from his first release, “I Don’t Want No Other,” in 1999, to recent releases like “Escape,” as part of his Kx5 collaboration with Kaskade. The performance was also slated to unveil Deadmau5’s iconic Cube V3 visual experience.
Callie Reiff opened the evening, spinning on the decks as people entered the venue. Setting the vibes high, she gave a wonderfully fun atmosphere to the 11-piece German marching band, Meute. Meute provided fans with a unique and entertaining experience, recreating electronic dance beats with trumpets, trombones, tubas, drums, and even xylophones! Both opening performances excited the crowd for the night ahead, and at quarter to 10, Brooklyn Mirage’s wraparound stage went black, and the crowd’s anticipation peaked.
Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, graced the stage and opened his lengthy set with “Bored of Canada”, off his 2008 album Project 56. Standing center stage, spinning on a rather simplified deck setup, Zimmerman continued the first half of his set with some special b2b guests — Steve Duda, Tommy Lee (of Mötley Crüe) and DJ Aero. The first half of the set was rather chill and clearly dedicated to those longtime mau5heads. It wasn’t until 15 songs — roughly one hour — into the set that deadmau5 unveiled the V3 cube with his smash hit “I Remember”.
The cube was a three-paneled LED screen that synced with the wraparound screen visuals to portray a truly breathtaking visual experience. It was built on a rotating platform that spun slowly around to unveil Deadmau5 as he was performing. Occasionally, Zimmerman donned various iconic mau5heads throughout his set, from an Xbox-themed mask to a mask made of cast-iron pans.
For those of us who were introduced to electronic music in the mid-2000’s, we were likely raised on deadmau5 and his many hits from that era. Hearing those hits live, including “Ghosts ’n’ Stuff”, “Some Chords” and “Raise Your Weapon” was certainly a transcendent experience for us all. Throughout the three hour set, deadmau5 was joined by many close collaborators including SOFI, who performed “Sofi Needs A Ladder” live. As well as Kiesza, who captivated the crowd during her performance with a gnarly worm across the stage. Additionally, fellow Canadian artist and musician, Lights joined for a performance of “Drama Free” and “When The Summer Dies”.
Marking the final moments of the set, British singer Hayla graced the stage for a performance of Kx5’s (deadmau5 + Kaskade) hit song “Escape”, before descending into the final song, “Strobe”. ‘Retro5pective: 25 years of deadmau5’ was a smash hit and hands down one of the most visually intriguing shows I’ve experienced of recent. Joel Zimmerman is universally revered as an icon in the electronic music scene for a reason and the three hour retrospective set perfectly showcased the mastery that’s been created behind the deadmau5 persona.
