LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, DEADMAU5 ACED HIS UNDER-THE-RADAR ARENA SHOW

A half-full arena could not stop Deadmau5, our favorite Canadian misanthrope, from playing an inspired hour and a half set at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center this past Friday, December 18. Unlike his polarizing personality, the quality of Joel Zimmerman’s productions is not up for argument. He is one of the most important producers of our generation, and—love him or hate him—when he started the show with the intro to “Strobe” into “City in Florida,” even Richie Hawtin would have been caught bobbing his head.

One questions, however, if even an artist as commercially viable as Deadmau5 can save Tidal from itself. Unlike the first “for artist by artists” Tidal X show, which featured the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, and Prince (to name a few), this show relied heavily on the pull of one act—with little publicity surrounding the event. (The show also included performances from Pusha T and “Tidal Rising Stars” D.R.A.M, Justine Skye, The Cold Seas, and Slonk Donkerson.) 

Deadmau5 has no problem selling out arenas around the world; what he does have a problem with is incentivizing enough people to sign up for Tidal in order to get free tickets to the show. It is easy for Jay-Z to announce a show a week before and inspire enough people to find out what Tidal is all about; the same cannot be said about Deadmau5. Hence, the half-empty venue. (It’s also worth noting that this show came at the end of a week that saw Zimmerman suddenly delete his Facebook and Twitter accounts, which isn’t an ideal move for building hype.)

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