The Virtual Self Utopia Tour touched down at WaMu Theater on Thursday night, just as Summer ended and the early Fall weather began to hit Seattle. It didn’t matter though; walking inside that theater and experiencing Virtual Self, Raito, and Eprom was the perfect distraction from the long drawl of Washington weather. Despite the change of seasons, or whatever other problems I and the rest of the show-goers may have been feeling individually in our regular lives, everyone in the theater was excited. For me, walking into that event felt like walking into another world. A virtual world.
I wasn’t disappointed. The night started off with Raito who played some Virtual Self remixes and all of his originals that I’d hoped he’d bust out. Raito is a cool artist because he’s so eclectic, and he definitely showed it. He plays everything from techno to house to weirder more bass-driven tracks, and he managed to fit a little bit of everything while on stage too, from straight techno to some darker tracks like his Rezz collaboration “Alien.” After Raito’s set, Eprom took the stage. Predictably, he took his set in a darker techno bass direction. Plenty of the usually aggressive Eprom-esque quirks that define his style. It was a little bit more of a bass-involved set and it got the crowd engaged. The visuals were also on par; that same weird, glitchy, eye-catching style that matched his music.
When Eprom ended there was a short intermission, and I went to chat with my photographer by the pit for a while until it was over. When Virtual Self finally made his way onto the stage, the whole crowd moved to the floor (there was bleacher seating at this show) and there was a giddy “pre-Porter Robinson set” energy in the air.
It was exactly the same feeling I felt when I saw Porter last year at Paradiso. I still remember how everyone on the hill started whispering and got all hushed as he was about to take stage. The difference this time was I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never seen Virtual Self live before. Still, I felt that sense of wonder from the crowd, like when you’re at an Above & Beyond show and all the diehard fans start crying.
If you ask people what genre Virtual Self falls under, you will probably get answers like Eurodance, speedcore, hard trance, or neo-trance. I guess all of those labels are fitting. What I can tell you is that his set bore some resemblance to his EP, but it also went off in other directions that I didn’t expect. There were moments that sounded like neo-hardstyle, and there were moments when the entire crowd was completely still, transfixed in techno melody. Overall, it felt like Porter was giving us a little bit of everything to please all of our individual tastes while staying true to his Virtual Self persona.
The visuals for his set were also impressive; they had enough lasers shining up, down, and in every direction in-between, that the stage lighting and visuals seemed almost fit for a festival. The A.I. theme of Porters music and visuals was another aspect that drew me and much of the crowd into more of a trance-like state throughout the show. I found myself focused on the stage, paying attention to the scroll of sentences that would appear in the background, the intricacy of the lighting, all matching that Virtual vibe. By the end of the show, I wasn’t surprised to see a large part of the audience sitting down on the bleachers, mesmerized.
I knew walking out of the theater that I had just seen one of my most memorable shows to date, different as it was to the average show experience. With the work that Porter Robinson has put in, not only over the years of his whole career but also to his newer side project, it was easy to see why so many people had become his fans. Seeing Virtual Self live, I had even more respect for him as an artist for risking his fanbase and diving into a completely new world of music.
After seeing two completely different sides of his musical persona, I can’t help but wonder what he will dish out in future years. If you get the chance to see Virtual Self live, don’t miss out. It was an eye-opening experience for me as a music lover. I might not know exactly how to interpret it, that scrolling in the background of Virtual Self’s sets seem oddly eye-opening.
“The boundless heaven will fill our fading light.”
“Choose your virtual echo.”
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