Since the rise of massive production companies such as Insomniac it seems like everyone wants a piece of the EDM pie. There's been hundreds of event companies that have come on to the scene but have failed in keeping a successful brand. White Rabbit Group on the other hand has been able to make the cut by catering to the growing Orange County scene. Their selection of upcoming acts have sold out countless nights for their popular Havoc Thursdays and recent creation Expose. With headliners such as Kennedy Jones, Ookay, Deorro, GTA, Snails, Will Sparks, Jauz, and many more under their belt, it only felt appropriate for them to celebrate their 5th birthday with some very special guests.

Thanks to our pals at WRG we were able to join the action last Thursday as Los Angeles legends gLAdator and 12th Planet tore the roof off for an absolutely bone crushing party.

The great thing about their crowd is it's a mixture of loyal White Rabbit fans and loyal fans of the artists. Upon arriving to the venue we could not believe how many kids were rocking Havoc snapbacks and Smog Records gear (12th Planet's label). The line stretched down the street then around the corner making it obvious that this was gonna be a packed house. If you go to any other nightclub you might find people dressed up and looking classy, but if you go to the Yost on a Thursday night you'll definitely witness something else. Music lovers are instantly noticeable by their kandi, furry animal hats, comfortable dancing shoes, and not to mention you might over hear them talking about the latest festival lineups. Whereas we can't always afford to attend massive music festivals, Havoc is a great substitution to feed the beast.

Upon entering the venue we were greeted with the mighty grooves from our good friend James Ford, a.k.a. STRYTLLR, as he made his main stage debut. If a DJ doesn't know what he's doing he might open up a night with big room house. If he's experienced but not looking to standout, he'll probably stick to techno and deep house. But if he's anything like what we witnessed for STRYTLLR, you might find an opening act that was as memorable as the headliner. From start to finish he packed in a load of jersey club music giving the vibe of deepness with the intensity of hip hop. The coolest part about his set was that I didn't recognize a single track he spun despite my love for the genre. Instead of selling out like most DJs that get on a big club stage, James held it down by spinning what he truly loves and for that we having nothing but respect for the kid and look forward to more sets from him in the future!

After a killer show from Vindata we made it back to the main floor to catch gLAdiator's set. These guys have pretty much been around since the start of trap music and its been great watching them slowly come up to the level that they're at now. With all this experience under their belt they've easily made it to the top of my list for favorite trap artists to catch live. This is my third time seeing them within a year and they've blown me away every single time with a perfect song selection and variety of unreleased edits, recognizable newness, and classic throwbacks. We thought it was hilarious how they dropped every single from RL Grime's Void including Core, Scylla, and Valhalla. As a DJ, I usually try to choose between dropping no more than two of these for every set but gLAdiator gave no f**ks and hit us with them all. They pulled off some pretty sweet overlapping when they banged out Fatman Scoop's Be Faithful into Dillon Francis's I Can't Take It. Later they took the crowd pleasures into deepness by mixing A$AP Ferg's Work straight into Jauz's Feel The Volume. But by fat the best moment of their set was the trollish move of giving everyone the satisfaction to sing along to Clarity but then building it up into the intense drop of RL Grime & What So Not's Tell Me. Their set was able to satisfy the OC party crowd while keeping the trust of EDM fans alike making it a truly wild set.

To be completely honest, gLAdiator could have rightly headlined this show and it would have been one of the best we've seen at The Yost. They would have not only made for a great headliner but a ridiculously memorable set as their anniversary guest. But I could have imagined the team over at White Rabbit discussing who the heck they could get that would make this thing even better. For some miraculous reason our prayers were answered when this weekly nightclub brought out the king of Los Angeles Bass, Mr. John Dadzie a.k.a. 12th Planet.

John brought the sounds of UK dubstep into LA upon gaining traction in the local drum & bass community. Fast forward a decade later and he's running Smog Records one of the filthiest bass labels in the scene on top of his continuous boundary breaking reputation as an artist and performer. There are a lot of DJs just as famous as 12th Planet, but on top of the fame he's one of the most well respected artists in the music community and he's achieved everything by simply playing what he wants and melting people's minds. Instead of going in depth with the music he played and the styles he dropped I'm just gonna leave it at this... it was one of the best club performances I've ever witnessed. The energy throughout his entire set was next level and for a mean hour and half this sold out club was able to reach new destinations of the celestial frontier.

We wanna give a special thanks to White Rabbit Group for inviting us out for this special night and we look forward to hitting their next shows coming up this month!

Photos by Simply G.

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