Benny Benassi @ The Drink

The crowd was so young at the Benny Benassi show its surprising that there wasnt a gaggle of chaperones skulking in the back, nursing vodka sodas while adjusting their ear plugs.

This isnt necessarily a bad thing. Young kids can rock it. The kids at The Drink had that nave energy (the kind that disappears once you start insisting you wont go to a party unless you know where the party will be and youll be damned if you take that stinkin school bus) bubbling throughout the club. Their smiles were wide and their moves were totally devoid of shame. They were chanting! They were pogoing and one kid had an Italian flag draped around him. It was like witnessing a group of kindergarten kids frolicking in the ball room at Chuck E. Cheese.

When Benassi came on (at around 01:30) the club swooned. The guy is cute and unpretentious; the latter you can tell the instant you see him. He spent the next three hours spinning as if he were at home with friends. He was totally enjoying himself: interacting and egging on the clubbers, text messaging, chatting with the kids behind the booth, having his photo taken, signing autographs... what other internationally known DJ especially a DJ whos riding a monumental and seemingly eternal wave is so swell?

The best thing about the set was that he played a trick. He slammed down some super great remix of Satisfaction which sent the crowd careening toward hysterics and then it ended. This is when all the young ones started belting out Benny! Benny! and the cynical old ravers started muttering to themselves that the guy was a buffoon. Mid-rant, Satisfaction blared out of the speakers (The Drink has killer sound) and soon mixed in to another track. He didnt end with Satisfaction. How cool is that?

After his mischievous maneuver he fell into some pretty weak, and sometimes epic, trance. It was no good but that didnt wreck the night. For the most part his set was great. He started with some melodic trance (which wasnt so hot either - partly because it was crappy melodic trance and partly because it didnt resemble Andy Clockworks set in the least) but a few tracks in and he was a king. He played some great tribal house, progressive and electroclash. And there was acid house. Acid house! Surely all those young ravers thought it was a new genre. If only they knew...

Read the Exclusive DJVIBE.com interview