As part of a story I was commissioned to do, I had the pleasure of seeing Tchami, one of the undeniable pioneers of this wave of future house we are currently in the midst in, twice in the course of one week. It also happened to be the first two times I was exposed to his live set and was extremely curious to see just how it might turn out.
You see, when I first went to see Oliver Heldens (to draw a clear parallel) live, my expectations were low. Not that I didn’t appreciate his music – rather, I am a big fan – but because he had seemed to become something of a pop icon for many. I feared he might’ve suffered from “The Chainsmokers effect” where a little fame can instantly seem to show its influence in an artist’s music. Instead, my fears were ill founded and he turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun.
However, with Tchami, these fears resurfaced and I expected that he might turn out to be a disappointment. In fact, a casual writer for this blog had vented on Facebook that he had felt Tchami had become the Avicii of the past year (it’s worth noting, however, that he came up against substantial disagreement).
When I saw Tchami in Boston at the “new” Ascend Nightclub – formerly known as Prime – I was throughly impressed. His set was harder than I expected, and despite opening with “You Know You Like It” and mixing in a few other of his more well know tracks, it was a diverse set. This naturally had me excited to see him at Tomorrowworld this past weekend.
My friends and I showed up to the Mythical Frames stage right for the start of his set and, to my surprise, after the first 3 songs, his set took an even harder turn than it had the week before. The stage was packed and everyone was romping around. The set, to my surprise, was not the same – a rarity for a touring DJ in this day and age.
Say what you will about the priest “gimmick” or whatever it is, but the guy knows how to throw down a set, and any fans of future house and dub will not be disappointed. Unfortunately, he’s just wrapping up his After Life tour but I highly recommend you check him out the next chance you get (shout out to all you February shippers!). I’ll leave you with this… Still a classic.