Skrillex Invades L.A. (Late January 6 Show Run)

Grammy award nominee Skrillex (does that sound weird to anyone else?) descends on Los Angeles and New York City from his dubstep mothership to party with friends and label mates ten more times before the Grammy ceremonies get under way.

The five time nominee won't be playing alone, he has recruited some heavy-hitting dubsteppers and signees to his OWSLA label to join him. The ten date run features a host of intimate gatherings that will be limited to those that act early (tickets go on sale for L.A. Live tomorrow at 10 am) and those in Skrillex's personal circle. You'll be lucky to get into any show in L.A., because given Sonny Moore's massive rise in stardom, Dim Mak Studios, Echoplex and Avalon just won't be able to contain the demand. The Palladium probably won't even be able to handle it - I imagine that will sell out rapidly too.

In total, he rages through Los Angeles for six straight nights beginning on January 24th at Dim Mak Studios for their weekly Dim Mak Tuesday party. He will be joined by Alvin Risk and Koan Sound. My guess is there won't be free alcohol to get you in the door early that night...

The real treat of the run is probably Wednesday the 25th at Echoplex where he plays a Skrillex vs. 12th Planet show, along with Diplo. When 12th Planet is essentially the least recognizable artist on your bill, and that bill takes place in Los Angeles, you know the show is going to be massive.

Thursday he takes on exchange with OWSLA signee Zedd, and Friday he moves to Avalon for Control with Huoratron and Kill The Noise. After that, its two less intimate nights at Palladium and L.A. Live Event Deck respectively. The latter offers guest spots from Benga, Nadastrom and other special guests TBA.

If you're not already amped for this - I don't know what you're drinking or you just hate dubstep, or both. Don't sleep in tomorrow if you're a Los Angeleno. Get up at 10 am and make sure you get some of those damn tickets!

New Yorkers, check your local listings, but he tackles the Big Apple with four shows over five nights, including a show at Terminal 5 with Skream & Benga, KOAN Sound and Tokimonsta on February 4th.

HARD HAUNTED MANSION - LESS THAN 4 WEEKS AWAY!

The HARD Haunted Mansion returns to The Shrine on Friday October 28th and makes it its home for two nights of raucous electronic mayhem. You probably don't need us to tell you how nasty its going to be if you were at HARD Summer...but if you weren't, we promise, it will be the sauce.

The line-up is maxed out. With fierce competition for wearing the badge of dopest electronic music event of the year, Hard Haunted Mansion is making a strong play for the belt. Catching Skrillex on his Mothership Tour (along with his support act, 12th Planet) is key and with Rusko, Skream, Benga and more - dubstepping college children are guaranteed to have their faces melted.

Fatboy Slim, Soulwax, Major Lazer, Laidback Luke and 2Manydjs only make it more tempting - and then all the rising support cast, from SBTRKT to Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs to The Knocks will keep the concrete dance floor rocking from the second the doors open on Friday at 6 p.m.

Cop your tickets for both nights at Shrine Expo Hall here.

Event is from 6pm - 2am each night. 18+ event.

The full line-up is below:

Fatboy Slim
Soulwax
Rusko
Skrillex
Laidback Luke
2manydjs
Major Lazer
Skream + Benga
Tiga
Fake Blood
12th Planet
Switch
SBTRKT
L-Vis 1990
Annie Mac
Goose
Housemeister
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Pearson Sound
Destructo
Paul Chambers
The Magician
Jackmaster
Beataucue
Kingdom
Oliver
Japanese Popstars
The Knocks
Clockwork

HARD Weekend...

After jumping through some hoops to acquire the HARD press pass, I finally parked near the LA State Historical Park and waded through the sea of people that was the raver task force and potential concert attendees. Before I could even enter the event, the first "did I just see that?" experience occurred, when a pedestrian was struck by a car.

The police were certainly out in full force; the city made it quite clear that they were going to amp up their police presence with the raver task force and not tolerate a lot of the shenanigans that were routine at EDC (i.e. teenagers doing ecstasy). As a result of concentrating police efforts on eradicating drugs from the concert going experience (has that ever worked?) the city's boys in blue just weren't patrolling street traffic. Maybe if the cops spent more time doing what they had done at EDC (direct traffic) and less time fulfilling the calling of the raver task force (make drug related arrests), the victim of this accident wouldn't have been carried away on a stretcher. While I understand the motives for the city to make a strong showing against underage drinking and drug consumption in light of the death at EDC, I'd prefer to see the city direct the resources toward a problem they can actually control (traffic congestion and pedestrian foot traffic) than one that they cannot (drug consumption).

Once I finally got inside the venue, I b-lined to the alcohol area because it had been a good two hour ordeal just to do the damn thing and I felt like celebrating. I drowned my sadness over missing The Twelves and Breakbot with a little bit of hoppy nectar and sought to find some good photo subjects and a good vantage point for Diplo.

The alcohol control was admittedly a lot more under control than it had been at EDC, so props to the HARD organizers for keeping the tweener set away from the booze for the most part. Inside the tent, I had the pleasure of bumping into some cats from the Jungle Riddim and Media Contender camp. We chopped it up while indulging in Diplo at the main stage - who was creating some impressively hard dubstep that I did not expect from him.

As the sun faded down, I thought it would be wise to see what was up at the dubstep stage. Meandering through the sea of candy flippers, girls in yeti boots, rolling rollers and teenagers womp stepping, I stumbled into John, better known as the rising star 12th Planet.

A Rolling Roller

12th Planet (yellow & black plaid)

Benga

After kicking it over some drinks with 12th, Benga and the entourage, and absorbing the electro-dub-compositions of Flying Lotus (his set was spectacular and J Dilla inspired), I felt a bit of a need to get my dance on. Luckily for me - this girl in the pink had the same idea and we battled (check out my dougie!).

Boom D dance off

After turning heads with wicked dancing in the alcohol tent, I ventured out to the teenage zone to see if I might have other challengers or another b-boy-esque cypher to join. With attendees focused on the LED screens and the headlining acts, I didn't find the competition I was looking for. But, I made a handful of new friends, saw some shining faces and ended the night with some fantastic music (Soulwax).

Can only hope the rest of the tour goes off as it did on Saturday and that the next HARD LA event has as interesting of a line-up...