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Generally the things we hear after a show are words like “epic” and “sick”. More often than not we are left basking in the memories of our favorite drop or the surprise transition that made a crowd of people scream “OHHHHH” at the top of their lungs. Most of the time we revel in the good time we had and the DJs who absolutely killed it, but sometimes…. Oh sometimes…. We do not.

Sometimes (and sadly more frequently now) there are DJs who come onstage and break hearts. Maybe it was your first time seeing them and after hours of drooling over their latest podcast your expectations were at an all time high. Perhaps you ditched another DJ to see this one and the set was a complete waste of the time slot. It could’ve been the time you plowed through so many rows of people to get to the front that there was no escaping the set once it began and it BLEW.

We’ve all had those moments. Even our favorite DJs in the world let us down every now and again. Not that we are stingy listeners, but with a genre that is quickly becoming supersaturated with hungry newcomers, it’s safe to say that some DJs need to step up their game.

No longer will we accept the same set that we heard at the last festival. No longer will we flail around to those EDM Top 40 mixes drop after drop. No longer will we cheer the sets that lack the ingenuity we paid precious dollars to hear. Sorry but the jig is up. Calling them out one by one in a personal and completely opinion based post – we are counting down the WORST live sets of 2013.

10. Tiesto – Electric Zoo Day 2 (Mainstage Closing Set)

Tiesto unknowingly closed out Electric Zoo’s mainstage for the festival as a whole when day 3 was officially cancelled. This in turn made his set incredibly important to a lot of people but unfortunately it became memorable for the wrong reasons.

Competing with Bassnectar, who was performing on the festival’s other mainstage, proved to be a battle between innovation and classic. In this round, innovation won. Tiesto took the easy route by simply pushing play on (what I like to call) the “Tiesto’s Greatest Hits Vol 1” CD and when more than half of the crowd left early to see Bassnectar close out, it was clear the fans were underwhelmed. Even a special guest appearance from Hardwell could not save this run of the mill – HypeMachine – bomb of a set and the fans who lost the last day of their festival, also lost a little faith in their beloved trance idol.

This coming from a man who is one of the highest paid DJs on the planet right now – I have to say… I expected more, Tiesto.

9. Dillon Francis – Ultra Music Festival Weekend 1

It takes a village to raise a DJ and every once in a while someone in the village drops the ball on their part. When it came to Ultra Music Festival 2013 that ball was dropped in the technology department. In the hot Florida weather preceding one of the biggest events of the year, somehow nobody foresaw that technology doesn’t perform at its best under fire.

In the middle of some of the most anticipated sets of the dual weekend extravaganza, the power completely failed – leaving excited fans at a huge loss. In this situation, so much is riding on each set because once you get in a crowd that deep it’s almost impossible to get out. Ultra is a multi-million dollar production built by a team of the best minds in the industry and with ticket prices at upwards of $400 a pop… there is no room for error.

Dillon even ironically promises fans that he has them for the next hour in the beginning of his set which was then cut in half. Dillon responds to the upset fans with an awkward “Make some noise if you’ve been drinking all day” shout out which for many, was not helpful. A drunk DJ with failed equipment was a combination for one of the worst sets of 2013.

8. Eric Prydz – UMF Weekend 2 Afterparty at Club Space

It began when Eric Prydz played an hour long set for Ultra Music Festival weekend 2 and forgot to play his hit “Everyday” as planned. He made up for it by impressing fans with an innovative techno mix in a place where techno is rarely (if ever) heard. Eric Prydz remained king, the fans left happy and all was right with the world until later that night at his after party.

Eric was scheduled to perform at Club Space (an exclusive high priced club in Downtown Miami) alongside Jeremy Olander and Fehrplay. Despite his outstanding performance earlier that day, when it came to the after party later that night he didn’t deliver. The show ended early on account of a “corrupt SD card” according to the DJ but for fans the explanation was lacking.

Many lashed out at the artist citing his slurred speech and stumbling as the main determinant for the early end to their night. It seemed to those in attendance that Eric Prydz was more worried about his own fun than that of his fans when he got a little too drunk to put on a good show. Apologies were made via social networking but until a time machine is invented, those lost memories are still gone and the disappointment remains.

7. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike – TomorrowWorld Day 2 (Mainstage Closing Set)

Now this might be a personal complaint I’m lodging against Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike here but I’m going to proceed unfiltered and unapologetic regardless. The inaugural TomorrowWorld this year was a winner take all gauntlet battle between the biggest DJs in the world. Every artist scheduled showed up to throw down some of the best sets the world has ever heard. With that in mind, you know that the bar was set pretty high especially for DJs planning to perform more than once like Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

After missing their Electric Zoo performance, this was a second chance for many Americans who rarely have the opportunity to see the Belgian duo in the states. When it was announced they would be closing out the mainstage on day 2 of this event, the excitement could be felt worldwide but when it came time to put up or shut up… the duo clearly wasn’t ready. 10 minutes into their performance they had already played 9 out of the 10 most overplayed tracks of the year. By that time I thought to myself… “If I hear Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat one more time I’m walking out and knocking something over as I go.”

Lo and behold, the number 6 artist (as named in DJ Mag’s Top 100) couldn’t refrain from delivering one of the most generic sets I’ve ever heard. Song after song we heard original versions of all the Top 40 EDM radio hits of the year and besides the fireworks that followed there was nothing exciting about being there to witness it.

6. Deadmau5 – Ultra Music Festival Both Weekends

Ultra Music Festival 15 was Joel Zimmerman’s last obligation to Ultra Records before terminating his contract and he took to social media to proclaim his utter disdain for the event. He was scheduled mainstage closing sets for both weekends and instead of at least pretending to care about anyone other than himself, he proceeded to play the exact same set both weekends.

He put absolutely zero effort into either set and the most entertaining part about it was watching Zedd run around the Mau5 cube in his underwear. Now I understand his frustration and wanting to seek vengeance on Ultra, but when the event sells out regardless… you’re only hurting your fans.

With the hefty price tag paired with bringing him onto the stage, I say to Ultra Records – sometimes you don’t get what you paid for. To the fans who emptied their pockets for this one – see message to Ultra.

5. Dada Life – Electric Zoo/EDC Orlando

Now as a DJ you spend a lot of time on the road which can make it difficult to come up with new material from show to show. When you’re at a different local venue every night for a cross country tour it’s expected that the same fans aren’t following you around from city to city comparing sets so it’s understandable that your sets might be pretty similar. On the other hand, when your set is live streamed or recorded for a big festival performance it’s likely that people will remember it being the SAME EXACT SET and be a little annoyed.

That is exactly what happened with Dada Life this year. We caught them peddling the same set all around the festival circuit and showing us that they just don’t have what it takes to be creative artists. When we pay hundreds of dollars for festival tickets, the artists are getting thousands of dollars to perform and the bar is set a lot higher when it comes to what we expect to hear.

To push play on the same set time and time again for festivals is (quite frankly) a slap in the face. Thanks but no thanks, Dada. We can do without your repetitive, unoriginal, regurgitated performances.

4. Avicii – Ultra Music Festival

There are certain go-to DJs that we come to anticipate certain things from. If we want to get ratchet and bust out our nasty moves, we head over to see Flosstradamus at the trap stage. If we’re feeling emotional and want to connect with our rave family, we visit Above & Beyond with the other trance addicts. If we want to let out our inner 16 year old, we can usually count on Avicii, but at this year’s Ultra Music Festival he shocked fans and went a different route. A VERY different route.

Don’t get me wrong, artistic freedom is great but it takes a near perfect execution to really deliver the goods. Example: Carnage. The man flows seamlessly between house, trap and whatever he wants for that matter but nobody complains because he’s just so damn good at it. Other DJs like Eric Prydz (Pryda) and RL Grime (Clockwork) go even further as to create a completely separate identity for their genre adventures. When I go to a Pryda show I can expect something deeper than Prydz and when I pay to see Clockwork I don’t expect to hear “Ratchet Bitch” or anything the like. Managing the fan’s expectations is key.

When Avicii premiered his country infused EDM project at Ultra Music Festival this year the crowd just wasn’t ready. Not to mention he began his set with trap and hopscotching through a myriad of other genres which didn’t exactly set the stage for a big country debut.

Now that we’ve heard “Wake Me Up” on the radio countless times and heard other DJs incorporating it into their sets we can see the future of EDM Country, but at the time… We thought, “C-C-C-country?!?! Ruh roh.” (Scooby-Doo Voice). We were shocked, it killed the mood, it confused fans and it didn’t belong. Next time you try reinventing yourself, Avicii, don’t spring it on us in the middle of the biggest event of the year.

3. Afrojack – EDC Vegas

Afrojack was once the KING of Dirty Dutch. All other Dutch house DJs would bow down before his greatness. Nowadays he seems to be running for King of Pop and I hate to break it you Afrojack, but that position is taken. Darwinism applies to EDM too so you’ll have to do a lot better than the sad, tired performance you gave At EDC Vegas this year if you hope to survive another year.

Picture this…. Hundreds of thousands of colorful ravers from all over the globe crowded around one the biggest stages ever seen at a music festival. Afrojack comes to the microphone and with all the energy of a 90 year old man he asks bleakly, “are you guys ready to go crazy?”. He plays a few of his most generic hits like his collaboration with Chris Brown and some other crowd pleasers we’ve all heard a million times. Then a couple minutes in he does the one thing I hate most in the world. He places a commercial in the middle of his set for his “fresh new track”. Stops the groove completely just to announce that he is about to play something new (as if we were going to walk off if he didn’t).

Overall in this case, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the set besides Afrojack becoming progressively more disappointing with every performance. I will note; however, he completely redeemed himself at TomorrowWorld this year by going back to his roots and showing fans he can still kill it when he wants to. Try to ignore his awkward apology in the beginning (if you can) and compare the two. You’ll see the difference.

2. Tommy Trash – EDC Las Vegas/ Stereosonic Sydney

Aside from the serious case of megalomania Tommy Trash has developed (thinking he is the fourth member of Swedish House Mafia and all), he also seems to be a little delusional about what constitutes a great set. This year not only did Tommy play the same set at both EDC Vegas and Stereosonic in Sydney but it wasn’t even good.

Not to mention that Tommy Trash is an Australia native so the fact that he couldn’t even come up with something original for the biggest music event in his own home really strikes a chord with me.

If you’re going to keep pushing play on the same set that is comprised nearly completely of other artist’s songs… one would think you might have time to come up with some interesting transitions at least but alas, even those could use some polishing.

1. Rusko – Ultra Music Festival

In this case I have to at least give credit for the energy he has onstage and the effort he puts out. Maybe nobody told him that if you stop the music every 5 seconds for a shout out, that the crowd can’t get into your set. Maybe somebody said to Rusko, “Hey! You know what would be a great idea to promote your new track?? Tell everyone you’re about to play it right before you do! But make sure the music is off when you announce it so you know the whole audience is listening.”

Whatever the reason, be it bad advice or just poor judgement Rusko has developed a keen sense for killing the mood during his sets. He has become his own personal hype man and instead of getting the crowd excited for his music, he is interrupting himself to the point where he loses his groove.

I can appreciate a DJ who stirs up the crowd a little bit but for Rusko’s sake, I think he should let the music speak for itself more.

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