Grandtheft and Thugli at The Hoxton

Photographs by Kevin Leung.

Grandtheft spun at the Hoxton at King and Bathurst on Saturday January 30^th, playing a killer show. The Montreal born and Toronto-based trap producer displayed all the elements of a good trap set, combining heavy bass, crowd surrendering build ups followed by satisfying drops. He pulled his set together effortlessly with flawless transitions and the crowd was even treated with a surprise appearance by Toronto’s superstar DJ duo, Zeds Dead. Even with the great performance I have just one issue about the evening, and that would be the over-crowded dance floor. The venue was jam-packed from the stage all the way to the bathrooms in the back of the building. I guess it’s to be expected now that The Guvernment/Koolhaus complex is no longer an option for the weekend partygoers.

Now let me tell you, The Hoxton nightclub often hosts trap shows, I have attended quite a few of them myself and I have to say, Grandtheft put on a textbook performance. For those of you who are not familiar with this EDM sub genre, trap is most comparable to rap music without the main vocals. It mixes pounding bass with ‘gangster-synth’ to bring it all together. Basically I would break it down as a mixture of hip-hop structure with a dubstep-style build up and drum rhythm. 

This sound makes for a wild party, although being shoulder to shoulder with the crowd made it tough finding a way to move to the beats. Grandtheft played some of his massive hits and crowd pleasers such as his heavy collab with Keys and Krates Keep it 100, and another colossal hit with Jackel Let Me Tell You Something. The popular Trap Producer was spinning tirelessly, stopping for one of only a few small shout-outs to say “I love you guys so much” late into the night. Shortly after, I was pleasantly surprised to see Zeds Dead appear on the stage as their massive single from 2014 Lost You hit the speakers. Being that they are from Toronto and they are known for being huge supporters of Grandtheft it was an appropriate addition to the night. He wrapped up the party by dropping the Keys and Krates raw fame maker Dum Dee Dum, putting an end to another good show at the Hoxton, with just a few too many in the crowd, a small price to pay to be part of such a world class trap set.