Zeds Dead sure has come a long way; from the countless remixes, local shows under the Bassmentality brand to internationally sold out shows and worldwide success, the Toronto boys show that with a little time, effort and #zedsdedication, anything is possible. It’s always humbling to see that no matter how big their name gets, they always come back to shut down their home city. This year, DC and Hooks switched from their usual winter shindig to make this year’s summer a little hotter at Echo Beach and this time they brought a few friends.
Hot into his set, LA based DJ Drezo took command of the decks and the crowd with his groove infectious sounds. The whole crowd was in a state of shuffling with his mix of deep house, dance and dubstep. Drezo gave the folks at Echo Beach a treat when he played two new collaborations with Dillon Francis’ deeper alter ego, DJ Hanzel.
From shuffling to two stepping, all eyes were on REZZ and her hypnotizing glasses as she changed the mood with her dark and heavy sounds. The crowd was practically mesmerized with the mix of looping digital renderings of the Niagara Falls native and her dark and almost trance-inducing tracks like Lucifer and Edge. The buzzworthy DJ appeased all of the bassheads with classic bass tracks such as Noisia’s Raise Your Weapon remix and Bassnectar’s Basshead, which set the crowd off in the frenzy. With a plethora of unreleased tracks under her belt, REZZ treated the Toronto crowd with many goodies including her closing song that she called playing with tarantulas.
With restless anticipation for Lil Dicky, one of XXL Mag’s freshmen of 2016 got right into it with his opening song Professional Rapper before the man also known as the Independent Variable had the crowd sing O Canada. Its apparent that the man was having loads of fun dancing around on stage not only along with his own tracks but with classic party starters, Whoomp There it is and This is How We Do It. For his song Lemmie Freak, he had a girl from the crowd join him on stage and did a comically sensual lap dance for her and had given her flowers.
Jauz the LA based DJ brought his unique brand of dubstep infused hard house and trap to Echo Beach, pleasing both the shufflers and head bangers. He incorporated many infamous hard hitting festival ready tracks like his remix of Knife Party’s PLUR Police, Ghastly & Mija’s Crank it and his Lean On remix with Dillon Francis.
The duo of DC and Hooks took to the stage to a thunderous crowd, all with their Z hand signs up with admirable appreciation. By the time the Toronto legends were onstage on that hot summer evening, everyone was doused in a nice layer of sweat. The duo knew exactly what to play to keep the crowd’s energy at a maximum. Just like the ever changing and evolving sound of Zed’s Dead, their set had a bit of everything; from classic songs like Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, Eiffel 65’s Blue and Salt n Peppa’s Push It, old school Zed’s Dead tracks such as Rude Boy and Bassmentality, and bass heavy bangers like Flosstradamus’ Mosh Pit, their track Loud with Hunter Siegel and Dillon Francis & NGHTMRE’s Need You.
With a stellar line-up with such similar yet definitive sounds, it comes as no surprise that Zed’s Dead knows how to curate and put on a show that is failsafe to get their hometown hyped unlike any other.
