Photos by Neil Van.
The team up of two stars in the making had the Danforth Music Hall buzzing with anticipation and it was apparent just by walking in front of the venue before the doors even opened as a long line stretched down Danforth Avenue. The Shelter Tour stop featured two openers, the first being Toronto’s own Robotaki an up and comer who was delighted to play his hometown. Afterwards French producer DANGER came on wearing all black including a ski mask with only large glowing eyes showing any colour on stage. He played percussive heavy beats that were accented by large orchestral arrangements giving an almost cinematic feel to his music. As swells of a hundred instruments rose up he would pound on his rig, releasing heavy and dark undertones that blasted over the speakers. His music featured a variety of styles including electro, trap and dub step all fused together in matrimony.
Porter Robinson has been household name in the electronic community for almost half a decade. He has consistently been one of the most sought after acts to see since he usually performs “live”, as in mixing his beats on stage, singing his own hooks and playing various instruments like keyboards, synths and drums to complete his music. France’s Madeon is a bit more of a newcomer; growly steadily in popularity over the last few years, but the combination of the two seems to have propelled them both to new heights. It all started with a single they made together called Shelter and launched an entire tour and now empire. Fittingly enough, when the duo came on stage and stood on either end behind massive rigs they played Shelter first. There were large screens behind them both and then the back wall also had another screen filling in any gaps. During Shelter, imagery from their anime music video flashed, including Rin the main character from the song’s lyrics. Madeon showed off his vocal abilities by singing live and most of the room gleefully joined in while green streamers shoot into the crowd sticking to the ceiling making the Danforth look like ballroom on molly.
The two producers seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit as Madeon used his drumsticks to mock conduct Robinson when he played the keyboard. The bass thumping moments were contrasted with loud synth barrages that always got people cheering. Porter Robinson got in on singing lead too when they played his song Sad Machine. Sad Machine is a song that in the wrong hands could be overly saccharine but with his deft production it works. After that track, they finally addressed the crowd as Robinson exclaimed “Toronto we love you so fucking much”. You’re On from Madeon’s debut album Adventure lead them to have a drum off as Madeon banging on a cymbal and Robinson played his electronic drum pads that turned into a robotic drum and bass beat. The Japanese inspired Flicker from Robinson’s 2014 album Worlds cranked up the stage production as the screens burned with brightness and all the lights jerked around to face the crowd as they lit up with maximum intensity making it the only concert where you could potentially go deaf AND blind. There is something slightly unnatural about having super bright lights on the crowd at an electronic show being able to see just how sweaty the people around you and all the way across the venue actually are.
Showcasing their skills Robinson and Madeon managed to incorporate a variety of styles transitioning between funky soul vibes to trap all with their signature glitchey live aesthetic present to make it their own unique beast. Madeon showcasing his French roots threw in a split second sample of Daft Punk’s Around The World in a sample heavy section of the night. Towards the end of the night a young lady was sitting on a guy’s shoulders dancing to the beat as more streamers were shot out blanketing her in blue streaks. Robinson leaned into his microphone and spoke with a playful smirk saying, “This is one of my favourite songs ever, it’s called Beings by Madeon” before proceeding to sing the vocals for the song. As the night was nearing an end Madeon had everyone raise their arms in the air, while slow burning music played before dropping the beat with a literal bang as white confetti covered the room like being stuck in the middle of a blizzard.
Toronto was lucky enough to have Porter Robinson and Madeon also play a late night after party set at The Hoxton, something only a select few cities got. So those that missed the sold out show at The Danforth or those who just wanted to relive it all over again were able to. While The Danforth is an odd choice for an electronic show, the Shelter tour had more in common with acts like Caribou than button mashers like those you see at the big EDM festivals.
