I was in Portland this weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and so was Los Angeles DJ Skrillex – only the birthday was his own, not a friend’s. I’ve attended plenty of dubstep concerts in Eugene, but Skrillex’s hard-partyin’ set proved to be worth the road trip – it blew away all my previous knowledge/expectations of the dubstep/techno genres.

Skrillex is former From First to Last frontman Sonny Moore. After leaving the group in 2007, Moore toured on the second AP Tour as a solo artist before adopting Skrillex as his stage name in 2008. His debut EP, My Name Is Skrillex, dropped last June and his latest EP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, came out last October. The latter was released on Deadmau5’s label, Mau5trap/Big Beat Records, and Skrillex opened for Deadmau5 on tour this past fall.

Check out “With You Friends,” one of the tracks off of My Name is Skrillex:



With You Friends – Skrillex by BestNewBandscom

The party took place in Portland’s Roseland Theater, courtesy of Insomniac & Red Cube Productions. Skrillex’s high-energy set fit the moods of the hundreds of club kids who came out to the show. Heavy bass mixed with trance/techno overlays to provide hours of fun for the sweaty, half-naked dancing crowd. Everyone around me was lost in a trance – in fact, as I enjoyed the show from the second floor I was surprised no one fell over the balcony as a result of dancing too crazily! At the end of his set, the artist was surprised with a birthday cake, as Saturday marked his 23rd year of life.

Here’s an audio clip of Skrillex’s set, which includes the crowd singing along to “My Name Is Skrillex” and the DJ telling everyone to “put your hands up – it’s my birthday!”



Skrillex LIVE at the Roseland Theater – 1/15/11 by BestNewBandscom

Skrillex will be at the Majestic Theater in Madison, WI this Thursday, then in Seattle on Friday and San Francisco on Saturday. After that, the DJ will play a few shows in the U.K. before returning to the U.S. at the end of the month. The My Name is Skrillex EP is available for free download here.