- The intentions of a show called EPIC 4.0 are pretty transparent. Eric Prydz In Concert debuted back in 2010, marrying the Swedish DJ's arsenal of big room tunes with stadium rock-level visuals. He's brought it back new and improved every few years, and 4.0 was set to be the biggest yet, especially given that it coincided with the release of Prydz's hefty, two-hour-long album Opus. After starting the tour in New York the week before, Prydz took EPIC 4.0's behemoth set-up to Hollywood for a sold-out two-night run. That's almost 8,000 tickets.
When I got to the Palladium before Prydz went on, the 3700-capacity room was nearly full, and the clientele weren't quite what I expected: instead of young ravers decked out in neon, most people had an understated look (save the gangs wearing matching Pryda or Cirez D T-shirts). But that's not to say the crowd wasn't rowdy. Within a few minutes of arriving I was nearly bowled over by a nearby group hug, while a college-age guy screamed "squad assemble" at no one in particular.
The Palladium is a classic, ornate concert venue. There's a large dance floor area flanked by two balconies—one for general use, and one for a quieter, lower-energy VIP section. Looking over the main balcony, the dance floor was packed tight, and the excitement was infectious, even if opener Sebastian Léger was playing a blasé warm-up. With no visuals and barely any indication that there was a DJ onstage at all, his set felt like background music, but it only made the anticipation for EPIC 4.0 that much headier.
It took about 15 minutes to set up Prydz's stage, and it was as colossal as I'd hoped. The DJ booth sat in the centre of a massive cube of video screens, which mapped out projections behind, in front of, and around him. It made you feel like you were wearing 3D glasses. The first hour leaned hard on Prydz's prog house output, as deep red lines wrapped around him in geometric shapes and space-themed sections dotted the screens with galaxies of stars and spaceships. In a particularly memorable moment, Prydz stood in front of an exploding sun that gradually sent orange particles rising up all around him.
EPIC 4.0 is such a cinematic and well-executed show that it feels choreographed. But in fact, rather than resorting to EDM prefab pageantry, Prydz varied the setlists for each performance. Sure enough, into the second hour, this one detoured into Cirez D-style dark techno, with few vocals or melodies to latch onto. The starkness made the visuals even more dazzling. It peaked with "On Off," a track famous in Prydz sets because it's when the lasers come out. Sure enough, the trademark lattice of emerald beams emerged to excited cheers from the audience.
After "On Off," Prydz slipped into crowd-pleasing mode as he cruised towards the finish line. He dropped "Pjanoo" to deafening applause before a false ending that led into "Opus," the ten-minute saga of a tune that Four Tet cheekily remixed last year. As "Opus" rose to its stirring climax, backed by 3D asteroid-field visuals, EPIC 4.0 felt like campy theatre, but it also felt true to dance music. I went in expecting a predetermined set of uplifting prog house and instead was given something varied and nuanced. It wasn't all that accessible, either—Prydz avoided many of his biggest hits—and it was a reminder that his catalogue goes much deeper than you think.
A veteran of mainstream dance music before EDM was even a thing, Prydz has always been able to walk an enviable tightrope between musical worlds. (He discussed this at length with RA's editor Ryan Keeling earlier this year.) He can create a common ground between a techno fan and a candy raver, and he has a real understanding of how dance music culture works, along with the necessary pop savvy to pull off shows of EPIC 4.0's magnitude. Was it cheesy? Sometimes. Was it my kind of dance music? Not exactly. But that all felt irrelevant for a few hours. All that mattered was that Eric Prydz knows how to put on one hell of a concert.