On Thanksgiving weekend, our friends over at INTO THE AM unleashed some chaos at The Grove of Anaheim in the form of Steve Aoki and 12th Planet. Our expectations going into this show were really high and just as expected, we were greeted by a massive audience, which was a clear indicator of what was going to be a wild night. 12th Planet took the stage and quickly went into some tracks that got everyone into a wobbly frenzy, especially when he dropped his “Niggas in Paris” remix. Serving the crowd with one banger after another, and the occasional favorites such as Rusko’s “Hold On” and Dan Sena’s “Song of Siren” thrown in, he got everyone jumping off the walls and dancing in every way, shape and form. The sheer amount of energy seen on stage was unexplainable and the crowd was with him 110%. 12th Planet was definitely all smiles and the audience was vibing off his unstoppable energy.
Steve Aoki finished off the night with some tracks off his previous catalogue, such as “Warp 1.9” and his remix of Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” He teased us with a lot of his new bangers off his upcoming album Wonderland that is scheduled to release in the upcoming year. Aoki is always truly entertaining and this performance was a true spectacle. The energy that 12th Planet instilled in the crowd truly seemed unsustainable, but Aoki was about to keep it going even harder, especially when he dropped “Turbulence.” As soon as that song played, the energy was at an all time high and not one single person was standing still. I even caught the event security bumping their heads. Aoki has essentially built his reputation upon crowd participation and stage diving but as the music went off momentarily, he let his fans know that the venue management didn’t allow him to: give champagne showers, stage dives and flips, crowd surf or give anyone orange juice. He was quite frustrated and stated how the heck was he supposed to have fun with everyone. Instead, he cooled down the crowd with buckets of ice water and smashed one lucky fan in the face with his birthday cake. Towards the end of the evening when The Grove’s lights were turned back on, I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t feel my legs and I couldn’t wipe this smile off my face. I was left in utter disbelief regarding how fun the night was during Aoki’s set and my expectations of the night were well exceeded. Both Aoki and 12th Planet absolutely murdered it, which made for a perfect night in The OC.
