Steve Aoki Shuts Down Downtown Los Angeles For LAoki

Steve Aoki
May 16, 2015
Downtown- Los Angeles, CA

        To promote his third full length album Neon Future II, which was released on May 12, 2015, Grammy nominated DJ Steve Aoki (with the help of Mayor Garcetti), shut down 2 blocks of Downtown Los Angeles to give fans a free, once in a lifetime experience. It was dubbed LAoki.
As approximately 8,000 fans crowded the city streets on Saturday night, they were warmed up by Reid Stefan, Carnage and Ookay but the real treat would come at 9:30 sharp with an hour and a half performance by the master himself, Steve Aoki.
The stage was set up with a large DJ booth with several screens around the booth and one large screen on the front of the booth; As 9:30 came, the DJ booth began counting down from 10 and fans became more and more excited, cheering louder as the robotic voice counted down. The large screen made a typing noise and the Steve Aoki-9words, “Is anyone out there?” were shown. Fans screamed in response. It continued, “Searching for signs of intelligent life…Signal Found.” The robotic voice said “Connection has been confirmed. You are now warping into the neon future.” Fans began chanting, “A-OKI, A-OKI, A-OKI,” until the DJ finally appeared behind the booth, going into Time Capsule- Intro, the leading track from his latest release. Aoki was jumping behind his booth, as the screens surrounding his booth were constantly changing colors. Each smaller screen was used for 1 letter, to spell out “AOKI”. Strobes and all sorts of colorful lights filled the streets of Los Angeles with the occasional smoke shooting out from the stage, into the crowd.
As the set continued, Aoki surprised the crowd with several celebrity guests. The first one being, Moxie Raia who came out to sing I Love It When You Cry and the next being Sherry St. Germain who sang Heaven on Earth both off of Neon Future II. The set continued with hits, Boneless and Darker Than Blood but this wouldn’t be a Steve Aoki show if it didn’t have the regular Aoki antics. Aoki constantly came down from his DJ booth to get a more intimate experience with the fans. To add to the experience, he opened several champagne bottles and sprayed it into the accepting crowd. And yes, there was cake. With the most appropriate track, Cakeface playing through the speakers, Aoki made his way to the edge of the stage where full size cakes were given to him. For those who don’t know, Aoki has been known to do something called “Caking” where he throws cakes into the faces of his fans. Girls climbed on the shoulders of their boyfriends to attract Aoki’s attention so they could be caked, while other fans screamed and held up signs which read, “Cake Me!” Aoki threw Steve Aoki-19at least 10 cakes into the audience that night, and once caked, fans began eating and throwing it back at the DJ, all with huge smiles on their faces. For another more intimate experience, Aoki brought up a special fan on stage to be caked. Aoki had a running start and slammed the cake into the fan’s face and audience went into a frenzy.
As the set was coming to an end, Steve Aoki brought out the final special guest of the night, the one and only, Travis Barker. With Barker behind his drum kit, they performed a remix of Queen’s We Will Rock You with Aoki having the crowd sing along. They ended the set with Pursuit of Happiness with Aoki coming down one last time. He picked up a smoke gun and shot smoke into the crowd, as they danced and jumped in excitement. As Aoki exited the stage, fans begged for an encore but unfortunately were not given one due to the curfew restrictions.
LAoki was a truly once in a lifetime experience for anyone that was able to score tickets, plus it helped the city since tickets were only available for those who signed up for information about the mayor’s Volunteer Corps. There was cake, there was strobes and there was a Steve Aoki concert on the street of Los Angeles! What more could fans ask for?!
Review by: Nicole Lemberg