Hudson Mohawke

Spotify House, Austin TX, March 19

Photo: Stephen Carlick

BY Stephen CarlickPublished Mar 20, 2015

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Hudson Mohawke took the Spotify House decks just before the sun was setting, so it took a few songs to warm up the crowd in the awkwardness of daylight. He dropped Kanye West's "All Day" just a few songs in, which hyped the crowd somewhat, and then transitioned into more trap-heavy, straight-up danceable fare.
 
At the start of his set, Mohawke had to ask more than a few times to have the volume turned up, but by the time he started playing his own compositions, like "Chimes," he was fully immersed in the set, and so were the crowd.

Mohawke's performance ebbed and flowed, allowing quiet pauses in which the audience could show their appreciation for his perfectly curated setlist. Mohawke has created a specific style, and he sticks to it perfectly, mixing handclaps and deep bass to get bodies moving despite frequently working in interesting, off-kilter tempos. A. G. Cook's new "Drop FM" and TNGHT's "Higher Ground," from his much-beloved collaboration with Lunice, got perhaps the biggest reactions out of the crowd.

At one point, his gear stalled, twice, and Mohawke's sound cut out, but he got no reaction from the sound person, who, seated behind the mixing board five feet away, didn't seemed fazed. Luckily, it came back on for what sounded like it might have been a new song of his.
 
An outdoor venue before nightfall isn't the perfect venue for Mohawke's technicolour mixes, and the crowd seemed distracted by the opposite stage, where Passion Pit were preparing for their "secret" headlining set, but those there to see HudMo got a pretty great set with only a few hiccups.
 

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