In February I covered student DJ Brian Waswani Odhiambo ’12 and his rise to campus prominence within the last year. His latest venture was at Commons dining hall on Saturday night, when he performed with five other student DJs at Yale College Council’s “Electro” — the council’s only electronic music party of the year.
As Brian jumped up to the raised platform at the front of the crowd for his timeslot at 12:15am, a technician from CT Lasers right beside him orchestrated a light show that shot out laser beams straight over the heads of about 300 concertgoers. (The beams were the same strength as those used during the Superbowl.) Brian spun a fluid mix of dance-based pop, but also kept true to the night’s theme with heavier numbers too obscure for radio. In January. Brian had said that he’d been looking for ways to fit in less radio-ready dance music while still taking the audience along with him. Saturday night was the perfect occasion for just that.
Brian and the other student DJs— Jarus Singh ’12, Andrew Nelson ’13, Sam Lee ’12, Kyle Alpern ’12, and Vishal Maini ’13 — were selected by submitting a five to 15 minute mixtape that was due about two weeks before the event. Some of the DJs used laptops only while others used laptops with turntables, but all of the sets were performed live. All of the DJs’ sets were kept to 35 minutes.
The event also featured a tent with Monster employees handing out free cans of the energy drink.