It’s not quite summer yet in the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, but it sure felt like it this past weekend. After a cold and rainy week, the sun came out just in time for back-to-back nights of Australian house music producer and DJ Dom Dolla (real name Dominic Matheson) at Civic Center Park!
On May 9th and May 10th, Matheson played massive outdoor shows in the heart of the city. Friday’s lineup consisted of EREZ, Girl Math (VNSSA B2B Nala), AYYBO (real name Aaron Bonnema), and a two-hour set by Matheson. On Saturday, Option4 kicked off the night, followed by Girl Math, Cassian, and Matheson.
Civic Center Park
Once the doors to the venue were open on Friday, there were a decent number of things to explore. On one side of the stage were portable restrooms, a water station, and a large bar. On the other side of the stage were more portable restrooms, another bar, a merch stand, and food trucks! The merch stand had some exclusive items for these shows specifically, including a “DENVAAA” hat that sold out within a few hours.
Some brands had interactive pop-up booths in the Greek Theater. Deep Eddy Vodka had lounge chairs, cornhole, and Jenga, and BeatBox had create-your-own customizable sunglasses. Global Dance also had a booth where you could spin to win free concert tickets and merch.
Dreamin’ in Denver
Throughout the evening, all of the openers got to use the same stage setup and almost all of the same production as Matheson. This increasingly popular trend sees headliners refrain from limiting the production of the openers, and it was awesome to see. It was still light out until after 8:00 PM, though, so the full effects of the LED screen and lasers couldn’t be seen until later on in the night.
A tall, narrow LED screen set behind the DJ booth displayed a mix of abstract visuals along with live video of the artists playing and the crowd. To each side of the LED screen were tall towers with multi-colored lights. Light bars also ran along the bottom of the stage and the DJ booth.
By the time Bonnema came on, the crowd had definitely increased in size. That being said, there was still a comfortable amount of room to dance. The sun was setting behind the stage, lighting up the blue sky with beautiful, light orange clouds. Bonnema played a lot of upbeat house tracks, including his popular song “RIZZ“. His visuals were done by Denver’s own VISIONAL.
Dom Dolla Makes Denvaaa Holla
Right at 8:00 PM, Matheson took the stage. The crowd was loud with cheers as the show began, and everyone squished together a bit to be closer to the front of the venue. Matheson opened with “Dreamin‘” featuring Daya. Lasers shone out over the crowd, and tall flames fired on both sides of the stage. These pyrotechnics were crazy! The flames were notably taller compared to what you normally see at a show.
“What’s up Denvaaa!” Matheson said into the microphone. “I f*ckin’ missed you guys.” Live video of Matheson and the crowd played in black and white on the large LED screen, intermixed with bright abstract visuals.
Matheson’s set was electric and perfectly flowed from one track to the next, keeping everyone on their toes while also keeping the energy up. “San Frandisco,” “Rhyme Dust” with MK, “Define” with Go Freek, and “Eat Your Man” with Nelly Furtado were just a few of his own tracks that he played during his set. In addition to popular originals, he also played some remixes of tracks, including “IT GIRL” by Aliyah’s Interlude.
A Magnificent Weekend
Denver needed a healthy dose of warmer weather and tech house, and Matheson delivered. Civic Center Park was the perfect setting for this event, which was definitely giving festival vibes. See for yourself in this clip that Matheson shared on social media. We absolutely cannot wait until he makes his return to Denver!
Until then, summer is ramping up in the Bass Capital. This means that there will be plenty more shows and festivals to look forward to. Keep up with us for show announcements and chances to win tickets here!
Photos by Dom Dolla
