Super Unnatural, the premiere house festival (and underworld) presented by Body Language, resurrected to WestWorld in Scottsdale, Arizona on Nov. 1-2. Necromancers in love with foreboding house music and techno celebrated life (and death) with rare performances like The Martinez Brothers B2B Mochakk. iHeartRaves shares 5 highlights from this dance floor in the underworld.
A Ring Around Roses and Candles: A Day of the Dead-Themed Experience
Summoning spirits from the dead or commemorating those in the underworld with a house music-emitting shrine, this theme highlighted the Day of the Dead. Instead of killer clowns, WestWorld became the most romantic shrine. The front of the stage was consumed by red roses and glowing candles like a vigil.
For those who needed a break from house music on day 2, Lilly Palmer performed hard techno with track “Hype Boy” in a red latex outfit like she was a rose on stage for this shrine as well. Table service buckets held both ice and long candlesticks further distorting this dance floor’s reality into a party for the supernatural in the heat of dance.
Candy Skulls and Costumes of WestWorld
Characters deriving from fables, cartoons, and film infiltrated the dance floor for two nights. The outstanding costumes were crafted into satanic nuns, Austin Powers, Sailor Moon, and a Sofia-Coppola-inspired-Marie Antoinette fully clothed in pink.
Couple costumes stole this fashion show as a couple in VIP wore Velma and Shaggy costumes from Scooby Doo. The red devils, fallen angels, and Strawberry Shortcakes on the dance floor were other timeless costumes taking place.
Relentless Beat’s official Weird and Wonderful performers were disguised as candy skulls, the dead, and other supernatural figures marching across the venue with candles in their hands. Sadly, there was an absence of costumes among the Scottsdale crowd and a Las Vegas club-appropriate dress code was unconsciously worn.
Chris Lake’s Haunted House Soundscape
Does anyone else have a sweet-spot for Chis Lake? This performance was the perfect trick-or-treat experience for the ears because nobody could have expected his music style to transform into a form of darker, heavy house similar to his horror-themed track, “Nightmares”.
There wasn’t heavy bass but rather penetrative basslines emulating the chilling nature of scary music one could hear in a haunted house. House music made exclusively for this Halloween-themed event transformed WestWorld into a haunted mansion–forget house, call it mansion music.
Imagine Chris Lake’s tracks, “I Want You” and “In The Yuma” in their most evil form! As the mansion changed soundscapes, the dance floor was buried in oceanic blue lights and lasers during “Summertime Blues”, his most lullaby-like track best heard live.
Fatboy Slim
Was this your first time seeing Fatboy Slim live, too? This house music pioneer that once performed at Woodstock 1999 finally made an appearance in Arizona. He featured his live mix of “Praise You” x Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
While this performance was a pearl of old-school EDM, the visuals were purposefully random. Illustrations ranged from bizarre to emotional and humorous. One visual depicted a massive eye on the screen with a caption that read “we are one with the universe”.
After, the unpredictability continued with another visual of Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies dancing while Fatboy Slim’s face was photoshopped on her body. Soon, the whole mystery gang from Scooby Doo was illustrated dancing behind Fatboy Slim as he mixed.
He closed the set with “Praise You” making it the track he used to both begin and finalize the performance. Using this track twice was like listening to a story with a beginning and end or reading a poem with a passionate refrain.
From Dusk-Dawn-Dusk: The Official Afterparties
Halloween weekend guarantees crowded streets swarming with people in costumes in both downtown Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona. Nobody likes a sold-out party if they’re on the outside of the club. Making a destination for the party to continue on this jam-packed weekend, Relentless Beats and Body Language officialized afterparties on both days in more than one location for a B2B-club-hopping time!
On night 1, Chris Lake hopped from one stage to another after performing the last set of the night before starting the party at Clubhouse at Maya. On night 2, Patrick Topping turned the music on again at Clubhouse at Maya while Mita Gami headlined at Sunbar Tempe.
