Last Wednesday, The Majestic Theater hosted Paper Diamond, a DJ and producer who’s made quite a name for himself in the realm of big-room electronic music. The Rain Drops Tour, named for the newly released “Rain Drops” EP, has extended across the country and beyond with all of the energy and charisma that Paper Diamond’s fans have come to expect. I’ve always maintained that while there is absolutely a time and place for heavy bass music that serves only the functional purpose of making people “rage,” there’s a disgusting lack of creativity within the sea of artists whose only goal is to follow that formula and melt their fans’ faces with heavy bass drops. That being said, if there is in fact a time and place for incessant bass-dropping, it’s a tour like the Rain Drops Tour, but it’s not the time nor the place for me, or anyone looking for anything more than that musically.
My first regret of the night was getting to The Majestic too late to see Louis Futon, the first opening act on Paper Diamond’s bill. Louis Futon falls into the rank of creative, thoughtful artists who are keeping the electronic music scene fresh and promising. While I can’t comment on Louis’ live show, I urge you to check out his work if you have a taste for deep melodies and beautiful instrumental samples.
gLAdiator, the DJ duo who took the stage next, played a set with a significantly higher level of energy and lower level of originality. It hurts to admit it, because I had a blast during their set. The crowd was loving it, it was mixed perfectly and the bass wasn’t excessive. My only criticism concerns their song choice, which was littered with predictable crowd-pleasers that had me smiling, dancing and rolling my eyes at the same time. And it’s not gLAdiator's fault—EDM, characteristically, is performed and presented in a collaborative context. The entire premise of a DJ set is that a good DJ samples and draws from other artists’ work while mixing in their own ideas. As a result, the best songs are the quickest to become overplayed. When gLAdiator dropped Zedd’s “Clarity,” one of the most explosively popular dance tracks in recent years, my only thoughts were “This is an undeniably great song,” and “I really didn’t need to hear this song ever again.”
I had a lot of mixed feelings about Paper Diamond’s set, largely because I had gone into the show expecting something more than the repetitive eruption of bass vomit that he unleashed upon the Majestic crowd. I have a lot of respect for Alex Botwin—the man behind the Paper Diamond pseudonym—as an entrepreneur, as a producer and as a person in general. But when I spoke with him before the show, he spoke of an innovative new live show and fresh music that was supposed to offer a refreshingly creative and artistic experience. Perhaps if I hadn’t let his words get my hopes up, I wouldn’t have been so underwhelmed by his set. Only the most “turnt” big-room trap songs made the cut, and there was a distinct method to his transitions: rising vocal track, quarter-note snare, eighth-note snare, sixteenth notes, drumroll, pause, heavy bass explosion, rinse and repeat. The PA system that Paper Diamond had brought in addition to the Majestic’s exacerbated the process.
Throughout Paper Diamond’s set, not only did the bass spewing from his extra PA system shake the entire room, but it was overpowering, often rendering the melodies and vocal tracks virtually inaudible. I can’t criticize his choice to crank up the bass to begin with—despite my personal opinions, I understand that it’s important to his heavy, high-energy style of performance—but at the end of the day, every musician’s priority is to sound good. The overpowering bass murdered the quality of his live sound and rattled the room beyond anything I’ve ever felt. In fact, standing on the dance floor in front of those speakers was physically uncomfortable. Perhaps this had something to do with the power outage that interrupted his set, at which point the crowd stood in darkness and silence until the show could resume.
As I said before, I respect Paper Diamond for his involvement in every step of the creative process. Alex Botwin is a talented graphic artist, and the visual element of his show really impressed me, as it included much more dynamic and ambitious scenery than the typical kaleidoscopic loops. On that note, whoever is running the lights at Paper Diamond’s show is a master of their craft.
I’ll also admit that Paper Diamond’s original songs were the highlight of his set. His new EP didn’t drop until days after the show, but when he encored with one of the new songs it was the most musically impressive thing I’d heard all night. In fact, I like the “Rain Drops” EP overall, and I can tell that Paper Diamond is progressing as an artist in an exciting way, even if it didn’t show onstage.
I don’t know. Maybe the heavy, trap-y bass music just isn’t for me. Maybe I’m overthinking a style of music that really only exists for people to have fun and let loose. To that extent, maybe the show was a success. Hell, even I had a blast, even if the music nerd in me was underwhelmed. However you want to look at it, there was a lot of energy in the crowd Wednesday. Paper Diamond clearly made a lot of people happy, and that’s ultimately what’s important. I just hope that he continues to push himself creatively like he did on the new EP, because fun performances and creative music shouldn’t be mutually exclusive concepts.
