Deadmau5 & Benny Benassi Concert

He was a geeky computer guy who found a dead mouse in his hard drive one day. Soon after, his chat room buddies coined him "that dead mouse guy", which was then shortened to a user name allowing 8 maximum characters, hence Deadmau5. The death of that poor little mouse sparked the birth of a very talented electro DJ and producer from Toronto, Canada. Everyone is currently raving about Deadmau5 and after attending his performance at the Guvernment last week in Toronto, my eyes and non-mouse ears loved the experience. I now understand what all the commotion is about.

The night featured legendary Benny Benassi who spun a two-hour set of old and new songs. He was later joined onstage by JFK of MSTRKRFT (pronounced "master-craft") who bopped his shaggy hair with every hard and edgy beat he spun. Both had a great time spinning together and my friend, Nikki, and I had an equally great time watching them front row. (Thanks again for the tickets and guest list Benny and friends!)

With several DJ's in attendance, it was apparent who the crowd favourite was. The venue was packed with fans sporting mouse heads and mouse ears. After my Coachella blog post, I had an overwhelming response to Deadmau5 by readers and friends alike. I started to get the hint that this guy was big on the world music scene when people just couldn't stop talking about him and his live gigs. With all the build up, I was afraid when I actually saw Deadmau5 for myself I'd be disappointed. But, that wasn't the case as Nikki and I were immediately drawn in, impressed and wanted more.

The performance was much more than I ever imagined. His set sounded phenomenal and his light show was absolutely amazing. He performed with his trademark character mouse head for a couple of songs and then threw it into the crowd for one of his lucky fans to take home. His oversized DJ booth/stage spewed a coloured lazer light show and talking mouse head. He knew exactly what and how to mix his sets up so that the crowd felt the build up of every song and stayed energized throughout. The worst thing about his performance is that it eventually had to end.

We watched the end of the show from an open garage door to escape the crowd of overdosing teenagers. With a cool breeze and a nice policeman to take our picture before we left the venue, I'm convinced we had the best seats in the house during that time.