When Embrace announced that they were throwing an EP release party for Something Wrong Here at The Hoxton in Toronto on October 7th I knew had to be there. The Hoxton is one of my favorite venues located at the corner of King and Bathurst, it is small enough to be intimate, running the powerful and clear PK sound system, double bars, visual projectors, stage lighting and leather seating. The combo of REZZ, The Hoxton and new tracks sounded like the perfect recipe for a good night. The only thing that troubled me slightly was that I did not know who the supporting DJs were until a few days before, which turned out to be Cosella and Melissa Calavera. I am not surprised that this night was SOLD OUT with loads of people asking for tickets. REZZ is blowing up, people are loving her tracks and the reception she gets from shows hover around the “she smashed it” mark.

I arrived in the area around 10:30PM made my way to The Hoxton from my parking spot only 10 minutes away, I personally don’t mind the walk. When I arrived at the venue there was not much of a line for me to get in. While waiting in line listening to the walls shake from the bass, I befriended a couple guys who knew of REZZ’s manager Jonathan C. It’s always nice to make friends who you can bump into later in the party.

When I got in, the beautiful Toronto DJ Melissa Calavera was on the decks. The sound as described on her SoundCloud page was exactly that, minimal sounds, with a drive of techno and bounciness of house. I appreciated her sound, it was light enough to get me comfortable, while exploring the venue and not too intense right from the start. Through my exploration I met Christian Santacruz, a friend of Melissa’s who agreed to support this post with his photos. Melissa Calavera’s visual effects were very minimalistic, there were a few lights illuminating her while she played her set and that was it, nice and simple for the later build up I presumed.

During Melissa’s set, I was approached by a female who I soon realized was a brand ambassador for Snapple Spiked Tea Vodka. I was led to the back The Hoxton where I was offered free samples of Peach and Raspberry Spiked Tea Vodka to sample. Personally I have always been a peach Snapple kind of guy and I still stick to that flavor with the Snapple Spiked Vodka. This free sampling was available to all attendees who openly agreed to try.

By 11:25 PM Melissa Calavera switched over to other Toronto resident Cosella. His sound was different from Melissa’s with more deep and tech house, which started to increase the bounce and intensity of the party. His set also included video projection animations on the side of the walls of his DJ name along with what I would call tribal cat animations.  

At this point the venue was already 65% full. People were starting to dance, step, bounce and overall groove harder with dance circles forming in different sections of the floor. LED glove shows were in full effect as at least three different members from the Toronto Rave Community were there doing their thing to entertain the crowd with their impressive light shows. This was the first time I witnessed a glove dancer tag team with another glove dancer to give me a light show and I must say, I was quite entertained.

One of the greatest things to have in a venue are couches, and I was happy there were leather couches available for me to rest before REZZ’s set because I knew I would be going hard. While sitting down I got to appreciate the PK sound system. Cosella pushed the system so hard I could feel my whole body vibrate like I’ve never experienced before and it was amazing! A word to all club goers, invest in some acoustic ear plugs to protect your hearing and prevent damage, party responsibly!

At 12:00 AM the crowd was starting to flow in and the venue was getting packed from the SELL OUT show. People were getting settled in for REZZ and there was an overall nice balance between men and woman. Penetration into the crowd was becoming very difficult, friend trains were maneuvering their way around and it was becoming a shoulder to shoulder affair.

Around 1:00 AM the venue goes dark in preparation for the entrance of Rezz. The crowd is ready as they repeatedly chant “Rezz.” Men’s shirts had started to come off from the heat generated from all the bodies in the room. The side wall video animations were no longer on and all the focus was on the front stage. As Rezz took the stage to set up, the crowd began to cheer with screams coming from different directions of the floor. Rezz’s LED glasses lit up the room and the crowd went even louder with excitement.

From this point, I will try to recall what she played.

The first track she dropped was ‘Relax,’ this was one of her newer unreleased tracks. It was ironic as no one was relaxed when this dropped. The air cannons went off for the first time that night, cooling and hyping the crowd up which was appreciated by all as they reached for the sky.  

Next up was ‘Edge’ from The Silence is Defening (TSID) EP the track that first got me into REZZ. This was a crowd favorite as we all chanted to the rhythm and danced with whatever room we had. Next REZZ reached back to her Insurrections EP, with ‘Plague’ for some hard hitting bass and wobbles. I have a feeling the crowd was less familiar with it (as was I) but they still got down, hands in the air, and heads banging.

REZZ has mentioned in her past interviews that she got her inspiration from Gesaffelstein and that’s what she played next, ‘OPR’. You could tell she was having a good time as she grooved and bounced along with the music and the crowd. Back to her tracks from TSID with ‘Delusion’ and “slipped” in her remix of Deadmaus5’s ‘Slip’. For any fans of Stranger Things, REZZ played Sheol’s remix of the intro.

Midway through the show REZZ took a break to look for her Super Fan who she gifted a pair of Sol Republic x REZZ custom headphones for consistently representing and supporting her. What a great way to show love to her supporters!

From there we jump into her collaboration with Raito, ‘Alien’ which was popular amongst fans and was a great way to get the crowd back into it from the headphones break. As a Marilyn Manson and ‘This is The New Shit’ fan growing up, it was a treat to hear her remix dropped on the crowd. As the energy continued to climb REZZ dropped Destroid – ‘Funk Hole’. Screams rang out from the front to the middle of The Hoxton, everyone was off their feet jumping up and down to this awesome tune. Bassnectar’s ‘Bass Head’ got the crowd back down to the floor, but their heads were banging and with a lot of cheers from the crowd.

At this point Rezz took off her LED glasses, it appeared as though performing with them on for so long was getting tiring. This was replaced by the enhanced video visuals behind her that went along with the music for the remainder of the night. The visuals were entrancing and a great addition to the set. They included puzzles, mazes, 0 and 1 matrix, and various patterns.

Homage was made to Deadmau5 as a remix of ‘Raise Your Weapon’ was played accompanied by the air cannons once again. This was followed up with Deadmau5 – ‘One Trick Pony’ ft. Sofi which was welcomed by the crowd; slowing the tempo down, but keeping the bass heavy.

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After all those memorable tracks, lest we forget this was the EP release party for Something Wrong Here as she dipped back for ‘Selector’ and ‘Purple Gusher’ back to back reminding why we were all there that night. As the night went on woman after woman began sitting on their friends shoulders in the crowd clearly enjoying their time and letting loose.

After a few more bangers her last track for the night was ‘Lost’ ft. Delaney Jane which slowed things down for her encore. What was her encore track? I don’t know, I did not write it down or take a video of it and I cannot remember. All you have to know was that it was a perfect way to end the night. The crowd left pleased, satisfied by a great DJ, EP and party. Thanks for reading!

Listen to Something Wrong Here below.

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For more Rezz check her out on:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialREZZ/
SoundCloud – https://soundcloud.com/rezz-official
iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/rezz/id1046759940

Words by Eric Fung. Follow him on YouTube & Instagram. Photos by Christian Santacruz Photography.

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