Come and see the Pretty Lights

Colorado DJ welcomes CU students

Among an abstract light show, a pulsating crowd and rippling waves of electronic beats, CU students unite.

During the  annual Welcome Back Concert Saturday night, CU students were treated to a show by the band Pretty Lights.

Fort Collins-based producer Derek Smith and live drummer Cory Ederhard mixed a seamless set live rather than simply using prerecorded music. Pretty Lights  mashes a variety of genres and music generations to create an organic sound not limited to simple computer generated beats.

“I think it’s interesting that the school approved of this kind of music for freshman orientation,” said Marcus Goodgaine, a junior philosophy major. “Typically you’d expect something generic like rock or hip-hop [that] the youth would like.”

Pretty Lights is anything but generic. Their music is as raw as electronica can get. He fed off the cues of the inebriated crowd and followed their lead, producing the duo’s signature down-tempo beats. Pretty Lights fuses each individual sound into a streamlined, organic presentation that strips down music and achieves the feat of making electronica not just danceable and psychedelic, but ambient.

Yet not all students are aware of their unique beats.

“I don’t really know about Pretty Lights, but I think it’s a nice thing for CU to hold for the incoming freshman to bring the campus together,” said Jon Abel, a junior International Affairs major.

However, Pretty Lights transfers well for people new to the electronic scene as they infuse their sound with a pop-esque structure, mashing popular and classic songs with their own original sound.

Pretty Lights managed to keep the crowd enthusiastic, while still maintaining control.

“I’ve heard like three of his CDs and he’s feeling the crowd, last year Girl Talk had to stop the show it seems like Pretty Lights has better crowd control,” Goodgaine said.

Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Sara Kassabian at [email protected]