Hello Trance event review

Monstercat Silk 700 at Ora Seattle Event Review

Silk 700 Showcase with BT and Shingo Nakamura May 12th and 13th at Ora Seattle

How are you going to know what clubs to avoid or visit when going to an event outside your local area? Here at Hello Trance we want to provide you with event reviews so that you know if the event or club is a great fit for you. We recently went to Monstercat Silk’s 700 Showcase at Ora Seattle and these are the thoughts we were left with.

Once you have gotten past security at the entrance, you walk through the door to be in an entry room as well as stairs to the upstairs. Downstairs there are two bars and two rooms for music each able to hold around 50-100 people. At Monstercat Silk 700 Showcase these rooms were being used for another event entirely and Silk 700 was upstairs. Thankfully, there was no noise bleeding through from the downstairs to the upstairs areas. These various smaller rooms created a great intimate atmosphere in each room and great viewing of the artist playing in each room whether you were in the back or right up front. Each room also hosted LED screens, and lights throughout to help increase the atmosphere and get people dancing. After climbing the stairs you immediately spotted two walls with fancy couches and tables for the VIP, giving a Las Vegas feel to the club. Across from these seating areas was the bar where many people hung out and chatted throughout the night. Climb 2 steps from this room and were in the area where the DJ played and on the dance floor.

When I arrived at the club it was initially WEB back-to-back with Johnny Monsoon. These two were playing downtempo lounge-style sounds for the opening warmup set. The entire time they were on stage (2 hours) very few people were on the dance floor. Most people just stood, watched, and chatted with friends. As the tempo rose, though, the crowd also grew and started to move to the music more. I didn’t expect this lounge-style music when I first arrived knowing that Shingo Nakamura and BT would be on stage afterward. I believe this slow music actually forced Shingo to play a different style of set which in turn forced BT to change up things last minute as well.

Shingo Nakamura came on for an hour and a half with summer progressive Ibiza-sounding tunes. His set was quite airy and light, which the crowd loved based on how packed the dance floor got during this hour and a half. The visuals on the screen also fit this vibe quite well.

Finally, BT hit the stage after showing up at the club 10 minutes prior. BT has never claimed to be a DJ that uses the decks as we would expect, but instead uses Ableton to line up the beats of the tracks and transition between them. His set was a slower, darker set, nothing like his typical trance productions until the end of his set. The crowds loved it, even though it seemed like the crowds thinned as the night wore on after Shingo Nakamura ended. The last tune of the night happened to be Flaming June. The crowd begged for one more track, but unfortunately, no more would come.

For my final thoughts – I love Ora in Seattle, Washington, as it has a great relaxed atmosphere with friendly staff. I would love to see small changes made where opening DJs play slightly higher BPM music when the headliner also plays higher-tempo music such as uplifting or tech trance.  In this case, the lounge vibe at the beginning of the night changed the entire mood for the night and determined what future artists on the lineup were able to play in order to keep the flow.