2013 was a year full of big dance music moments, but the true test of a dance music year is its New Year’s Eve celebration. NYE parties draw the biggest DJs, producers, and artists in the world, as everyone clamors to fill their lineups with the best and brightest.
Now in its fourth year, Resolution is the go-to event in the Northwest for an EDM New Year. The extravaganza was not to be missed and offered two massive stages. One dedicated to the festival anthems we’ve come to love. One dedicated to the dirtiest, heaviest bass. Both stages rang in 2014 raging. Headliners Above & Beyond and Knife Party promised to be the biggest Northwest gets ever.
Beauflexx and Digital Lab opened the night and had the crowd roaring before everyone was in the door. Highlights of the night included Must Die!, AC Slater’s storybook set, NERVO’s visual spectacle, Lazy Rich’s massive bigroom set on the mainstage, and The M Machine’s three-man live performance. Figure and Emma Hewitt performed the countdown, Figure with an electronic timer, Emma Hewitt in the midst of her trademark vocal stylings.
The Knife Party set was nothing but pure adrenaline for almost an hour and a half. The set was full of big room anthems like Swedish House Mafia’s Save The World being given the electro bass treatment. Everything about the visual show aligned with their monster machine motif. Red lights, endless lines of numbers sweeping across the screen, blazing spotlights, and blasts of smoke. All perfectly performed (the visuals of the entire evening were beyond good, they were great).
But if you asked any Resolution attendee what they were looking forward to most, the standout answer would have been Above & Beyond. The trance gods had promised to bring their wildly successful Group Therapy show to Seattle. Expectations were high and anticipation was higher. As Knife Party ended their set, the music made the expected transition to trance. But after a few minutes it became clear that the performers on stage were not the beloved A&B.
Due to fog we have not been able to land in Seattle. We're doing everything we can to try to make the show but the odds are against us 🙁
— Above & Beyond (@aboveandbeyond) January 1, 2014
Due to a travel delay from Decadence in Denver, CO, local favorites Darrius and Johnny Monsoon took to the stage to fill the time. Ravers anxiously refreshed their Twitter feeds, hoping that Above & Beyond would emerge to save the night. One flight reroute to Yakima later, and it was abundantly clear that our trance heroes wouldn’t be making it. Some ditched the show then, but those who stayed were treated to something truly spectacular. The local set kicked into high gear, bringing to the table some of the most intensely hard trance we’ve ever heard. Deep, booming kicks, a snowstorm of noise, and long, repeating melodies became the flavor of the mainstage.
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