Life In Color threw the “World’s Largest Paint Party” in the Oncenter on Friday. Concert-goers who came in wearing white left a strange shade of pink after performers with hoses blasted them with neon paint. Ravers jumped to the beats of DJs Steve Aoki, Reid Stefan and Nicola. Here are five reactions to the show.

Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki was clearly the concert’s main event. The moment Reid Stefan ended his set, the audience started shouting “A-o-ki” and “Cake me.” When he finally approached the turntables, the crowd got even louder and started chanting along with Aoki.

He did not disappoint with his stage theatrics, either. He started by throwing water bottles that he had taken a sip of into the crowd and then quickly escalated to spraying champagne on the audience. The highlight of the night, though, was when he brought out the sheet cakes. Most of the people in the first few rows were covered in frosting and cake by the time he threw all of them.

The superstar DJ ended his set with “Pursuit of Happiness,” arguably his most famous remix, and everyone on the floor sang along with the carefree lyrics.

Paint in your face

Before the initial “Paint Blast” at the end of Nicola’s set, concert-goers bought bottles of paint to spray on each other. It wasn’t hard to find someone to paint you and you instantly made a new friend when you did.

However, after the show got underway and the paint started coming from the stage it was complete chaos. Those in the front section were completely drenched with the watered-down paint, which kept them cool but also made it difficult to see. When the hoses came out, some audience members even turned around to avoid getting sprayed directly in the face. They did not let it stop them from having fun, though, and they danced with their backs to the stage.

Smaller crowd

According to Life In Color’s Facebook page, 80 percent of tickets had been sold prior to the event and it was easy to see that the venue wasn’t at maximum capacity. For much of the concert, the audience did not reach the end of the fenced-in aisle down the middle of the dance floor, which is small for a rave as they are often packed with as many people as possible.

This made for a better experience for concertgoers, though, as the closer to the front you were the better chance you had of getting paint sprayed on you. If the crowd were any larger, those in the back would have most likely stayed completely dry.

David Solano’s absence

Due to flight delays, Life In Color’s DJ in residence could not make it to Syracuse in time for the show, according to his Facebook page. In Solano’s place, Nicola played the first set of the main show — Syracuse’s own DJ Resis and LFDJ were the opening acts. The show began with telling the story that the world had lost all of it’s color and that the scientists needed the crowd’s energy to get the “Paint Factory” working again. Nicola did a decent job of helping the crowd along in this effort.

However, the energy levels were not even close to the madness of Aoki’s set. This may have been intentional for Nicola, who knew that the crowd would have to keep jumping and shuffling for two and a half more hours. It’s still unfortunate, though, that Syracuse will never know how Solano, a Life In Color veteran, would have led the show.

The EDM community

The Syracuse electronic dance music community came out in full force for this event. Kandi, bandanas and eccentric outfits with fishnet tights, tutus and spandex set them apart from the crowd. They showed newcomers to the Syracuse EDM scene that they were welcome, taking them into their groups and trading kandi with them.

Besides a few outlying instances, including security wrestling a male concertgoer out of the crowd, the good vibes were plentiful. In the perfect homage to the rave community, the MC’s last words were to remind everyone to always have “peace, love and unity.”

Published on October 10, 2015 at 10:41 am

Contact Delaney: dovanwey@syr.edu