Tiesto Fans Shell Out Big Bucks for Small L.A. Club Gig

Precious few DJs have the luxury of making as much money from a small club show as they might at a 2,500-capacity venue like Tiësto. Yet the Dutchman has been doing just that in Los Angeles lately, hitting clubs such as Playhouse in Hollywood last year and playing for a moneyed crowd all too happy to shell out $100 or more per ticket.

On Saturday night, West Hollywood adjacent fans of house music paid similar amounts (and much more at multiple bottle service booths) at SBE’s new La Cienega Boulevard haunt Greystone Manor (formerly Area and other clubs as well) to see Tiësto in a small space, and they went home happy, for the most part.

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Taking the booth at around midnight, Tiesto tore through a dizzying number of tracks familiar to longtime fans of the producer-DJ and current clubbers alike. A highlight early on was Swedish House Mafia member Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso’s “Calling,” which a smiling Tiësto dropped with glee just 20 minutes or so into his set as lasers spun just above his head. From there, the DJ delved deeper into Swedish house material with the Axwell remix of “In My Mind” (he also later played Axwell’s “Resurrection”) before setting course of a crowd-pleasing medley of house versions of alt hits such as Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers,” M83’s “Midnight City” and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know.”

It’s that crowd-pleasing element that proved a double-edged sword at Greystone Manor (which was surprisingly devoid of celebrities — the usual suspects such as Paris Hilton were either out of town or unaware the Dutchman was dropping into the club over the weekend). Fans of Tiësto’s “Club Life: Volume One Las Vegas” may have been a bit let down by the spinner’s set Saturday, which did explore similar territory (for example, Diplo & Tiësto’s “C’mon,” which appears on Club Life, was dropped) yet had less of the buildup, energy and pathos shown on the stellar Club Life.

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In L.A. on Saturday, Tiësto tore through the proverbial ‘hits’ too quickly and never fully let some of the songs he’s known for breathe and build the crowd the way longtime fans might have hoped. Instead, the wealthy bottle-set crowd got a fast-moving set crammed with short snippets of several stellar tracks — perfect for the short-attention-span set, not so great for fans of epic, drawn-out trance music.

No one seemed to mind too much at Greystone, however, as women danced on tables throughout the club. By the time Tiësto dropped current house favorite “Life” by John Dahlback midway through his set before gently easing into his own beloved banger “Beautiful World,” all was right for fans of dance music, no matter what the price.

Twitter: @THRMusic