Review: Whethan at 9:30 Club — Capitol Sound DC

As a stop on his ever-blossoming “Life of a Wallflower” tour, electro-wizard Ethan Snoreck, aka Whethan stopped by 9:30 Club last Friday to play a sold out show with support from Andrew Luce, and DMV-native, Sweater Beats. With a fairly modest stage production, a decent amount of lasers, strobes and a hologram screen in front of his booth, Whethan set out out to create a music-centric and intimate performance, blurring out most of the ego that typically underscores most EDM shows.

In this new age of electronic music, many artists choose to stay within the comforts of their signature sub-genre. Whethan’s could be categorized as “future bass,” but his set on Friday suggested that he was not entirely keen on sticking to the status-quo. Opening his set with a Rezz-inspired, deep techno track, he immediately commanded the crowd’s attention. Using hypnotic and repetitive visuals, he hinted that this set would be something completely different than his previous tours. Yet, in the midst of it all, Whethan quickly dubbed over the all too familiar lyrics of his song, “Good Nights” featuring Mascolo. Bringing the crowd back to center with familiarity, he moved into his future bass roots with melodic tracks from Odesza and Troyboi and Justice-inspired electro house beats. Occasionally during his set, he strayed from this path to include more deep techno or trap house beats, only to pull back the experimental reigns with his more popular tracks.

Even through a few strategically placed, suspense-building pauses, Whethan’s set was a nonstop dance party complete with a disco ball and rainbow lasers. He kept the crowd entranced throughout the entirety of the set and propelled his story forward with well known future bass pieces like “Sensations (Whethan Remix)” and, of course, Flume’s “Tennis Courts” remix.

He ended his set with a triple original kick: “Sleepy Eyes,” then “Be Like You,” and ended with “Savage.” Hearing the crowd sing along to not only every word, but also each note in every drop was thrilling to say the least, and with that, Whethan praised the crowd and swiftly exited off the stage. After a sufficient amount of chanting, Whethan returned to the stage to play one more song, “Backseat XE3” by AVSTIN JAMES to culminate the end of his set, bringing a close to a uniquely satisfying Friday night with a promising, young artist.