SMILE :D World Tour - Bay Area

 

Wow what a crazy, long day with what feels like an endless amount of substance to talk about. I'm writing this like the day after and im prob not even gonna post until like 3 days after because theres so much to talk about im def gonna forget some details so imma have to like add them in when i remember them but anyway let's first contextualize everything.

My Porter Robinson Story

So I discovered Porter Robinson through the iconic "Shelter" in 7th grade. I still remember just those moments blasting those choruses in my room, like i remember it so distinctly. I also remember discovering it in my discover weekly, i remember just seeing the covert art too like something about the cover art i cant quite remember but i have such a nostalgic attachment to it. I also remember my friend Oscar playing it on his alto sax during band class for our like ensemble performance things every semester and like I instantly recognized it and me and him bonded over Porter. 

Shelter is up there on the EDM mount rushmore, its so iconic, the melody is almost like a whole brand now, a lot of porter mashups/covers will slot that signature melody into a fill or as a transition. It's also just so meaningful to me because like it was Porter and San Holo that really started bringing me towards the mainstream EDM landscape. My 2017 and 2018 era can be characterized as dominantly NCS but with hints of random artists like Kast Away, thefatrat, and random tracks from discover weekly. And then also Gryffyn's "Feel Good" like literally I spammed that song so much it was in my really early playlists. And then of course Shelter and Divinity, just so iconic with the vocal chops and the leads.

Then in 2020 when "Something Comforting" dropped I fell in love with it, it appeared in my discover weekly. When nurture dropped I didn't get into it until 2022 as you can see and then I was instantly trapped, nurture is probably like my 2nd favorite album of all time, just musician, mother, something comforting, get your wish, look at the sky, mirror, do-re, etc. The identity of nurture with the vocal pitching and various samplings just create such a unique blend of songwriting, genres, and tones. 

This is when Porter reached top-tier to me as Nurture was this just long collection of track after track that was banger after banger. I would watch the "Second Sky" festivals on YouTube and watch him play musician live and something comforting live and shelter live, i just remember it sounded so great, I loved the live vocals and processing, and the live nurture edits. And the Clarity edit man. And then his rather recent coachella set was also so good, i downlaoded it and watched the entire performance on the airplane to China, I love madeon's live vocals on shelter there. 

And then in late 2023 Porter announces a new album and then the singles come out and everything and the album comes out, I talk about it more later in this post so imma end it off here, that's my porter robinson story. 

Before Show

Ok so I have a family/childhood friend brandon and its a very long story lmao but like me and my sister would play a lot with him and his sister when i was like in kindergarten and stuff, it was mainly my sister who would play with brandon and his sister, they woudl go to the park a lot and she would like ripstick or they would play some like pole game where u make money by like climbing a pole or something i dont even remember, it was a really integral part of my sister's childhood. Like it was just very classic little kids activities, our parents were friends and my sister woudl frequently use our house phone to call them and ask if they had time to play. We would go to their house a lot and play club penguin and poptropica and stuff. Our two families went on like group vacations to like the beach and liek santa cruz boardwalk and skiing a lot. Like we were really close, this was until like my 3rd grade or something and then we moved and stuff and we like naturally drifted apart but anyway we had like this meetup like i think my senior year of high school and we all changed so much and like were all grown up and everything.

Anyway, us four kids were just talking amongst ourselves like the old days and stuff and then I still remember Brandon going "have any of you guys been going thru an edm phase?" and like im just like WTFFFFF because like I can't stress enough like no one listens to EDM man like back in my senior year of high school no one really even knew who illenium was like not even like that, EDM was shameful to listen to ppl thought u were weird man I was so ahead of the curve but anyway like it's just so rare to hear that and literally like I'm just like yes and then he like names Daft Punk which my sister likes a lot i didnt rly wanna hear daft punk BUT WHEN HE SAID VIRTUAL RIOT IM LIKE WTFF AND THEN LIKE WE TALK FOR SO LONG, WE FIND OUT WE'RE BOTH PORTER FANS, BOTH MADEON FANS, san holo, bishu fans, etc, he also like produces music so thats how he knows about bishu but anyway like i swear to god ive never met like a virtual riot fan like ever in real life. Actually tony li was a huge virtual riot fan but thats like 1 person like we talked about simulation and everything and like virtual riot is so huge in my music listening. When I think of my EDM and the big names of my streams I think of Porter Robinson, Virtual Riot, Teminite, Madeon. That's kinda like my mount rushmore. Like nothing beats just these pure forms of melodic dubstep from virtual riot and teminite, and the nurture/goodfaith combo that make up like my top 2 albums of all time.

but anyway before I keep talking about that lmao wtf am i doing this post is way too long but we start talking a lot on discord, he sends me a lot of like his electronic music hes producing, he went to ucsc and by this time i was still in high school and stuff, he was doing this electronic music minor so yeah he showed me stuff, and then he showed me g jones and hudson mohawke and like this was some really wild forms of EDM it was like some garage bass i dont even know what this genres called but it was so fire, i still listen to "dollaz" when im bored, and admittedly i should listen more to their discography.

But anyway yea brandon also was the one who really pushed good faith to me and he really hyped it up to me, like before I really liked "be fine" and "all my friends" and "love you back" but never really had any intention to listen to the full album. I will say I did listen to adventures in full before. But anyway I listened to good faith and man i first was obsessed with "miracle" and "no fear no more" then i had an era of "heavy with hoping" and "hold me just because" and "mania" and like everything lmao and look where I am now good faith is pretty much my like favorite album of all time its just so versatile and i can really talk about good faith but im getting sidetracked like every other sentence lmao i told myself i woudl just mention that he got me on good faith and here i am OK LETS MOVEON.

So fast forward like a lot like 1 or 2 years, im in my like winter quarter of college and porter announces a new album with some really in-your-face teaser that would soon turn to be the first/lead single "cheerleader" and i remember i didint think much of the teaser but MAN WHEN THE SONG CAME OUT and i heard those verses like those verses really took me away its such a neat progression i love it so much and the bridge too. But anyway Smile :D then comes out like 4 months later lmao and its a fire album, you can see my review for it here. Porter announces the smile world tour and I ask Brandon if hes goingn and if I can go with him and he says yes. If brandon didnt go idk who i wouldve went with, maybe my college friends but they only like listen to the hits. Brandon bought 5 tickets, for me him and 3 of his other high school friends who were also going.

Before Show

So now its 10 AM October 25 friday, the day earlier Thursday i just got home from the bus and my mom picked me up in San Jose. You know this week was actually so tough, i had two pretty big midterms and they were both really hard too. I literally didnt go to the gym at all for like the past 1.5 weeks just cuz those 2 midterms really overwhelmed, me they were pretty much all I could think about, it was pretty unhealthy and I was so stressed. I'll talk more about it in my school update post.

But anyway one of brandons friend picks me up and 2 others and its us 5 in the car driving to Santa Clara at like 10:30 AM. Brandon is like 4 years older than me so it was basically me in a car with 4 software engineers lmao. The plan was to go to the driver's workplace NVidia and chill there and eat lunch there and meet up with more of his friends who are also going to Porter that day which was so hype because who doesn't want to see the NVidia headquarters, let alone eat lunch there. It was definitely really nice, i remember brandon saying it feels like a super hero headquarters, and that it feels like we were about to get bombed lmao.

Lunch was really good, I got a double meat pretzel burger for 4.50 and garlic fries for 2.00, they used the same general ui and fonts as the pleasanton workday cafeteria. There's a ton of options, i was thinking about getting the enchilada too. They also had this strawberry fresca thing at the drinks section which was free and you just pour it in the cup. 

So yeah a really fun lunch, afterwards my NVidia friend (i wont diclose name) left to go do work and so it was me brandon and two friends just chilling in like the front like lounge area just talking and stuff. We played chess, checked out the cafes, took a walk, and mainly talked a lot. I really got to know them really well, and mostly it was just so fun talking about Porter with these people, all of them went to Second Sky and are more than just shelter + cheerleader enjoyers they all have listened to their full discography and watch his streams and everything. To be honest they were bigger Porter fans than me, which was really exciting, like it really is so exciting. We talked a lot about his music and the dynamics of his 3 albums and which one we all like the most and our favorite songs off them, along with talking about his growth as an artist. We also played https://porterrobinsle.com/ which was super fun, like literally I've never been able to bond over music like this before, I've always felt so left out and like isolated, it was so fun having this group with me that knew just as much about Porter as me, it was honestly almost shocking to a point cuz I'm so used to keeping all this to myself. This wouldn't even scratch the surface compared to these other people we were about to meet though... You'll understand...

So we chill at NVidia until like 4 pm or 5 pm or something i dont remember but we spent a few hours after lunch there. We then drive to meet more of their high school friends, so there's more people for me to meet. We pull up to this persons house around the area and I was kinda nervous like I felt like I didn't belong here it was just this high school friend group and here I was lmao. But anyway I meet him and we chill at their house for a while, i think the NVidia guy takes a nap on their sofa lmao but these people i met were so interesting. One of them was this guy who went to MIT who's working at Netflix now and hes so funny and he sounds like moist critical and hes just so chill, another one is this guy who is French/Spanish, but grew up in Lebanon, lived through the beirut explosions, and is now here in America. He can speak English, Spanish, French, and Arabic similar to a lot of Moroccans.

But yeah one of our like core 5 people is named Randy, I'll reveal his name cuz I presume I'll talk about him a lot. Me and him and Brandon are on the MIT guy's keyboards just playing, we talk about random music theory, he plays some really hard pieces, I watch him try to sightread "something comforting", we do a duet where he improvises, and he also just goes on rambles about like piano theory and history and stuff and different eras and styles. Like this guy is CRACKED hes like CM level 10 or something and he's currently looking to buy a whole grand piano from Seattle and he practices a lot and hes just cracked. I remember he taught me this idea that the lower you get the more spaced out chords get because of like it sounds more dissonant, he demonstrated it very well. But yeah Randy was so interesting, he went to UCSC with Brandon and we talked about it a lot when we were killing time at NVidia and their time at UCSC and stuff.

After we chilled at their house, we then left to drive to this korean fried chicken place in San Jose. It was us core 5 plus like 4 others of their friends. I sat next to Randy, Brandon, and 2 of those "other friends" that i just met. The food was pretty solid but I'm not gonna talk too much about it BECAUSE BRO ONE OF THEM ASKS RANDY ABOUT LIKE MUSIC COMPOSITION AND STUFF AND ONE OF HIS FRIENDS GOES LIKE "YOU DONT HAVE TO GO EASY ON HIM, HES A PRODUCER" AKA HE KNOWS A LOT ABOUT MUSIC PRODUCTION BUT ANYWAY SO I ASK HIM WHAT MUSIC HE PRODUCES AND HE LITERALLY SAYS KAWAII FUTURE BASS AND like this is ABSOLUTELY INSANE. This guy produces Kawaii Future Bass, this is such a niche edm subgenre, its literally crazy. This is levels away from commercial melodic bass, this is levels away from monstercat EDM, this is levels away from Bowtied media, this is levels away from Tokyo Machine's label, RetroVision's label, ophelia, disciple, exobolt, etc. THIS IS KAWAII FUTURE BASS. It's just so special to me because my whole EDM genre and shaping is just so genuine and so homegrown. It's just me listening to discover weekly, finding leads, melodies, hooks, songwriting, progressions I like, just great music that attracts me, and moving on from there. I've found so many legendary songs an artists that trickle down to an EDM obsession through my discover weekly, and among those is my everlasting kawaii future bass taste. Kawaii future bass is so fire because it's so happy and like so melodic with springy chords and the vocals are great too. It's just future bass too which I love, some really solid progressions and I've always loved happy music lol. Like I showed them my future bass playlist AND THEY WERE RECOGNIZING SNAILS HOUSE, DYLAN TALLCHIEF AIOBAHN, HONEYCOMEBEAR, TEDDYLOID. THESE ARE ARTISTS THAT I DOUBTED I WOULD FIND SOMEONE ELSE THAT ALSO LISTENS TOO. ITS JUST TOO RARE, BUt through these connections thru brandon here I was. I was literally about to like cry, like I was lowkey freaking out like this is insane, both of them including the MIT guy listens to kawaii future bass and they were huge kawaii future bass fans, they were talking about dylan tallchief's music tutorials and aiobahn's twitter and stuff, and showing me their production. One of this guys songs got like 20k+ views on youtube being on a channel. These people were so legit man it still feels unreal like my kawaii future bass story is just the most niche thing ever its a side effect of the product of me molding and shaping my music taste througout years of listening. I can't believe it man like this isn't supposed to happen how is this happening. 

Show

Anyway all this crazy stuff happening and the concert didn't even happen yet. We were gonna be really late for the concert lmao we were like "rip eric doa" while eating, they also took a while to serve our food tbh. But we split up into two groups and called an uber from the restaurant because we didnt wanna find parking there, and we got there at like 8:15 if I remember correctly. 

It's always so cool seeing those show headlines in front of theaters and stuff. So much aura man. I remember that's when everything started sinking in that I was about to finally go see Porter and that this was about to be insane. I was getting really really excited and hyped and so was Brandon and everyone else too. Eric Doa performs at 7:45 so like we thought we wouldn't make it for Porter in time because there was a huge line to get in but the line started moving fast and we ended up making it our seats with like 5 minutes to spare before the show pretty much started. And here we go!!

Smile! :D

Porter opens with Knock Yourself Out XD which is what I would've guessed if I made one, since it's care-free and also opens the album out. I didn't look like any spoilers so I was in for this experience now. Like man it's just so crazy that hes here like that I see him in-person and he's a real human just like everyone else, idk it really does humanize all this music. It's so crazy just seeing him go through all of these eras and tracks ok anyway lets stay on topic. 

He ends up playing literally all 10 songs from Smile :D, except he saved Cheerleader last. I remember telling Brandon and the gang that he didnt play Cheerleader yet and that he was def saving it for the end. Out of these 9 tracks, my standout was definitely "kitsune maison" idk how that song hit so hard live, you wouldnt expect it, but the choruses were so good man. I think its the nurture pitch shift that he did. Perfect Pinterest Garden, Russian Roulette, Easier to Love You, and Mona Lisa hit well too. But compared to the Nurture and Worlds set he was about to play this set would def rank as like mid. I still really thoroughly enjoyed it though, I really loved that electric guitar solo in "Year of the cup" it's a great live edit, and the Smile balls that were sent through the crowd during "Mona Lisa" along with those 2 ballads "everything to me" and "easier to love you" that provided a really nice change of pace, and everything really hits and culminates in that final synth solo section in "easier to love you" its really special.

Porter also did a collab of "Kids" by MGMT which was SOOO hype because literally I've listened to the Steve Aoki remake of it and I thought it was his song and melody lmao but the thing is the drops in Steve Aoki's version are so bad it's like rawcore so I'm out here trying to find remixes of this Steve Aoki remake because I was so hooked on that lead and none of these remixes out here hit so I'm left so unsatisfied as this lead is effectively wasted, it's such a catchy melody. BUT.... turns out its an old hit with like almost a billion streams on spotify lmao im so dumb but when all the dots connected and that "Kids" by MGMT was that same "Kids" that Steve Aoki remade. Me and our group had our arms around each other and were jumping like crazy during the drops, that was such a nice cover because I literally love that song and now I have that track in my playlists. What a great moment its like effectively my first time listening to that track but also not because I've listened to the steve aoki remake before.

Nurture

And with only like 3 minutes of break or something it feels like, Porter comes back for the Nurture era and it starts off at this bpm thing that double times every 4 bars until it starts spazzing out and then it just is broken by "DA NABA NO DA NABA NO" AND THE MUSICIAN IS PLAYING AND IM FREAKING OUT BECAUSE IM SO CAUGHT OFF GUARD AND IM LITERALLY LISTENING TO LIKE ONE OF MY TOP 3 SONGS OF ALL TIME PROBABLY. LIKE HOLY COW IM LITERALLY LIKE JUMPING UP AND DOWN SCREAMING LIKE IM HEARING MUSICIAN LIVE AND ITS JUST SO SPECIAL EVERYTHING IS HITTING MAN, I REMEMBER WATCHING HIS SECOND SKY PERFORMANCES AND REPLAYING MUSICIAN, OR HIS COACHELLA PERFORMANCE, BRO ALL I WANTED WAS MUSICIAN LIVE AND HE OPENS NURTURE WITH IT. I WAS SO SHOCKED I WAS LITERALLY FREAKING OUT. During the choruses man I was literally like screaming out the lyrics, ive literally streamed this track hundreds of times, the lyrics are basically in my dna, and like just thinking about it now i wish i could relive that man. There's so many moments that I want to relive im not gonna spoil it youll hear about it in the rest of this blog post, but like man those were some really special times, it almost feels like it didnt happen in a way. Wow bruh just that entire track along with the bridge I was sooo into it. Its so crazy bruh. 

Then he played tracks like unfold, look at the sky, get your wish, something comforting, everything goes on, trying to feel alive. He didnt play mirror or do-re but its fine cuz something comforting was so great especially the drops AND THEN HE DOES A SURPRISE SONG FIRST EVER LIVE BAND VERSION MOTHER. LITERALLY LIKE IF I WERE TO REQUEST ONE SONG TO BE PLAYED TODAY IT WOULD BE MOTHER. THIS IS LITERALLY LIKE A DREAM I WAS SO CONFUSED. I REMEMBER BRIAN (BRANDONS FRIEND) LITERALLY STARTED DAPPING ME UP DURING THE CONCERT BECAUSE I TOLD HIM MOTHER IS MY 2ND FAVORITE NURTURE SONG EARLIER AND I WAS SO CONFUSED CUZ I DIDNT HEAR IT PROPERLY AND SO I ASKED HIM WHAT HAPPENED HE TOLD ME HE IS ABOUT TO PLAY MOTHER AND IM JUST LIKE HUH??? 

So when I think of that Mother performance I just think about the purple stage, I remember it was so purple, and rafa's guitar solo for the bridge. I love that bridge so much I always single along to it whenever I hear mother. Mother is ltierally my second favorite track of porter maybe like of all time man, it just means so much to me. I love that chorus so much and those mini sound bite-esque everywhere, and that bridge is just so emotional, i love those runs and the progression so much. This song means so much to me and I literally heard it live man I didn't record like any part of it man I miss that so much, what a beautiful song, it means so much to me man. https://x.com/j_tsengg/status/1850068766274564577, https://x.com/foulstonphotos/status/1850041240139735343.

I used to watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbaVgleVcX0 and I showed my mom it one time. It's such a great music video and I love the art style and the nurture font. Man just watching this video and those twitter videos i literally get so much chills and like it puts me at such a soft spot. 

Its Porter's "Mother" and Taylor Swift's "The Best Day", and you can throw in Owl City's "This is the End" or "Saltwater Room" as these comfort tracks that I lsiten to and it just takes me away to these emotions and feelings no other art can do. Just the songwriting and progression purely is all you need for music sometimes and its just so beautiful how it comes together like this. It really makes me cry man, im on your side for the rest of your life, youll never be alone donchu worry my child, and now theres an emptyyy room, youve ouuuttgrewwww, im here for you...ohhhh ohhhhhhh.

And that's how nurture went, porter playing mother i think ill still never comprehend how lucky i am. Like wow i havent thought about it too much but now that i think about it, i really am so lucky. Literally it feels meant to be and taht it was supposed to be like this all along. 

Heres my last.fm porter robinson top tracks of past 4 years (when nurture era started):

Worlds

Then we have the Worlds era which is like one of the EDM pioneer albums of the 2010s and the big reason a lot of EDM fans got into EDM and Porter fans got into Porter. My standouts going into the concert were Divinity, Sad Machine, and Goodbye to a World mainly. I will say Worlds is my weakest album in terms of knowledge and streams and stuff. But the live set was SO good, for the entirety of the set he was surrounded by these lightup balloons and he would mallet them to play them like a synthesizer where each balloon was a note.

[insert photo]

 It was honestly kinda goofy and funny because for a lot of the tracks most of hte time he would just be there whacking this instrument created and idk just his demeanor was so funny the way he would wack it. Sad Machine and Goodbye to a World used this along with shelter and hear the bells among others. Anyway, when I think about this set I instantly attract towards Language, that build up is literally something else. That track with it's build up, progression, and pure simplicity/beauty and then play that in this live setting was so euphoric holy cow. Me and Brandon were literally freaking out dude those were such good times man LANGUAGE HIT SOOOO HARD. Shelter also was fire and so was Divinity and Sad Machine and Fresh Static Snow. And like everything else. So many of these songs were like miles better live for some reason which was so unexpected, like fresh static snow and hear the bells, i think it was those guitar parts that added so much. 

So yeah Worlds was amazing man Language was easily the best part of the entire show, that drop and everything just blew down the roof like holy cow this song language is perfect for blasting on my speaker but in that venue its just a whole different stratosphere. And then just the whole worlds theme is kinda like elevated in this live venue too, so many of these like somewhat sleeper tracks I dont listen to much were so fire live like literally. And also thsoe mallets I really liked that, and of course shelter and the bridge of shelter needs a shout out too.

Cheerleader + Final Thoughts

And then like all of us noticed, he ends off the show with Cheerleader. Now Cheerleader was actually quite underwhelming just because the lead played live is this like sharp synth or guitar or something and its just not the same as the studio version where its this dense in-your-face sliding synth and paired with the screaming vocals on the drop where its also a bit lack luster live. But that doesnt take away how amazing the verses were live, it's so intuitive for that verse to be so great live and it was. Overall I enjoyed it though, its a great song to close off the show and kind of bring things back to the Smile :D era and roots because thats what this tour is about too. I just remember so clearly thinking to myself in that final chorus that wow, this is all ending... After these final four bars its over, and with the rock power ending it was over, confetti everywhere, what a time.

Looking back everything was so stacked man, the ranking goes Language, Musician, then maybe Mother or Sad Machine or Kitsune Maison or something. I wish I took more videos and longer videos because man I wanna relive those moments but at the same time I was so in the moment so maybe I don't want more videos. It was by far a better concert than Zedd, though it's hard to compare the two as theyre really different. Zedd was pretty fire with Shanti and Descensus and all those 2010s hits and everything, it was def hype and I really loved some of the flips and visuals, but at the end of the day thats a different type of concert and nothing can top live bands where its just artists with pure music making. It's so human, it brings just this life-like energy to the music. I love solo'ing and I love guitars and drums and I love the idea that people can mess up and I love seeing these people kill it, it makes me think that in some other reality I'm a drummer for a famous musician like Porter just killing it on the stage and traveling the world, thats such a dream job. Man I should join a band. 

But yeah, theres just so much to say and this post is already extremely long. After the concert we drove and met up with the other 3 ppl from earlier at the same house and we chilled for a bit, we wathced an episode of "House" and that show is really good lol def was pretty interesting its like this doctor saving patients and stuff. I remember on the car ride back to Pleasanton me and one of Brandon's friend was talking for a long long time about so much stuff like music, band, piano, and tetris because literally Hazel from ICPC last year kept talking about Tetris even though no one cared lmao so I knew that Hazel would know this person and she literally did they were like co-presidents of the tetris club or whatever and Hazel's brother is like cracked at UCLA like #1 on the leaderboards in tetris lmao. 

Just an amazing day surrounded by so many people that share this niche EDM love with me, its just so happy to like talk with these people like so openly and like have all these references and know all these tracks unlike all the mainstream EDM/Porter fans. I've never met like this many edm fans in one place and definitely, ESPECIALLY not kawaii future bass. I'm still so shocked like I cant believe it its so crazy. Everything went by so quickly, what a fun day with some great people, literally everything about this day exceeded my expectations. This Porter concert was so special and I met so many people it just feels so good, its something coooooommmforting.

Lyric(s) of the Post: 

Give me release
Let the waves of time and space surround me, yeah
'Cause I need room to breathe
Let me float back to the place you found me
I'll be okay

Porter Robinson - Language