Hordes of students charged the Binghamton University Events Center Thursday night, sporting giant fur boots and neon body suits. But this isn’t some late Halloween party. No, this is what happens when Afrojack comes to town.
The Grammy-winning music producer and DJ took over the turntables as a part of his U.S “Jacked Tour” with opening act Quintino. And the Binghamton thirst for electronica was quenched; students experienced three hours of sheer EDM insanity.
From 8 p.m. until 11 p.m., red, blue and green strobe lights pierced the haze-filled air as a sea of neon bodies pulsated in dubstep harmony. Afrojack, who was listed as No. 7 on DJ Mag’s top 100 DJs of 2011, played his biggest songs, like the 2010 single “Take Over Control.”
Afrojack began with the unflinching announcement: “Binghamton, if you want to get f**ked up, make some big f**king noise.” This gem of logic marked the beginning of a tear-inducing, ear-splintering color orgy. One that Lisa Dillon, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience, won’t soon forget.
“I was standing on the bleachers and watching everyone like go hard together all at once,” she said. “It was all my friends and like everyone went, everyone knew someone.”
The thick odor of party sweat rose from a crowd of glowsticks, pacifiers, drowning arms and glow-in-the-dark pinnies. For three hours, the Events Center pulsed to a diabetic electronic heartbeat, an epilepsy-inducing celebration of electronica. It was as if the collective body realized, “Obama won, I’m rolling, all that’s left to do is dance” — at least according Mike Amory, a senior majoring in economics.
“A random girl came up to me, asked me my name, and then whispered in my ear, ’3121’ and walked away,” Amory said.
Brianna Friia, vice president of programming for the Student Association, was more than pleased with the experience.
I think it was an amazing show, and Quintino really revved up the crowd,” Friia said, referring to the opening act. “Approximately 3,000 tickets were sold.”
The 3,000 attendees came prepared. Students wore glow-in-the-dark crowns, light-up jackets and neon tanks with such phrases as “Booze, Boobs, Boost,” and “Where’s Molly?” Together they formed a drug-induced army, a Mardi Gras of rainbow energy.
Mallory Stein, a junior majoring in English, thought her ticket was well worth buying.
“It’s nice to see that Binghamton is responding to the popularity of the EDM genre,” she said. “He’s a big name and it was so cool to get him here.”
The Student Association isn’t done raging just yet. Childish Gambino will be finishing off the semester on Nov. 18. That being said, no one will forget the night the EDM gods smiled down upon the Binghamton University Events Center — the night Afrojack took over control.