All year long, we welcome nationally and globally touring artists to our stage for Studio Milwaukee Sessions, sponsored by Ellenbecker Investment Group. If you want to be in the live audience for these VIP experiences, become a member today.
In the shadow of the championship-level chaos of the Brewers’s World Series parade, Studio Milwaukee burst at the seams with a stellar DJ set that shook the speakers to their core as producer and electronic-artist extraordinaire Flamingosis spun some tracks from his album Bright Moments.
Aaron Velasquez, the soul of the operation, was in the city on tour to celebrate a decade of the record, an important milestone for any artist. His ability to perform this landmark creation in more than 20 cities across the country is a marker for his personal success — something that clearly doesn’t go to his head based on his Studio Milwaukee Session.
Velasquez walked on stage without any grandeur. Fanny pack still slung around him, he approached the show without any stress on his face, focusing more on the flow of the music. His performance reflected the fact that this album flows so smoothly. It’s light to the touch, with a fresco of samples that bounce around the eardrums effortlessly.
Equipped with just a laptop and mixing board, Velasquez brought something more to the stage: his considerable skill set. The proof was in tracks like “Believe In Me” that are baked to such a focused point. His love for music itself shines through his production choices. The lyrics seem to be sampled from more soulful pop records — high-strung vocals that, when mixed with a bright breathy beat, turns the instrumentation into an earworm.
Velasquez embodies that in a live setting. As he starts mixing he starts moving, bumping his head to the beat and dancing through each section. You can feel the love of the art emanating from him. This was no rave. The environment doesn’t lend itself to a rowdy crowd. But within the intimately lit studio space, shoulders shook, heads moved and hearts thumped. Velasquez controls a room through his tracks with a single purpose: dance.
That’s made manifest in his blending of funk and soul, incorporating live elements of brass and drums that transmit a more grounded feel. It was like listening to a friend show off their Ableton drafts in their bedroom studio. For Velasquez, you don’t have to pretend to like it; you just do.
Beyond Bright Moments, he graced us with a track from his newest record, Daymaker, added as a bonus just for the in-person audience. The bones of Bright Moments could be heard, but it was elevated in the mix. Velasquez brings a new perspective to Daymaker, with a clear hunger to get a night club rocking.
For us it was a great end to a wild week of Milwaukee history, backed by a storied East Coast DJ showing off his Jersey roots here in the 414.
