Kaskade ready to own summer with nightclub, dayclub gigs
Kaskade will DJ Saturday night at Marquee nightclub, then he will go to sleep near dawn, wake up, and walk to Marquee’s Dayclub pool to perform again Sunday afternoon.
Kaskade is so popular, he is contracted to carry out this same “doubleheader” schedule (dubbed “Summer Lovin’ ”) three weekends a month until Sept. 1.
“I’m camping out in Vegas,” Kaskade says.
The concept — to present a compact group of performances with a distinct sound, look and brand — was his idea.
He thought, “Instead of (performing) once a month, why not all at once, over the summer?”
Marquee executives loved the idea. Why wouldn’t they? Kaskade draws many thousands of partyers a night.
He is also loyal. Many other famous DJs spent the winter signing contracts to move from one club to another on the Strip.
So why did Kaskade re-sign with Marquee?
“The reason I stuck around is I’ve been there two years, and I feel like I haven’t hit my stride yet,” he tells me.
Some fans will read that sentence and think Kaskade is crazy, since his 2012 was “bananas,” as he says.
“And yes, (Marquee in 2012) was packed to the rafters, and people were swinging off the light fixtures, and it was total pandemonium,” Kaskade says.
But playing regularly at Marquee strengthened him artistically, he says. And he doesn’t want to lose that momentum.
“I got to play really long sets there. And I work with the owners of the club to make sure I feel extremely comfortable there so I can do these long stretches.
“I feel like I’m just hitting my rhythm. To switch it up and go to another club — as fun as that sounds — I feel there are more things to do here at Marquee.”
In fact, he and the club are synonymous with each other. When I say to him that he’s the only DJ on the Strip who defines an entire club — “you’re like Marquee’s mascot” — he laughs and says,
“Right. I’m their guy.”
He and club execs are on the same creative and business page. When he pitched his idea of the full “Summer Lovin’ ” residency, they were on it.
“They were, like, ‘This is awesome.’ So this is the right fit for me.”
Besides, he says, if he had moved to one of the new clubs on the Strip, as some of his peers did, he wasn’t sure if those new clubs would “get things right.”
“I don’t want to go to a show and be, like, ‘The sound didn’t work,’ ” he says.
“I mean, I worked so closely with Marquee before they opened up,” Kaskade says. “I just spent a lot of time making it right, you know?”
In other words, he is not detached from the club he plays. It’s not just a venue. He feels intrinsically connected to it.
“This is why I’m on Twitter so much,” he says. “I feel a sense of responsibility to get on Twitter and talk to people about my upcoming shows.
“I feel a sense of ownership in the night.”
Doug Elfman’s column appears on Page 3A in the main section on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He also writes for Neon on Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
