There’s no place like home

NIGHTMARE ON FRONT STREET

EDM TAKES MANKATO BY STORM HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Jenna Vagle

Downtown Mankato was infested with zombies, nurses, angels, demons, TV icons, musicians and many other creative creatures Friday night. The Halloween celebration brought many of these individuals to Chopps bar, where Ruthl3ss Entertainment invited DJs from Minneapolis to preform their latest and greatest EDM tracks. A Nightmare on Front Street was the name of the event Ruthl3ss put together and it was a night filled with dancing, drinking and experiencing the love for music as one.

EDM means Electronic Dance Music. This genre is a broad variety of Dubstep, house, trap and electronic music. It’s not just a genre of music to the EDM community; it is a way of life and a family they can turn to that shares the same interests.

Headliners for the Nightmare included White Balance and Litch. While Litch took the stage Saturday night, White Balance killed it Friday preforming from 11:30 pm to 1 am. Patrick Laubis and Mark Phillips, two of the three members of White Balance, took time to answer some questions.

Phillips said, “Chopps was a lot of fun, it was our third time playing in Mankato. We got to play a bunch of unreleased tracks from some big artists, (that I’m not allowed to mention) and we snuck in a few of our own things that we’ve been working on. Our equipment got shut off at one point in the night and while the tech was fixing it, the crowd started chanting, ‘White Balance! White Balance!’ and it was pretty awesome.”

White Balance started DJing roughly two years ago. Phillips said his favorite venues to play are Skyway Theater in Minneapolis or Iron Clyde in Duluth. He also stated that anywhere he’s playing is fun and it’s the idea of getting people together to enjoy the music that he really loves.

“We’re all on this rock flying through space together, so why not come together and celebrate our existence. EDM is really about connecting with people who have similar interests. It’s really about coming together and enjoying the music, and that’s what the EDM family means to me.”

This is the fourth event that Ruthl3ss Entertainment has organized to bring EDM to Mankato. The first event, Neon Nights, was held at the Mankato Event Center July 26th and 27th of this year. White Balance also headlined for this epic event and they were featured at another night of Dubstep at Summer Sound Off, also held at Chopps, the weekend before school started.

“This last weekend was probably the most fun we’ve had in Mankato. You can tell EDM is pretty new to Mankato, but it’s cool how accepting they are to it, and us. It feels like home every time we play there. A big ups to Chopps for stepping up and holding EDM events when other venues in the area weren’t willing to!” Phillips exclaimed about the new EDM scene in Mankato.

Other DJs included in this Halloween Bash included B:Product, Digital T/DJ ATack, ShakaBrah, Zanster, and GoHard.

I am Jenna Vagle, a Mass Communications major at Minnesota State University Mankato. This was my second article that has been published in my school newspaper, the MSU Reporter. I am an aspireing entertainment journalist who is just getting started so any feedback or critism is valued and appreciated! My email is jenna.vagle@mnsu.edu. Thanks for reading!