Featured Photo by ADINAYEV @adiadinayev
This year during Miami Music Week I had the pleasure of working artist relations for E11even! From Tuesday, March 26th to Monday, April 1st I spent every night at the club. This was an experience I will never forget. I had never been to E11even before this and can honestly say I’ve never been to any other club like it. E11even is a 24 hour strip club, but you almost can’t tell. It is designed like a traditional club with one stripper pole in the middle, the stripping aspect is almost missable if you aren’t paying attention. If you walk around looking there are other discrete areas for the strippers but none of it is really overwhelming. However, everything that makes E11even an incredible 24 hour dance club is blaring in your face…the insane lasers, CO2 cannons, confetti, gogo dancers, bottle girls, and incredible stage visuals make all of the performances truly special, like traditional club shows. This venue is one of a kind and a hot commodity in Miami, especially during the after hours of 2AM-7AM during MMW. On top of hosting some of the world’s top DJ’s and producers the club also saw the likes of Skrillex, Alesso, P Diddy, Lil Pump, Pasquale Rotella, Paris Hilton, Rezz and more throughout the weekend, just as attendees.
Although I didn’t get to attend Ultra, every night that I had the pleasure to spend at E11even was its own mini festival. E11even had a uniquely curated lineup each night starting with with Loud Luxury and Chantel Jeffries in the building on night one (Tuesday). These rising stars have been on the radar for the past few years, but in just the last year have really been breaking through the glass. Chantel’s ‘Wait’ Ft. Offset and Vory and ‘Facts’ Ft. YG and Rich The Kid really took her to the next level, gaining agency attention and heating her up in the DJ scene. Loud Luxury made Armada proud this year with their platinum hit ‘Body’ that I heard played at almost every main stage set at Ultra this year. It was an incredible night with great energy, Chantel and Loud Luxury even went b2b for some time.
Wednesday’s lineup at E11even included Wax Motif, Laidback Luke, Deorro, and Benny Benassi. I was most excited for this night because I had seen most of these artists before at festivals and was excited to see them in this club scene. They all killed it! Wax Motif was my favorite of the night, I had never seen him before. He actually left right after his set to perform another show. He came back to E11evn after and told me he ended up going b2b with What’s So Not and Skrillex… Only at MMW!
Thursday featured Morgan Page, Jeffrey Sutorius (former front man of Dash Berlin), Illenium, Breathe Carolina, and Damaged Goods. This was a really exciting night for me because Jeffrey Sutorious is one of my favorite artists and he played my favorite song, ‘Better Half Of Me’ after I asked him to, which really made my weekend. I hadn’t seen Morgan Page in years but his set really woke everyone up and got them ready for Jeffrey. Of course Jeffrey’s house music really got the crowd going just in time for the multi-platinum star Illenium to hop on. The greatest thing about Illenium to me are his amazing visuals that really tell a story throughout his whole performance. Next up was Breathe Carolina who I’ve never seen perform a DJ set, they read the room after Illenium and did a great job matching the vibe.
Friday was one of my favorites because ZEDD headlined. It was the weekend now so the celebrity appearances were in full effect. Marshmello and Moe were there in support of Jauz and Slushii who also performed that evening. ZEDD played an amazing set as always with all of his hits and chose ‘Clarity’ to finish his set. ‘Clarity’ is the song that got me into EDM in the first place, and that moment really brought everything full circle for me. I am also a big fan of Jauz and Slushii, I’ve seen them a few times. They both brought the energy to a whole new level, it was unexplainable.
Saturday night E11even had JSTJR, Salvatore Ganacci, Party Favor, Dada Life, Diplo, and BRKLYN on the set list. This night was just one big party. Diplo played arguably one of the best sets of the weekend in my opinion.
Sunday was bittersweet, the last night of Ultra, the last night of the madness. Monday would be calm but Sunday was everyone’s last night to party. Of course to close out the weekend E11even had none other than Marshmello with Misha Daniel and Ghastly opening and Audien and Boombox Cartel closing. Marshmello played the most memorable set of the weekend, he had Lil Pump and Paris Hilton in the DJ booth with him and had Roddy Ricch come in and perform ‘Protect Dreams’, at that moment the club looked the craziest that I had seen it all week (check out the photo above).
Monday, my last night working at E11even was the night that another one of my favorite artists of all time were performing, Adventure Club. They played an incredible set as always and their openers ARMNHMR also played really well. I had never heard of ARMNHMR before but they will be going on tour with Adventure Club starting April 20th and I’m excited to see them grow.
Overall, the weekend at E11even was like I said, its own mini festival. Like Morgan Deane said in my interview with her before heading to MMW, everybody is somebody in Miami during this time, and it was definitely true. So many people in music business were out in Miami and it was definitely great for people in the business looking to network. I never realized before how many curated events that there were during MMW outside of Ultra. Day parties like Shaq’s Fun House, pool parties at almost every major hotel, curated shows at concert venues, after parties, and more. I think next time I go to MMW as an attendee (if I ever do again) I will go to all of the parties around Ultra rather than Ultra itself. E11even made me realize that there is so much more than just Ultra to MMW. There’s networking and learning about music you’ve never heard of before, watching artists grow, and watching many artists collaborate on b2b sets last minute if you’re in the right place at the right time. If you’ve never been, go check out MMW one year and please don’t forget to make a stop at E11even one night, I promise you’ll have an unforgettable night!