Downtown Records celebrated its 5th anniversary by throwing the dance party of the year with headliner Miike Snow (@miikesnow) and special guest Major Lazer (@majorlazer) with Santigold.  At $50 a pop, the show was sold out, and for one night Terminal 5 was transformed into a hipster dance party complete with over the top light shows, multiple smoke machines, and lots of sweaty bodies.

Major Lazer was the perfect warm up, putting everyone’s dancing shoes on in preparation for the main event.   Major Lazer — the Diplo and Switch collaboration — gave the crowd exactly what they were expecting as they loudly mashed up tracks including “Hold The Line” and the crowd favorite “Pon De Floor”. When special guest Santigold came out and joined MC/dancer Skerrit Bwoy to close the show, fans were left literally drooling for their next installment.

Miike Snow began their set with a captivating intro, and the crowd didn’t take their eyes off the stage until the last song.  It was hard to tell from under the cloud cover of smoke and strobe lights if it was Miike Snow that kept the energy level up the entire time or if the dancing, singing, sweaty crowd had taken over. Either way, everyone in that room was having the time of their life.

The electro-pop trio Miike Snow was founded in 2007 by American writer/producer Andrew Wyatt and Swedish producer/songwriters Christian Karlsson and Pontius Winnberg who are responsible for a few of the most brilliant pop songs released in the last decade.  Lets face it, Britney Spear’s “Toxic” (which Karlsson and Winnberg took home a Grammy for) is a damn good track.

Miike Snow filled the room with their larger than life sound consisting of big hooks and catchy choruses. Wyatt’s voice delicately boomed over the tracks, carrying through the set without once coming out from behind the shadow of anonymity the band has so carefully created. The crowd sang and danced to every word, and expectations were surely met by all as Miike Snow played tracks such as “Animal” and “Black and Blue.”

Photo by Laureen Krawse