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Music

Observations From Steve Angello's Debut at LiFE in Las Vegas

On bouncers, drugs, and wasted old ladies. Plus, words from Angello himself!

Steve Angello debuted his Reflections residency at LiFE at the freshly opened SLS Hotel in Las Vegas this past weekend. The ex-Swedish House mafioso spent his birthday dropping heaters to a packed house at the impressive new nightclub, and THUMP were along for the ride – glowsticks, confetti, shitfaced normcores and all. Here are a few things we learned about life at LiFE, complete with some wisdom from Angello himself.

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Vegas club security is a shitshow

Everybody in Vegas is a VIP. At least that's what they think. Every single night, club security guards have to deal with wasted, entitled people dolled up in their Sunday best trying to mob their way into clubs en sloppy, sloppy masse. Because of that, Vegas bouncers have become soulless robots who are inclined to disbelieve whatever your story is as they shuffle you around like cattle – And not that fancy, Wagyu beef kinda cattle they serve at Jose Andres' nearby Bazaar Meat, either. We mean offal.

Angello's goin' deep

Steve Angello's a classy operator with a history in the underground. Although Swedish House Mafia made music for main stages, rumor has it that Angello's returning to his underground roots with future releases by himself and SIZE Records counterparts. His set subtly alluded to the change in direction (in between all the bangers, at least)

Normcores on drugs are amazing

Careerist dance nerds, club kids, and ravers alike all know how to handle their drugs. Vegas is where normal people go to get weird, though, and watching normcores rolling is a sight to behold. All around us, straight-laced looking folk lost their shit in flailing gyrations, awkward attempts at being sexy, and sloppy make-outs. It was amazing and had us fondly recalling the days we had any dopamine at all left in our brains.

Clubbers in Vegas aren't there for the tunes

While Angello dropped a classy set that pulled people out of their comfort zones and into new sounds, we couldn't help but look around and see a whole lotta people totally unawares as to the musical lesson being imparted upon them. We don't expect everyone to exhibit the same level of music nerdism as we do, but if you're gonna spunk so much money to go to a premiere club like LiFE to see one of the world's top DJs while fire, lazers, and confetti rain down upon you, don't you wanna at least listen to the music instead of yelling at Becky?

And an observation from Steve Angello himself:

"One of the funniest things here is just how loose people are when they get to Vegas, from all ages and sizes. I walked into the hotel this morning, at 10AM, and there was a really, really, really old lady basically crawling in through the doors. She'd been out having an all-nighter and probably ended up at some afterparty. She must have been 65-70 years old. I was really impressed." - Steve Angello