STS9 @ The Congress Theater - North Coast Festival Afterparty - 9/2/11

After the first day of the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, STS9 played an after show with Big Gigantic at the Congress Theater. Colorado natives Big Gigantic opened up for Soundtribe and played quite an awesome set. With their combination of saxophone and electronic beats they are really a quite unique group with a lot of soul. But recently they have been exploring a little bit more into the dubstep world, getting a little bit heavier, but at the same time keeping to their roots with the beautiful addition of the sax. STS9 took the stage right after, opening up their set with Rent, Be Nice, a song off of their newest album Golden Gate, then Tooth, and Instantly. Then they brought up Dominic Lalli, the saxophone player from Big G to add a little soulful addition to Empires and Grow. Their chemestry together on stage was quite remarkable, and the saxophone really added to their jam band style. Next they played Beyond Right Now, ABCees, and finished their set with Kamuy leading into What Is Love? Of course they couldn’t disappoint fans by simply ending it there, so they came back out for their encore with a blent The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature and Peaceblaster ‘08.

All in all, it was a great show and left everyone excited to see STS9 perform the following day at the festival. And boy oh boy did they throw down hard the next day. They started out their festival set with EHM which just indicated to their fans that they were about to drop the best set the festival could have asked for. Playing Inspire strikes Back, Lo Swaga, Aimlessly, Hidden Hand Hidden Fist, 20-12, and Moonsocket, they really got the crowd excited and dancing hard. But it wasn’t until they dropped their two newest hits Scheme blending into When the Dust Settles off their new album that the crowd really got excited. The lights were going crazy and you could tell that the band was having the time of their life. They ended their set with Arigato which was a great way to end a perfect evening.