Last Thursday, purchase trap gunner RL Grime, AKA Henry Steinway, made his Boston return at The Paradise. A producer unquestionably at the forefront of his subgenre, Steinway has become well known for his incredible trap-releases, consistently bringing new depths to a sound that many are frankly getting tired of. Touring in support of his debut LP Void, Steinway laid down a long, meandering, yet well-formed set.
Opener Branchez put on an appealing if predictable warm up set, spinning a variety of popular hits along with his own originals. Tracks like Skrillex’s “Dirty Vibe” went down well with the predominantly broey crowd, while throwbacks like Yung Joc’s “It’s Goin’ Down” and an trappy remix of Kid Cudi’s “Day and Night” made things accessible for those who were less versed in the current EDM climate. The highlights were Branchez’s own productions though, particularly his remix of What So Not’s “High You Are.” Highlighting his more chilled-out approach to the sub-genre, these moments let true fans get into a laid back groove, even if another massive drop was around the corner. More original material would have made this a better set, but given his duties to warm the crowd up for the heavy material that would follow, the song choice was understandable.
Steinway took the stage seven minutes early to vibrating bass that settled into explosive horns of recent release “Scylla.” From the starting line, he showed off both his ability to seamlessly mix basslines, going above and beyond a simple crossfade to impressive effect, and his absolute unwillingness to let a song go on too long. Everything was weaved together intricately, leading the audience from drop to drop in a way that from a lesser live performer would have felt overbearing. Steinway knows his audience though, and gave just enough breathing room to feel out a track without letting anything drag.
However, while technically proficient, some of the song choices were questionable, particularly the overwhelming use of mainstream hip-hop tracks. While Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” and Future’s “Move That Dope” functioned well as familiar hype up songs, tracks like Drake’s “Trophies” just slowed things down while Terror Squad’s “Lean Back” just made the whole thing feel like a Junior High dance for a few minutes. Steinway threw down no less than 4 tracks from Kanye West’s Yeezus album. To be fair, these all had incredible beats and worked well with the set, but it was an incredibly odd and slightly humorous recurring motif.
My real gripe here was the use of overdone EDM show mainstays, including the A-Trak remix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll,” Flux Pavillion’s “I Can’t Stop” and DJ Snake’s seemingly inescapable “Get Low.” These moments in particular felt like they were pandering to non-fans, something that would absolutely make sense during a festival set but served no purpose on a sold-out tour.
When Steinway played his own material though, everything popped off magnificently. From classic “Pockets” to new single “Core,” he threw down the key tracks with fury, often skipping the build-up for a surprise drop. Taking things beyond a simple DJ set, Steinway also had enough alterations and tweaks to keep his own tracks fresh and the mix exciting. Also pleasant was the inclusion of two of his immensely popular remixes, Kanye West’s “Mercy” and Chief Kief’s “Love Sosa,” both of which proved to be crossover highlights of the set. When he was on point, everything was bombastic, exciting and sonically pleasing, with the sound engineers managing to perfectly tune the tracks to squeeze the most out of the bass without it ever becoming too deafening. These moments confirmed Steinway’s transcendent talent, despite some of the more lacking moments in the set, with the encore of his collaboration with What So Not, “Tell Me,” getting the crowd raging harder than ever.
Overall this was a good set put on by a great performer, with perhaps just a few too many moments of drag. With the whole thing clocking in at nearly two hours, it’s easy to wonder if the overall quality would have been improved by losing some of the extraneous tracks. However, the absolute intensity and quality of the standout drops more than made up for this, everyone it attendance getting enough bass to last them for weeks.
