Pretty Lights brings EDM to Sandpoint:

By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff

If you can say one thing about electronic dance music shows, it’s that it’s a sensory experience unlike any other. There’s the music, sure, but when you add in the pulse of lights and the movement of a tightly compressed crowd, it adds up to a one-of-a-kind spectacle. If that sounds like a great Friday night to you, then you can’t do much better than the Grammy Award-winning Pretty Lights.

A titan of the EDM scene, Pretty Lights is the stage name for Derek Vincent Smith. The artist has grown along with the rise of EDM, which has exploded in popularity throughout the past decade at night clubs, festivals and dance venues. On Friday, Sept. 2, The Hive adds its name to the list of great EDM venues when it hosts Pretty Lights’ Sandpoint debut.

Make sure you’re well-rested for this one, folks, because EDM shows aren’t typically the time for sipped drinks and quiet contemplation. Like other top-tier artists in the EDM scene, a Pretty Lights show is a dance party best experienced in the middle of a crowd. And you can be sure that crowd will be moving thanks to the Pretty Lights style, which combines samples across several genres into a composition of “glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples,” as the Standford Daily phrases it.

The Hive’s top-of-the-line lights and audio systems should pair nicely with Pretty Lights’ energetic mixes. What’s more, The Hive has announced there will be a full band accompaniment for the show, which means a good thing just got even better.

Catch Pretty Lights with Mikey Thunder on Friday, Sept. 2, at The Hive, 207 N First Ave. Doors open at 8 p.m. with music starting at 9 p.m. Tickets are $40 in advance or $45 at the door. The show is restricted to ages 21 and up. Tickets are available at livefromthehive.com or locally at Evans Brothers Coffee, 7B Boardshop, Eichardt’s and show days at The Hive. To reserve a VIP booth for reserved seating, cocktail service, access to VIP bathrooms and a balcony view, email VIP@LiveFromTheHive.com.