I planned on attending this show when I first heard he was coming through town again. I got to see him play last year, really enjoyed the set, the night really, and got some good pics. But I've been extremely broke lately like most of us, so I didn't think I'd be able to buy a ticket. Lucky for me, I've got a buddy working at Masquerade and so guest list was easy. Thank you Ryan!
Anyway, the upstairs (Heaven) was packed, of course, by the time I walked in around 10:00. I checked out the crowd, went for a drink and waited for BURNS (opening DJ) to start. It wasn't long before BURNS name lit up the huge LED board in front of deadmau5's DJ booth. 
I was curious to see which color mau5head Joel would be sporting when he emerged from backstage. So I hung out with Ryan by the stage sound board and caught a few glimpses of Joel popping out of the back stage rooms rolling film, probably good 'ol tour footage. (I apologize for the crappy resolution on these pics. Don't bother trying to make them bigger, they were taken with my camera phone.) I caught someone pulling the mau5head out of a crate, but it was too dark to see. No sneak peeks aside, it was time for deadmau5 to take stage. I was still on the side of the stage for the beginning of his set, trying to get some kool pics, maybe. The crowd was so packed up against the front of the stage that noone there really moved the entire time from opening to close. One girl I noticed had her huge sunglasses on and it was completely understandable because of the huge light dsiplay deadmau5 has been touring with. It's basically one huge LED screen in front of the DJ booth with three vertical LED light racks on each side. I had remembered seeing some pics of the stage setup from a House of Blues where he had already played this tour and informed Ryan of the setup beforehand. Before I ventured out to the front to see what the whole thing really looked like, I got a couple pics of the mau5head unveiled. White, with a whole bunch of signatures all over it. That's going to make an awesome keepsake/ebay item!
The rest of the evening was exactly what you can expect from deadmau5. A great selection of tracks from his own library as well as other gems but always edited live and never the same. Having heard the recording of his set in London from this tour, I already knew to expect the Legend of Zelda theme at some point. He didn't drop that until the opening/closing of the last track of the night and basically closed by slowing it to a stall. But the track that really made me happy was when he dropped Schneider TM & Kpt's 'The Light 3000' and started editing that live! Awesome! Still one of my favorite songs, good call Joel!
--p.a.t.t.
