GTA Took on LIV Miami, Made That "Booty Bounce" on South Beach

GTA

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Better Than: Sitting at home waiting for the next GTA game to come out.

DJ-producer duo GTA headlined LIV for the first time last night. With Miami being their home turf, they had some surprises in store for the crowd.

We arrived at 12:30 a.m. to find Miami favorite Jessica Who warming up the crowd.

See also:

-GTA in Miami's Best Albums, EPs, Singles of 2012

-Six Best Parties on South Beach This Weekend

At first, the turnout seemed a tad small for a Wednesday night's Dirty Hairy bash. But that kinda thing didn't stop Jessica from busting out the sexy jams that would get 'em all dancing. Playing everything from Armand Van Helden's classic remix of "ADD SUV" to Steve Aoki and Afrojack's "No Beef," Jessica sent the crowd into a frenzy of fist pumps and air pianos.

By 1:30, GTA's Julio Mejia and Matt Toth had taken the helm. They started with an intro that repeats "GTA up in the club." As the loop played and Mejia and Toth were picking their first track, smartphones emerged from the crowd, snapping pictures as everyone wondered what epicness was about to come out of the speakers.

After about a minute, the loop slowly faded out, giving way to the build for Mejia and Toth's monster track "Booty Bounce."

Hell yeah, GTA decided to start their set off on a high note. And when the song dropped and the supercatchy vocals ("Booty, booty, booty, booty, booty, booty bounce!") reached peak intensity, the crowd hit full-fledged party mode.

GTA's Mejia and Toth followed up "Booty Bounce" with Tujamo and Plastic Funk's "WHO," which got a lot of people gyrating.

Go-go dancers were in full-effect and confetti canons went off as the DJs continued to play banger after banger, including Clockwork's mashup of Crookers' "Pop That" and French Montana's song of the same name.

The duo changed things up about a half-hour into their set by playing a lil' trap and moombahton, including RL Grime's remix of "Satisfaction." But the most surprising moment of the night was when Mejia and Toth played Elvis Crespo's merengue classic "Suavemente" in the middle of the trap segment of their set, which made the Hispanics in the crowd (i.e. everyone) go absolutely crazy.

Then they closed the set with massive new single, "Hit It," which has been supported by DJs all around the world. The beat freaks barely had enough energy to throw another three minutes of fist pumps. But they persevered. And for having played what definitely seemed a lot shorter than 90 minutes, GTA definitely hit it hard and made that "Booty Bounce" on South Beach.

Critic's Notebook

Personal Bias: I was expecting a lot of progressive house given the crowd and setting, but GTA veered far from that and still managed to make everyone jam.

The Crowd: Mostly people in their mid-to-late 20s with a few older men (not that many older women) here and there.

GTA's Setlist:

-"Booty Bounce"

-"WHO"

-"Bring In The Katz"

-"Pop That"

-"Moombah"

-"Satisfaction"

-"Suavemente"

-"Work It"

-"Dirty Talk"

-"Levels"

-"I Could Be The One"

-"Ladi Dadi"

-"Climax"

-"Babylon"

-"Rack City"

-"BBBS"

-"Hit It"

-- Gianmarco Pow-Sang

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