Infected Mushroom @ Majestic Ventura Theater

Ventura is different than L.A. in that its coding doesn't permit live music events to go on for as late, so the night started off at just 8 p.m. In addition, the show was all ages, which supplemented the diverse crowd. Although, the turn out was a little disappointing - the venue was at maybe 60% capacity, 75% max. This might have been due to the Thursday date or the Ventura venue, maybe even because the show was with the live band? Hard to accurately tell.

Santa Barbara locals Nekbreakers opened, followed by Dj downNgoinG whose style consisted of some deep, low-end wobbles. However, like many openers I've seen, his set suffered from too little variation; there was no rise and fall to his rhythm which adversely affected the crowd's energy - the bass and drums would kick in and then draw on. In my opinion, there wasn't enough creativity with his mixing. The transitions were seamless, not due to skill, but due to the tracks being so similar that they sounded identical. I would equate it to the "house" of bass music - innocuous in its execution and utterly repetitive.

After downNgoinG left the stage at about 10:30, IM's drummer came on stage with a scantily clad alien-masked woman. With the showmanship unique to drummers, he proceeded to lead-in for big room house tracks with a pair of glow drumsticks - turning blue at each percussive hit of his drum set. I don't think I need to repeat it, but I've said before on here that house, except rarely electro house, just doesn't do it for me - so the big room house really left me underwhelmed and not-at-all warmed up for the intensity that the IM live band brings.

Duvdev and Erez, along with guitarist Thomas Cunningham and drummer Rogério Jardim, finally started their live band set at about 11 p.m. Opening with "Sa'eed" off of Legend of the Black Shawarma, Duvdev's infectious energy immediately got the crowd moving - as a front man, few are better than Duvdev who is almost constantly smiling during all the sets I've seen them play. Playing through their catalog, including "Becoming Insane," "Pink Nightmares," and "U R So Fucked," Infected Mushroom did not let up on the energy even a bit. And of course, their cover of Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" always makes the crowd go nuts. About halfway through the set, guitarist Cunningham took a break as Erez, Duvdev and Jardim stayed up to play some tracks from their most recent releases, the Friends on Mushrooms series - "Bass Nipple," "Savant on Mushrooms," and "Trance Party."

Cunningham soon returned to the stage to finish off the set with some classic tracks from the days of The Gathering and Classical Mushroom as well as "Cities of the Future." Finally, it was time for us to say good night to Infected, but not before they came back on stage for an encore with their classic "Heavyweight" mixed in with a little "Converting Vegetarians."

Infected Mushroom was just recently named the #3 EDM duo by The Untz, only topped by Justice and Daft Punk, who seem to have a monopoly on those two spots for all eternity. Notables that they beat include newcomers Disclosure, veterans Knife Party, and dubstep up-and-comers Adventure Club. This doesn't come as a surprise, seeing as Infected Mushroom have been unleashing their unique brand of genre-defying music for over 15 years.