By Jesse Tinoco
If you accidentally subscribed to any of Insomniacs email promos you might just end up getting more emails. If you’re wondering how that happens by accident you obviously don’t throw money on music festivals as often as I do, consider yourself good with money. So anyway, I was reading my emails and I saw a headline similar to the title of this blog and I smiled because I know who Devault is. I quickly looked for the link to buy tickets and they were a decent almost $40 a piece. It then happened later that week on Friday, March 1, 2024. It took place at The Mayan, which I have never been to but was really nice, featuring special guests Doss, Mattilo, and Mea Inferno. I didn’t even know who any of the guests were but I thought if they were anything like Devault then it was gonna be good.
DEVAULT(officially in all caps) is a stage name created by Sage DeVault, clearly deriving from his last name. He’s an American electronic musician with a bleached buzz cut and came up in 2017 from an official remix for DJ Snake’s, A Different Way. The song even reached Billboard’s top 10 remixes of the year. This song was one of the first ones I saved to my library and I saved a few more as time went on. I honestly can’t do the bio as well as the official Insomniac one so check it out at some point (link). If not, long-story-short, he’s made official redos for artists, Rihanna, Alessia Cara, Daya and more. His songs feature artists Njomza, Bipolar Sunshine, and Matt Maeson. In 2021, he started touring with artists Madeon and later San Holo. His debut EP gained popularity quickly and he’s already performed at a few Insomniac music festivals. His sound has inspiration from the early new wave of Despeche Mode and Daft Punk, creating a nostalgic but still very modern original sound. His latest 2022 release “I Will,” has me in a trance, I very much recommend giving it a listen.
I’ll be taking the time to give the venue some recognition. The Mayan is a 96 year-old theater in Downtown LA. This is a beautiful Mayan themed venue with versatile standing and dancing room with “flexibility to accommodate events ranging from 200-1400 attendees” according to The Mayan webpage. I love that there’s a low level dancefloor, and a mid level floor where the bar is, just five stairsteps higher, making a perfect spot to stand at the rail. Additionally there was upstairs access which I ended up hanging out at the end of the night to get out of the crowd. I found it great how spacious it was and on top of that their drinks are cheaper than most LA spots. The sound quality was really good from literally everywhere, even the bathroom had speakers, making it easily one of my favorite LA venues.
Moving on to Doss, Mattilo, and Mea Inferno. I honestly don’t know who played when but they were amazing. I liked that I heard stuff that the crowd would like mixed into what I assume is the music they’re all about. To sum them up, they hyped the crowd up for Devault with feel-good anthems and unexpected song transitions done in the best way possible. Imagine Disclosure’s ‘You and Me – Flume remix’ in a house tempo mixed into Dom Dolla’s ‘Miracle Maker’ (I’ll imagine you listen to EDM), it really was a thing of elegance.
To give a lil’ recap: talented up-and-coming house artists, underrated location, listen to ‘I Will’. All of these artists deserve more listeners and the next time I see them on a lineup I. am. there.
