Dance Music

As thousands of late-night revelers partied to thumping electronic dance music in the graffiti-marked remains of an old fort in Baltimore last month, some overdosed on drugs or became overwhelmed by the heat, according to a report by the city fire marshal. While the overnight Starscape festival at Fort Armistead Park stretched into the early-morning hours, emergency medical crews from the city and Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties struggled to keep up with calls for help from the venue, responding...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) introduced a new twist at Thursday's bill-signing ceremony in Annapolis: barn dance music. For much of the two-hour event, a compact disc by The Barn Owl Band was piped into the governor's reception room as he and legislative leaders signed more than 250 bills into law. Aides said that O'Malley, a musician himself, had inquired for some time about having music played at the series of bill signings that follow...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) introduced a new twist at Thursday's bill-signing ceremony in Annapolis: barn dance music. For much of the two-hour event, a compact disc by The Barn Owl Band was piped into the governor's reception room as he and legislative leaders signed more than 250 bills into law. Aides said that O'Malley, a musician himself, had inquired for some time about having music played at the series of bill signings that follow...

It's past midnight on a Sunday and the line outside the W Hotel stretches all the way to Hollywood Boulevard. A hundred or so disgruntled dudes fold their arms and swear to an aloof doorman that they're "on the list. " If you can talk your way past the velvet rope, you enter an elevator bathed in red light and ascend to the rooftop. This is Dim Mak Sundays at Drai's , a poolside Vegas-style nightclub that hosts weekly electronic dance music bacchanalia. On the roof, Dave Nada — the...

Porter Robinson and Zedd are two of electronic dance music's rising stars. Known for producing electro-house music that combines synth-heavy instrumentals, ethereal vocals and enough bass to rattle your ribcage, both received mainstream acclaim after touring with Skrillex in 2011. Now they're co-headlining a fall tour, sharing the DJ booth and spinning back-to-back tracks. You can catch them at Virgin Mobile FreeFest on Saturday at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Porter Robinson Oh, to be a famous DJ. On the...

As the stock market plunged and dark skies threatened hail and rain, four girls in day-glo tutus shared a cup of french fries. A guy in a Cookie Monster shirt shook his Cookie Monster backpack. A duo dressed as Mario and Luigi threw their white-gloved hands in the air. Ten hours of ear-bruising dance music at Thursday's Identity Festival in Bristow must have formed a protective bubble over Jiffy Lube Live, shielding 12,000 colorfully dressed, predominantly teenage fans from...

Stock up on glow sticks. Echostage is coming. Panorama Productions — a Washington-based music promotion company whose weekly Club Glow parties have helped popularize electronic dance music in the District — has leased the hulking nightclub on Queens Chapel Road NE known as D.C. Star. With a new sound system and a new name, Echostage will open Sept. 22 with performances from Sander Van Doorn and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano . "The idea is to create the biggest concert venue in the tri-state area,"...

It's past midnight on a Sunday and the line outside the W Hotel stretches all the way to Hollywood Boulevard. A hundred or so disgruntled dudes fold their arms and swear to an aloof doorman that they're "on the list. " If you can talk your way past the velvet rope, you enter an elevator bathed in red light and ascend to the rooftop. This is Dim Mak Sundays at Drai's , a poolside Vegas-style nightclub that hosts weekly electronic dance music bacchanalia. On the roof,...

When a typical group of 20-somethings travels to the annual Coachella music festival in California, they don't necessarily return with their brain cells intact, never mind with an innovative idea worth executing. But for three young Washingtonians, the California festival was motivating in ways they hadn't expected. They're still wearing their wristbands months later. Modele "Modi" Oyewole, Marcel Marshall and Quinn Coleman — a trio of young promoters known collectively as DC to BC —...

Not feeling Skrillex ? Join the online mob by pelting his music with the adjective of your choice. Cartoonish, puerile, indulgent, impatient, bombastic. Pitchfork, the taste-making indie rock site, recently brushed it off as " inelegant . " And while plenty of words stick to the 24-year-old's outsize dance tracks, that one doesn't. This music is elegant against all odds. It's the New York Giants' defensive line doing "Swan Lake. " It's digital flatulence made mysteriously...

The cylindrically shaped D.C. Armory is a massive venue, capable of holding 10,000 concertgoers at one time. And Friday night, the Swedish DJ Avicii played a set fit to scale. From the moment he took the stage, Avicii twisted the knob that controls drama up to 11. It felt like dance music's take on a TV soap: The rises in tension were immediate, almost panicky, and the payoffs were absurdly over the top. The audience for this show, a chaotic sea of baby-faced grownups, was immersed in the melodrama; laughing, crying, hugging and...

Heavily electronic, the Soft Moon's music features synthesized riffs, whacks and swoops of the sort that resound through rave clubs. Yet the second album from this California one-man-band, " Zeros ," isn't exactly dance music. Luis Vasquez's style is kinetic, but the motions it evokes are jogging, chugging or gliding. The cadences recall the "motorik" rhythm of such 1970s German art-rock outfits as Neu! and Kraftwerk. Vasquez is a home-recording ace who thinks in terms of psychedelic production gambits.

Walk by the corner of 14th and U streets NW on a weekend night, and you'll hear bubbly, joyful dance music blasting out of a new nightclub called Tropicalia. What makes this basement bar stand out from other recent arrivals in the neighborhood is that several times a week, the sounds drawing crowds onto the dance floor come from musicians instead of a DJ. It's easy to understand why bars shy away from live music: It's expensive to install a stage, lights and a sound system, let alone pay a group of musicians, when...

Porter Robinson and Zedd are two of electronic dance music's rising stars. Known for producing electro-house music that combines synth-heavy instrumentals, ethereal vocals and enough bass to rattle your ribcage, both received mainstream acclaim after touring with Skrillex in 2011. Now they're co-headlining a fall tour, sharing the DJ booth and spinning back-to-back tracks. You can catch them at Virgin Mobile FreeFest on Saturday at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Porter Robinson ...

Stock up on glow sticks. Echostage is coming. Panorama Productions — a Washington-based music promotion company whose weekly Club Glow parties have helped popularize electronic dance music in the District — has leased the hulking nightclub on Queens Chapel Road NE known as D.C. Star. With a new sound system and a new name, Echostage will open Sept. 22 with performances from Sander Van Doorn and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano . "The idea is to create the biggest concert venue in the tri-state area,"...

Shortly after the sun set on the Trillectro music festival and DJ Wonder took the main stage, it began to pour. There was nowhere to hide. Aside from a few small tents, the venue was largely open pavement. But rather than whine or flee, the crowd bloomed. Like a Coca-Cola commercial come to life, people shrieked playfully, grabbed their friends and flooded the lot in front of the stage for a wet and wild dance party. It was one of many magical moments at the hybrid...

The cylindrically shaped D.C. Armory is a massive venue, capable of holding 10,000 concertgoers at one time. And Friday night, the Swedish DJ Avicii played a set fit to scale. From the moment he took the stage, Avicii twisted the knob that controls drama up to 11. It felt like dance music's take on a TV soap: The rises in tension were immediate, almost panicky, and the payoffs were absurdly over the top. The audience for this show, a chaotic sea of baby-faced grownups, was immersed in the melodrama; laughing, crying, hugging and...

Shortly after the sun set on the Trillectro music festival and DJ Wonder took the main stage, it began to pour. There was nowhere to hide. Aside from a few small tents, the venue was largely open pavement. But rather than whine or flee, the crowd bloomed. Like a Coca-Cola commercial come to life, people shrieked playfully, grabbed their friends and flooded the lot in front of the stage for a wet and wild dance party. It was one of many magical moments at the hybrid...

When a typical group of 20-somethings travels to the annual Coachella music festival in California, they don't necessarily return with their brain cells intact, never mind with an innovative idea worth executing. But for three young Washingtonians, the California festival was motivating in ways they hadn't expected. They're still wearing their wristbands months later. Modele "Modi" Oyewole, Marcel Marshall and Quinn Coleman — a trio of young promoters known collectively as DC to BC — were so...

THU 02 Step Afrika The D.C.-based dance company performs stepping, a uniquely American genre descended from African song and dance rituals. 11 a.m. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. 703-993-7759. www.hyltoncenter.org . $15, children $5. "Grease" The Growing Stage Theatre, a nonprofit group that produces musical theater camps and workshops in Loudoun County, presents the musical about Rydell High School's Class of 1959. Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. Franklin Park Performing...