Sydney Blu and Funkagenda at Pacha NYC Recap

Pacha NYC is known for bringing in top-notch EDM producers and DJs – for a decent price. We couldn’t help but stop by for what was definitely a night of quality house music, and it’s always nice to see a great live DJ in a small-scale venue. So if you weren’t too exhausted from getting “Jacked” with Afrojack, R3hab, and Quintino on Thursday, New York saw a little bit of Ibiza at Pacha on Friday night; with the master of funk himself, Adam Walder (better known as Funkagenda), and Miami-based bombshell, Sydney Blu – one of the most established female electronic artists in the business and self-proclaimed “queen of beats.”

When we arrived around midnight, Sydney Blu was absolutely killing the decks – I‘ve never seen a DJ put in as much energy as the people raging on the dance floor. Taking command of the DJ booth for two hours, she pushed the bar by playing a hard-hitting blend of progressive house, electro house, and techno, like Eric Prdyz’s “Allein” and “A Little Bit Paranoid” from Different Gear. It was apparent that Friday night’s crowd was there to dance until the sun came up. The house goddess started the night off perfectly, setting the crowd in motion and ready for the main event.

Funkagenda didn’t even leave the green room before 1:30 am. But he stepped into the DJ booth, excited to play a set for one of his favorite clubs in the world. All night, the music was loud and on point; setting the roof on fire with tracks like “Splinter,” “Must Be the Feeling,” by Nero and Sander Van Doorn’s incredible “Koko.” In typical Pacha fashion, sirens were going off all night, neon strobes were ablaze, and liquid nitrogen fog blinded the crowd. Everyone seemed to enjoy Mark Knight’s remix of “You’ve Got the Love” and big house beats like Punk Investigation’s “DNA Extractor” and Michael Woods’ remix of “Shinjuku.”

Funkagenda restored our faith in the meaning of the word “DJ,” playing a set that could never be described as merely “pressing play.” The crowd was jumping and putting their “Hands up in the Air” to the Venga Boys hit appropriately titled so. He dropped fan favorites like Nero’s dubstep anthem “Innocence” and “Save the World,” but not without his own twist; mixing the Swedish House track with Tiësto and Hardwell’s “Zero 76,” that had everyone in the crowd dancing. I felt his set really take off from here and never touch the ground; dropping track after track and tearing the roof off with Wolfgang Gartner’s “Ménage à trois,” and a mashup of Michael Woods’ remix of the mau5’s “I Said” and Calvin Harris’ “Flashback.”

Funk started to drop “Levels,” and amongst the unmistakable beat; you could hear an audible groan from the crowd (little did they know, Adam knew what he was doing). He quickly mixed in an interesting interlude that won over the crowd before he began to play the song I had been looking forward to hearing all night, “What the F**k.”

I was jamming out to Robbie Rivera’s “The Main Room (Part 1)” which morphed suddenly into Dada’s “Kick Out the Epic Motherf**ker” when I realized it was four in the morning and everyone in Pacha was going absolutely insane. It was almost as if the real house heads were just waking up. By that point, you could feel the bass in your soul. There’s just nothing quite like dancing until the early hours of the morning to such a high energy, unpredictable set – and Friday night was just that.

Photo By: Andrew Rauner