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| Sasha, left, and John Digweed sit seaside in Miami to discuss their current arena tour. | |
MIAMI BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- British DJ duo Sasha and John Digweed launched their North American arena tour in Miami Beach -- kicking off two months of the biggest shows they've ever done.
Venues that have hosted KISS and Aerosmith will host the DJ duo who claim arena shows are the next frontier in defining DJ stardom.
"We just wanted to raise the bar and do something a little more special... we have a good team, good sound and good lighting," Digweed said.
"Presenting ourselves with this kind of production is presenting ourselves as much bigger than we've done before," Sasha adds.
Spending much of their budget on high-quality sound and interactive lighting, Sasha and Digweed hope Internet exposure will propel ticket sales.
"We can use webcasts to push ourselves. It's definitely a harder route than having a commercial single that's got a video too; but it's a challenge that John and I are ready to take on," acknowledging the lack of DJ radio play in the United States.
The super treatment
One-time Warped Tour producer Kevin Lyman, is producing the Delta Heavy Spring 2002 Tour -- a kind of Warped Tour for DJs on a smaller scale.
Lyman says, "Electronica has been notorious for hit and miss. Rock 'n' roll has been consistent," adding, "Dance music could become the biggest music in the world. [But] it's not going to be through record sales because these kids are too Internet savvy. It's going to be through the live experience."
Sasha says, "The kind of commercial success John and I want to achieve is something that will come from the music. I don't think it's something that will come from daytime radio... it will come from the underground. America [is] a different market. We have to do something quite differently."
Lyman's strategy to help the genre overcome its obstacles is to add show-enhancing frills for performers who oftentimes travel with only their records -- generally relying on local clubs to produce their shows.
Lyman says his $1.4 million price tag is money well invested in order to "build their scene."
Testing the waters Sasha says the first show "went without a hitch."
Lyman, who had never heard of the Winter Music Conference, was not prepared for the competition. Dance music's biggest acts vied for audience time in Miami Beach last week, prompting concern from Lyman over relatively low ticket sales 3,000 to 4,000 by arena standards.
Some fans of Sasha and Digweed complained the DJs were next to impossible to see because of a partition around the turntables. Moreover, the British pair was dimly lit.
Digweed says, "We're very spontaneous. It's not like a rehearsed set...We keep each other on our toes."
The same goes for the lighting booth operator who "plays" the lights to the duo's beats -- something that can't be rehearsed during an improvised show.
Sasha adds, "We have built a trust with our crowd. They almost expect us to throw out curve balls."
The duo will appear together on the tour instead of alternating stage time at the turntables.
Since kicking off their tour March 23, the DJ duo has raced through Montreal, Boston, and Philadelphia, and are heading to Clifton Park, New York for their next arena gig.
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