Rezz hypnotizes St. Louis with As the Pendulum Swings Tour

Many people like to spend Valentine’s Day weekend doing something romantic, like going to a candlelit dinner or cuddling up with your partner over a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. For the EDM community in St. Louis, though, this holiday was celebrated by falling into a swirling electronic trance led by the hypnotic juggernaut Rezz.

Attendees were able to experience Rezz’s As The Pendulum Swings Tour firsthand at The Factory, with three red-hot opening EDM artists: Blanke, Eddie, and FISE. All three openers brought their own spin on the electronic genre although one thing they notably had in common was their epic bass-induced sets. The audience received the perfect blend of dubstep, trance, and bass throughout the night to get their energy and their hearts pumping.

Unlike other concerts, EDM brings about an incredible uniqueness, not only in the music but in its community. Left and right, you can find people dressed in trippy neon colors, their clothes brightly lit from LED-lined seams.

What set this show even further apart was the sea of round, glowing eyes swirling around in the audience — Rezz’s signature look.

Born in Ukraine in the mid-90s, Isabelle Rezazadeh is the talent behind the goggles of Rezz. She was only a teenager when she began making music and, by 2016, she had released her very first EP. Known for her distinctive trance-like sound, Rezz immerses listeners with her hypnotic mid-tempo beats that produce a heavy, sinister aura. Take that and pair it to incredible three-dimensional graphics, like a portal sucking you into another world, and you get a Rezz live show.

Over the last eight years, Rezz has released five studio albums with As The Pendulum Swings as her most recent project. Since starting her musical career, Rezz has been nominated four times for ‘Best Female Artist of the Year’ at the Electronic Dance Music Awards, even starting her own record label HypnoVision Records!

When Rezz appeared onstage this night, she emerged as a dark black figure overlooking the crowd before her. The room began to shake with heavy vibrations that penetrated our ears. Suddenly and dramatically, Rezz revealed herself, complete with her large, red, circular eyewear that twisted and swirled at the audience — her iconic hypno glasses. The room exploded into excited screams which only grew louder as bright beams of light cascaded into the sky, the lasers pulsating along to the mesmerizing beats.

In a music genre so heavily dominated by men, Rezz has generated a massive following for her skillfully crafted music and her ability to create a uniquely immersive world for her fans. Seeing artists like Rezz break through these barriers with so much success and achievement gives me a great deal of hope for all the aspiring female deejays.

Rezz’s tour continues on, with performances scheduled at several music festivals this year — Coachella being one of them! If you haven’t seen Rezz live before, let me say this: buy the ticket and prepare to be hypnotized.

Photography by Sean Rider, article by Michelle Zigler

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