Let’s Play EDM Bingo!

This article was supposed to be about the debut of Gareth Emery‘s “Kings and Queens” residency at LiFE Nightclub on Friday night, but I’m finding myself at a loss of things to say about it. Sadly, like so many sets I’ve witnessed on the Vegas Strip, Friday’s music fell into a very formulaic pattern where the headlining DJ plays a chunk of his/her own catalog, throws in a couple lesser-known tracks here and there, but then fills in the rest of the one-and-a-half to two-hour set with what is essentially the same list of songs that every other DJ is playing. (I’ll admit Gareth deviated slightly from this by playing about half of Knife Party‘s new album Abandon Ship, leaving me to wonder if I’d shown up for the right Gareth that night). It’s gotten to the point I am literally asking myself, “It’s not even summer, why is the DJ playing ‘Summertime Sadness?'” on a nightly basis.

So instead of writing up the normal play-by-play review, I’ve decided to be constructive and have a little fun with this. Based on my own observations of EDM sets over the last couple months and additionally reviewing the set lists from a number of recent festivals, I came up with a list of songs you are most likely to hear in any given EDM DJ’s set and turned it into bingo cards. I present to you EDM Bingo:

Click Here to download a PDF consisting of four bingo cards and feel free to print them out and pass them around to your friends the next time you’re heading out to the club to see your favorite EDM DJ. Maybe everyone has to buy the winner a drink or you just turn the whole board into a drinking game and everyone gets hammered (but please, be responsible and make sure you have a designated driver). Just go out and have fun with it. If this is something people really get into, I’ll try to update the cards on a quarterly basis to reflect the new list of overplayed EDM tracks. Also, feel free to give me comments/feedback here or via Twitter on the track selection, especially if you have your own suggestions for tracks.