This wasn’t your typical Sunday evening.
On April 21, my friend and I crept through the thrashing crowd at New York City’s Irving Plaza with skeptical reservations, which makes sense since we were on our way to catch Hippie Sabotage’s aptly titled ‘Enter the Unknown Tour.’
The brother duo’s latest album is a sharp departure from their silkier chill wave hits “Devil Eyes,” “Your Soul,” and “Whiskey.” This time around, Kevin and Jeff Saurer hooked up with rapper Kembe X for their new record, “Sleep Paralyses.” The resulting tracks lean much punkier than their previous remixes, crowned with heavy bass, synthetic drops, and sinister, high-octane vocals.
Irving Plaza’s flock of fans was largely reflective of this modern dance music style. There was no shortage of tie-dye bandannas, graphic skater tees, worn-in sneakers, and dangly metal chains in the crowd. Casual comfort was clearly the dress code.
While waiting for the coat check, one attendee told us he thought that a new fanbase was turning toward “Hippie.”
“I’m usually more of an alt-rock or punk type of guy… but Hippie has a really wide appeal. I hadn’t even heard of them, but when I was down in San Francisco my friends said, ‘You have to go see them, it’s the best show ever.’”
Perhaps, it’s that widening appeal that’s been attracting a fresh bunch of fans. Hippie Sabotage shows have been notorious for inviting frisky ravers looking to blow off steam; often the site of mosh-pits, ‘I don’t give a f—‘ chants, crowd-surfing, and plenty of smoke clouding the air.
After all, the brothers are from Sacramento — “the city of trees” they screamed out at one point in the night — jostling the crowd into a wave of enraptured cheers. Stirring up enthusiasm from fans is the name of the “Hippie” game.
While there was a liberal dose of such activities at this particular show, especially since it was the day after April 20, the artists also left space for more laidback listening, like when the lights gleamed low and the first notes of “Devil Eyes” boomed.
As a result, the intimate venue felt larger than ever as melting shades of soft orange and yellow swirled on the screen behind the Saurer brothers. Strobes inched slowly over the crowd, revealing hundreds of focused eyes, and slow-moving bodies appearing to be heavily submerged in the music.
Of course, nearly everyone in the crowd also knew the lyrics: “Yeah we’re golden, baby girl we’re golden/They about to see us shine ’cause we’re golden/They can never break us down ’cause we’re golden.”
Hippie Sabotage has a clever way of engineering beats that slap, slice, and pierce, but build at a bovine pace, sometimes quiet enough that you could imagine hearing a pin drop. It’s perplexing and ghostly, often trance-inducing.
But, the feistier tracks from the new album are arguably more personal, experimenting with motivational narratives and life advice from Kembe, Kevin, and Jeff.
“Pole Vaulting” spewed blazing lyrics over a trappy beat, while the slightly “softer” psych numbers “Start a Business” and “Kill Everything in the Way” felt more like classic “stoner anthems” as my friend called them — laced with rousing lyrics like “never made a dolla offa takin yo advice” and encouraging people to become “new leaders of the resistance.”
The effect of this new music was becoming clear: the ravers were gassed up. And, the performers took this as their cue to venture into the crowd and begin chucking water bottles every which way. They’re known to keep fans hydrated — perhaps to maintain their breakneck pace or quench cases of cotton mouth.
During a momentary pause, one of the brothers pulled the mic between his teeth, proclaiming that the last time they played Irving Plaza they didn’t “make a single dollar” due to a twisted business contact. After a year of somewhat unclear struggles, they finally “got their freedom.”
The crowd shrieked with defensive horror. I looked at my friend. “Are they going to start breaking things?” I wondered aloud.
We both let out a sigh of relief as a remix of Tove Lo’s breakup beat “Stay High” came on instead. The electronic indie tune was the perfect singalong to divert attention back to the stage, reminding early Hippie heads of the viral YouTube mixes that gave the pair their start.
In true Hippie Sabotage Fashion, the brothers took fans new and old along for all their reckonings. From heavy-hitting masterpieces to explorative, avant-garde tracks, and then back in unity with universally appealing remixes. It was all an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. But a joyful one at that.
Based on what I saw, I’m certain most fans who witnessed this transformative, kaleidoscopic evening would gladly ‘Enter The Unknown’ again.
Hippie Sabotage tour schedule 2024
A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues, and links to buy tickets can be found below.
Huge EDM tours in 2024
If Hippie Sabotage isn’t headed to a venue near you, we’re happy to report that plenty of party starters may drop into your neck of the woods these next few months.
Here are just five of our favorites you won’t want to miss live.
• Odesza
• Kygo
Who else is out and about? Take a look at our list of the 50 biggest concert tours in 2024 to find the show for you.