UPDATED: Jan. 26, 2018 at 5:13 p.m.

Concertgoers paid no mind to the below-freezing weather as they flocked into The Westcott Theater on Thursday night to watch electronic trio Keys N Krates take the stage. Cymbals, chimes and mixers all found dominant spots on stage as the set grew more and more energetic.

Keys N Krates consists of turntablist Jr. Flo, keyboardist David Matisse and drummer Adam Tune. The trio was the headlining act at the Jan. 25 concert.

The evening opened to a lukewarm audience with Miami-born and New York City-based artist Jubilee, who started with the Miami bass and trap she’s known for. Her 2016 album “After Hours” landed in Billboard’s 2016 Top Ten Critics’ Picks for Best Album of the year.

Another hour lapsed, sped up by Los Angeles-based DJ Falcons’ beats, which meshed together hip-hop, R&B and electronic music. Falcons prepared the crowd for a ground-thumping final act, revving them up with remixes of Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” He finished with Flume’s remix of Disclosure and ELIZA’s “You and Me.”

By the time Falcons waved goodbye, the crowd was comfortably in its element — many guzzling their drinks and bopping enthusiastically to any rhythm that hit the speakers.

Keys N Krates had some dedicated fans in the audience — Mara Jackson, a Chittenango resident, had just returned from the hospital to watch Keys N Krates perform live, after failing to see them at an earlier Electric Daisy Carnival she had attended.

“I love all EDM,” she said. “But they (Keys N Krates) have more hip-hop, they’ve got rhythm.”

Most other concert attendees were there for much the same reason — they had listened to the group’s biggest hits and showed up to make the best of a Thursday night. The crowd had to stay on its toes a while longer, however, as Keys N Krates took the stage twenty minutes later than scheduled.

The group’s standout quality was the instruments they bring on stage. Adam Tune got to work on the drums, David Matisse took the keyboard and Jr. Flo spun and turned. Minutes into the set, they played their new track “My Night” featuring 070 Shake.

As each beat dropped with more frantic energy, Tune crashed down on cymbals and kept the crowd engaged in a tireless trance. The trio made up for lost time by keeping pace with the crowd, playing their biggest hits, “Save Me,” featuring Katy B, “Dum Dee Dum” and a powerful few minutes of “Treat Me Right.”

The echoing clang of cymbals and drums was accompanied by Tune stroking through chimes every time a gentler melody came on.  Matisse’s keyboard melodies were backed by pounding bass, embodying the group’s work with putting melodies through a hip-hop, house and bass sound.

The group, currently on its world tour “Cura,” is heading to Burlington, Vermont, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after its Syracuse performance. By March, the group will take the stage in Hong Kong, followed by performances in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Hungary.

Keys N Krates will drop a new album, also named “Cura,” in 2018 through Dim Mak, Steve Aoki’s record label. The group recently teased two songs off the album, including “Glitter” and “Flute Loop” featuring Ouici.

The trio is also slated to perform at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami and the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, Michigan.

As the crowd thinned around 12:30 a.m., the group trudged back on to the stage with a keytar amidst fog, dancing lights and stragglers anticipating an appropriate farewell. The trio called it a night after playing their recent song “Glitter” featuring Ambré Perkins, a collective pounding of cymbals and a melodic keyboard solo by Matisse.

Despite the multiple layers of live sound Keys N Krates produces, simplicity makes the group tick. Their website pays tribute to their sound with a food analogy.

“It’s like true Italian cooking, a few ingredients to make something so impactful … beats that leave you wondering ‘where the f*ck did he get that sound from?’”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the date of the Keys N Krates concert was misstated. The concert was held Thursday night. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on January 26, 2018 at 1:40 pm

Contact: dmurthy@syr.edu