REVIEW: John Summit Finds Comfort In Chaos At Sold-Out Madison Square Garden
If you told electronic music star and now global dance icon John Summit that he’d be selling out the “World’s Most Famous Arena” just a few years ago, he’d probably say it was a fever dream.
But Saturday night was no fever dream.
It was a full-blown production, the result of years of hard work to reach the music venue pinnacle that only few dance artists have (Black Coffee, Fred again.., Skrillex, Four Tet, Swedish House Mafia).
Summit’s meteoric rise to fame over the past 2-3 years is nothing short of historic, and that’s exactly the world I’d use to describe his largest “Comfort in Chaos” tour stop yet…a sold out show at Madison Square Garden.
The Chicago-born DJ grinded the hard way, most notably mentioning in many interviews about leaving his corporate accountant life behind for a shot at the spotlight. Growing up in the birthplace of house music, it’s only just another element to his fairytale story.
It really all started to take shift in 2019/20, after garnering the support from legends and labels in the scene (Lee Foss, Toolroom Records, Defected Records) who shared the vision of the tech-house sound he was essentially creating in his bedroom (and releasing YouTube tutorials on his creations for that matter).
Fast forward to 2024 and not only has he checked off Coachella, his own Experts Only label, and much more from his music bucket list, but he’s also getting ready to launch the biggest benchmark (musically) in Comfort in Chaos, a studio album which arrives nearly in sync with his biggest NYC show to date.
Few possible ways are to describe how much Summit loves music and curating a dance floor unless you’ve seen it yourself, and Saturday night showed every ounce of passion fully on display.
Too many fans’ surprise, Summit stunned The Garden with an impressive 5 hours of dance music, pulling hits out from all over his catalogue and sprinkling ID’s from his own record label as well as others throughout.
When doors opened at 7 pm I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was gladly welcomed to what he would later call a “throwback” set. Situated uniquely in the GA floor crowd opposite of where the main stage is, Summit got up close and personal with adoring fans playing out some of his biggest smash songs like “Thin Line” and “Seen It All.”
Nostalgia officially was peaking in the moment and he himself could even feel it, constantly glancing around the 200s sections of MSG which were already filling up just minutes after hitting the B stage. Fans (including myself) were quite thrilled to see the throwback set, a chance for OG fans to get a whiff of that “old Summy sound” that got us hooked all those years ago.
Act 2 came in the form of a mysterious B2B that had everyone in the arena wondering who it was going to be. Would he pull out his good buddy Dom Dolla to recreate another New York City “Everything Always” moment or go for someone a little more unexpected? In the end he made an incredible choice, fellow Chicago house veteran Green Velvet.
To say these two have an unmatched chemistry when performing together would be an understatement. Backed by a panel of lights, the two “turned MSG into the world’s biggest nightclub” Summit said over the mic before one of the drops…and he wasn’t wrong.
Weaving between his own hits like “Where You Are” and Green Velvet’s anthems like “Laser Beams” everyone was dancing…and I mean everyone! The two clocked in one of the better duo performances I’ve seen in quite some time, and it felt overall like the perfect appetizer for what was to come…the Comfort in Chaos set.
“New York, how the f*** we feelin’ baby” he yelled as the lights went down…a slogan which has taken on a life of its own in the past year or so. To a crowd’s roar he opened up with his Cassian-approved remix to his mega-smash “Shiver,” seemingly paying homage to the Australian DJ who had to reschedule his set for the night’s afterparty due to illness.
From there he ripped through over 2 hours of music, playing through new album cuts like “Resonate” with Kaskade, “Give Me Everything” with Elderbrook, “EAT THE BASS” and so many more.
Perched up on his meticulously constructed rhombus stage, he dominated the room…engaging fans (who even wrapped 360° behind the stage) all night long. There was everything…lasers, pyro, fireworks, and even some very special guests.
Summit welcomed some of his favorite live collaborators to bring his Comfort in Chaos vision to life including Hayla, who performed both “Shiver” and “Where You Are” together. London-based vocalist Stevie Appleton even made an appearance to sing the highly appropriate “What a Life” — an uplifting retrospective as to say “I just sold out Madison Square Garden…what a life.”
After a few hours of debuting new and unreleased music, the magical night came to a close with a grand finale of “Go Back” — an industry-shifting track that has been all the buzz in 2024. The record, with vocals from Julia Church and production collaboration from Sub Focus was a live moment like I’ve never experienced before.
Building up to the now-famous DnB drop of the song that has touched airwaves and fan’s hearts everywhere, it felt like the end to a historic movie — fireworks, a shaking dance floor, friends hugging each other, and John Summit himself taking it all in with a huge grin.
All in all, Summit’s massive Madison Square Garden show will go down as one of NYC’s largest moments for house music. Seeing the genre, which he helped pioneer from the ground up, come to life on the world’s biggest stage in 2024 is extremely electrifying.
His brand new album, the aforementioned Comfort in Chaos, is due out on July 12th and I’m extremely hyped to see where it takes him.
Dance music is officially back on top.
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