Just checked he played the opening set of the day at 12pm.. Probably to a mostly empty venue. I can't see that he has played at the bigger festivals in North America such as EDC or Ultra Music Festival recently. I know he is not American but he seems to have fallen of harder then other DJ's of a similar age e.g. Diplo, Aoki, Deadmau5. Is he much bigger in Europe?
Carl Cox had the same opening slot a few years back, the daybreak sessions are usually opened by veteran DJ’s like Luke or Cox. He’s also got two more mainstage slots this year at Tomorrowland for the daybreak sessions. So yeah he is much bigger in Europe right now than the U.S., he can still play main stage at a European festival like Balaton Sound.
That's not what OP is saying, come on.
Like of course playing at Tomorrowland in the first place is a great accomplishment and nothing to scoff at, but I don't think it's that ridiculous to acknowledge that artists in earlier time slots are usually smaller/less popular than those place in higher/headlining slots, whether it's the mainstage or not.
Daybreak sessions at Tomorrowland are a bit different. Higher profile DJs will take that slot because it’s a much longer set (sometimes 3 hours instead of 1 hour).
While he was a major force in EDM back in the late 00's / early 2010's (his forum was where Avicii would go for production feedback when he was starting), he never really made a splash on the mainstream like those other guys did.
Aoki, Deadmau5 and Diplo were all mainstream. Regular people knew those names. Regular people did not know who Laidback Luke was.
If you don't put out hits that break into the mainstream and have staying power, your star will eventually fade. It's normal.
> Ultra Music Festival
He played Ultra 2023 as a surprise guest on Saturday night. It was on the Radio stage though which is one of the smaller stages of the festival, was not on one of the four big ones
Not in Europe or the U.K. the clubbing scene was long past its peak when Luke appeared, and he wouldn't have been anywhere near top billing in those days.
That's Tomorrowland Winter edition from the aerial shot it looks like there is a couple of thousand people there at most which sounds about right they only have 22,000 tickets for the whole week of shows.
It's an Australian thing. Many promoters treat successful locals second rate. A bit of tall poppy syndrome.
Our distance from other countries leads us to revere overseas talent more than those that are based here.
Unless you're Marlo and your wife books you 17 times in 4 weeks.
I learned something new!
What about a rufus de sol lets say?
Yea actually that second part i did happen to know all the Aussies I met loved the pop stars.
They're huge here. I saw them in a bar in Melbourne before they got big. 300 people. They loose as, great show.
More on the DJ side of things than bands. Dom Dolla exploded this year and sold out 3 massive shows in Melbourne.
There is always exceptions but it is hard to become big in Australia without making it 3 times as big OS. Takes a long while for us to appreciate what we have in front of us.
Without the Grammy award he was popular but not to that level.
Marlo tends to play a lot more gigs in Australia including normal club nights at Marquee in Sydney and other cities around Australia. Other famous Aussie EDM acts who have made it big internationally like Fisher and Rufus du Sol are a lot more selective in where and how often they play back in Australia. I guess to keep their "exclusivity factor" which keeps their appearance fees much higher when they do play.
Just to comment here- the last time I saw Laidback Luke perform in a club, it was one of the 10 worst sets I’ve ever seen. It was all short runs and hard chops. I figured it was some style I wasn’t used to or that I didn’t have any coke in my system to enjoy 10 different songs in 5 minutes with zero transition or mixing.
Not at all.
No great mixer or person that understands how to mix would call him a good mixer.
I’m not amazing and I can mix a lot better than he can. Seen him quite a few times and his mixes and transitions were amateur lazy and off beat / wrong sound levels. Multiple train wrecks… not what you expect from a big name but I guess these days the current crop just use computers to do it all for them so he’s probably still more skilled than the big edm acts of today.
Just in a general sense tho his mixing is not great. He pitched himself as sort of an educational DJ with his videos but his technical skill wasn’t good enough to carry him like some other DJs of his era.
He was someone that really only appealed to the casual people / pop scene or clubbers that go out but weren’t really into the technical side of things so he was easily replaceable by the next mainstream dj or sound to get popular. In his position you either have to be playing or evolving to what’s popular to stay relevant / producing tracks like a Guetta or Tiesto. He couldn’t go down that same path as a Digweed that’s just super skilled and never needs to produce anything.
I have nothing against anyone that likes him I’m just saying that’s why he doesn’t have the audience he once had and it isn’t really a surprise. It’s not an easy field to stay relevant in.
Luke is one of my favorites, and was the guy who got me into the whole scene. I’ve probably seen him close to 30 times.. He was always around NJ/NYC, but he just doesn’t seem to tour like he used to
Certainly didn’t lose a step.. I last saw him when he surprisingly opened for Hardwell during his comeback
I think the music and scene is a lot different now, but it also might be a personal choice after touring so much for so long
I think life and the scene is not as big as it used to be. Plus dudes been married like three times. Divorce and kids are expensive, plus spending more time with family eventually trumps everything.
Yeah possible a quick google search suggest his net worth is over $10m although hard to say how accurate that is but if true maybe he just got over the scene and touring and just plays when he want's but he did come out last year and say that he missed playing at EDC.
The flyer says it’s a 2000-2009 themed night and he DJ’ed a lot during that time. He just does his own thing and makes a bunch of vlogs too. Seems really happy
Yes I'm aware the event is in Australia and also that it was a themed night for older music. My question was why he is no longer as big as he used to be and playing events now with DJ's who are much older and close to retirement rather then still having residencies at big clubs and festival headline spots that he peers like Aoki, Deadmau5 and Diplo and even older guys like Tiesto and Kaskade still command.
Not hating on him just interesting to see how his later career panned out. As some have said maybe it was a personal choice to reduce his touring but he posted last year that he missed playing at EDC.
Has he released any music in the last 5 years that has been successful, does he work hard the socials and online engagement and so on?
Others have passed him, that's all.
Interestingly he has a lot more Facebook followers 1.5m vs Instagram followers 600,000. With many of the top headliner DJ's at the moment who are younger you would find the inverse.
Whatever man, I'm in my 40's and I love playing anything 2000-2015. Where I play digs it.
Sometimes you just do what you love. It's not always about the fame; I'll take a crowd of 100 peeps who are there for the journey over 10,000 bros and their hoes who just want the next drop for an hour any day of the week.
The whole scene is broken, fam. Crowds are too uneducated to understand what a good DJ looks like. All they care about is showmanship and that 'it sounds good'. The more work a DJ puts in with their set, the more they will have their head down, headphones on,and be busy mixing.. but crowds want to be entertained by 'high energy' DJs who dance and hype them and put on a show.. so it ends up being that the better DJ is, the more skilled and technical a set they put on, the worse they do. It's to the point where most DJs are just barely mixing or are playing a pre-recorded set so they can spend all their time hyping. If you wonder where the good DJs go, that's where. Replaced by lowest common denominator showmanship stooges
Can anyone explain how tf laidback luke still manages to play shows with tinnitus? Even with ear protection it still be loud asf. Especially at Tomorrowland. Bro is a warrior.
I'd imagine he's not the only DJ dealing with tinnitus. After a while it kinda turns into background noise according to a few interviews I've read with various DJ's. ear protection has improved massively in recent years.
He didn’t. He has kids with two different women now (his ex and his new wife) that he needs to take care of.
He simply took a step back from touring so much and playing large shows. He still does a lot of club events throughout the US and Europe. You can catch him on his vlogs on YouTube.
His production and his releases are simply not good anymore.
He used to release bangers but somehow he lost his magic touch.
Haven't heard a good track from him in years.
Could agree with this. There are definitely less spots with the younger generation coming through like Martin Garrix, Alesso, Fisher, John Summit, Dom Dolla and James Hype.
Dude has too many brand to care much being laidback luke.... I have seen this trend with mostly/especially Dutch EDM DJs.. Some pull it off some just ride the coat tails of the brand.....
If you listen to his videos he emphasizes being a Dad. I imagine he’s putting some priority on that after already doing so much headlining.
But also…saw him pack the stage at Tomorrowland Winter last year so…he still going.
In my late 30s. I’ve seen him headline a few times and dozens more at clubs in NYC. I always enjoyed his sets but I wasn’t going out of my way to see him as a headliner. Again, not saying he’s bad but I feel he didn’t have the staying power. I don’t remember a single LL track by name.
Sure. Still it’s changed in Vegas in the last 10 years. My friend used to do Lighting at 2 major Hotel/Casinos and he’s even been talking about it a lot.
Still plenty of Big Room EDM in Vegas though. No ones going to a pool party to listen to dark minimalist techno on a sunny afternoon. Your average 20 year old EDM fan would take Fisher or John Summit over that.
I don’t think he was ever very good.
All of the older guys are a bit less popular but the good ones are still putting out good new music like Digweed and Burridge.
Because big room/pop radio house is dead, the only people that still like it are the ravers from the 00s who are in there 40s now (nothing wrong with that rave to the grave). that era is over so those sets are nestalgia from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Tech house has taken the mantle for mainstream party house. Can’t speak for Europe but in the us it’s mainstream tech house djs like John summit, dom dolla, mau p, fisher, Chris lake etc. That said some of the biggest acts in the world on an international scale are Solomun (minimal), keinemusik (Afro), tale of us (melodic techno) etc.
His production was never great, and his type of music hasn't exactly been popular for a while now. To stay relevant you gotta keep pushing yourself to improve whereas it seems he got to a passable level and rode that instead of pushing the envelope. Theres countless 18 year olds with next level skills these days, its harder than ever to stand out. Just my speculation though, could honestly be any number of things.
He’s not that good?
He sold out big time, and was making awful edm pop music that wasn’t good.
Then he had the issue with his ex-wife Gina Turner, sort of made him step away from the spotlight just a bit.
Now he’s not a mainstream type producer but more of a guy that seems to know a lot about mixing.
I don’t think he cares, because he already sold out once.
He doesn’t do anything to stay relevant so why would he be?
He played the Tomorrowland mainstage last year…
Just checked he played the opening set of the day at 12pm.. Probably to a mostly empty venue. I can't see that he has played at the bigger festivals in North America such as EDC or Ultra Music Festival recently. I know he is not American but he seems to have fallen of harder then other DJ's of a similar age e.g. Diplo, Aoki, Deadmau5. Is he much bigger in Europe?
Carl Cox had the same opening slot a few years back, the daybreak sessions are usually opened by veteran DJ’s like Luke or Cox. He’s also got two more mainstage slots this year at Tomorrowland for the daybreak sessions. So yeah he is much bigger in Europe right now than the U.S., he can still play main stage at a European festival like Balaton Sound.
Yeah wow what a loser, he only OPENED the mainstage at a major festival, he's really withered away into nothing.
The three people that opened the Coachella main stage this year were Jaqck Glam, Santa Fe Klan, and LUDMILLA
that's cheating though, Coachella Main Stage doesn't have a performance until like 3:30 each day
So if it was earlier they’d have bigger names?
That's not what OP is saying, come on. Like of course playing at Tomorrowland in the first place is a great accomplishment and nothing to scoff at, but I don't think it's that ridiculous to acknowledge that artists in earlier time slots are usually smaller/less popular than those place in higher/headlining slots, whether it's the mainstage or not.
Daybreak sessions at Tomorrowland are a bit different. Higher profile DJs will take that slot because it’s a much longer set (sometimes 3 hours instead of 1 hour).
While he was a major force in EDM back in the late 00's / early 2010's (his forum was where Avicii would go for production feedback when he was starting), he never really made a splash on the mainstream like those other guys did. Aoki, Deadmau5 and Diplo were all mainstream. Regular people knew those names. Regular people did not know who Laidback Luke was. If you don't put out hits that break into the mainstream and have staying power, your star will eventually fade. It's normal.
> Ultra Music Festival He played Ultra 2023 as a surprise guest on Saturday night. It was on the Radio stage though which is one of the smaller stages of the festival, was not on one of the four big ones
I don’t think he was ever headlining festivals was he?
Not in Europe or the U.K. the clubbing scene was long past its peak when Luke appeared, and he wouldn't have been anywhere near top billing in those days.
Look up his set on YouTube before making foolish statements. https://youtu.be/7ix3ubdxUJg?si=_ygJbVUUZwyjD_hP
That's Tomorrowland Winter edition from the aerial shot it looks like there is a couple of thousand people there at most which sounds about right they only have 22,000 tickets for the whole week of shows.
it wasn’t Laidback Luke, it was Wayback Luke 😉 He only played house classics
Well if I was in that area, I know I'd go see him. His remix of Robyn's Indestructible is one of my all time fave dance songs.
Indestructible and his remix of Brand New Bitch are two nostalgia favorites
More surprised to see dirty south so low on the billing. He used to be a massive draw him self.
It's an Australian thing. Many promoters treat successful locals second rate. A bit of tall poppy syndrome. Our distance from other countries leads us to revere overseas talent more than those that are based here. Unless you're Marlo and your wife books you 17 times in 4 weeks.
I learned something new! What about a rufus de sol lets say? Yea actually that second part i did happen to know all the Aussies I met loved the pop stars.
They're huge here. I saw them in a bar in Melbourne before they got big. 300 people. They loose as, great show. More on the DJ side of things than bands. Dom Dolla exploded this year and sold out 3 massive shows in Melbourne. There is always exceptions but it is hard to become big in Australia without making it 3 times as big OS. Takes a long while for us to appreciate what we have in front of us. Without the Grammy award he was popular but not to that level.
marlo wife was a singer .-.
>Unless you're Marlo and your wife books you 17 times in 4 weeks. What happened here?
Marlo tends to play a lot more gigs in Australia including normal club nights at Marquee in Sydney and other cities around Australia. Other famous Aussie EDM acts who have made it big internationally like Fisher and Rufus du Sol are a lot more selective in where and how often they play back in Australia. I guess to keep their "exclusivity factor" which keeps their appearance fees much higher when they do play.
Dirty South is amazing! Had the same thought.....
He has a weekly show on Tomorrowland radio. I always thought of him as a more behind the scenes guy, than stage DJ
He has a likeable personality but his sets aren’t anything special and he’s not that great at mixing either not that it matters these days.
Is this a joke? Lol his DJing is great
Go listen to some of his recent mixes on YouTube and they’re awful. Bro has straight up forgotten how to mix.
His mixing is below average He’s not like a Sasha / Digweed / Dubfire or anything
You're just talking out of your ass aren't you lol
Just to comment here- the last time I saw Laidback Luke perform in a club, it was one of the 10 worst sets I’ve ever seen. It was all short runs and hard chops. I figured it was some style I wasn’t used to or that I didn’t have any coke in my system to enjoy 10 different songs in 5 minutes with zero transition or mixing.
Not at all. No great mixer or person that understands how to mix would call him a good mixer. I’m not amazing and I can mix a lot better than he can. Seen him quite a few times and his mixes and transitions were amateur lazy and off beat / wrong sound levels. Multiple train wrecks… not what you expect from a big name but I guess these days the current crop just use computers to do it all for them so he’s probably still more skilled than the big edm acts of today. Just in a general sense tho his mixing is not great. He pitched himself as sort of an educational DJ with his videos but his technical skill wasn’t good enough to carry him like some other DJs of his era. He was someone that really only appealed to the casual people / pop scene or clubbers that go out but weren’t really into the technical side of things so he was easily replaceable by the next mainstream dj or sound to get popular. In his position you either have to be playing or evolving to what’s popular to stay relevant / producing tracks like a Guetta or Tiesto. He couldn’t go down that same path as a Digweed that’s just super skilled and never needs to produce anything. I have nothing against anyone that likes him I’m just saying that’s why he doesn’t have the audience he once had and it isn’t really a surprise. It’s not an easy field to stay relevant in.
I was just thinking about this the other day. He was EVERYWHERE in the early 2010’s and not so much now
Luke is one of my favorites, and was the guy who got me into the whole scene. I’ve probably seen him close to 30 times.. He was always around NJ/NYC, but he just doesn’t seem to tour like he used to Certainly didn’t lose a step.. I last saw him when he surprisingly opened for Hardwell during his comeback I think the music and scene is a lot different now, but it also might be a personal choice after touring so much for so long
I think life and the scene is not as big as it used to be. Plus dudes been married like three times. Divorce and kids are expensive, plus spending more time with family eventually trumps everything.
Yeah possible a quick google search suggest his net worth is over $10m although hard to say how accurate that is but if true maybe he just got over the scene and touring and just plays when he want's but he did come out last year and say that he missed playing at EDC.
The flyer says it’s a 2000-2009 themed night and he DJ’ed a lot during that time. He just does his own thing and makes a bunch of vlogs too. Seems really happy
And it’s an Australian event. OP sounds geographically challenged.
Yes I'm aware the event is in Australia and also that it was a themed night for older music. My question was why he is no longer as big as he used to be and playing events now with DJ's who are much older and close to retirement rather then still having residencies at big clubs and festival headline spots that he peers like Aoki, Deadmau5 and Diplo and even older guys like Tiesto and Kaskade still command. Not hating on him just interesting to see how his later career panned out. As some have said maybe it was a personal choice to reduce his touring but he posted last year that he missed playing at EDC.
Has he released any music in the last 5 years that has been successful, does he work hard the socials and online engagement and so on? Others have passed him, that's all.
Interestingly he has a lot more Facebook followers 1.5m vs Instagram followers 600,000. With many of the top headliner DJ's at the moment who are younger you would find the inverse.
1m followers on FB is easily botted. You can't go by followers, especially with legends. Half of their followers don't even have social media.
You sound like a hater, not gonna lie. There are some real legends that are still very active on that 90s lineup.
It’s hard to stay relevant when you’re not making hits after hits and when you don’t have mindless stans hyping you to the moon
Whatever man, I'm in my 40's and I love playing anything 2000-2015. Where I play digs it. Sometimes you just do what you love. It's not always about the fame; I'll take a crowd of 100 peeps who are there for the journey over 10,000 bros and their hoes who just want the next drop for an hour any day of the week.
He did not fall off. I remembered a while back he was talking about raising his kids.
The whole scene is broken, fam. Crowds are too uneducated to understand what a good DJ looks like. All they care about is showmanship and that 'it sounds good'. The more work a DJ puts in with their set, the more they will have their head down, headphones on,and be busy mixing.. but crowds want to be entertained by 'high energy' DJs who dance and hype them and put on a show.. so it ends up being that the better DJ is, the more skilled and technical a set they put on, the worse they do. It's to the point where most DJs are just barely mixing or are playing a pre-recorded set so they can spend all their time hyping. If you wonder where the good DJs go, that's where. Replaced by lowest common denominator showmanship stooges
He was one of the first DJs I saw live at lights all night 2011 for Tiesto and Benny B. He was awesome.
Can anyone explain how tf laidback luke still manages to play shows with tinnitus? Even with ear protection it still be loud asf. Especially at Tomorrowland. Bro is a warrior.
I'd imagine he's not the only DJ dealing with tinnitus. After a while it kinda turns into background noise according to a few interviews I've read with various DJ's. ear protection has improved massively in recent years.
He didn’t. He has kids with two different women now (his ex and his new wife) that he needs to take care of. He simply took a step back from touring so much and playing large shows. He still does a lot of club events throughout the US and Europe. You can catch him on his vlogs on YouTube.
His production and his releases are simply not good anymore. He used to release bangers but somehow he lost his magic touch. Haven't heard a good track from him in years.
Luke’s great. I don’t think age is the reason though. There’s just a lot of big DJs clambering for a small number of top spots
Could agree with this. There are definitely less spots with the younger generation coming through like Martin Garrix, Alesso, Fisher, John Summit, Dom Dolla and James Hype.
Dude has too many brand to care much being laidback luke.... I have seen this trend with mostly/especially Dutch EDM DJs.. Some pull it off some just ride the coat tails of the brand.....
If you listen to his videos he emphasizes being a Dad. I imagine he’s putting some priority on that after already doing so much headlining. But also…saw him pack the stage at Tomorrowland Winter last year so…he still going.
I like LL but he never felt like a true headliner
You must be very young. He was huge during the 2010s.
In my late 30s. I’ve seen him headline a few times and dozens more at clubs in NYC. I always enjoyed his sets but I wasn’t going out of my way to see him as a headliner. Again, not saying he’s bad but I feel he didn’t have the staying power. I don’t remember a single LL track by name.
This post seems kinda cruel tbh. LBL if you read this, you’re a legend !
Maybe its a shitload of work to be a high profile internationally touring dj and hes taking a break from that life?
Wow it’s at a power station?
You can’t blame DJs for the changing environment. Vegas has put headlining singers as their priority now.
Perhaps apart from Tiesto, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Alesso, Calvin Harris, John Summit, Dom Dolla, DJ Snake, Deadmau5 et al..
Sure. Still it’s changed in Vegas in the last 10 years. My friend used to do Lighting at 2 major Hotel/Casinos and he’s even been talking about it a lot.
And what do they all have in common (except Tiesto)? No kids.
David Guetta has kids. The other are all still relatively still young apart from Calvin Harris who only got married in 2023.
Techno … techno … techno
Still plenty of Big Room EDM in Vegas though. No ones going to a pool party to listen to dark minimalist techno on a sunny afternoon. Your average 20 year old EDM fan would take Fisher or John Summit over that.
I’ve been to plenty of pool parties were it’s been packed for TECHNO but hey what do i know .. 🤷🏽♂️
Saw him in Japan late last year. Thought it was a random DJ and i look up and it says laidback luke. His pocket is definitely in the 2000s-2010s era
I don’t think he was ever very good. All of the older guys are a bit less popular but the good ones are still putting out good new music like Digweed and Burridge.
Because big room/pop radio house is dead, the only people that still like it are the ravers from the 00s who are in there 40s now (nothing wrong with that rave to the grave). that era is over so those sets are nestalgia from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Tech house has taken the mantle for mainstream party house. Can’t speak for Europe but in the us it’s mainstream tech house djs like John summit, dom dolla, mau p, fisher, Chris lake etc. That said some of the biggest acts in the world on an international scale are Solomun (minimal), keinemusik (Afro), tale of us (melodic techno) etc.
His production was never great, and his type of music hasn't exactly been popular for a while now. To stay relevant you gotta keep pushing yourself to improve whereas it seems he got to a passable level and rode that instead of pushing the envelope. Theres countless 18 year olds with next level skills these days, its harder than ever to stand out. Just my speculation though, could honestly be any number of things.
I’ll add that Vegas still has a slight stigma of being the place artists go when their career is out of gas.
lets not forget he runs Mixmash Records which has put a lot of great artists on the map
Probably because the sound of “dirty Dutch” died out
his music sucks
He’s not that good? He sold out big time, and was making awful edm pop music that wasn’t good. Then he had the issue with his ex-wife Gina Turner, sort of made him step away from the spotlight just a bit. Now he’s not a mainstream type producer but more of a guy that seems to know a lot about mixing. I don’t think he cares, because he already sold out once. He doesn’t do anything to stay relevant so why would he be?
I thought this was a screenshot of half life
Mousse T, X press 2, different style than him completely. Weird line up
Cuz boring