2013 Grammys: Skrillex, Kaskade, Diplo and Nero party atop L.A.

By August Brown

Feb. 10, 2013 12 AM PT

This post has been updated. See note below for details.

Although the 2013 Grammy winners won’t be known for one more day, the winner for best Grammy party may no longer be in doubt.

At about 11 p.m. Friday night, pretty much the entire dance-music establishment was being whisked to the top floors of a skyscraper in South Park. This was Skrillex’s pre-Grammy party for the AIDS charity Dance (RED), Save Lives, and it looked like a rave thrown in the boardroom of a multinational energy conglomerate (kind of an apt metaphor for the genre these days).

Just a few hundred of EDM’s one-percenters ripped through the open bar while taking in city views big enough to make Jay McInerney cry. The dance floor was bathed in blue fog that underlined the decadent weirdness of the setting. (Note to promoters: Seriously, more raves in skyscrapers, please.)

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It was the exact opposite of a seedy bunker like Berlin’s Berghain, and surprisingly mellow given the star power. But if you’re in the business of stalking EDM megafauna, it was the best safari you could ask for.

The lineup could have filled Electric Daisy on its own accord – Kaskade knocking out svelte neo-house, Diplo doing his drum-clacking dance hall jams and Nero leaning into arena-sized dubstep in a room that by day is likely dedicated to late-capitalist prowess. We rode up the elevator with Dirtybird svengali and new Angeleno Claude VonStroke; we woke up this morning kind of surprised we made it back to our apartment in one piece.

It was Skrillex’s night (he’s up for a couple of Grammys) , but it was apt that he gave so much of the party over to friends. Now that the genre fills arenas, controls the Vegas economy and earned its own shaggy but well-intentioned Grammy tribute last year, the top is probably better when you can share the view.

Update at 4:10 p.m., Feb. 14: Information about the event’s organizers, Dance (RED), Save Lives, was added.

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