Live Music: Nero at Royale in Boston

Pembroke — There are some shows that, no matter how long you have to wait, or how hard it is to get tickets, that you must see. I kept repeating this to myself as I waited from approximately 9 p.m. to 11:20 p.m. for Nero to take the stage at Royale in Boston on Dec. 15. The electricity and build up for this show were enough to let me know that I was in for a great show.

In the end it was worth the wait. In the last few years, the emergence of dubstep in America has taken the country’s club kids under its wings and given them something they can call their own. But, aside from Skrillex and a few others, dubstep legends like Rusko and Nero have largely been left out of the mainstream until now. It also seems like, judging from the crowd in Boston, that the audience for this kind of music has skipped past the 20 some things and onto the younger generation, as most of the people crowded into Royale certainly needed to be ID’d.

But, as dubstep has come of age, so have the DJs spinning it. And here we have Nero.

Hot on the heels of releasing Welcome Reality, Nero’s Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray have showed that they’re up for the challenge of producing dance friendly beats while stoking the dubstep fire for the younger generation. Whether its on their new album or performing live, the UK duo have honed their ability to tear through a dance set, taking it from grimy, pulse-punching to the ear-candy electronica with a few knob turns.

The band peppered in a few bigger tunes from their recent Welcome Reality album, opening with "Doomsday" and "Guilt" and playing most of the crowd’s seemingly favorite singles as arms thrashed and legs kicked.

There were also popular tracks like “Warp” by Steve Aoki, “Bass Cannon” by Flux Pavillion and “Levels” by Avicii.

Kids wearing beach gear, sunglasses and ‘Sex, Drugs, and Dubstep’ crowded onto the dance floor from the moment Nero hit the stage. Even before the set, they danced into a frenzy, hoping to get the UK DJs onto the stage by some sort of dance magic.

If more people expanded their understanding of dubstep beyond the usual tracks to see its roots in European dance evolution, more people would enjoy bands like Avicii and Nero. When you break it down, it’s just dance music, through and through.

Nero finally closed down with System of a Down's "Chop Suey", evoking a healthy amount of early 2000’s nostalgia for a very fitting crowd.