Saturday, September 9th, was a very busy night when it comes to music events in Downtown Phoenix. Illenium made a standout appearance at Arizona's newest venue, the Van Buren, Billy Kenny laid down the vibes at the Crescent Ballroom, and Anjunabeats Worldwide Tour 07 made its stop at the Monarch with Grum and Fehrplay. I took this opportunity to expand my horizons and decided to go check out a progressive house show!

I have been to the Monarch at least ten times and I have seen it transform into a complete mosh pit of chaos and also look like what could become a giant make out session, but this was different. I entered to see a fairly open floor on both the 21+ and under 21 side which was something I have never seen before.

I knew coming into this that progressive house is more of a niche genre than the mainstream house I usually listen to, but it was nice being able to have some breathing room and relax. I walked around for awhile and around halfway through Fehrplay's set I realized the only thing I really needed to do was relax (No Rezz pun intended).

Progressive house doesn't demand you to dance or interact with the music, you enjoy it as much or as little as you want which ended up with me sitting by myself sitting in the back of the venue on a comfy couch sipping cranberry vodkas. I can honestly say I have never had so much of a relaxing fun time at the Monarch.

Fehrplay was a continuous blend of chill tunes with upbeat undertones that kept my mood afloat until Grum made his appearance. Grum opened to much excitement from the crowd and I decided to join the masses in the front of the stage enjoying the stellar visuals and different music.

I can't say that I would personally seek out a progressive house show but I can say that it was a nice change of pace from the usual head banging. For the past few days, I have been listening to the Anjunabeats mixtapes whenever I am studying or writing. I would recommend that everyone steps outside of their genre every now and then, experience everything that EDM has to offer and at the end of the day, you may end up with a new favorite.