To kick off Halloweekend this year, students flocked to Ritchie Coliseum on Thursday night to attend SEE’s second annual EDM concert, Fallapalooza, featuring Jai Wolf and special guest Gryffin. The show brought fans of the artists as well as inexperienced EDM listeners unfamiliar with the acts.

Perhaps because of the acts’ relatively low exposure in mainstream music, few students arrived when doors opened at 6:30 p.m. However, the floor slowly filled up as the show inched closer to Jai Wolf’s set and the crowd became lively, eagerly awaiting his performance.

Special guest Gryffin had ties to Jai Wolf, real name Sajeeb Saha, through a connection with fellow EDM producer Manila Killa prior to the event. The two met in New York at Saha’s home several years ago and would support each other at shows in the area.

Strobe lights surrounded the excited audience as Gryffin, whose real name is Dan Griffith, took the stage. While his live-set was appreciated, it was a little too mellow for a college crowd in comparison to Jai Wolf’s eclectic DJ-oriented performance.

“I hope people who came to see me are happy and satisfied with the performance and people who never heard of me like what they heard and check my stuff out,” Gryffin said. “Really the only thing I could hope for when I play live is that I win some new fans over and satisfy the ones that came.”

Saha was raised listening to classical Indian music, but developed an early interest in synthesizers that was not truly channeled until after he graduated from New York University and started the music project in 2014. It wasn’t for another year that he truly began to make waves in the electronic scene with the release of his first original track, “Indian Summer,” which now has over 11 million plays on SoundCloud.

Jai Wolf performs at the SEE Fallapalooza on Thursday Oct. 27, 2016. (Tom Hausman/The Diamondback)

Making the transition from a SoundCloud to a touring artist wasn’t easy for Saha, and he said he believes this was accomplished by his ability to connect with his audience through raw emotion felt both in his music and live sets.

“I feel very lucky that I get to tour on my own … I think there’s just something that the listener is connected to when they hear a song like ‘Indian Summer,'” Saha said. “At the end of the day it’s really just the honesty in the music. I like working with honest singers and when I write a beat, every beat you hear is coming from an honest place.”

As Jai Wolf performed, images of intergalactic features such as spaceships, aliens and astronauts lit up behind him. Imaginex, a technology studio, was responsible for the dazzling visuals during the show that not only intensified the crowd’s excitement as Saha played remixes of popular songs, but mirrored it.

Saha’s performance was promising for an artist only two years in the game and with not even an EP under his belt. His connection to his music was authentic, as he was just as engaged in his audience as they were to him.

“I hope people understand there’s a lot of artistry behind electronic music and it’s not just bangers,” Saha said.