Having already introduced their special brand of melodic dance mayhem to North American electronic music fans with roof-raising DJ sets at nightclubs in December, London’s premiere dubstep duo Nero is gearing up for a triumphant return to the U.S. in March for their headlining “Second Reality” live tour, as well as eagerly awaited appearances at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in April. Nero will also launch their exclusive 2012 DJ residency at Surrender and XS Nightclubs, located at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, performing first at Surrender between the weeks at Coachella.
Those who purchase tickets will each receive an immediate digital download of Nero’s debut album Welcome Reality along with an exclusive laminate that unlocks additional digital content. The fan pre-sale runs now through February 3rd.
Nero is British-born producers, remixers, DJs, and artists Dan Stephens and Joe Ray, who are joined by dynamo singer Alana Watson for their live concerts, which find them performing high atop a custom-built booth consisting of ghetto blasters, retro TV’s, old amps, and an arcade machine centerpiece.
Nero is touring in support of Welcome Reality, which was released to rave reviews by Cherrytree/Interscope Records in December. With its thunderous bass, hail of house rhythms, lightning flashes of rave synths, and showers of guitar, the album “pulls dubstep toward the arena-pop spotlight without leaving its shadows behind,” as the New York Times put it in its review, while Billboard noted that Nero “comes off like a dubstep-powered pop band.”
Released in the U.K. in August, Welcome Reality debuted at No. 1 and rapidly earned Gold status, fueled by its singles “Innocence,” “Guilt,” “Promises” (which also stormed straight to the top of the UK charts) and “Me and You,” which was the most played record on Radio 1 for three weeks in a row and is now the first U.S. single from the album. Nero’s indie/dubstep hybrid smash Me and You Remix EP is also currently available digitally, and features a brand-new remix of “Me And You” by Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia, and a Skrillex remix of “Promises” (previously unavailable in the U.S.) that has racked up more than 10 million plays on YouTube.
Check out the video trailer for HARD Summer 2012 here featuring “Promises” (Skrillex & Nero Remix) and Nero’s Dan Stephens.
With nominations from BBC’s Sound of 2011, XFM’s Sound of 2011, and Music Week’s Top 15, Nero also won 2010’s Beatport Award for Best Dubstep Act and Best Dubstep Track for “Act Like You Know.” The duo have performed at all the major UK music festivals including Glastonbury, Bestival, Reading, and Wireless, and still found the time to produce remixes for The Streets, La Roux, deadmau5, N*E*R*D and Daft Punk.
Second Reality US Tour Dates
03/29 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
03/30 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
03/31 New York, NY Roseland Ballroom
04/03 Boston, MA House of Blues
04/04 Montreal, QC Metropolis
04/06 Toronto, ON Sound Academy
04/07 Chicago, IL Congress Theater
04/08 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater
04/13 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theater
04/15 Indio, CA Coachella
04/18 Las Vegas, NV Surrender Nightclub (DJ set)
04/22 Indio, CA Coachella
04/24 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
04/26 Dallas, TX House of Blues
04/27 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater