Jamie xx Throws a Party Under the K Bridge Park
Jamie xx – Under the K Bridge Park – August 1, 2025
Venues like Brooklyn’s Under the K Bridge Park and artists like Jamie xx feel made for each other: Dark but not spooky, industrial but not cold, mysterious but not inaccessible, somehow sexy and engrossing as a result of all of that — especially with beautifully cool night air to gilt the grooving, sold-out masses, the steaming city heat blessedly taking the night off.
Friday was Night One of Jamie’s mesmerizing party, which he joined early — lucky early comers saw presunset action in a well-considered B2B set — and then crowned late, following nearly five hours of music that preceded him and some smoking-hot sets from handpicked fellow DJs. Standouts included Carista, serving a relentless, pummeling pogo of good-time house and techno, and then Daphni, one of Dan Snaith’s many alter egos, who steered the vibe much more experimental and sonic-collage-y without losing a drop of danceability.
As Jamie arrived to hugs and high fives, he changed places with Daphni and continued the theme of breakless handoffs among the headliners, touching on plenty of familiar material, favoring the woozy, intense, engrossing In Waves from 2024. Things opened with the soaring, ephemeral “Wanna,” and there were familiar swerves throughout the set into the stamping, bleating “Treat Each Other Right,” skittering “Kill Dem” and the psychedelic, run-tunnel whirring “Breather” — anything but its name.
But this wasn’t a songs-centric set as if supporting an album release. The tunes were name-checked, pulled away from, swerved back into, shot back, coursed over. Jamie didn’t mess with the core melodies so much as sequence the set to sine-wave like an electrical current through them, balancing long chill-outs with earnestly developing thumpers and shifting tones and moods that led, inevitably, into big drop moments and crowd swell.
He’s a patient sonic architect, equally at home with Bollywood blast-offs as he is psyche-out goo or straight-up rave-y untz untz untz, and his set at Under the K felt both bursting at the seams and that it was over before he even hit a zenith — another hour Friday night would have been welcomed, but not necessary to sate. —Chad Berndtson | @cberndtson
Photos courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum | @tobytenenbaum
