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At least 10 DJs are set to perform on Electric Boat Cruise COLIN F. CROSS PHOTO

At least 10 DJs are set to perform on Electric Boat Cruise COLIN F. CROSS PHOTO

If your ideal definition of “outdoor activities” is “drinking outside” — and let’s be real, whose isn’t? — then the Electric Boat Cruise is for you. It’s a dance party stacked with a lineup of DJs playing all facets of house music. Only, this dance party takes place out at sea.

“We go out along Waikiki, do the whole stretch along there, and then come back and spend time inside of Honolulu Harbor,” explains event organizer Matt Hall.

The boat departs from Aloha Tower, at the pier next to Gordon Biersch, at 7:45 p.m. May 9, but the party starts on the boat as early as 7 with drink specials and music. Once the cruise gets underway, DJs will be performing at two stage areas: one downstairs, and one upstairs on the open deck.

As of last week, there were at least 10 confirmed DJs, including local acts such as Coondog, Epic Trauma, Kazuo and Riddlin. Hall himself also will make an appearance under his music moniker DJ Baumer (You can read more about Hall in the sidebar). DJ Wood Holly also will be visiting the Islands from Los Angeles to perform on the boat. The DJs run the gamut in terms of the type of electronic music they’ll be playing — Hall says they hit all the nuances of the genre, including trap, future house, trance, electro house, progressive and more.

One artist that Hall is particularly excited about is DJ Nspyerd, an up-and-comer who is just 11 years old.

“I’ve been watching him, and he’s been working really hard,” Hall says, adding that Electric Boat Cruise is the young DJ’s debut at a live public event. “He practices every night.

“We’re just trying to support our local DJ scene,” Hall adds. “There is a lot of talent here. We’ve had some really great artists come through the boat.”

This marks the third Electric Boat Cruise — the first happened in 2014, after a group of local DJs, including Hall, had performed at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Coming off of the excitement of that massive festival, they wanted to throw another event — but a house party or regular club just seemed dull after EDC.

“We wanted to have a forum where DJs could perform, and people could come out and do something different,” says Hall.

“I think it is just the energy — getting away from everything that is here on land and kind of separating yourself from that,” he adds. “That is the thing that I really enjoy, and just the energy that you feel from the music.”

Oh, and another noteworthy fact: Nobody has gotten seasick at these parties, yet.

Electric Boat Cruise is for those 18 and over, with two bars for 21 and over. The boat docks around midnight, but DJs will be dispersing to clubs throughout town for a series of after-parties. The Fix and eleven44 were the participating venues as of press time.

Tickets are limited, as the boat can only fit a little more than 400 people. Early-bird tickets already have sold out, and tickets are going quickly. Tickets can be purchased at electricboatcruise.com, Auto Customs in town or 808 Vapez in Aiea. VIP tickets also are available. The set schedule will be released about a week before the event.

DJ Baumer performed at EDC Orlando PHOTO COURTESY INSOMNIAC

DJ Baumer performed at EDC Orlando
PHOTO COURTESY INSOMNIAC

Meet DJ Baumer

Matt Hall, aka DJ Baumer, seems to be on something of a winning streak. Last year, he played at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, a sundown-to-sunrise electronic music fest that he says is “more or less the Super Bowl of dance festivals.”

“It was unbelievable to be one of 200 DJs playing in front of 140,000 people each night. Every time you go to a different stage, it’s like the size of a major festival in itself, and there are seven different stages,” Hall explains. “It was incredible just to go, and it was even more incredible to be able to perform.”

He also has played at Beyond Wonderland in San Francisco and EDC Orlando. Hall has been invited to perform at EDC Las Vegas again this year and also has plans to perform at EDC Brazil at the end of the year.

It’s been a somewhat meteoric rise for Hall. For all of his accomplishments, Hall hasn’t been at it all that long. He began DJing just a few years ago, while he was working as the director of golf at Turtle Bay Resort, after a friend let him play around with his controller.

“It was kind of just an escape from my everyday life, just being able to lose myself in music,” reflects Hall. “It was something that I always wanted to do, and it just got to the point where I was like, ‘OK, I am going to invest some time, and I am going to do this.’ And I did it.”

His sets include a range of the various sub-genres of house music — depending on what type of event he’s playing — but he tends to gravitate mostly to progressive house.

“It’s just been great — it’s been a lot of fun,” he adds. “The thing with DJing I don’t think that some people realize is that you feed off of the crowd as much as the crowd feeds off of you … It’s an adrenaline rush, and I really do love doing it.”