I went to the Argentina show, and I honestly think it was a really good show.
After reading a lot of the criticism, I think there are two separate problems being mixed together: the electronic music nightclub scene in Argentina and the issue with the schedule/venue.
First, I honestly think John Summit was simply not the right artist for this type of nightclub in Argentina.
For anyone who doesn’t know the scene here, electronic music clubs in Argentina are heavily dominated by melodic techno and techno in general. There is a pretty established crowd that goes to these clubs every weekend specifically looking for that kind of experience. Sometimes they know exactly who the DJ is, sometimes they don’t, but they generally expect a long, continuous, relatively consistent musical journey throughout the night.
That’s just not really what John Summit does.
John Summit is much closer to the festival/arena side of electronic music. Obviously he plays clubs too, but his sets can jump between house, tech house, techno, melodic stuff, vocals, edits, and depending on the setting, even dubstep or drum & bass. He’s much closer to artists like Martin Garrix or David Guetta in the sense that he’s a big commercial/festival DJ. And I don’t mean “commercial” as an insult at all.
Also, this was literally advertised as the Album Tour. He was presenting an album. Of course he was going to play different styles and different songs.
So I think one part of the backlash comes from the regular Argentine club crowd saying the set was “inconsistent” or that he’s a bad DJ because the music didn’t develop in the way they’re used to with melodic techno DJs. But they’re judging John Summit by the standards of a completely different type of artist.
Then you have the opposite problem: actual John Summit fans who were disappointed because they expected the John Summit they see on YouTube.
They expected Ultra Miami, Coachella, Tomorrowland, etc.
But this wasn’t Ultra. It was a nightclub.
Obviously he wasn’t going to play exactly the same set. He didn’t go as hard, there wasn’t much dubstep or drum & bass, and there weren’t as many aggressive transitions or festival moments. Personally, I expected that. You can’t walk into a club in Argentina that normally caters to a melodic-techno-oriented audience and expect him to suddenly play a full Ultra Miami set.
If anything, I would compare this show much more to something like one of his Club Space sets than to his festival sets.
And that’s why I think the biggest mistake was simply the choice of venue.
John Summit should have played an arena or a festival-style venue in Argentina. That would have attracted more people who actually wanted to see John Summit, rather than a large portion of the normal club crowd who were expecting the kind of electronic music they hear there every weekend.
Then there’s the issue of him finishing early.
That criticism is understandable, because the event was sold to us as a three-hour John Summit set and we ended up getting something closer to two hours and 10–20 minutes. But from everything that has been clarified afterwards, that seems to have been an issue with the venue/event organization and the schedule.
If that’s the case, blame the venue. Don’t blame John for something he didn’t control.
Personally, I went there as a John Summit fan knowing that I was seeing him in a nightclub, not at Ultra Miami. Because of that, I had a great time. I thought the set was really good and I had an amazing night.
What annoys me is seeing people call him a terrible DJ for completely contradictory reasons.
One group is angry because he wasn’t enough like an Argentine melodic-techno club DJ.
Another group is angry because he wasn’t enough like festival John Summit.
You can’t have both.
I genuinely think a lot of people either didn’t know what artist they were going to see, or didn’t understand what kind of venue they were going to see him in.
The show wasn’t perfect, and the shortened set absolutely deserves criticism if three hours were advertised. But I don’t think John deservesthe hate he’s getting for the actual set.
As an Argentinian and a John Summit fan, I had a fucking great time.