Few, if any, artists have done as much to redefine the possibilities of electronic music than BT. His live shows have become the stuff of legends and his sporadic tour schedule has made him a must-see when he rolls through your town.

As much as I wanted this show to be as legendary as it could’ve been, it just wasn’t meant to be. In an odd twist, however, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on BT’s part.

There’s really just no other way to say it: Elektricity in Pontiac, MI is the worst venue I have ever had the misfortune of visiting.

Doors were supposed to open at 9:00. They opened at 9:30, which left a long line of people standing outside on a cold February, Michigan night for 30 minutes.

The opening DJ, YOS, was spinning when doors opened. And he kept spinning… and spinning… and spinning well past midnight. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t BT, which is why everyone was there in the first place.

Finally, at about 12:30, BT started. Within five minutes of the set opening, the house deck on the stage blew, bringing the set to a screeching halt. A somewhat helpless BT moved to the front of the stage to shake hands and talk to members of the crowd while the house crew supposedly worked to fix the problem.

After 10 minutes, which was like an eternity for a crowd that hand already been waiting for hours, about 25% of the crowd left. Many others began chanting for a refund. At the house board there was on guy, about 20 years old, texting. The opening DJ, YOS, was up on stage at the stage deck fiddling with channels trying to get something working as well.

This is where things really started to go downhill and why I will never be seeing another show at Elektricity.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been to a show when there has been technical difficulties; it happens. At other venues, however, someone from management usually gets on the house mic and explains to the crowd what is happening, asks for patience, gives an ETA on getting the issue fixed and sometimes even runs a drink special while they are working on the issue so that the paying customers know whether they should stay or go.

None of that happened here. In fact, you couldn’t find a visible member of management anywhere. What you could see everywhere, however, were camera guys. They were on the stage during the performance, which is something I have never seen before. In fact, at one point, BT was yelling at one of them to get out of the way… yes, he was that close.

This, of course, made the natives even more restless and the unusually large contingent of Jersey-Shore-type douchebags crawling in the place started picking fights with each other, to which security seemed to simply ignore as far as I could see.

After another five minutes, YOS came back up on stage and held up five fingers and yelled “Five minutes,” to a chorus of cheers from the fans who stuck it out.

When BT came back out, it was slow going getting the groove back and it was clear that the sound still wasn’t right and running at about half volume with virtually no treble or higher mids. BT noticed the problem, too, and was trying to get the sound guy to bring down the side monitors and push up the house speakers. Of course, the sound guy didn’t see the wild gestures coming from the stage—still texting—which led to YOS running back and forth between the stage and the sound board in an attempt to get the gear working right so BT could just focus on the performance.

BT continued, but it was just tough getting the groove back. Ever the professional, however, BT kept engaging the crowd to make them feel like they were part of the show. It wasn’t until about 1:40 a.m. that the speakers finally sounded right. And in Michigan, bars/clubs close at 2:00 a.m. At about 1:50 a.m. someone from management stepped into the booth to (presumably) tell BT it was getting close to closing time, which seemed to irritate EVERYBODY in the place.

Still, BT quickly faded into the Ferry Corsten classic, “Punk,” then into a brief medley of songs from his own album, These Hopeful Machines, before bringing the night to a rousing close. Through it all, he remained a consummate professional and showed why he’s revered as not only one of the most talented musicians in the game, but such a well-respected artist again. He kept pushing through disastrous consequences to engage the crowd and make the best of the night. If only the same could be said about the club’s management.