Cheat Codes Raise Hell At The Westcott Theater — 20 Watts Magazine

By Jake Goldberg/Photos from Erik Liu

DJ trio Cheat Codes continued their HELLRAISERS tour, playing to a buzzing crowd at the Westcott Theater.

During their 18th show of their HELLRAISERS tour, electronic DJ trio Cheat Codes gave a thrilling and electrifying performance at the Westcott Theater right by Syracuse University. Even for a Sunday night concert, there was a huge turnout of a couple hundred people ranging from college students to adults of all ages.

With the show beginning at 8pm, it started with DJ JUICEBOX, followed by South-African DJ MADDS. Those two performances really set the stage for what was to come later that night. After each performer went on for about an hour each, at 10:15pm, the real show began.

The trio of Cheat Codes consists of Trevor Dahl, KEVI, and Mathew Russel who are all based in Los Angeles and have been together since 2015 when they released their first single “Visions.” The groups first big hit came with their 2016 single “Sex” which sampled “Lets Talk About Sex” by Salt-n-Peppa, but the first song of theirs to really blow up was “No Promises” featuring famous popstar Demi Lovato in 2017 which hit the top 40 in the US, UK, and Australia and dozens of other countries.

When Cheat Codes finally graced the stage with their loud bass drops, crazy background graphics, and energetic personalities, the atmosphere in the small theater changed into something crazier than it was before. As the performance progressed, you could tell the group was feeding off the crowd just as much as the crowd was feeding off them. Due to the fact that Cheat Codes both produces and sings, combined with the high energy drummer they had with them, it felt like non-stop entertainment and amazement in the best ways possible.

Cheat Codes residing on the smokey stage.

This tour was also a big deal for the group, due to it being based around their first (and second) official album titled “Hellraisers.” This album, which was split into two different parts, really captivates what the group has been working on the past few years, and you can see that in their performance. The passion and love for what they do was really shown off throughout the night.

The big thing that showed this was just how much fun they were having with each other and the fans. Some prime examples of this is when a fan tossed both a bracelet and a pack of Gushers to Trevor who put on the bracelet and gave the gushers to a worker on the side who supposedly loves Gushers. KEVI, on top of squirting his water bottle into the crowd on occasions, also took off his sweatshirt and tossed it into the crowd for a lucky fan to catch and keep. Another example of just how much they all love what they do, who they do it with, and who they do it for, is when Trevor stopped the show to point out that it was their head of merchandise's birthday.

As mentioned before, this tour represents the groups first album, but that doesn't mean they didn’t pull out their old hits as well as their smaller stuff that not so die-hard fans might not know. Regardless if the song was popular or not, the crowd was so incredibly into it from start to finish. Once the crowd put their hands in the air and started jumping, it didn’t stop. The amount of fans shoving their phones in the groups faces to get them to take a video was extraordinary. But the more interesting part was that most of the time, they would do it.

The show went on for about an hour and a half ending with extravagant and empowering versions of their two most famous and most popular songs being “No Promises” with Demi Lovato, and “Feels Great” with Fetty Wap.

At the end of the night, with thoughts of Monday starting to loom in, the fans at the Westcott Theater had their week start off with not just an amazing concert with amazing music, but overall an experience they will never forget.