I told a lot of people I was going to see Bryce Alakai DJ last week. Every time, they reacted with a jealous and astounded “Oh, my god.” “Love Island” took over the internet this summer with the drama, the sex and the many amusing moments. Winners Bryce Dettloff (known as “Alakai” on stage) and Trinity Tatum stole America’s hearts with their display of “true love” for each other, ending the season with the exchange of “I love yous,” and beginning their relationship on camera. The whole cast recently came back together for the show’s reunion, reminding viewers which stars they care about and which they despise.
During the height of the “Love Island” summer craze, my friends and I decided that it would be a good idea to purchase tickets to Alakai’s DJ set at Webster Hall in New York City on Friday, Sept. 11. We have been looking forward to this moment for a month, talking constantly about the show and gathering to watch the reunion. But my expectations for the show itself were pretty low. I expected Alakai to be a “Love Island” beneficiary, supported by people like my friends and I who were just there for the chance to see some cast members. To my surprise, Alakai found a way to blow us away. Maybe that is the exhaustion talking while I write this the morning after the midnight show, but we had a blast.
My friends and I made a plan to keep ourselves occupied and awake when we discovered the day of the set that doors did not open until 11 p.m. We took the 6:55 p.m. train from Poughkeepsie and hopped on a subway downtown to settle into Cafe Reggio, just two blocks south of Washington Square Park. Ever since my first visit during my freshman year, I have returned for the promise of a reasonably priced pre-game conveniently located close to the subways from Grand Central Station and various bars and venues downtown. Although, I would like to note that, if you are strongly opposed to being surrounded by New York University freshmen who will likely ask you, “Where are you going after this?”, Cafe Reggio might not be the place for you.
When we finally arrived at the concert at 11:30 p.m., there was a line full of women—with a few supportive boyfriends sprinkled in—wrapping around the block to get into Webster Hall. It felt like a community event: Girls ran into the market to grab tall boys of Mike’s Harder Lemonade for the wait, and random people walking by kept coming up to the line to ask, “What are you waiting for?” After being told of the event, they naturally reacted with a stunned “Oh, my God.”
When we got in, opener Axela was DJing on stage, her name illuminated on the screen behind her. At first, we were confused when the audience would start screaming at random points during Axela’s set. We glanced to the balcony, where we noticed a large portion of the “Love Island” cast had settled; those visible to the crowd included Aniya Harvey, Melanie Moreno, Sincere Rhea, Kayda Bosse, Zach Georgiou, KC Chandler and Tierra “Titi” Davis, accompanied by a handful of other stars such as Kevin McHale, known for his character Artie in “Glee,” and TikTok star Bach Buquen. The cast egged on the crowd during the entire opening set, waving, taking videos of the crowd screaming back at them, hopping on FaceTime to show off to a friend and—the crowd’s favorite—sharing intimate moments with their partner right at the front of the balcony. Sincere and Melanie were spotted canoodling. Aniya had Carl Lee Schmidt on FaceTime. KC and Titi held each other as they danced closely. Zach and Kayda gave the crowd what they wanted and got a little handsy. Everyone in the crowd was starstruck; every eye in the room was on the cast, who were serving up a slice of “Love Island” drama in the flesh.
Alakai went on closer to 1 a.m., and the room surged forward, inching as close as possible to the barricade, using all elbows available to them. The floors were already sticky with spilled drinks, giving Alakai the advantage of an inebriated crowd watching intently with rose-tinted glasses. Within the first song, a remix of “Pump Up The Jam” by Technotronic, he immediately leaned on his crutch of the night, the frat flick, getting the crowd to flick right along with him. Girls FaceTimed their friends when he went on, and groups circled up to dance together. Only a couple songs in, Trinity ran onto the stage, prompting a collective shriek from the crowd. She stuck by Alakai’s side for the majority of the set, handing him water, dancing and whispering sweet nothings in his ear.
I was taken aback by how smooth and consistently exciting Alakai’s DJing was. He knew how to read the room, remixing songs everyone sang along to, while never being too predictable. Some of these songs included “Girls” by The Dare, “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap, “flash” by 2hollis and “4 Raws” by EsDeeKid—quite the diverse medley. The songs broke into a thumping beat at the chorus, getting people to pump up their arms and jump around to the bass. When “Latch” by Sam Smith came on, Alakai and Trinity cuddled up and squeezed in time for a quick makeout, getting the crowd to squeal. To keep the crowd on their toes, Alakai brought out some other special guests during his set. JC Chasez of *NSYNC was brought out to sing over a remix of “Tearin’ Up My Heart.” Later in the set, Alakai welcomed Tyler Kolek and Miles McBride of the Knicks to the stage, who did some more frat flicking behind the DJ booth.
The set wrapped up around 2:45 a.m., when the venue cut Alakai’s speakers and turned on the lights, trying to empty out the building by 3 a.m. The people spilling out of the venue could not stop talking about the cast members they saw and what their short appearances over the balcony could indicate about their relationships with each other. For the attendees of this midnight show, this was a cultural experience, and Alakai had taken the crowd to church.