Don Diablo Concert | RSEO 2024

Dutch electronic music artist Don Diablo brought the noise on Saturday night with soul-rattling bass that shook Portland’s Waterfront Park under the Morrison Bridge and whipped The Rockstar Energy Open’s high-energy crowd into a frenzy. 

The set closed out a jam-packed day at The Rockstar Energy Open that included the Shop Challenge, Men’s Street Semifinal, Women’s Park Final, and gloriously chaotic Best Trick Jam contests.  

“I love the skate community and the whole entourage, everything around it,” said Don Pepijn Schipper, aka Don Diablo, when we caught up with him shortly before taking the stage. “My brother used to be a big skater and I have a lot of friends who skate, so while this is a new crowd for me to play to, it’s something I wanted to experience. After all that amazing, wild energy in tonight’s contests, I know this crowd is prepped.”

Don Diablo’s set opened with his brand new track “Deeper Underground”—a collaboration with Jamiroquai that had the fans and skaters here in Portland bouncing in unison and singing along to the refrain: “There’s too much panic in this town.”  

Schipper helped pioneer the "future house" genre as a producer in the late 90s and in his early project, Dividend, and has since released 4 studio albums, 2 remix albums, and more than 100 singles as Don Diablo, including collaborations with the likes of Public Enemy, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Jungle Brothers, Tiësto, and more.

“I'm not a typical EDM DJ: I try to compete with myself, to be the best I can, just like these skaters here,” Schipper said, inspired by what he’d seen this week at the Rockstar Energy Open. “I usually play in front of my own crowd, so this is an opportunity for new people to get to know me. If there's a bunch of new fans coming out of this and I get to have a new experience, then mission accomplished.”