Gigs and Mixes, 2026
April 12, 2026 — Furcationland 2026 Dead Dog — Hyperpop, Club, Nightcore
Laelia says “dance!”
As a rule, an opener should never, ever play tracks by someone later in the set order, especially if that artist is performing an entire hour of their own original material. This night I broke that rule in the most perfect way possible when I opened with The Joy of Freedom by A-Saph, who was performing third on the roster. My complete failure to notice this oversight made for one of the most magical moments of the convention, which saw poor A-Saph desperately trying to figure out how their music could possibly be playing out over the main speakers, only to realize it’s me. (Audio of A-Saph used with permission <3). And thanks to my dumb doggy fursuit head, I couldn’t understand the commotion around me and threw my hands up in confusion. It was a perfect and ridiculous moment that kicked off an incredible night of music.
Laelia’s second appearance was even more fun than the first. She can still barely see, but I’m a little more accustomed to blowing up the fonts and being comfortable with navigating around Mixxx by feel. And I made sure to fix the hotcue button issue that caused my bobble in the previous set.
The hardest thing about this set was track selection. I have been trawling bandcamp very thoroughly, and there is simply not an endless supply of the kinds of tracks that blend rhythm, melody, sound design exactly how I like. I hate repeating myself, so I really had to go deep and wide to find the right blend of sounds. I also started doing more edits of tracks to make the blends easier for me. Nightcore producers, y’all really love your bizarre intros and outros and sometimes that shit has to go.
For this entry’s fun finale, I had been enjoying Tuna Display’s hyperpop remix of a baroque rondo, which is a waltz and also has a much looser bpm. I decided if I was going to bring classic music into the 21st century, I should help my fellow furries out and give them a conductor to follow.
January 18, 2026 — Anthro New England Dead Dog — Hyperpop, Club
Laelia at the decks
Introducing Laelia
Created in 2024 by Midnight Makers, Laelia is my second fursuit, a fullsuit constructed from the ground up with the intention of being used for DJ performance. The Dead Dog party at Anthro New England 2026 was her debut, an hour of fast-mixed hyperpop and club.
Why did it take me over a year to perform as Laelia? Her vibe is perfrect for the kind of Hyperpop sets I’ve been playing since Furpoc 2024, and she has escapes for my fingers and a hidden pocket for a headphone cord passthrough. So you’d think I would have debuted her at FCL in 2025. Well what she doesn’t have is good vision. With painted-on mesh eyes, everything in my field of view is blurry and I can barely read my laptop screen. Couple that with the immense heat of a fullsuit (made worse by dancing behind the decks), and I didn’t feel comfortable performing so soon.
As 2025 came to a close I decided that ANE was the right opportunity to take the plunge and finally debut her whether it was easy or not. This was the most signficant performance for me since the first Fascination gig in 2024, and I threw myself into it. There were many difficult fullsuit rehearsals, hundreds of tracks auditioned and carefully curated, and new custom modifications to my Mixxx software to make the screen readable enough for me to perform. The result is probably the most choreographed set I’ve played, though I refuse to be a playlist DJ.
For the occasion I tried to record the set with a little video camera, but I set it up wrong and it was pointed below my neck the whole time. Ah well. But the camera audio was great, and I mixed it in with the set recording to produce a document of the experience that captures the electric atmosphere that we built in that little hotel ballroom. Did anyone care that I completely fucked up a transition and had to backspin and start over? No.