AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Australian DJ Lenny Pearce is filling venues across the U.S. This summer, he sold out Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado to a crowd of over 8,000. But let's just say his electronic dance music caters to a special audience. The first stop on his most recent tour was in Baltimore. NPR's Eleana Tworek was there.
ELEANA TWOREK, BYLINE: The dance floor's packed with ravers. There's neon everywhere, and the bass is bumping. But...
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
TWOREK: One raver is having a meltdown.
TINA HIRSCHBERGER: We got him a new shirt. He does not like it.
TWOREK: Welcome to a toddler rave...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LENNY PEARCE: (Singing) B, I, N-G-O, B, I...
TWOREK: ...Where it's only 5 p.m. The house specialty is apple juice, and the majority of the audience is under 5. Tina and Guy Hirschberger (ph) are here with their son, 2-year-old Owen.
HIRSCHBERGER: My husband and I go to a lot of raves, so that's why I wanted to come here, get the baby into the rave scene (laughter).
Can you say, let's rave?
OWEN: (inaudible).
HIRSCHBERGER: (Laughter).
PEARCE: (Singing) One little monkey jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Let me hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) No more monkeys jumping on the bed.
PEARCE: Let's jump.
TWOREK: DJ Lenny Pearce is on a toddler rave world tour.
PEARCE: Parents and toddlers - they all share nursery rhymes. No matter the culture, it's like we connect over bangers (laughter).
Let's hold up our babies' shirts (ph). Fingers like this.
TWOREK: Pearce didn't start out making music for the 5-and-under crowd. He was first in a boy band that won "Australia's Got Talent."
PEARCE: During that time, I learned a lot being in recording studios. I fell in love with producing electronic music.
TWOREK: The band had a long-running No. 1 hit in Australia, but it wasn't enough to make ends meet. Pearce quit the band and spent the next few years piecing together a living from whatever jobs you could find until a few years ago, when his daughter Mila inspired an idea.
PEARCE: She was, like, maybe six months old or something, so I was doing the night feeds. And when you're overtired, I feel like your thinking becomes a bit crazy. I don't know. I was just thinking, like, head, shoulders, knees and toes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEEES & TOES")
PEARCE: (Singing) Head, shoulders, knees and toes.
TWOREK: The next morning, he uploaded his techno remix onto TikTok. It blew up.
PEARCE: So I decided to do "Five Little Ducks" and then all the other nursery rhymes.
TWOREK: "Toddler Techno" was born.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROW YOUR BOAT (TODDLER TECHNO)")
PEARCE: (Singing) Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream.
TWOREK: Hours before the show, Pearce is already at the venue.
PEARCE: So much prep just for little kids. It's like a kid's first birthday on steroids.
TWOREK: Huge inflatable ducks wearing headphones, a castle made of milk bottles that towers over Pearce on stage, balloons that will be thrown into the crowd.
PEARCE: Your fingers get tired. Mine's pretty used to it now. Maybe like 45, 50 shows - we got to do this over and over and over.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Ready? You're holding it?
PEARCE: Yeah. I'm holding it. I'm holding it. Yeah, I'm going to catch it.
TWOREK: The fog machine is loaded.
PEARCE: Got to tip it far. There you go.
TWOREK: Merch is set out with sizes ranging from 2T to adult XL, and the bar's fully stocked. There are adult beverages but also lemonade, apple juice and edible glitter. Finally, it's time for the doors to open.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Ready to come in? I better see you dancing.
TWOREK: By the entrance, a sign warns against moshing and crowd surfing. But most of this crowd can't read yet. Meanwhile, Milana Rule (ph)...
How old are you?
MILANA RULE: Four and 10.
ERIC: She's 3 (laughter).
TWOREK: ...Is getting rave ready, making her dad, Eric, add more glow bands to her legs under her light-up Elsa dress.
MILANA: Can I have it on my knee?
ERIC: On your knee?
(CHEERING)
TWOREK: The lights go down.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Kids have so much energy.
TWOREK: And the rave is on.
PEARCE: How we feeling, everybody?
(CHEERING)
TWOREK: Over 1,000 tickets were sold in Baltimore. Six-year-old Christiano Omera (ph) was the first in line and made a beeline for the barricade.
CHRISTIANO OMERA: Because I'm really excited 'cause I really like Lenny. And then I never got to see him in real life, but this is my first time ever.
TWOREK: His favorite song?
CHRISTIANO: I don't know all the lyrics.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHRISTIANO: (Singing) The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The people on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down. The wheels on the bus go round and round...
PEARCE: (Singing) Round and round, round and round. The people on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down.
We do keep the volume safe.
TWOREK: Pearce again.
PEARCE: But it also has to feel like a rave, so we kind of keep it fairly loud, but it's not damaging loud. I think it's 90 decibels, which we check all the time.
TWOREK: Pearce plays for no more than an hour.
PEARCE: Kids are - their attention's very short. The first set I played, it was just, like, music, like how you would play for adults. And then eventually, I was like, I think I need to dance more.
Let's do the hot dog dance. Here we go.
(Singing) Hot dog.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
TWOREK: Pearce says he tries to appeal to parents as much as their kids.
PEARCE: Come on, parents. This is for you.
TWOREK: For some, that means a little nostalgia...
EMILY MILLER: Mommy spent many, many nights at raves.
TWOREK: ...Like Emily Miller (ph) and her son Oliver (ph).
OLIVER: Oliver.
TWOREK: Oliver points to Emily's pregnant belly.
OLIVER: And my baby brother there's named Bodie (ph).
MILLER: And this is his first rave (laughter).
TWOREK: For other parents, like William Tomlinson (ph), it's about having a unique family activity that he genuinely enjoys as much as his kids.
WILLIAM TOMLINSON: Not to knock it, but it's not like a Disney Princess kind of thing for dad, you know? It's a lot of fun for me.
PEARCE: The parents, these days, were very lighthearted. I think it's the millennial parents. We try and do more. A lot of dads are more involved.
TWOREK: DJ Lenny Pearce tours with his two youngest, both toddlers.
PEARCE: I'm doing bottles at nighttime and then playing bangers in the day.
TWOREK: Pearce says he wants the music to grow with his kids as they age. Mila is now 3 1/2.
PEARCE: So she might go, oh, no, Dad, that's not cool anymore. Then I'll go, OK, then what are you finding cool? Let me do that. Like, all my music now fits for 1, 2 and 3, and then maybe next year, I'll do for 4-year-olds and then 5. And then when they have kids, I'll go back to that.
But guys, it has come to the very last song for today.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PEARCE: And it is time to go to sleep. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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