Framework Presents Chris Stussy and Friends at the Expo West Lawn
Framework throws an amazing event. Period. What makes their events hit so hard? Is it the smart simplicity? The curated details? Maybe both. Whatever it is, someone deserves serious credit. Everything felt so bespoke and yet so straightforward. Get a fence. Enclose a space on the USC Expo Lawn beneath some trees. Add a stage, a couple of DJs, some refreshments—boom! You’ve got the best club in the city! Looking back, it seems so obvious, and yet the night was truly one of a kind. Incredibly special are the words that come to mind. Incredibly lucky is how I feel.
July 19 and 20, Framework hosted international mega-star producer/DJ, Chris Stussy, along with veteran DJs, Pedro Borlado, Lochlead, Rossi, Enzo Siragusa, M-High, and Cole Terrazas at the Expo West Lawn for two nights of deep, minimal, tech-house. The funny thing is, Sunday wasn’t even planned initially. However, due to the incredible stardom of Chris Stussy, after selling out Saturday in under an hour, Framework decided to include Sunday as well to appease the masses. That’s how much love Southern California has for the Dutchman! We forced their hand!
@aejohnmdfk Exposition park to see stussy 😈 @Chris Stussy #chrisstussy #chrisstussydj #fyp #trending
I love events like these. I’m getting a little tired of the level of commitment I need to make for a festival, and I’ve been to nearly every club in the city that plays house and techno. I need some variety in the scenery and I want sets from the artists I love to be longer than an hour/hour and a half. I’m sure no one disagrees with that.
Here comes Framework yet again to bless every Chris Stussy fan & EDM connoisseur with another killer event.
The first time I recognized Framework was when I first stumbled upon the video they made with Hot Since 82 and Knee Deep In Sound at Union Station back in 2023. A dream-like scenario unfolded (one that I like to revisit periodically on Youtube). It looked like one of the most unforgettable events I’d never been to.
So, naturally, when I got the opportunity to cover Framework with Chris Stussy this year, I nearly lost it. I already knew the show was going to be a lock. When Framework puts a party together, the music and scenery are going to be solid—and they absolutely were.
I’m really starting to enjoy the Expo Lawn West venue at USC. Nestled between LA’s Natural History Museum and the picturesque Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, it’s a shady, green oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of South LA’s Expo Center. It’s quite impressive that such an innocuous spot could be such a fitting location for Framework to put up shop and dance our asses off. It’s a lovely blend of Northern Italian Romanesque Revival style and shaded greenery. Who knew?!
I was there on Sunday and I can tell you how it went down:
As 4 o’clock rolled around and the sun still sat high over the city, Cole Terrazas opened the day with an easy, steady pulse. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Terrazas brought a true local flavor to a largely European lineup. His sound: deep, warm, and driving, fit perfectly with the breeze moving through the Moreton Bay Figs and the early crowd trickling in. People were still arriving, showing off their fits, finding their crew, and grabbing drinks. But the dance floor was already forming. While Cole doesn’t share the same European label pedigree as the others, he’s clearly cut from the same cloth. His style fits seamlessly into the Fuse/Up The Stuss world, rolling, minimal, confident. It was a strong opening statement and a sign of good things to come.
By 5 PM, the heat started to dip slightly as the shadows stretched across the grass, and M-High took over. A rising star from the Netherlands and frequent contributor to Chris Stussy’s Up The Stuss label, M-High kept things moving without missing a beat. His set leaned into stripped-back, percussive minimal house, clean blends, low-end groove, a deeper hypnotic pull. The vibe stayed locked in. The front of the crowd began to expand to the edges of the property as more people filed in. The sun hit that golden-hour mark, and you could tell we were in the mix heavy.
At 7 PM, Enzo Siragusa took the decks as the sky deepened into dusk. The lights finally came into play, turning the canopy into a dazzle of colors as Enzo’s deeper, dubby sound took over. Founder of the legendary London-based party series and label, Fuse London, Enzo is the spiritual anchor of the group. He’s an inspiration to artists like Stussy and helped shape the aesthetic of the whole scene. His pacing was silky, his transitions surgical. He kept the crowd hyped as we made our way to the final act.
Then at 8 PM, with the sky fully dark and the crowd fully locked, the man of the hour, Chris Stussy, hit the stage and sent the energy into overdrive, dropping fresh cuts I’d never heard alongside some of his timeless classics.
Hailing from Utrecht, Netherlands, Stussy has become the face of the global minimal house movement. He’s one of the most in-demand names in modern house music, going from Dutch underground favorite to global headliner, playing major festivals like Coachella, Awakenings, and Sonus, and holding top slots at clubs like Fabric, DC-10, and Hï Ibiza.
@concvrrent Chris Stussy Los Angeles Day 1 was an absolute treat. Giving the infamous Jamback ID a proper rinse @Chris Stussy #chrisstussy #upthestuss #framework #losangeles #jamback
As soon as he took the helm, the crowd was locked in, fully present, moving together as one under the trees as the lights pulsed through the branches. Then the lasers started firing, forming a ceiling made of light, creating the sensation that we were in a club. And then as 10 PM hit, just when you thought he was going to slow it down, he pushed onward, blessing us with a whole extra hour. No one wanted to leave.
That’s the thing about Framework, they know how to craft a night you never want to see end. From the curation to the setting, the pacing to the people, they’ve created something special in a city that’s spoiled for choice. This was the show of the year for me. It was above and beyond my expectations, and they were already set very high. I can’t wait for the next one!
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Written by Ted Abeyta | Edit by Bernadette