Deadmau5 performing at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center on Monday.

Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com

Of all the things I’ve overheard at concerts, this has to be among the most bizarre: “I’ve got my rave drugs stashed in my underwear — they never look there.”

Whether or not the nameless young man slipped his party favors inside Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center for the Deadmau5 show Monday night, he was certainly treated to a very trippy electronic musical experience courtesy of the Canadian techno-trance artist who is one of the biggest names in the genre.

Deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse") is the alter ego of Torontonian Joel Thomas Zimmerman. A one-man electronic orchestra, he performs wearing a huge mouse head complete with strobe-light eyes and an ear-to-ear, mischievous grin provided by LED lights. Even if you weren’t on drugs, this was pretty cool to see.

A lot of electronica sounds like a lot of other electronica, but for the subtle differences in melody or rhythm fans pick up on as quickly as opera goers or classical music buffs know what’s to come by the time the first few notes have sounded. I recognized the hit “Ghosts ‘N’ Stuff,” with its haunting, theater organ-style synth line right off the bat. But if I needed any further cue, the dancers went nuts as soon as it came on, screaming and waving their arms in the air as Deadmau5 donned a ghostly sheet with eye slits for most of the number, perfect stuff for Halloween week. “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever” and “Strobe” were also easy to pick out — hardcore fans probably recognized more tunes than a dilettante like me.

Anyway, telling one track from another isn’t really the point; the main purpose of this music is to allow the listener to get lost in the beats and ride the waves of energy. The sound is everything, and how it’s delivered is paramount. The volume must be ginormous, the speakers as large as refrigerators, and there need to be a lot of them. On that note, Deadmau5 delivered — the bass shook the crowd down to its last molecule. I know my skin was vibrating from the low notes, and I was quite a ways from the main floor.

The show was as much a visual experience as it was an aural one, and it was easy to get caught up in the hypnotic light show. There were at least three main lighting effects, including a cube-shaped podium from which Deadmau5 worked that flashed a variety of colorful, futuristic images (my favorite looked like electronic green tentacles, moving faster and faster), horizontal and vertical LED strips behind him and spotlights that constantly bathed the dance floor area in colored lights.

Several people in the crowd emulated Deadmau5, wearing full-on homemade mouse heads complete with lights, while others took the easy route, sporting cute little mouse ears made from pieces of neon rope.

“He’s taken the art of DJ-ing to another level,” said Jeff Smith, himself an area DJ. "He got the bass beat, and he's layering things on top of it."

Local DJ Logan Light and L.A.-based Skillrex opened the evening, with Deadmau5 taking the stage at exactly 10 p.m. He performed for just over an hour, leaving the stage at 11:10 p.m. with no encore set, much to the dismay of the crowd, with chanting turning to boos as the lights went up. I too though the set was rather short — the opening DJs played longer than the main attraction, the evening’s one sour note.

Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.