PALO ALTO — As the sun dipped below the trees that encircled Frost Amphitheater, South Londoner Fred Gibson, better known as Fred Again..,  walked onto the stage—of the first of three sold-out concerts—and took in his surroundings.

“This is the most unbelievable venue,” he said.

He’d already introduced himself via a hype reel on an enormous screen. Onstage, he repeated a single piano chord as slowly as possible to hypnotize the attendees. AT the very least, it got most to quiet down to listen. Many of these people were still buzzing from his and Skrillex’s show at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza days earlier.

Fred overlaid mournful-sounding vocalizations over the slow piano chords. At this point, it didn’t feel like a rave. But there was more, of course.

He opened with “Bleu (Better With Time).” Bright white lights flashed when the beat dropped. Concert-goers whipped their heads and fist-pumped the air.  Something had changed. The video screen now showed now scenes of a car driving through a torrential rain downpour. It was dramatic and placed the audience right there. There was even lightning on the horizon. Then the song segued to “Kyle (I Found You).”

“I found you treading water,” the vocals reverberated across the amphitheater.

After several beats, Fred asked whether the audience warmed up and he introduced the next song, “Danielle (smile on my face).”

“We’re going to do this song real slow,” he said over a rumbling electronic dance beat. “What a fucking night for it.”

Crimson lights flashed like car headlights, getting quicker as the bass grew louder, before a brief pause to lessen the tension. Onscreen, a black and white male silhouette danced gracefully. More white smoke emerged from the stage as Fred played his and Anderson Paak.’s song, “places to be.” Unlike the San Francisco show, Paak. did not make an appearance.

Next up was the propulsive “Jungle.” About half-way through the show, Fred emerged from an elevated platform in the middle of the venue. He was surrounded by fans but the platform was raised high enough so that he and his DJ were visible to everyone.

The stage lights beamed out in a white light that, as the sun as going down, matched the cellphones raised up toward them.

“I’d like to introduce you all to Tony, ” Fred said, gesturing toward a man who up until that moment had mostly been in the background.  DJ Tony Friend, once one half of dubstep group Modestep, took over the stage to play a few minutes of heavy bass lines.

“Everything you’re about to hear is the first time we’ve done it,” Fred said afterward.

There were tunneling sub-bass beats beneath looped vocal samples repeating the words “side-by-side.” Tony was on stage while Fred was still in the audience. Once the duo had played together for a few minutes, Fred took over the spotlight and slowed the tempo way down.

“This is a song for my sister Georgie, who’s going to join us tomorrow night,” he said, introducing “adore u.”

The black and white video reflected an eerie light—which attracted all the moths. They seemed to dance over the overgrown grass. Fred mixed in the first verse of Frank Ocean’s “Chanel,” which started out calm enough. Then he unleased a dramatic drop to his and Baby Keem’s song, “leavemealone.”

Fred also played lockdown anthem “Marea (we’ve lost dancing).” The stage was bathed in red light and there were flames on the screen. Attendees clapped in unison.

It was a full circle when Fred repeated the piano chord with which he started the show. He played “Delilah (pull me out of this),” and the audience singing along.

One of the recurring songs Fred played was “Strong.” Employing a call and response, he split the audience down the middle and had one side sing the lyrics from “Strong:” “I’ve been lost/ Lost/ I’ve been lost of a while,” while the other half responded with “You don’t have to be so strong.”

It took a while to get the crowd going, but voices grew louder with each repetition.

Bringing strangers together is something Fred knows how to do pretty well. Somehow this small act felt intimate, even with thousands of people.

Follow photographer Matt Pang at Twitter.com/mattpangs.