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| Bassnectar's Family Photo |
A Review By: Gerv Pandey
As soon as I heard that Bassnectar was performing at The Us
Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Illinois, I knew that I had to see him.
Having wanted to see Bassnectar for three years now, I saw this as my perfect
chance, given that the venue was only a 45 minute bus ride from my school in
Champaign. I had the privilege of attending the show hosted by Jay Goldberg Events and Entertainment and was lucky enough to bring a good camera into the show. The morning of the show, I, having not slept very much in
anticipation of my first Bassnectar experience, packed a backpack and let my
friends at Illinois State University know that I was on my way. Fast forward a
few hours and there we were, standing at the entrance of the venue. The
will-call line was an exciting experience in itself; it wasn’t that long, and
everyone in it seemed extremely overjoyed for the show, first-timers and
long-time fans both. After we all got our tickets security was a breeze. We had to remove the caps from our water bottles for
safety reasons though. As soon as I entered the actual stadium, I knew I was in
for an overwhelming experience. This was my first time at the Coliseum and it
was gigantic. I remember reading that the venue had a capacity of 8,000; and
the show was sold out, so the stadium was PACKED! |
| Right side curtain right before Bassnectar started playing |
I have been to many shows produced by Jay Goldberg Events
and Entertainment so I knew that this experience would be at the very least
mind blowing.
Andreilien kicked off the show. I had heard a bit of his
music before but not too much of it. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of
glitch-hop so his set was really fun. It was perfect for warming up the crowd.
He dropped a great mix of his old bass-heavy tunes as Heyoka and new
synth-focused ones as Andreilien. He
kept the tempo at a hip-hop pace: 90-100 bpm, making it perfect to vibe slowly
in preparation for a very intense show later on in the night.
When Andreilien finished his set with great applaud at 8:00,
KoAN Sound took the stage.
They are a dub-heavy duo hailing from Bristol, England. I had never
heard of KoAN Sound before the show but I was very amazed at the production
skills they possessed. Many dubstep artists today like to amp up certain
instruments, such as the bass-line, to create a ‘louder’ sound. In technical
terms, this would entail adding a limiter to a track and turning up the gain.
The problem with this is that it makes other instruments inferior and makes the
bass sound thinner. KoAn Sound does a very good job of EQing their tracks,
developing a sound that is very refined and mastered. Their set mostly
consisted of hip-hop based dubstep that definitely brought out a lot of energy
from the crowd towards the back but still maintained the slower vibe instilled
by Andreilien.
Their set ended around 8:50 and at this point everyone was
so amped up for Bassnectar. No one was standing still or sitting down. At 9:00,
the whole stadium went dark and everyone knew that the show was about to begin.
The song Welcome To The Jungle
started playing and the crowd went wild. Bassnectar started slowly tweaking the
song and finally the bass kicked in. I was in the second row of the stands for
most of the show, which is a little further than the floor from the stage, but
I could feel the bass resonating throughout my whole body. Bassnectar very
effectively mixed all sorts of electronic music together. Most of the show was
dub-heavy, but there was a notable amount of house, hip-hop, acid jazz, and
even experimental/downtempo dub. His mixing ability completely stunned me. The
way he switched from one song to the next while adding in cut up samples
throughout created a new facet for electronic music to be performed live. One
aspect of his set that completely blew my mind though was his LED display.
Bassnectar calls it the Ultimate Nerd Server. Basically he assigned video
samples to every sound in his set and he effectively could sync the video clips
while he added effects on his tunes, live! I have never seen video technology
like this at a show. With added confetti cannons, balloons dropping at
Bassnectar’s remix of Nina Simone’s Feeling
Good, and a high quality laser-light show I could say with confidence that
this was one of the best shows that I have ever been to.
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| Light Show from my vantage point |
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| The pinnacle of the show. Balloons dropping while Bassnectar played his remix of Nina Simone's Feeling Good |
I highly recommend that you try to see him at one of his
stops on his Immersive Music Tour. I also recommend that you try to go to other
shows that are produced and promoted by Jay Goldberg Events and Entertainment
if you are in the Midwest region. If you are a fan of music, any music, this tour is not worth missing at all. Everyone's favorite genres of music are represented in some ways or another.We got to check out the tour a week before this in Lincoln, NE. Check out our EXCLUSIVE review of that show: HERE.
Check out our EXCLUSIVE video from the tour in Lincoln, NE. Confetti Cannons and everything.. :)
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