Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Bass Rising @ Cervantes in Denver, Colorado (6/8/17) [Review]


Review By: jdrightright

Photography By: Emma Ceaglske


Thursday nights can be boring, just waiting for the weekend to start, and conserving energy. Not last Thursday, it was Bass Rising an annual event thrown by Rebudz and Reload Productions. This year was maybe the illest addition to the annual throw down. Headlining was Noisia with Dubloadz and a lot of powerful Denver DJs too including Fury, Detrace, TOC, and Finesse. Last Thursday was a ball of energy and the lucky ones in Denver got a huge dose of drum and bass.


For this show Rebudz and Reload put on display an array of lasers and LED panel walls. There were 4 full color lasers and 2 LED walls, one in front of the booth and one behind the booth. The LED panels were mostly used to display the DJ logos for the performers. On the front corners of the booth you could find two lasers, and the other two were hidden on the sides of the big LED wall behind the booth up on stands. Sometimes the lasers would bounce off of the giant disco ball making even more beams to touch. Cervantes was lit proper, but even more so by the talented mixes of all of the performers.




The show got started at 8pm and TOC wasn't going to make it on time, not a problem with all of the talent available in Denver. The homie Finesse tagged in for a killer introduction set. Turns out TOC was in a car accident, nothing major, so he was just running behind. Finesse took the stage and he made it his own. He got into some wonky dub and fired up the people for a night of bass music. Finesse is a badass up and coming producer reppin the Rebudz squad. He is at every show and he knows what is hot, I'm glad he got to showoff a bit for Bass Rising. In the future you will see him get deeper and deeper into the line-up for shows like this.


Around 8:30 TOC made it to Cervantes and he didn't skip a beat. He got into some filthy dub but very smooth on his transitions. A lucky few in the crowd were able to cop his merch, he had fresh shirts and hats to flip. TOC brought his folks out for the show too, and they were some of the coolest people there, I had a conversation with his Dad and he is very supportive of his son. Love to see that, a lot of stigma is placed on the electronic music scene but it is for all ages, and that was definitely a theme for the night. TOC is very high energy on stage he doesn't slow down, steady pace and that was a perfect fit for this night. I like how TOC dances to the drops, he helps you to know when the music is about to change up and when to go ham.


Next up was one of my favorites Detrace, this guy is an exemplary producer with a ton of knowledge. He is rather good at creating a live mix also and always brings some new flame to put on display. Detrace immediately got the place poppin off with melodic builds and inferno drops. His mixes are just brilliant always coming up with a new way to fake you out and that's exciting. He has great dance moves as well, often hopping around to the beat and gently turning the faders because they are hot lava! He changed it up a bit from what I am used to, getting into some dope Trap-step drops. I am always game for a Detrace set, he is awesome and perfectly represents the diversity of Denver electronic music.


It was now time for Fury! He is a master of reading a crowd. Fury has been crushing parties for a minute now, so he always knows exactly what to bust out of the arsenal. Perfect blends of drum and bass with dubstep. Plus he was getting into some video game stuff, coins were coming out of blocks and fireballs were being thrown. Fury is at full mad scientist level when it comes to drum and bass, each performance is completely unique and blunt. Fury just gets right to the point and I love that.

One of the hardest on the Disciple crew came up next, ever heard of Dubloadz? Thought so! He had a busy weekend in Denver also playing Friday night with side project and triple b2b Chode Gang. The trio of Chode Gang consists of three incredible individual producers: Barely Alive, Virtual Riot and Dubloadz. He is so energetic and nutty on stage, not to mention through the decks. He had T-Rex hands, gun fingers, and the hardest bass drops of the night. Cervantes was full of headbangers going hard to the beat provided by Dubloadz for a good hour straight.



To close the night was the highly anticipated Noisia. Definitely enlightening having never seen them before. Martijn van Sonderen was representing the trio and he is remarkable on stage. He did a great job tweaking out the beat making awkward sounds, it was so raunchy. Gotta love a live set with interesting twitches, even with just one of the trio Martijin was quick on the switch and added bonus effects to the beats. For part of the set perfectly catering to the headbangers he got into some metal n bass. The crowd was absolutely riled up by the sounds unleashed by Noisia. Martijin was so happy to be in Denver, and such a nice guy with strong European accent on the mic saying, "I had a really good time, and I hope you did too." To close out Noisia got into a really elite blend of drum and bass, and Prodigy's "Voodoo People." One of the dopest sets I have witnessed in some time, huge love for Junglists.


I was overwhelmed with the energetic music all night, and it was so exciting. This was the most hype Thursday night I can remember in a while. I need to stop forgetting Thursdays, jokes. Great times with the Rebudz squad and Reload Productions, always bringing out the best talents to Denver. Stay on the ball by following both at those links, they have contests for tickets, also meet and greets, sometimes with pizza! Always so thankful for Emma at Eyediola Photography with such superior images that preserve the sacred visuals of the night. More is coming soon so stay up. Laters.