Bass Control @ Summit Music Hall in Denver, Colorado (Review) [11/11/17]

 
Review By: jdrightright

Photos By : Stetsen Colt Mathias


Saturday night was full of astounding performances by a group of elite producers representing the Disciple record label. This was the annual Bass Control show held by Rebudz and Reload Productions. This year the venue was Summit Music Hall in Denver, Colorado. There was a line out the door around the block and almost all the way to Market street before doors opened at 8pm. Everyone came to get rowdy and no one was let down, the place was thumping all night.


The Summit Music Hall is a dope venue with a lot of room to dubstep and a nice open concept, as Randy Marsh would say. There is a small kitchen with pizza and other food for the patrons to purchase during shows. The balcony provides an excellent view of the entire stage from nearly all vantage points. Summit has a powerful sound system which is fine tuned to the specific performances for any kind of music from punk rock to electronic.

The stage production was fairly simple for this show but rather effective. There was one large LED panel wall behind the DJ booth displaying an array of clever visuals. Along with the stage lights were 2 full color lasers installed below the DJ booth in the front and angled upward to hit the gap between the balcony and the main dance floor. This created a nice river of beams above those on the main floor and below the balcony. Much of the night was illuminated by the Disciple label icons, and the logos of the individual performers. One addition to the stage production was a group of go-go dancers, all fashioned in black gear. The girls kept the people on point and danced well to the music for certain segments of the show.

The first producer on stage was Myro and he got it started with an OG set. He got into some classic wobbles, with songs from Circus Records like Doctor P's Big Boss, Roksonix's Music In Me, and some Flux Pavilion too. He ramped up the intensity through out his set and he did a great job to open the night. Myro was a new one for me to see live, but I am pretty sure he will be around for a while with his killer style. Before you knew it a change was being made and Myro did a good job introducing his friend and label mate Dodge & Fuski.















I'm definitely always stoked to see Dodge & Fuski, now just a one man band, but he has built a brand and the name remains the same. Right away when he got on stage he asked Myro, "Have you played this song yet?" When Myro told him he had not played it Dodge goes, "Okay, good. Let's fucking do this!" Dodge & Fuski got into some of his fire tracks like Yeti and Big Riddim Martian and accordingly everyone yelled "Yo Dodge!" Lot of headbangers in the front row did their best to keep pace with the beat by flinging their hair synchronized to the drop, it was fun to watch.


Next a new artist off my bucket list was Oolacile. He has been coming on strong lately for Disciple with a ton of releases and collaborations. He started with a custom introduction made for his set, and the people perked up as he got to the drop. Oolacile goes hard af, lots of people were wide mouthed yelling and screaming to the bass. His set could be described as a riddim video game, but he really has a unique flow to his set. Disciple is adding amazing talent to their squad all the time example, Oolacile.


Probably my favorite producer right now was the next in line to awe the people. That being Virtual Riot, a young guy with immense production talent. He's only 23 years old but he already has 7 years in the game and he has continued to stay on the cutting edge the whole time! Virtual Riot is very versatile with his live sets, I have seen him about 5 times now live and he always comes with the freshest music in multiple sub-genres. He got into some bass house dropping a raunchy Chicken Soup remix, and Joyryde's Hari Kari along with a bunch of sneaky underground bangers. I try to make a point to see Virtual Riot every chance I get, and now that he has been touring the US he has been coming to the Bass Capital a lot.

Next up on stage was Barely Alive, another bass slayer. We are so spoiled with good music in Denver and Barely Alive comes to town every few months. He always brings a very crispy set with a ton of new music to share. Barely Alive had one section where he started with Van Halen's Jump and then, just at the right point, he switched up into the illest dubstep drop. He is great at change up drops and sneaky blends during his live performances. For this show Barely Alive was not rocking his angry eyes TV helmet, just all natural bass face. He has no reason to be shy, we all adore him here in Denver.

Closing out the night was crowd favorite and audible mad scientist Dubloadz. He came out and immediately asked, "You guys want to hear a brand new one I made with Datsik!?" We all screamed yes. He then said, "You are the first fucking people ever to hear this live!" Got to love that, and my god was this some heavy stuff. Dubloadz proceeded to crush out a very wonky set with nice chunky bass drops. He did a bunch of good video game sounding beats, one was straight up Sonic the Hedgehog theme. Dubloadz seems to always have a great time hanging in Denver for shows. Towards the end of his set he got back on the mic and said, "I fucking love Denver. Let's get really dubsteppy for these last ten minutes." We all agreed, and one last burst of energy went through the crowd. Dubloadz had a very deep outro with some stretchy bass and then he slowed it all the way down and out.

This was a very successful night for Rebudz and Reload Productions. Once again coming through with some of the heaviest hitters in electronic music. The bass fam was famished after a long night of dub steppin. Summit Music Hall was a perfect place to get together and break necks with friends. Coming up soon is another one for Rebudz and Reload productions as they have Monxx and Synoid at Cervantes Other Side on November 25th check the link for tickets. Big ups to my homie and splendid photographer Stetsen Colt Mathias for his dazzling images of the night. Thanks for all the vibes everyone, see you next time.

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Bass Control @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom (11/28/15) [Review]

 
Review by: jdrightright


Saturday was a night to remember at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. Rebudz and Reload presented a massive line up for the Denver bassheads. The show sold out from walk up sales shortly after doors opened, so a lucky few were able to sneak in getting tickets at the last minute. This show brought out Fractured Silence, Mizer & Goetz, Dirt Monkey, LUMBERJVCK, TrollPhace, and MUST DIE! The place was bouncing to gigantic bass the whole time and loving every minute.



A custom stage setup was installed for Bass Control using a Mylar wall as a mirror and a pair of lasers. It was a neat configuration in which the lasers were aimed away from the crowd and into a reflective wall. The lasers would then bounce back and create a stream of slightly diffused laser light over top of the crowd. Reflected lasers would also bounce another time off of the giant disco ball and spread out into more beams.

A lot of bonus producers from Denver were present at Cervantes on Saturday night too. No one was gonna miss this show if they were able to get downtown. Among the crowd were producers: Decadon, Vinnie, !Tyro, Shank Aaron, and probably more I didn't see. For Bass Control everybody was in the house and ready to dubstep before it was even ten o'clock!


Starting off was Fractured Silence a young DJ from Denver. He put together a great set and immediately set a tone that the night was going to be full of grime and heavy bass. Next to the stage was duo Mizer & Goetz and they knew what to do; kick out the wubs. This was just a taste of what was in store for the night.

Colorado's own Dirt Monkey went on just as the final tickets were sold for a capacity crowd. If anyone knows how to fire up a packed house it's Dirt Monkey, it comes naturally to him. I am always impressed with how Dirt Monkey will mix in between glitch-hop, drum and bass, moombahton, trap, and his own brand of dubstep. He pounded out some of his classics like "Imperial March" and he dropped a live remix of Rianna's, "Better Have My Money." Plus Dirt Monkey incorporated a bunch of brand new songs in his mix too. Having a guy like Dirt Monkey represent the booming Colorado bass scene is awesome because he's ultra creative and always representing for the hometown fam.


The next face-melter was LUMBERJVCK a California guy and the leader of the JVCKSQUAD. He put down an extra naughty set of mostly hard dubstep and trap. The crowd responded to every drop and a lot of the bass was pushing hard at the people with a powerful force. One song in particular that stood out was when LUMBERJVCK mixed in Drowning Pool's, "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" and the audience screamed the lyrics along with him. LUMBERJVCK didn't play anything chill, so we all just went hard as fuck for an hour along with the bass.


TrollPhace started off by loading up an array of heavy artillery. Then he jolted the room up another level with nasty trap and dubstep. His set was very sneaky, TrollPhace used the build up for one song and then right at the drop mix into the drop from a different track. Some of these quick drop transitions were completely unexpected and it kept the crowd guessing what might be coming next. TrollPhace was incredible live, he has an excellent ear for mixing two totally different songs and uniting them with a sicko drop.


The perfect opening song "Gem Shards" was how MUST DIE! got started. He has so many good machine guns and wubs in his live mixes. The place was bumping rather hard, and it was getting super hot with no one wanting to go outside for fear of missing out. At one point MUST DIE! was going so hard he had to take a knee and drink some water. He addressed the crowd after having a head rush from standing back up by saying, "I almost just died!" That would have been insane, but it was just a reaction to the altitude and the steamy hot room packed with humanity. MUST DIE! is totally on top of the dubstep game, and his musical ability is why he has connections with all of the biggest and best record labels in the industry. A good blend of hard songs and a few more melodic builds kept the room hypnotized until the very end.

This was honestly an overwhelming display of talent that Rebudz Denver and Reload Productions brought together for Bass Control. Also at a cozy venue, Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, with a good size room and great vibes. I can't wait to see what is in store for the future events put on by both Rebudz and Reload. I have a feeling they will be epic, as always, because that's just how it's done in Denver.

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