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.

Read More

Celebrate Five Years Of Dub Down May 21st With Barely Alive, Adair, Grex & More!

Has it been that long already? From basement to warehouse to the main stage Dub Down has created a movement like none other and continues to bring great parties to the table. Ringing in 5 years May 21st at The Works, Dub Down brings Barely Alive back to Detroit with Adair, G-Rex & more! With the limited capacity, it's sure to be an intimate night with those underground feels Detroit presents. Get your tickets here!

Read More

Bass Rising @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom [5/7/16] (Review)

Review By:
jdrightright

Photography By: 
Stetsen Colt Mathias


Saturday night was Bass Rising a bash put on by Rebudz and Reload Productions. The setting was Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom a classic venue for a bass family reunion. For this show the electronic label Disciple was showcased with four of their artists: Dodge & Fuski, Barely Alive, Dubloads, and Astronaut. Also one of the bass bosses from Beta, Shank Aaron; and DJ Contest winner LYZ.i were on the ticket. The building was bouncing for this massive display of wub.


The stage was filled with technology strategically arranged to stimulate the eyes. Two side LED panel walls and a large central panel wall behind the booth provided the graphics. Also four lasers in a trapezoid configuration were installed, two were raised and on each side of the inner panel wall, and two more in the front corners of the stage on the far ends of the two side LED walls. The visual display was stunning from all different angles inside.

Rebudz has been running contests where local Denver producers and DJs submit a thirty minute mix for a chance to open a show, and they had a contest for Bass Rising too. The night got started with the DJ mix contest winner LZY.i and he got the mojo going with moombahton, trap, and a little house. Having these contests is such a cool idea to help get the word out on new local talent, and there is so much of it in Denver. The Masterpiece Ballroom had a number of special guests in the house hanging out backstage too like !Tyro, Decadon, DJ Fury, and more.

Shank Aaron was up next and he always shows out. This night was extra special because his brother and fellow producer Wooli was in town. Shank Aaron brought his brother on stage to let him spin some of his new beats. One of the best parts of the whole night was just after this little back to back section with Wooli and Shank Aaron. They were both put on blast by the graphics guy who displayed a picture of the two as young children on the LED panel walls. It was priceless! Shank Aaron dabbled a bit with what he calls his AYOB music folder, it stands for Ask Your Older Brother. He explained to me that it's the OG dirty dub music, and if you don't recognize it then just ask your older brother because he'll know it. Shank Aaron set a strong tone for the rest of the artists to build off of.

To start the quad dose of Disciple artists was Astronaut and this time both of the guys were in town. Astronaut is made up of Dan and Rossy, two very talented fellas out of the United Kingdom. On stage they keep it proper hype and for this set they got into a lot of bass house. Their set was really energetic, it was impossible not to jump around too. Astronaut does a good job with the switch up drops, setting up one song then dropping another, and then switching back to the prior for the second drop. To conclude they mixed together a trap and dubstep outro leading into their label mate Dubloadz' set.

Never have I seen so many finger guns of bass as I saw Dubloadz shoot. His stage presence was incredible, it was rather entertaining to watch his reactions to the drops. For some parts Dubloadz was reminiscent of a mad scientist holding his hands in weird positions as if to gesture, "It's Alive!" On top of his amazing vibe Dubloadz put together a merciless set, just blasted the room with bass cannons. He got a big reaction to his shout out to Virtual Riot, and then he dropped a collaboration track of theirs just recently released called "Juices." Another memorable part of his set was a mega dope remix of the old Metroid theme. Dubloadz was in rare form, or maybe he's always that spunky, regardless he completely crushed it.

Barely Alive was accompanied by the homies Astronaut and Dubloadz to keep the crowd ablaze to start off. This was such a crisp set, every song sounded intense and three dimensional. Barely Alive has a hard, loud, and mean sound that bullies you into dancing. For the majority of the mix I couldn't smile, it wasn't time for smiling, it was time to rage face. Barely Alive dropped some fresh new music, one track was a collaboration with Habstrakt that is still unreleased. This track was a triple hybrid of styles with a trap build, a dub drop, and a house bridge, I can't wait for it to be released. To close out the set Barely Alive got into more of an electro mode which transitioned nicely into Dodge & Fuski.

For this show it was Rob Talbott from the duo Dodge & Fuski going solo. His mix was the perfect closing blend because he had a little bit of everything to throw at you. The very first thing he did was have the crowd prepare for Dan from Astronaut to stage dive for the first time ever. Right at the first drop Dan dove in the hands of the people and he was carried all the way around the room and neatly placed back on the stage. The whole Disciple crew stayed out around the stage for Dodge & Fuski's set. Since the squad was all chilling a bunch of the people in the crowd got signatures from the Disciple guys and free merch too. Rob was hilarious with little commentary on the mic saying things like "Dubstep is too dry," then mixing right into "International Anthem" by Flux Pavilion. He was laughing as he pounded a hardstyle drop that included samples of what sounded like the character Bricktop from the film Snatch yelling, "Put your hands up cunts!" At the end all the guys from Disciple went out for a curtain call and took a fam photo with all the crowd. Rob went right up until 2:00 AM so when the people screamed for one more song he made a compromise. He said, "I'll give you one more sound." Then Rob just scratched the CDJ pad for a split second and cut it. He is a really funny guy and that was a fitting way to give the people just a little more.

The record label Disciple is fairly new going into it's third year, and everyone affiliated is rapidly advancing the game. Founded by Rob Talbott (Half of Dodge & Fuski) and Rossy Burr (Half of Astronaut) back in 2013. Having sprung off the label Never Say Die there was already a solid foundation from which to grow. Ever since conception they have been making music that is consistently topping the charts.











Twas huge for Rebudz and Reload Productions to bring four of the Disciple artists out for a single show! Much love also goes to Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom for accommodating the ever growing Denver bass fam. Big thanks to Stetsen Colt Mathias for providing excellent images of the night. Next up is a stop from the Neckbreaker Tour with Dirty Phonics, Habstrakt, and many more on May 21st at Cervantes Other Side. Stay tuned for future show announcements too, there is a doozy coming just around the corner!

Read More

Rebudz & Reload Return To Cervantes Ballroom For Bass Rising!

This Saturday we return to Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom for another get together with Rebudz & Reload Productions! If you missed out on Bass Station in March, you're sure to be blown away. Bringing some of the heaviest in the game, Bass Rising features a special Desciple showcase with Barely Alive, Dodge & Fuski, Dubloadz, Astronaut & Shank Aaron! Get your tickets before it's too late! 

Read More