|
|
||||
|
 |
|||
When I found out I had a list spot at Skrillex’s show, I was surprised by how intrigued I became with the show. The Brasky forums know that I’ve been critical of Skrillex since his Deadmau5/Youtube-fueled emergence, but:
- I enjoy live bass music and stick up for dubstep in this spirit
- I’ve been curious to understand Skrillex’s popularity since noticing that his track “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” has surpassed 50+ million views, putting Skrillex in Lady Gaga territory. And, for the most part, he has done it without the visibility gained via mainstream media exposure. How? I needed to get to the bottom of it.
Upon arrival at the show I started ravenously observing the diversity of showgoers that were rolling in. It was clear that Skrillex was reaching a lot of different audiences within the electronic world, with most everyone represented.
8 Types of Skrillex Listeners
| 1. | Those half-naked rave girls, decorated with fluorescent doodads/trinkets/gewgaws – specifically, those Clydesdale ankle muff things. They are on drugs, but I’m not sure which ones. |  |
| 2. | “Getting laid guys” (credit: Louis CK) in collared shirts, hooting at the fluorescent dancer girls (who of course are immensely detached from the people around them). |  |
| 3. | Awkward computer nerds with Skrillex tees (I think these are the guys who relish the Transformer/dubstep correlation. Note: This correlation has been a terrible thing for dubstep. Also terrible: Zealous YouTube comments about “the drop” or “filth” that are so slobbery you can almost feel the mist) |  |
| 4. | Suburban hipster looking people dressed very randomly with the jean shorts and wayfarer sunglasses and whatnot. I was wearing suspenders so I think that automatically lumps me here. |  |
| 5. | Goth/metal couples on dates. (preemptive correction assuming this class may care greatly about this distinction: “cyber-goth”) |  |
| 6. | People on ecstasy. And weird dudes in masks giving them nose-grazing neon hand jives while they sucked on lollipops and pretended to be rolling hard enough not to notice how REALLY WEIRD THIS LOOKS. IN PUBLIC. |  |
| 7. | Vintage (2000-2005) screamo kids |  |
| 8. | Clusters of white girls who appear to be dressing up to mimic the possibly-sincere fashion guidelines of any combination of the preceding. Most are unfamiliar with Skrillex but they’ve heard of dubstep and they like that band. |  |
Now that I’ve judged 99% of the people in the building, let’s judge the final 1%–the performers.
Nadastrom
Opening duo Nadastrom seemed to get the smaller, early crowd excited with their signature danceable Moombahton/Electro-house thumpers. No dubstep on the bill yet, though the snarling bass and shrill vibrating synths seem to agree with Skrillex goers. The crowd was dancing.
Two Fresh
Up next was Two Fresh, who, amusingly enough, is comprised of three people. These guys brought a different kind of energy – more ambient-accented hip hop, passionately mixed/muted/amended. The bass was a bit lighter, with claps/snares leading the beat. It was disappointing to see the crowd moving less–I thought the Two/Three were shredding it. The crowd even seemed to miss Lil B getting sampled/remixed, but Two Fresh reeled in some head bobs with a bristling remix of Alpines’ Icypoles (Star Slinger remix with live drum overlay = yes.)
12th Planet
12th Planet was up next, performing in front of a crowd that was approaching the Ritz’s 2,000-person capacity. There’s no mistaking that 12 Planet’s set went well, feeling out the crowd with a DJ’s intuition as he moved between Skrillex-collabs and detours into Drum ‘N’ Bass (proudly shouting “I’m a junglist!”), Noisia remixes (Two of them! Diplocodus and a direct sampling of Shellshock to segue 2 tracks), and mostly-untouched crunk anthems by Waka Flocka Flame and Biggie that got the crowd VERY fired up (me included).
Skrillex (of Skrillex)
Lastly Skrillex came on and started drilling into everyone’s brains with his relentless forays into high-pitched synth breakdowns. Behind him was a massive video display featuring a virtual robot DJ that was directly synced to his knob turns and fist pumps – unmistakably fun to watch. The increasing influence of (label lord) Deadmau5′s style in Skrillex’s sound was present as at least half the tracks were either plotted on house beat signatures or stacked up and glued together by lengthy trance rises/falls. To me, Skrillex’s main distinction has been his trademark dubstep drops, characterized by a rapid exchange of growling/screaming highs and lows, switching and sliding and wubwubbing. When he unleashed “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” I knew I wanted to capture the now-famous “YES OH MY GOD” rest-before-drop. I set aside my (now alcohol-inflamed) urges to skank out and steadied my hand to record one of 75 videos being recorded at that moment, capturing some live edits:
Conclusion? It was a fun time; felt like a party. The music critic in me wanted to crush the vibe from within at times, but the raw energy of the bass, the crowd, and the festival-like atmosphere made it hard not to enjoy. The music critic says 1) Nadastrom is good but they are cashing in on Moombahton hype, 2) Two Fresh was pretty fresh, 3) 12th Planet was better than Skrillex (though fewer original tracks in his set), 4) The scale of Skrillex’s hype remains a mystery, but he’s still deserving of A-list distinction among the vast fruitless plain of dubstep “producers”. Go see him next time because you will probably have fun. And you know one of those 8 listener types hit close to home….
8 Comments
See more shows brought to you by No Clubs here: http://statemedia.com
i love “you can almost feel the mist”, that’s my favorite song by that band.
seriously though, i see how simple and shameless the fun is. and regarding the ‘tour video’ i can only hope that hearing/seeing/liking skrillex et al. will instill the same shock value in today’s parents as was delivered by alice cooper, kiss, nine inch nails, etc… they all opened doors for this kind of outlandish exploitation of rock star pageantry.
I liked your review as you know my general disdain for dubstep and am trying to get a better sense of why I should try to give it a shot again. Your description of the fan base does help with my contempt of the genre.
Specifically I’d like to make a statement regarding your comment “I think these are the guys who relish the Transformer/dubstep correlation.”
As a noted Transformers fan, I dislike this form of pandering, which I feel is similar to my disdain for The Big Bang Theory.
Yes, I am a geek. But just because you incorporate something geeky doesn’t mean I have to accept your product as the same of that which I like. If you can’t stand on your own merit, force feeding me this abomination makes me abhor your “art” even more.
That said, great review that I don’t understand what half of it means and Skrillex aint got shit on Stan Bush.
Feedback appreciated – not trying to say that Transformer fans like dubstep or dubstep fans like Transformers. But, to be clear, there is an epidemic of people leaving Youtube comments that compare crazy machine noise in dubstep tracks to Transformers… doing things. So I’m not forming a correlation – speaking to one that exists, and I will stand by my assumption that the geekier dubstep listeners are the ones responsible.
I accept and understand your clarification.
But I still continue to have disdain in general for Dubstep fans.
Very impressive write-up.
Nicely done. My main temptation to attend this show was indeed attributable to the spectacle, and of course because I still have this built-in, increasing desire to see a show once I’ve learned that it’s sold out. Unfortunately I had a scheduling conflict, so I didn’t go through the trouble of finding a ticket. Upon reading this review, however, I think I’ve gotten a pretty good feel for what I would’ve experienced.