BASSNECTAR at Red Rocks Amphitheatre 6/18/11

Bassnectar crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Ten thousand people sold out this amazing venue in Morrison, CO and Kevin & I experienced this entire show on the very front row among all of these people. This night was truly magical, as it was one of the biggest shows Bassnectar has ever had. The 10,000 people aren't the only thing that made it magical though, as I'm saying this because I saw certain people act in ways that I wouldn't have predicted. I'm not going to mention any names for this one, but I saw one person in particular that was seriously having the time of their life dancing and listening to Bassnectar's music. This person is kind of "behind the scenes" and so it was amazing to see someone so close to Lorin still have that much enthusiasm and energy during one of his shows. Sometimes at concerts you see friends or people that work for an artist just sitting down, looking at their cell phone, or just simply never smiling, but it was making my night to see how much this person was enjoying Bassnectar's show. Lorin himself, (not just his music) also made his set that much better because of how appreciative he was that we all were there for him. He thanked us all so many times and made us all take a minute to realize how valuable life is, and how amazing it is that we were all alive at that very moment. Lorin is truly an inspiring person, and him and his music have inspired me in so many different ways (this blog for one example).

Eskmo at Red Rocks

To back up the night a little bit, Eskmo opened before Beats Antique before Bassnectar and was really interesting and unique! Throughout his set he used different objects to create sounds on the microphone like squeezing a water bottle, ripping a piece of paper, and opening a Coca-Cola can. Sounds kind of weird I know, but it was actually pretty cool. He also said/sang things on the microphone that added more sound(s) to his songs. Check out my video of Eskmo below. (Remember to mute my playlist).

The crowd was just building at this point in the night. Kevin & I had spoke with Phillip Irwin before getting to Red Rocks about what time we should get there so we could get front row at the show. We ended up getting there around 3o'clock and to our surprise, no one was in line yet at one of the entrances for Red Rocks. So, we started the line along with Phillip and some of his friends that he came with. Yes, we were first in line to get into Red Rocks. Below is proof (although we look very tiny!) that we were in line first, as Stacy Morrow took this picture of us waiting to get into the venue! Haha, so cool that she could capture this moment.

First in line at Red Rocks, picture taken by Stacy Morrow (JuiceBoxBox)

Waiting to get into the venue wasn't the least bit boring either. About every 5 minutes a new group of bassheads would drive up and join us in line, so that part flew by so fast. Soon enough it was time to get into the venue, and we felt like little kids as security was yelling at us not to run as we were trying to beat the two other entrances for the front row. Needless to say, we got to the front row. :-) Center too!

Front row for Bassnectar at Red Rocks

This picture was taken after Eskmo, before Beats Antique. Beats Antique was SO GOOD! I have been so excited to see them, and they made it even better that they played my three favorite songs of theirs! Egyptic, Nesatovo, & Daze - all three of those are so good. My video below is when they played "Nesatovo" Kevin's personal favorite!

When Beats Antique first started playing, it was only two guys, and I was curious if that was it because I had always seen and pictured more people on stage (like the bellydancer) in the past, but she soon popped on stage, along with another musician. There were also other women who were dancers for Beats Antique who are part of every show on tour, not just added for certain shows. They all make up what is called Beats Antique and they put on a great and really cool show. 

Beats Antique dancers, picture taken by (SIC) Images

At the end of Beats Antique set, Bassnectar's AmBASSadors (the ones working for this specific show) got to come out and dance WITH Beats Antique. How cool is that? I'm not sure who is who because of the masks, but I was so excited when this happened for all of them! The crowd loved it too! (The AmBASSadors also did a great job at this show... giving people lots of water, full on fruit trays, and slices of pizza too, it was crackin' me up!)

Basnectar AmBASSadors dancing during Beats Antique's set

Next up ...the one and only... Bassnectar!!! By this time in the night Kevin & I couldn't have been more ready for him to come on! I never can decide if I should video the intro because if I video it, I can't fully enjoy it but then when I do video it, it's so sick to watch later (haha) so I decided that at this amazing venue I should just enjoy the intro, which I did to the fullest. Howeverrr I took three really amazing videos throughout the night. They are about 3 minutes each, and so sick when they catch the veryyy back of the crowd. Check. Them. Out.

This concert was seriously so awesome. It was in Colorado, our new state as of August, and I'm praying Bassnectar comes back again sometime this year! I can't believe he's going to be all over the east coast as soon as we move. Two shows in North Carolina too! Bass Center IV is also right after the two NC shows on September 24th and is in Washington DC. So all of you on the east coast better go for me!

Bassnectar at Red Rocks

"You're not just here to watch a show but you're here to be a part of something together." -Lorin

Crowd during Bassnectar, picture taken by Stacy Morrow (JuiceBoxBox)

Lorin said that quote above at the beginning of his set at Red Rocks, and it's so true - at least for me it is. His music is seriously like nothing else out there. I cannot WAIT until August 2nd when Divergent Spectrum comes out. Early birthday present to myself!

While visiting in Denver this past week, Kevin & I also checked out Skism at the Bluebird Theatre. As usual, we were so glad we did! Not only because Skism was sick, but the opening acts were awesome too! We missed Subliminal, but Dodger was really good, and then Jantsen was even better. Jantsen, who I actually got to meet after the show because I recently have become friends with Stacy Morrow (who's pictures I mentioned above) who is his girlfriend! Below is a picture of me with Stacy & Jantsen.

Jantsen had so much energy and really got the crowd excited and into his set! I hate when I don't see that out of music producers but when I do I know they have the talent to make it in this music industry. Jantsen's music was definitely sick and I look forward to seeing him again! (He also has made songs with Bassnectar! Heard Blast Off??? YEAH!)

Skism at Bluebird Theatre in Denver, CO

Skism was great too! I had only heard a few of his songs before the concert, like "Power" but he put on a really good show and I'd see him again. Definitely an artist to check out if you're a dub lover! Kevin & I were super excited about being at the Bluebird Theatre also because we can walk to it from our new apartment in Denver, how convenient for us? :-D Skism called the crowd the "Dubstep Capitol of the United States," which we thought was pretty cool since this is our new city.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope I made you wish you went to Bassnectar at Red Rocks, haha.. the more I watch mine and other videos I reallyyy want to be back in that moment. Can't wait for Bassnectar again, except this time I don't know when that will be! 

I may not be blogging again until I get back from Europe! I'm leaving this week but will be back July 15th, then heading to see Datsik on the 16th and Glitch Mob on the 17th. I'll be jet-lagged as hell, but...I can't miss either of those two. So talk to you then!!! ;-) 

*Kaycie

PS- obsessed with these two songs this week...
"Southpaw" by Datsik & "I Know The Truth" by Pretty Lights

STARSCAPE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2011!

Well well well. All of my anticipation and butterflies I had before this festival definitely lived up to my expectations, as Starscape Music Festival was as good as it gets. If you like dubstep, this was the festival for you this year because there were so many awesome dubstep names on this ticket, along with many other electronic music artists! Like the shirts Kevin and I are wearing?

Starscape Music Festival

When we first arrived, we (Kevin, Patrick, Elise & I) walked around to scope out the entire place and to check out what each stage looked like. This festival, which took place in Baltimore, MD, was also located right on the water, which made the venue even more fun and entertaining. The first group we wanted to see was Zeds Dead, check out my video below. Remember to mute my music playlist before you watch!

Zeds Dead was really good and I'm glad because the last time I tried to see them they had technical problems! Next was a lot of waiting until our big favorites came on, but that didn't matter because there were plenty of other artists we wanted to check out before the late night shows began. I really enjoyed EOTO! I had no idea that EOTO was made up of two old guys - that have great music! One of the guys was even singing every lyric you heard, in different accents too! That's usually not the norm in electronic music so this made them pretty unique and cool. We caught parts of Subvert and a lot of Doorly too! My EOTO & Doorly videos are below. Doorly is playing "Raindrops" in that video, however the sound is pretty distorted because I was standing literally right in front of some subs (blame me?) Oh and someone flicks me off at the end of my EOTO video, haha!

Doorly at Starscape

After checking everybody else out that we could during the day, Bassnectar finally was ready to come on at 11pm. He opened with "Teleport Massive" and from then on out the crowd went nuts. Of course since it was outside, glowsticks were being thrown every time the bass dropped (fortunately not at Lorin, he hates glowsticks!) - check out my video of that happening below! It also started raining during his set, which was actually pretty cool. And coming from a girl with curly hair, I usually don't like rain, but I don't think anything could ever upset me at a Bassnectar concert.

Bassnectar at Starscape

You can watch my other two Bassnectar videos from Starscape here & here. Needless to say, Bassnectar was my favorite show of the night. The crowd was huge (he played at the Main Stage and was the only act of Starscape that was allotted two hours!) and I had no idea how big it was until I saw the family photo and also someone's video of the crowd on facebook a couple days ago. Here is the family photo from Starscape! My poster didn't make it in like I hoped :-( *tear 

Starscape Bassnectar Family Photo

This poster that I'm talking about that I also mentioned in my last post was a great success! I got a lot of compliments from it but what actually counts is that Lorin saw it, told me "I love this!!!" and then patted me on the head because of it. Pretty much was the cherry on top of his whole show! Kevin, Elise & Patrick also got high fives from Lorin since we were smart and waited around on the front rail for him to come down and talk to his fans. :-) Here's us on the rail with my poster!

Unfortunately because of Bassnectar we had to miss most of Datsik and all of Skrillex, but Flux Pavilion, Excision, and Doctor P made up for that! (There were also a lot of other artists I would have loved to see like TC, Feed Me, and Dieselboy but there just wasn't time for it). Flux & Doctor P were so sick - both were really equally awesome. When Doctor P was on stage he was accompanied by Flux, Datsik, AND Skrillex so it was a pretty entertaining set! Excision probably was up there too, but I don't remember catching him in any of my videos or pictures. Skrillex also played "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" during Doctor P's set so I was happy to get a little Skrillex fix in since we had to miss him. Check out my Flux & Doctor P videos below! And by the way, Doctor P has the funniest English accent! It almost sounded like he was joking every time he said something on the microphone because it was such an intense accent, haha! 

After and between these two was when we saw Excision and then also Dirtyphonics, Steve Aoki, Paper Diamond, and Rabbit. Excision was awesome but since he was between Flux & Doctor P we wanted to check out the other stages most of the time so we could experience different places in the festival more. Steve Aoki's show was going nuts as usual! When we walked up to the Dance Tent, he was poppin' champagne and preparing to get into an inner-tube with Skrillex! Haha yes, check out the video of that here! And boy was Rabbit interesting. We walked up the hill after catching most of Paper Diamond (also good) to see all sorts of gimmicks going on during the Rabbit show. Not only were the two main guys wearing rabbit-earred gas masks, but there were dancers on stage wearing similar costumes - and dancing somewhat creepily I may add! Despite the initial shock of the weirdness going on, it made the end to the night really fun and entertaining. I only got to hear about three of their songs so I can't say whether or not I like their music, but the three I heard were pretty good. Below are pictures from Rabbit, had to show you guys...

Rabbit - very different & interesting! Guy in a metal costume

Well, thank you so much for reading my blog post about Starscape! It really is an ideal festival because although 3 or 4 day festivals are awesome when it's all said and done, this one being all in one day really lets you just party all day and into the night versus having to get some sleep! Next up for Kevin & me is Bassnectar at Red Rocks. Yep, Bassnectar again so soon. How lucky are we? And at one of the coolest venues in the world. My Bassnectar Red Rocks blog post might be just as long as this one since there is going to be so much awesomeness packed into one show (Beats Antique opens for Bassnectar that night)! So exciteddddd.

Have a great day everybody!

-Kaycie

Bassnectar & Bass Center III Date Announced!

Bassnectar and his crew on really on the ball lately! Bass Island hasn't even happened yet and they already have a date set for Bass Center III. It will be held on September 17th in San Francisco, CA at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Who's excited??? Not exactly driving distance from Denver, CO but I think Kevin & I are somehow going to make this one happen for us since we can't go to Bass Island. Big Gigantic and Dan Deacon will also be at Bass Center III. Bassnectar also announced the first 7 places that he will be stopping for his Fall Tour! Check out those dates here.

Along with the announcement of Bass Center III, Bassnectar also told us that his Divergent Spectrum EP is completed! Lorin says this EP "disregards the rules and spans of the spectrum of sonic shenanigans: from dark to light, heavy to soft, and pretty to UGLY." He played some of the songs on it during Spring Tour, but some haven't been heard by anyone, and I can't wait to buy it the second it comes out!

I'm headed to Baltimore, MD tomorrow night for STARSCAPE! I couldn't be more excited. I even made a poster for Lorin, haha so I'll be uploading pictures of it after this weekend. The set times were announced last week and it's going to be a lateee night! Doctor P doesn't even come on until 3 am....and Paper Diamond until 5am? Bring it Starscape!!!

Here's a song Bassnectar has played on tour before...."Chicken Dippaz" just for fun :-)

And by the way, how SICK is that Divergent Spectrum poster? I gotta have one! 

<3 Kaycie