Spring Massive Richmond
Friday March 11 at The Canal Club
Last Friday, The Canal Club was pushed to a level I had never seen before. For past Steez Promo shows, the top floor was used to showcase the talent they brought to Richmond for your dancing pleasure. Spring Massive was different. They used the top and bottom floors to keep the music flowing from 7PM to 4AM. By having the two stages running at the same time, they created an unnatural force that you could feel standing on the dance floor above. In the past, the subwoofers combined with a large crowd would make you feel like the floor was sinking in, but now; we had the bass pressure from below keeping us up.
Spring Massive Richmond
Friday March 11 at The Canal Club
Last Friday, The Canal Club was pushed to a level I had never seen before. For past Steez Promo shows, the top floor was used to showcase the talent they brought to Richmond for your dancing pleasure. Spring Massive was different. They used the top and bottom floors to keep the music flowing from 7PM to 4AM. By having the two stages running at the same time, they created an unnatural force that you could feel standing on the dance floor above. In the past, the subwoofers combined with a large crowd would make you feel like the floor was sinking in, but now; we had the bass pressure from below keeping us up.
I arrived at the Canal Club around 9:00 and worked my way upstairs to hear a familiar tune being spun by a DJ I was not familiar with. Jen Lasher was dropping Moombahton tunes! It was quite a surprise to see an event which was based so heavily around dubstep, incorporating a genre which Richmond favorite Dave Nada coined and subsequently helped launched into a world-wide dance movement. The crowd was not biased and kept the party going. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Numbernin6 did not come on at his scheduled time, so I decided to go down and catch a DJ that I had never heard of, DJ Shiftee. Let me start by saying that DJ Shiftee is the 2010 DMC World Champion (a title reserved to the most elite of turntablists). While dubstep and heavy bass music is relatively new in comparison to the music that was typically spun by early turntablists and former DMC champions, DJ Shiftee, for one of the first times in recent memory, made my jaw drop. I have never seen a turntablist incorporate heavy bass music and dubstep tunes into a turntable routine. The speed and technicality that was exhibited by this (young) man reminded me of when I was first being introduced to hip-hop music, and was perplexed as to how a person could develop the skills to make vinyl sound the way it did live. Shiftee played your dubstep, he played your bangers, he even managed to beat-juggle a sample from Team America World Police. If you have not heard of this guy, do not make the same mistake I did. Go to his shows! Fast forwarding a bit, we had Smash Gordon dropping a great set downstairs. If you have seen Smash Gordon in the past (opening for Skrillex and Rusko at the Canal Club), you might have noticed that he was bringing out new tunes and new productions at this event.
Upstairs, all the way from the Netherlands, we had Bart B More. I know what you’re thinking–Bart B More would not necessarily fit in with the usual sound of Steez. Yet it worked more than you might imagine. His faster, more eclectic productions have been played worldwide by DJs ranging from Boys Noize to Tiesto. This producer and DJ played a fun set, teasing us several times with snippets of his 2010 classic, “Brap,” eventually reaching a climax where the entire crowd was screaming in anticipation as it finally dropped. I made the decision to watch Z-Trip over Skism and I’d like to think it was the best choice. As I look further and further back into the productions that set me down this electronic route, one of the earliest I remember was Z-Trip’s 2005 effort, Shifting Gears. This was one of the first records which I remember merging hip-hop based instruments and vocals with more upbeat, sometimes electronic backing and turntablism. The chance to finally see the legend live was like a dream come true.
He geared up and started his intro, a vocal track mocking your traditional “mic check, one two one two,” instead asking for a “bass check” which resulted in bass frequencies that would step down a few frequencies every few seconds. Soon after, we found ourselves moving to a collection of tunes we all knew. There was your dubstep, there was your electro, and then there was your hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll classics. Z-Trip has been doing this for over a decade, so he knows how to work a crowd. He led the crowd in singing in unison to mashups of Dr. Dre tracks, a moshpit during a Rage Against The Machine track, and stage diving to, quote, “one of the heaviest tunes I have ever made.” In the end, I was completely blown away and immediately understood why Z-Trip was named “The Best DJ in America” by DJ Times Magazine. After his final farewell to the crowd, we went back to the Steez roots.
Datsik, a heavy bass DJ best known for testing the systems of whichever venue he plays, gave the crowd the bass they had waited all night to see. Drop after drop and the crowd showed no signs of stopping. I split this time slot between Datsik upstairs and another heavy bass champion who was playing downstairs, AC Slater. I have seen AC Slater in the past, and he always throws down a good set. Yet this time he had a partner in crime, which transformed what would have been a solo set into a set by AC & Dell. Dell is an MC that has collaborated with several people in the past, most recently having recorded an album with AC Slater, Right Now, which was released not too long ago. Sadly, there were not too many in attendance, which made this unique performance even more intimate. Both AC & Dell downstairs, and Datsik upstairs, were fun sets.
We started to push towards 3AM. Feelgood was setting up to play behind Datsik when a power shortage killed Datsiks CDJs and my mood was killed. I tried to stay to see who this Feelgood DJ was, but unfortunately I felt my night was over. I had to get some rest before venturing to Baltimore for Round 2 on Saturday!
All in all, Steez Promo pulled off a very surprising and successful event at the Canal Club and I’m excited to see who they will present us with for Summer Massive. They have the initial lineup released for their annual Starscape festival held in Baltimore and it will blow your mind: http://starscapefestival.com
Stay tuned for my Saturday Baltimore round-up and be sure to check out Danny Tiet’s photographs from Richmond below!
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http://steezpromo.com/
