12th Planet with Smash Gordon
Friday, May 6 at The Canal Club
Earlier this month, the American king of Dubstep finally graced Richmond with his presence at local favorite The Canal Club. Rushing over from a performance by Sleigh Bells and CSS on the other side of town, some friends and I were greeted by an unusual sighting for a Steez event at the Canal Club. Usually, the downstairs is the “hangout” area, with the top floor reserved for the heavy hitting bass music that we’ve come to expect. However, this time around, the stage was set up downstairs and you couldn’t walk a few feet without a crazy dancer brushing past you. I was unsure how I felt about the downstairs being the focus of tonight’s performance but was quickly reminded why I came here in the first place; the music.
12th Planet with Smash Gordon
Friday, May 6 at The Canal Club
Earlier this month, the American king of Dubstep finally graced Richmond with his presence at local favorite The Canal Club. Rushing over from a performance by Sleigh Bells and CSS on the other side of town, some friends and I were greeted by an unusual sighting for a Steez event at the Canal Club. Usually, the downstairs is the “hangout” area, with the top floor reserved for the heavy hitting bass music that we’ve come to expect. However, this time around, the stage was set up downstairs and you couldn’t walk a few feet without a crazy dancer brushing past you. I was unsure how I felt about the downstairs being the focus of tonight’s performance but was quickly reminded why I came here in the first place; the music.
With an always fulfilling set by Smash Gordon, who even gave props at one point to the newly founded ‘Moombahton’ genre, we were going full speed into the non-stop bass music that would inevitably be pumped into our ears by his follow up act, 12th Planet. The Los Angeles based producer, surrounded by the homies (including Trouble & Bass favorite and 757 local Dell o8o Harris), quickly went into some unreleased tunes that I’m sure he meticulously planned to tease us to no end with. With one banger after another, and the occasional favorite, such as his and Flinch’s remix of Little Jinder’s “Youth Blood,” thrown in, he kept the party going strong well past 2 in the morning.
Part of what made this so memorable was the sheer amount of energy seen on stage. Although the crowd was not the largest, the crowd was with him one hundred and ten percent. There was crowd surfing, jumping off the walls, and dancing of every way, shape and form. Everyone on stage had a smile on their face and the crowd was vibing off of their unstoppable energy. Looking at his Twitter the next day, I saw that he gave respect to Richmond, which can only mean one thing. He will return to grace a Richmond stage again someday!
Check out the full set of photos here!
Words by Alex Rose
Images by Erik Fox
