For the first time since Burning Man lord-knows-how-many-years-ago, Bassnectar played three nights in a row in the same place…this time at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. On Friday afternoon with a storm rolling over the rocks and the collective energy building, the stage was set. Fast forward to the finale at 11:30 sharp on Sunday and fans had been treated to arguably the most intense and thought-provoking “Bassnectar experience” in years, and perhaps ever – seven and a half hours of immersive, amorphous music from his oldest album to his newest, Into The Sun which drops June 30.
The King of the Sound outdid himself this year, bringing the largest and loudest Anya speakers and Meyer Subs ever constructed to the world’s only naturally-occurring amphitheater with perfect acoustics. It’s difficult to describe the sonic evisceration let loose from the Anya speakers. Positioned all around Red Rocks were speakers playing the same frequencies patched to negative. This meant that when the noise from the stage speakers collided with this parallel but negative frequency, the noise was bounced back into the amphitheater, making for absurdly loud but perfectly crisp sounds.
Nectar’s Anya speaker tower
The Rocks started bouncing early on Friday with a fantastic set from Colorado’s Late Night Radio accompanied by the blissful guitar work of Sunsquabi’s Kevin Donohue. Next was G Jones who played all original 808 west-coast bass filth, sending the growing crowd into a frenzy. Dubstep legend Joker played a satisfactory set, but with the rain falling in sheets the crowd was noticeably subdued.
With the clouds moving away Lorin took the stage to thunderous applause before cueing the piano track to “Where Is My Mind”. This evoked torrents of emotion from the crowd, as if Lorin was begging a question of his fans – “where is YOUR mind?”. Immediately afterwards the speakers cranked and the throwdown began. He went heavy with “Bass Head“, “Ugly”, “What”, “Raw Charles”, “Immigraniada” and a handful of absolutely filthy new tracks from the forthcoming Into The Sun including a mind-bending collaboration with G Jones. Despite classics like “Boombox” and “Plugged In”, the gnarliest music this writer heard from Lorin were these ambiguous new tracks which we now anxiously await (some are available for pre-order June 16). He lightened the set with downtempo featuring a drawn-out version of “Window Seat” blaring the “think for yourself and question” mantra. He then welcomed the rapper Seasunz on stage for live performances of “Cozza Frenzy” and “Select Frequency“. As if this wasn’t enough, to close it out Lorin played a heavy edit of “Delamure” before reprising his remix of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. By 12:30am fans had a hard time comprehending what just happened, and many stayed on the rocks, speechless with eyes ablaze until the staff cleared everyone out.
After a set filled with so many explosive peaks and soulful valleys, fans returning on night two were anxious to see and hear what Bassnectar would bring next. Benga’s set began with classic dubstep tracks before changing to brand new music, a sort of deep-deep house which didn’t leave a lasting impression. It foreshadowed, however, a new rhythm which Bassnectar would follow. Opening with righteous vocals from the 2004 track “Replenish” (“tellin’ the world of the truth and the rights”) it appeared that Lorin’s set would be particularly thruth-y, and this turned out to be the case. “Colorstorm” and its screeching high pitches then came in followed by NVSB remixes, “Flashback”, “Timestretch” and “Hologram”.
Lorin threw gem after gem including “Teleport Massive (Bassnectar Remix)“, “I Am A Laser”, “Voodoo”, “Laughter Crescendo”, “Hot Right Now” and “Ping Pong”. Yet the most important moment of the set came when the music stopped and a message from Bill Hicks, the late comedian and political satirist, appeared on the sceens. “Life’s like a ride at an amusement park,” the message began. “We choose to go on it because that’s how powerful our minds are. But it’s just a ride.” After contrasting images of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. with images of Dick Cheney and Jeb Bush, the monologue concluded by proposing a simple, immediate choice between fear and love. Thousands of fans including this humble writer were left speechless. My mind drifted back to lyrics from earlier in the set, “ready for the mind war, it’s a hologram.” Lorin appeared to be pointing towards the disconnect between material and immaterial reality (“it’s just a ride’), a disconnect which occurs at the intersection of noise, beauty and subliminal messaging. With sound, sense and imagery flying at the speed of Bassnectar, the set ended with a chilling 2015 remix of “Enter the Chamber”, a deep, nostalgic track from 2005’s Mesmerizing the Ultra. Contrary to the first night, fans filed out of Red Rocks quickly and quietly on Saturday, their minds filled with more questions than answers.
Anticipation was soaring on Sunday afternoon, and the opening acts did a spectacular job of building it. Eskmo soothed the crowd with wobbly, ethereal downtempo, and DJ EASE, representing Nightmares on Wax, played the best opening set this writer’s ever witnessed before a Bassnectar show. With breakbeats, one-drop and boom-bap he ran through freedom songs from every time period, maintaining a steady groove with a powerful message. Because of Red Rock’s 11:30pm Sunday curfew, set times were moved forward and the sun set during Nightmares on Wax. The scenery and the feel-good music created an unbelievable vibe that prepared everyone for Bassnectar’s finale.
Frog Song and the rarely-played Red Step threw the ampitheater into bass-fueled chaos immediately, and one of the heaviest Bassnectar sets in years followed, highlighted by tracks such as “Sugar Cube“, “Falling”, “Infinite“, “Expanded“, “Above and Beyond“, “Breathless” and “Boomerang”. As the names of these songs indicate, Lorin pulled out all the stops. To the disbelief of many, he even played “Dorfex Bos”, “Breathing” and “Dubuasca” off Diverse Systems of Throb, tracks which many Nectar faithful feared they would never hear in a live setting again. When it appeared things could not get any crazier, the music stopped abruptly right as “Butterfly” dropped for the second time. With the crowd bewildered, Lorin blamed an apparent computer malfunction. In the interim, he thanked his fans for their faith, and asked each member of the audience to make a new friend in the crowd. It soon became clear that this “computer malfunction” was intentional, as beat-boxer Kyrian appeared on stage and the sound system kicked in again for “Blow”. The Fungineers then hit the stage for a puppet show featuring a puppet Lorin and a puppet purple dragon danced around to “Kyrian Bee Bop”. Everyone on stage joined the family photo, and after thoroughly confusing everyone in attendance, Lorin brought it all back home with “Heads Up”. Yes, we do know we love it.
Whether Red Rocks was your first Bassnectar show or your fiftieth, it was truly a throwdown for the ages. Lorin effortlessly combined new school and old school music, satisfying old heads, new fans and first-timers. What’s more, he came with conscious messages both overt and subliminal, and his select frequencies brought listeners blissfully into an a higher consciousness. The incredible sound quality from the combination of Anya speaker stacks and Red Rock’s acoustics may never again be duplicated, but you can catch Bassnectar at almost every big time festival this summer where he’ll surely be debuting the amazing new music from Into the Sun.
Whether you prefer your tunes light or heavy, electronic or acoustic, it’s clear that Lorin Ashton is still revolutionizing music. We recommend going to a Bassnectar show with absolutely no expectations, but it seems like he gave everyone at Red Rocks exactly what they were looking for. As one such satisfied basshead I beseech you; wherever your travels take you this summer, whomever you may be with and whatever you may be doing – always be safe, think for yourself and don’t you dare hate the 808.
Connect with Bassnectar:
www.bassnectar.net
facebook.com/Bassnectar
www.soundcloud.com/Bassnectar
Share On
