Light fixtures in the upstairs bathroom shook on their hinges as the bass catapulted through the entire building. Concertgoers, eyes glazed and bodies glistening, moved with the music, gyrating to the beat. The scent in the building smelled like marijuana, latex and sweat.

After waiting through three sets, the crowd hung on to every sound and every movement made by dubstep DJ Flux Pavilion. They waited for something outrageous.

The beat stopped and the DJ, also known as Joshua Steele, looked out over the crowd. The words ‘Let the bass cannon kick it’ poured out of the speakers. With tension at its highest, Steele dropped the beat again, blasting the crowd with dry ice. And they erupted.

Flux Pavilion headlined a dubstep event at the Westcott Theater on Wednesday. Earlier in the night, DJs Cookie Monsta, Brown & Gammon and Direktor performed their own spin on the genre.

Jade Bianchi, or Direktor, is 18-years-old and a recent graduate of Baker High School. It was his fifth time performing at the Westcott Theater.

Growing up a fan of both rap and hardcore music, Bianchi remembered immediately being enamored with the new genre that incorporated the two.

His set meshed not only gut-wrenching rock beats, but also sampled Tyga’s ‘Rack City.’

On stage, Bianchi donned a helmet that made him look like some sort of medieval terror. He looked confident and maybe even a little frightening.

‘It was everybody’s new thing that they wanted to show their friends, and I started listening to it and I was like, this is the perfect mix,’ Bianchi said. ‘I fell in love.’

Off stage, he constantly smiled through a mouthful of braces, the only DJ of the night who had not yet seen his nineteenth birthday. He was extremely excited about his set.

‘It was great. Really great,’ said Bianchi with a smile. ‘Especially for an opener, they were going crazy. I loved it.’

Next up, Brown & Gammon took the stage. His music was less hip-hop influenced, but still drew a huge reaction from the crowd.

Cookie Monsta came on afterwards, as audience members screamed his name at the top of their lungs, mimicking the Sesame Street character the DJ parodies with their name. Members of the audience donned Cookie Monster hats.

He was an explosion of movement behind the turntable. He danced as hard as any fan, sometimes leaning back on his heels and thrusting his hands forward, begging the crowd to cheer louder and go harder.

At one point Cookie took off his fitted cap and wiped his head with a towel before quickly putting it back on and resuming his mixing. That brief movement drove the crowd into an absolute frenzy.

Matt Thompkins, a Penn-Yan local who had come to Syracuse for the show, could not stop moving to the beats that Cooke Monsta produced.

‘It’s the best band since Bassnectar,’ yelled Thompkins, referring to another Dubstep artist that had gained mainstream fame for their remix of Ellie Golding’s ‘Lights.’

After Cookie finished his set, there was a slight lull before Flux Pavilion took the stage. Many people ran to the bathroom for a break or to fix themselves, while others walked outside to grab a breath of fresh air. Impatience eventually took over and the crowd began to chant ‘Flux! Flux!’ to the empty stage.

Steele took the stage to much excitement and after mixing for a little while, stopped the music and addressed the crowd directly.

‘Syra-motha-f***in’-cuse, how ya doing?’ shouted Steele to the crowd in his British accent. The crowd screamed back, and eventually he dropped the beat again, head turned back down to the table under flopping silver hair.

Mack Mimmick, a friend of Bianchi’s, was grateful for the opportunity to see Flux Pavilion.

‘I’ve been dreaming of going to Flux for years,’ Mimmick said. ‘He’s my favorite producer.’

Mimmick stood outside with Bianchi, chatting with promoter Eric Binion about the show. They were several of many people on the sidewalks outside the venue. Some smoked cigarettes, some just stood, some discussed Dubstep at large.

Bianchi himself was impressed with Flux Pavilion’s performance.

‘Amazing. He’s killing it,’ he said. ‘That was crazy. That was so cool.’

cedebais@syr.edu

 

Published on June 14, 2012 at 12:01 pm

Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124