Photos by: JOHN HOSAK 8/30/12
Article by: PETER BOWES 9/7/12
Datsik certainly lived up to his claims that his Firepower Tour, which he kicked off at the Ogden Theatre on August 30th, was going to be like no Tour he had ever done. Opening for him, Bare Noize and Dodger did not spare Datsik any leeway as the headliner of the concert. It became very clear that Datsik was going to have give it his all to upstage these performances. Bare Noize, who is known for delving into some of the darkest and most cob web ridden areas of the dubstep genre, ignited the crowd with morbidly heavy industrial drops that caused people in the upstairs levels of the venue to start moshing. Clearly this was going to be like no dubstep concert I had witnessed and I seen Datsik over 6 times.
As Bare Noize finished up his set and the paint chips and drywall pieces had settled from all the structural damage, the cover was pulled and Datsik emerged surrounded by the much anticipated Vortex stage. None of the lights were on, but almost instantly you could hear people everywhere in the venue talking about it. "I didn't think it was going to be that big!" someone next to me said to a friend. "I know man, I just can't believe were the first people to get to see this. He must fucking love Denver!" the other said in response.
All of a sudden, the lights of the Vortex illuminated the venue but very subtly. An eery melodic tune followed by a groaning bass surged through the room. Slowly the melody began building, building building, he said "I'm so glad to be home!" and then the DROP. And when I say DROP, it seemed like gravity had overcome everyone in the venue because everyone physically dropped just as hard his revamped version of 'Swagga'. The crowd went nuts, the vortex not only spinning, but emitting patterns and flashes of lights that almost seemed surreal! Not once during his set did Datsik play the original mix of any of his tracks. He played unheard remixes of famous tracks like 'Deviance' and 'Firepower', which told the crowd one thing, Datsik was reinventing the typical dubstep concert. Throughout his set, he played a whomping majority of his own tracks, but to those who don't know all his music, it may have seemed otherwise. Instead of simply mixing tracks together, one track after the next, he mashed up multiple tracks and samples to create new songs! Clearly, this set was nothing that I, or anyone else in the venue had ever seen.
It was astonishing to us that, 3/4 of the way through his set, he announced that he must apologize for the light system in the Vortex. Unknown to everyone in the venue, the light system that was right behind his DJ set was apparently broken. Although it lit up, apparently it was also supposed to have mind blowing visuals that blended in with the surrounding vortex. I don't think a single person noticed until he said anything. Between the already mind blowing visuals feeding into the concert goers and the massively hard hitting drops, I don't think anyone noticed, or quite frankly cared. Even without that, this was still something that no one had ever seen in a dubstep show.
After 3 encores and the repeated expressions of love for the Colorado scene, Datsik shut down his stage. After a standing applause for almost 5 straight minutes after the music ceased, I don't think I've ever seen a crowd so blown away and satisfied by a performance in my concert career. With everyone drenched, head to toe, in sweat and unable to hear from the hours of throbbing bass, they emerged from the venue doors in a daze trying to determine whether what they had just witnessed was actually real.
As a die-hard dubstep connoisseur and Datsik fanatic, I can easily say that Datsik put on one of the most memorable performances I have ever seen. His ability to fuze the dark and sinister melodies, inherent to the old-school UK dubstep, with the 'Americano' style whompage that most of you are familiar with, is without a doubt what has helped him achieve so much respect from all spectrums of EDM lovers. Asking people outside the venue, I don't think anyone could have disagreed that what they witnessed was nothing short of spectacular and certainly something that they had never seen from any other artist! Datsik... YOU KILLED IT!
