After much anticipation Skrillex’s Mothership Tour finally landed in Denver for back to back nights of some Red Rocks fury. I was fortunate enough to attend the Friday 6.20 show but many of my friends were fortunate enough to see Sonny throw down on both nights (Fri & Sat 6.20/6.21). Before we get to Skrillex I’ll give a little re-cap of the venue and the support. As far as venues go Red Rocks is second to none. All of us Colorado dwellers are spoiled rotten that we have such a beautiful venue to attend some pretty incredible shows at. For all of you out-of-towners just imagine being at a venue where you never have to strain to see the stage, where music is is channeled upwards between two, three hundred foot monoliths, where the laser light show competes with the Denver Skyline below. Yes, it’s a great place. If you are ever in Colorado for the summer this venue should be number one on your list of places to visit. It doesn’t matter what kind of show, even if a show isn’t even going on, I recommend a visit.
Now onto the support:
Unfortunately because Red Rocks can be a pretty good hike to get into from the south parking lot I made it in just as Milo & Otis were closing their set. Hoping to catch these guys another time soon.
Though many people were there for the main event there was a fantastic early showing for one of the trap masters in the game. Bringing his hard hitting trap to main stage Red Rocks, What So Not rocked the Rocks and even had some of the pure dubstep fans pretty interested. Showcasing a bunch of originals and collabs he definitely set the tone for the night. A couple of his most notable tracks were his originals Jaguar and Touched, his collab with RL Grime Tell Me and also his new I.D. with Dillon Francis sounds poised to be a big one. He even found time to slip Flume’s edit of Tennis Courts into the set that had the place throwing down. Overall a great showing from What So Not.
Keeping the bass and trap theme going RL Grime was next up on the decks. Riding What So Not’s wave of momentum RL Grime through down a gem of a set. Mixing back and fourth between Trap and Hip-hop he had much of the crowd grinding and shaking. Some of his most notable tracks were his Love Sosa Remix, his Satisfaction Remix, Infinite Daps and a shit ton Kanye West remixes and edits/samples. I must have heard Kanye 10 times during the set no joke. Pretty decent showing from Mr. Grime.
Next up was Mr Pusha T himself. This was my only question mark on the night. With a bill full of big bass I was wondering how Pusha would fit in. Though the energy dropped down a notch I felt like the majority of the crowd was still feeling his flow. Though the tempo was a little slower and he didn’t fit in exactly, he still put on a good show.
Now the Main Event:
Next up was the man we had been waiting for. After a little bit of Bob Marley to transition between acts, Skrillex dropped the curtain to unveil his Mothership. As you could expect from any Skrillex show everything was on point. The light show was flawless, Sonny’s mixing was flawless, and I was very pleased with the diverse set that Skrllex lay down. Consisting of Moombah, Trap, House, and of course Dubstep, Skrillex had the crowd on a string. He mixed in some of his big time orginals from his new CD, Recess, with a bunch of VIP Edits of his oldies, and many more new tracks ranging from Dubstep to Deep House. Though Skrillex is now a household name and is considered “mainstream” by most, there was nothing mainstream about his set. Some of the most notable tracks were NRG (Skrillex, Kill the Noise, Milo & Otis Remix), Recess, his VIP of Devil’s Den, Boy Oh Boy (Thugli Remix), and he even went one deeper with F**K That, and Danger (Habstrakt Remix). Thank you all for coming out for an amazing night and we will see you very soon on the rocks!