Saturday night, January 10, I found myself in the crowd of attendees at Buda Love and Kryptonite Present: Rebirth 5! Featuring Point.Blank and Sadhu. This was the third Rebirth show that I have been to, and having also attended many other shows by Buda Love and Kryptonite, I am definitely not a newbie to the dubstep scene in Houston. Buda Love is known for his many contributions as an MC and promoter in the local scene of Houston, throwing shows such as Rebirth, Native, and Ultra Violet. According to Buda Love, Rebirth symbolizes “a yearly recreation and revitalization of what the Houston scene means to us.” I have to definitely agree to that statement, because after attending Rebirth, my eyes have been opened to new artists of the music I secretly love: filthy, grimy, deathly dubstep. There is only one matching venue for these dirty beats in all of Houston: Kryptonite.
When entering Kryptonite, one enters the rabbit hole of the underground bass scene of Houston, Texas. It is the center of creativity for many local Houston DJ’s and producers that I also have the pleasure of calling my friends. Houston DJs Sloppy Joe, Trill Nye, Dizzy III, Rob Bass, and Upgreyed opened the main stage for Sadhu and Point.Blank while Hooligan ft. Buda Love and Dvrth Fader closed the stage. Doors opened at 10 pm, and by the time I arrived at 11 pm, it was packed. I met people from all different parts of the world and different walks of life coming together for the unfiltered sounds of their two favorite artists. I could easily tell when the first headliner took the stage because of his unique sound reminiscent of stopping demons going in for battle. Sadhu, a producer from Saltzgitter, Germany, is known for his “machinegun” basslines that are taking the dubstep scene by storm, with already two successful USA tours. This was not my first time as a part of his audience, as he had graced Houston with his presence in Rebirth 4 last year. Next up on the main stage was Point.Blank, a producer from Belgium know for single-handedly pioneering the filthy dubstep sound in Belgium. Similar to Sadhu, Point.Blank’s sound is instantly recognizable. Just like a weapon that is fired at Point.Blank range, this artist fired all-around explosively destructive sounds at his audience. The bass protruding from the speakers was more than enough to heat up the cold Houston air. In conjunction with the hard-as-nails sound, the RudeGirlz, Houston’s finest dancers, fiercely took the stage to ramp up the crowd. The costumes/concept for the night were designed by RudeGirlz’ Captain, Kendall Aranel. She was joined by fellow RudeGirlz Melissa Lynch, Diana Vargas, Krista Carter, Nichole Carlson, and Kelly Jenkins. In addition to the main stage, local Houston DJs Womp Killa, Thor, Nick Beatdown, DJ Blaze, and Arson brought new bass inspired sounds such as riddim, deathstep, and hardstyle.
Overall, I thought the show was very successful based on the number of attendees and the introduction of new dubstep artists to play for the Houston scene. Lately, many production companies have been falling flat on who they bring to their city, but Buda Love and Kryptonite definitely have not with this amazing booking. I always look forward to the future shows of Buda Love Presents. Feel free to check out links to some of the artists tracks are listed below.
~Nadine Obeid
Sadhu: https://soundcloud.com/sadhudubstep/sadhu-machine-gun
Point.Blank: https://soundcloud.com/pointblankdubstep/pointblank-head-gone
