Saturday, June 20th, I attended a Never Say Die show featuring Zomboy, Skism, and LAX at Stereo Live. Never Say Die is one of my favorite record labels that primarily features some of the best artists of the bass music variety. I was excited to attend my first Never Say Die showcase, but not too keen on the venue. I have not attended a show at Stereo Live in quite some time. I was surprised on how much had changed, some for the better, some for the worse. When I first arrived around 11 pm, the line to enter the venue was shockingly long, especially for how late it was. After spending 30 horrendous minutes outside in the line, my friends and I were stripped down worse than at the airport. Every inch of my fiancé’s wallet was searched and each of us were patted down. Finally, we were able to enter from the patio side, as they no longer utilize the main entrance. The back side of the patio is now completely covered, so the sound is much better; I was quite impressed with the patio. It’s my favorite patio, compared to those of other Houston venues I have visited.
When we entered the inside of Stereo Live, LAXX was opening the main stage. LAXX is known for his unique bass sound called “twitch.” To me, twitch sounds like a distorted and bouncy version within the Trap genre of bass music. Right as we were entering, I heard his and Skism’s collaboration “Hostile.” I am not a big fan of trap, so for LAXX’s set, we mostly stayed on the patio enjoying the electro of a local DJ. Next up on the main stage was somebody I have been waiting to see for a very long time: Skism. Skism, originally from London and one of the heads of the Never Say Die record label, is one of the forefathers of heavy dubstep. He is most famous for his “Double Drop” styles, which are known to whip dance floors into a frenzy whenever he plays. I was impressed when he dropped fellow artists Habstrakt and Megalodon’s track “Yabba Dabs,” one of my favorite new heavy tracks. He also played his collaboration with them, “Jaguar” which just makes you want to head bang all your feelings out. I recently became obsessed with hard hitting bass and this show did not fall short of that at all. Next up onto main stage was the explosive Zomboy. Also from London, the hometown of dubstep, Zomboy has a unique heavy electro sound. He sounds like a cross between early Skrillex and Excision. I was eager to attend this show, because 2 years ago I had the pleasure of meeting him. He played many songs from his new album entitled “Resurrected.” This album is definitely different from the rest and sounded a lot like Figure with sound bites followed by heavy drops.
Overall, I enjoyed the night filled with head banging bass sounds. It is very therapeutic to head bang and dance all your problems out every once in a while. When I came back home, I saw some complaints being posted on social media about Zomboy. Apparently, he would not meet anyone that did not buy merchandise from him at the Venue. That is a pretty diva-esque move after people spent money and time to come out and see him already. What are your thoughts on this? If you went to this show, let me hear your experience below!
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