Sometimes you just gotta kill 'em with lasers — at least before the cold does.
Saturday night at Jannus lived up to its billing as a laser extravaganza — and every bit as cold as the weather forecast suggested — with Atlanta-born mixer Herobust at the helm.
Put on by AME High Promotions, the night was billed as a hardstyle musical buffet with seven hours of heavy dubstep acts booked through midnight.
Amidst this brutal Florida winter, the Tampa Bay EDM crowd braved the low temperatures (40Ss, y'all) and stayed decked out in furry coats and sequin festival getups in order to head bang its way through the nine acts on the lineup.
The audience was slow filing in, but regardless of your arrival time you were no doubt greeted by a procession of lasers and bass.
The stage was fitted with a three-tiered laser light system which was kept pumping through most of the night.
Nitti Gritti, a Miami-based producer, got things started with a bang.
With his high energy persona he conducted a wub-heavy introduction to his set, waving his hands and middle fingers in an effort to keep the crowd moving enough so that it would forget how chilly it was.
Mexican-American duo from Los Angeles, Skellism, took the stage after a five-minute intermission.
The duo went heavier than the previous Nitti Gritti, falling back on more originals. When it didn't, Skellism went with the bee's knees in terms of hardstyle, mixing in genre staple Excision early and often (seriously, if I had a hand warmer for every time I heard "Throwing Elbows" last night, then I wouldn't have need the three layers of clothing.)
The combo of heavy dubstep and erratic lasers conjured up the grittiest concertgoers from Tampa's EDM community, who displayed just how down and dirty they can get. The mosh pits and full-effort head banging were in abundance Saturday night.
This of course was all leading up to the headlining set via Herobust, who arrived to the stage shortly before 11 p.m.
Born in Atlanta and based out of Miami, the trap-leaning hardstyle producer has carefully crafted and shifted his style over the years from a hip-hop orientation to the heavier bass samplings heard in St. Pete on Saturday.
While he did mix in the occasional rap tune ("HUMBLE.",) he spent a majority of the night leveling the crowd with a heavy onslaught of lasers and driving bass.
The facey DJ frequently made his way around the boards to party with fans by the lip of the stage, showing the close-quartered interaction that has made Jannus one of the area's favorite intimate venues. When the clock hit midnight, Herobust smirked in recognition of the apparent curfew and shuffled on another tune, only to has his mic and sound cut a few seconds later.
While his farewell and thanks went mostly unheard into a dead mic, we anticipate few complaints for this chilly, laser-themed Saturday night.
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2018.